GRATTAN'S LEADERSHIP—LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE ESTABLISHED.
The task which Mr. Grattan felt called upon to undertake, was not
_revolutionary_, in the usually accepted sense of the term. He was a
Monarchist and a Whig in general politics; but he was an Irishman,
proud and fond of his country, and a sincere lover of the largest
religious liberty. With the independence of the judiciary and the
legislature, with freedom of commerce and of conscience, he would be
well content to stand by the British connection. "The sea," he said, in
his lofty figurative language, "protests against union—the ocean
against separation." But still, within certain legal limits, his task
_was_ revolutionary, and was undertaken under all the discouragements
incident to the early stages of great constitutional reforms.
Without awaiting the action of the English Parliament, in relation to
free trade, a public-spirited citizen of Dublin, Alderman James Horan,
demanded an entry at the custom house, for some parcels of Irish
woollens, which he proposed exporting to Rotterdam, contrary to the
prohibitory enactment, the 10th and 11th of William III. The
commissioners of customs applied for instructions to the Castle, and
the Castle to the Secretary of State, Franklin's friend, Lord
Hillsborough. For the moment a collision similar to that which had
taken place at Boston, on a not dissimilar issue, seemed imminent. A
frigate was stationed off Howth, with instructions, it was said, to
intercept the prohibited woollens, but Alderman Horan, by the advice of
his friends, allowed his application to remain on the custom house
files. It had served its purpose of bringing home practically to the
people, the value of the principle involved in the demand for freedom
of exports and imports. At the same time that this practical argument
was discussed in every circle, Mr. Grattan moved in the House of
Commons, in amendment to the supply bill, that, "At this time it is
inexpedient to grant new taxes." The government divided the House, but
to their mortification found only 47 supporters; for Grattan's
amendment there were 170. A subsequent amendment against granting
duties for the support of the loan fund, was also carried by 138 to
100.
These adverse votes were communicated with great trepidation, by the
Lord Lieutenant, to the British administration. At length Lord North
thought it essential to make some concessions, and with this view he
brought in resolutions, declaring the trade with the British colonies
in America and Africa, and the free export of glass and woollens, open
to the Irish merchant. A week later, similar resolutions were passed in
the Irish Commons, and in February, 1780, "a free trade" in the sense
in which it had been demanded, was established by law, placing Ireland
in most respects, as to foreign and colonial commerce, on an equality
with England.
In February, the Viceroy again alarmed the British administration, with
the reported movement for the repeal of "Poyning's law,"—the statute
which required heads of bills to be transmitted to, and approved in
England, before they could be legislated upon. He received in reply,
the royal commands to resist by every means in his power, any attempted
"change in the constitution," and he succeeded in eliciting from the
House of Lords, an address, strongly condemnatory of "the misguided
men," who sought to raise such "groundless jealousies," between the two
kingdoms. But the Patriot Commoners were not to be so deterred. They
declared the repeal of Poyning's act, and the 6th of George I., to be
their ultimatum, and notices of motion to that effect were immediately
placed on the journals of the House of Commons.
In the early days of April, Grattan, who, more than any of our orators,
except perhaps Burke, was sensitive to the aspects of external nature,
and imbued with the poetry of her works, retired from the city, to his
uncle Dean Marlay's house, Cellbridge Abbey, formerly the residence of
Swift's ill-fated Vannessa. "Along the banks of that river," he said,
many years afterwards, "amid the groves and bowers of Swift and
Vannessa, I grew convinced that I was right; arguments, unanswerable,
came to my mind, and what I then presaged, confirmed me in my
determination to persevere." With an enthusiasm intensified and
restrained—but wonderful in the fire and grandeur of its utterance—he
rose in his place, on the 19th of the month, to move that "the King,
Lords, and Commons of Ireland, are the only power competent to enact
laws to bind Ireland." He was supported by Hussey Burgh, Yelverton, and
Forbes; Flood favoured postponement, and laid the foundation of his
future estrangement from Grattan; Daly was also for delay; Fitzgibbon,
afterwards Lord Clare, Provost Hutchinson, and John Foster, afterwards
Lord Oriel, resisted the motion. The Castle party moved in amendment
that "there being an equivalent resolution already on the journals of
the House"—alluding to one of the resolutions against Stafford's
tyranny in 1641—a new resolution was unnecessary. This amendment was
carried by 136 to 79, thus affirming the formula of independence
adopted in 1641, but depriving Grattan of the honour of putting it, in
his own words, on the record. The substantial result, however, was the
same; the 19th of April was truly what Grattan described it, "a great
day for Ireland." "It is with the utmost concern," writes the Viceroy
next day to Lord Hillsborough, "I must acquaint your Lordship that
although so many gentlemen expressed their concern that the subject had
been introduced, the sense of the House _against_ the obligation of
_any statutes_ of the Parliament of Great Britain, within this kingdom,
is represented to me to have been almost unanimous."
Ten days later, a motion of Mr. Yelverton's to repeal Poyning's law, as
far as related to the Irish privy council's supervision of heads of
bills, was negatived by 130 to 105.
During the remainder of the session the battle of independence was
fought on the Mutiny Bill. The Viceroy and the Chief Secretary, playing
the game of power, were resolved that the influence of the crown should
not be diminished, so far as the military establishments were
concerned. Two justices of the peace in Sligo and Mayo, having issued
writs of _habeas corpus_ in favour of deserters from the army, on the
ground that neither the British Mutiny Act, nor any other British
statute, was binding on Ireland, unless confirmed by an act of its own
legislature, brought up anew the whole question. Lord North, who, with
all his proverbial tact and good humour, in the House of Commons,
always pursued the most arbitrary policy throughout the empire,
proposed a perpetual Mutiny Bill for Ireland, instead of the Annual
Bill, in force in England. It was introduced in the Irish House of
Commons by Mr. Gervase Parker Bushe, and, by a vote of two to one,
postponed for a fortnight. During the interval, the British authorities
remained obdurate to argument and remonstrance. In vain, the majority
of the Irish privy counsellors advised concession; in vain, Flood, who
was consulted, pointed out the futility of attempting to force such a
measure; it was forced, and, under the cry of loyalty, a draft bill was
carried through both Houses, and remitted to England in June. Early in
August it was returned; on the 12th it was read a first time; on the
16th, a second; and it was carried through Committee by 114 to 62. It
was at this emergency the Volunteers performed the second act of their
great drama of Ireland's liberation. A series of reviews were held, and
significant addresses presented to Lord Camden (then on a visit to the
country), Lord Charlemont, Mr. Flood, and Mr. Grattan. On the
re-assembling of Parliament in August, when the bill was referred to,
Mr. Grattan declared that he would resist it to the last; that if
passed into law, he and his friends would _secede_, and would appeal to
the people in "a formal instrument." A new series of corporation and
county meetings was convened by the Patriot party, which warmly
condemned the Perpetual Mutiny Act, and as warmly approved the repeal
of Poyning's Act, and the 6th of George I.: questions which were all
conceived to be intermixed together, and to flow from the assertion of
a common principle. Parliament being prorogued in September, only threw
the whole controversy back again into the furnace of popular agitation.
The British Government tried a lavish distribution of titles and a
change of Viceroys,—Lord Carlisle being substituted in December for
Lord Buckingham—but the spirit abroad was too general and too earnest,
to be quelled by the desertion of individuals, however numerous or
influential. With Lord Carlisle, came, as Chief Secretary, Mr. Eden,
afterwards Lord Auckland; he had been, with his chief, a peace
commissioner to America, two years before, and had failed; he was an
intriguing and accomplished man, but he proved himself as unequal as
Heron or Rigby to combat the movement for Irish independence.
Parliament was not again called together till the month of October,
1781; the interval being busily occupied on both sides with endeavours
to create and sustain a party. Soon after the meeting, Mr. Grattan,
seconded by Mr. Flood, moved for a limitation of the Mutiny Bill, which
was lost; a little later, Mr. Flood himself introduced a somewhat
similar motion, which was also outvoted two to one; and again, during
the session, Mr. Yelverton, having abandoned his promised motion
against Poyning's law, on news of Lord Cornwallis's surrender reaching
Dublin, Flood took it up, moved it, and was defeated. A further measure
of relief for Roman Catholics, introduced by Mr. Gardiner, author of
the act of 1778, and warmly supported by Grattan, was resisted by Flood
in the one House, and Lord Charlemont in the other. It miscarried, and
left another deposit of disagreement between the actual and the former
leader of the Patriot party.
Still no open rupture had taken place between the two Patriot orators.
When the convention of the volunteers was called at Dungannon for the
15th of February, 1782, they consulted at Charlemont House as to the
resolutions to be passed. They were agreed on the constitutional
question; Grattan, of his own generous free will, added the resolution
in favour of emancipation. Two hundred and forty-two delegates,
representing 143 corps, unanimously adopted the resolutions so drafted,
as their own, and, from the old head-quarters of Hugh O'Neil, sent
forth anew an unequivocal demand for civil and religious liberty. The
example of Ulster soon spread through Ireland. A meeting of the
Leinster volunteers, Mr. Flood in the chair, echoed it from Dublin; the
Munster corps endorsed it unanimously at Cork; Lord Clanrickarde
summoned together those of the western counties at Portumna—an historic
spot, suggestive of striking associations. Strengthened by these
demonstrations of public opinion, Mr. Grattan brought forward, on the
22nd of February, his motion declaratory of the rights of Ireland. An
amendment in favour of a six months' postponement of the question was
carried; but on the 16th of April, just two years from his first effort
on the subject (the administration of Lord North having fallen in the
meantime), the orator had the satisfaction of carrying his address
declaratory of Irish legislative independence. It was on this occasion
that he exclaimed: "I found Ireland on her knees; I watched over her
with a paternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injury to
arms, and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift! Spirit of Molyneux!
your genius has prevailed! Ireland is now a nation! in that new
character I hail her! and bowing to her august presence, I say, _Esto
perpetua!_"
Never was a new nation more nobly heralded into existence! Never was an
old nation more reverently and tenderly lifted up and restored! The
Houses adjourned to give England time to consider Ireland's
_ultimatum_. Within a month it was accepted by the new British
administration, and on the 27th of May, the new Whig Viceroy, the Duke
of Portland, was authorized to announce from the throne the
establishment of the judicial and legislative independence of Ireland.