part with Wilkes; Westminster Hall was crowded to excess, and Lord Mansfield was afraid: he was a timid tyrant. With perfect truth it may be said, that he would have been content with an imperial government, and have rested satisfied with being a Prætor, and having the semblance of liberty. He ever cringed to power;-a slave to the court, an enemy to the people, all his judgments leaned against liberty;-he never gained a point for the freedom of the country, and opposed many;-his idea and his expression was that, “he must yield to the king, for that the American question was his hobby-horse." But it was a horse, unde altior esset casus. The vigour of Lord Mansfield's eloquence was weakened by the craft of his profession, which begot subtlety, and by the timid disingenuousness of his heart, which did not permit him to throw out his mind with honesty; a specious-a falsea pleasing— an accomplished, and a mischievous citizen : He seemed 28 CHAPTER II. Public sentiment in Ireland-Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquess Wellesley-Acquaintance with Mr. Grattan - His character — His letter to Mr. Grattan on the English ministry, and on Lord Mansfield's conduct Mr. Flood and Lord Shelburne-Mr. Fitzpatrick's letter to Mr. Ogle respecting the judicial supremacy of Ireland-The conduct of the Duke of Portland and Mr. Fox-Character of Mr. Ogle-His poetry-Mr. Stewart's letter to Mr. Grattan, respecting Lord Mansfield-Report of the debate on the Renunciation Bill in the English House of Commons, taken by Lord Mornington-His letter to Mr. Grattan-Note as to Lord Bellamont-Mr. Fitzpatrick to Mr. Grattan respecting the repeal of the 6th George I., and Mr. Flood and Lord Beauchamp's conduct-State of parties in Ireland-Efforts to render the Volunteers discontented-Violence of the press. THE rupture between Mr. Grattan and the volunteers was most unfortunate for Ireland; it filled the minds of the people with doubt; it sowed in the breast of the Irish a distrust of their staunchest friends; it injured the character of the nation by creating a national quarrel about a mere quibble; an argument that would have done little credit even to a session-court, was magnified for party purposes into the greatest importance, and when the bubble burst it was nothing; and matters, both as to constitution and security, stood after the English act of Renunciation (as it was called), just as before. In England, the effect produced was incalculable; it injured Ireland severely, it shewed the weakness of those men, and of that public mind, that could suffer itself to be thus led astray, and gave to a cunning minister an insight into the mode of deceiving a people who could so completely deceive themselves. Mr. Grattan felt the change in the popular feeling with much concern, not merely as regarded himself, but as regarded others, their character and that of the country; but conscious of supporting the authority of Parliament, and the rights of Ireland, he viewed the displeasure of his fellowcitizens with respectful indifference; he had done them too much service to be their sycophant. His object was the Parliamentary Constitution of his country. The volunteers were the means, and he was above any base mixture and alliance with the mob; he relied upon the steady interposition of a strenuous and respectable commonalty, and calmly resigned himself to the loss of popularity. To have been instrumental in recovering the rights of his country was his peculiar good fortune; to have lost the affections of some part of his fellowcitizens was a common calamity-one that is to be explained in the history of every free people, and that is implanted in the nature of man. Nor is Mr. Grattan's conduct to be judged from the publications of the day, or the Resolutions of the Volunteers, or what a few angry men said of him. It is to be collected from the opinion of other nations, and calmer times, and the impartial collected sense of history-that great umpire, History;— it is that which condemns to infamy, or conveys to fame; which lives, when nations, like the individuals, are dead, and adjudges every transaction without frantic praise or frantic censure. The character of Mr. Grattan did not depend on the breath of the loudest of his fellow-citizens, any more than his salvation; both depended on himself, and were independent of them. Here he could stand against a legion, and a legion could not stand against him: their words were as chaff before the wind; their fury, the anger of a child. Fame is not the breath of a populace, nor the shout of a mob, but the gift of Providence to great actions; and the tongues of men are involuntary organs of a superior breath, and a posthumous justice. Mr. Grattan's case was not singular; and Ireland is not the only nation that afforded such an example of wavering virtue and popular mutability. What has happened in other countries, or other times, ancient as well as modern? See men first idolized for their virtues-then banished ---and then established in the opinion of the world. See Fame sitting on the tombs of martyrs, whom their fellow-countrymen, in a gust of popular frenzy, have murdered. The mixed forms of the British Constitution gave a personal security, as well as a political strength against sudden impulses, and made it not capital for a patriot to save his country. But if the Athenian government had ac companied the popular frenzy of the day, and been established in Ireland, Mr. Grattan would, perhaps, have been forced to go to America, and have beheld God in a greater instance of his power; but living in a mixed government, he found it otherwise, and was indebted perhaps to the Constitution he helped to restore, not only for his fortune but for his protection;* and if he lost the confidence of any portion of his fellow-citizens, it may be said, that they were not tired of him until they had become tired of the Constitution, and till at their meetings, they resolved it to be an intolerable grievance,† and shewed nearly as much impatience of liberty as before they had of bondage. But this is not a singular case: nations, like individuals, require long experience before they acquire wisdom. In England, Charles I. was beheaded because he invaded the liberties of the people; and Charles II. was restored without a single stipulation on their behalf. The decision of Lord Mansfield, however, excited considerable apprehension in Mr. Grattan's mind, as appears from his reply to the address before mentioned; and it induced an early friend of his and a sincere admirer to write to him on the subject. This was Lord Mornington, (afterwards Marquess Wellesley,) the celebrated conqueror of India. He was at this time a member of the * He was shortly after waylaid by a mob. + Meetings and Resolutions of the Delegates to hold a convention in |