150 MR. GRATTAN ON REFORM. [CHAP. VI. name, Ireland had not the possession of a parliamentary constitution, and it will appear, since the Revolution, she had no constitutional Parliament. From 1692 to 1768, near seventy years, almost two-thirds of a century, the tenure was during the life of the King; since that time of limitation of the term, there have been two reforms in the essence of Parliament; but reforms which I shall distinguish from the constitutional reform desired in the bill, by the appellation of anti-reforms. The first anti-reform produced by the Treasury was the creation of a number of new parliamentary provisions in the years 1769, 1770, and 1771, for the purpose of creating representatives of the minister to counteract and counterbalance the representatives of the aristocracy; this anti-reform, or modelling of the Legislature, was emphatically described and authoritatively confessed by a memorable declaration and scandalous justification; and the Government was said to have paid for defeating the aristocratic influence a sum of half a million-a sum which would have bought fifty boroughs to be open to the people, and which the people were declared to have paid to procure a certain number of members in Parliament to represent the minister. "The second period of anti-reform was in 1789, when the same sum was declared as likely to be expended for the same purpose-for the purpose of buying more representatives of the then minister to counteract the remaining strength of the representatives of the aristocracy; that is, when fifteen new parliamentary provisions were created to procure fifteen new ministerial representatives. Here is the other half million, and here are two anti-reforms which have cost the nation as much as would buy one hundred boroughs-that is, all the boroughs; which (the fifteen new court representatives of 1789 being added to those of 1769, or about that period, and to the gradual additions since) make altogether from forty to fifty new additional representatives of administration, which is a number nearly equal to all the knights of the shire. "The question is not now whether you will admit the idea of a reform in Parliament, but having submitted to reformation in the shape of abuse, whether you will not now counteract that abuse in the shape of reformation." CHAP. VI. BILL REJECTED-PROROGATION. 151 Unfortunately for the repose of the country, this useful and necessary measure was rejected, and the motion that the bill be read a second time on the 1st of August was carried by 142 to 44. Thus ended all hopes of constitutional redress and parliamentary reform. The United Irishmen profited by this error, and acquired additional strength and numbers, in consequence of the conduct of the Government, and the mistaken views which they took on this great national question. On the 25th of March, Parliament was prorogued in a speech of the Lord-lieutenant, expressive of the satisfaction of His Majesty at finding such a feeling of unanimity in resisting the oppressions of France, and stating that the only disturbances existing were those in the south of Ireland, where, in the county of Cork, bodies of men, but unarmed, had met to administer oaths for the purpose of procuring redress for alleged grievances; that Government had issued a proclamation, and by the exertion of the magistrates and the militia, that had now been called out, the spirit of insubordination was quelled. Before we proceed to the short administration of Lord Fitzwilliam, we may advert to Edmund Burke. At this period he had been afflicted by a severe domestic calamity-the loss of his only son, who died on the 2nd of August, 1794, at the age of 36, just after he had been elected Member for the borough of Malton* in place of his father. As already mentioned, he had taken, under this paternal and careful† guidance, an active part in Belonging to Lord Fitzwilliam, who, it was said, would have appointed Burke secretary on accepting the Lord-lieutenancy of Ireland. In a letter to his son, 1st of October, 1792, he writes-" As to your clients, (the Catholics) in my opinion, as long as they keep themselves firm to the solid ground of the British constitution, they are safe 152 DEATH OF RICHARD BURKE. [CHAP. VI. the Catholic politics of Ireland. Mr. Burke seems to have been attached to him, not only with a parental but an enthusiastic affection, and to have loved him with more than ordinary feelings; he even sacrificed his better opinion, not only to the judgment of his son, but to his interest also; as, in his statement to Mr. Grattan, he declared that he accepted the pension from Government for the sake of his son, and not for himself. On the subject of his loss, Mr. Grattan wrote to him, and Mr. Burke's reply was most interesting and affecting. It is to be regretted that Mr. Grattan's letter could not be found. Mrs. Burke searched for it, but in vain. The sentiments and principles of great and good men are worthy of being recorded, as of being imitated. Those which Mr. Burke here points out would be a safe guide to future ministers in Ireland. The feeling of "humanity" which he praises would have done honour to a better age than that in which he lived, and to a happier country than that to which they peculiarly applied, and where but a few years afterwards there commenced a species of defamation and detraction, amounting almost to proscription; where the law ceased to operate; the magistrate failed to act-virtue and morality were extinct; and where the misplaced term of "loyal men," and "loyal Protestant," procured indemnity for outrage, impunity to crime, and became the only passport and a sure protection. for the present, and must be successful; but if they have any mistaken theorists to carry them into any thing like the principles adopted in France, they will not only be baffled, but baffled with shame." ́Again, on 17th October-"Your adversaries are busy every where, and have filled the minds of the people with the idea of a rebellion of the Roman Catholics ready to break out." And again on the 2nd of November, he says "The junta in Ireland entirely governs the Castle, and the Castle by its representations of the country governs the ministry here; so that the whole evil has originated, and does still originate among ourselves." CHAP.VI] THE FATHER'S ESTIMATION OF THE SON. 153 EDMUND BURKE TO MR. GRATTAN. Beaconsfield, Sept. 3, 1794. MY DEAR SIR,-I am deeply affected with your letter. Nothing could be more generous and compassionate than your attention to those who drag on what is called life, in this afflicted family. I derive no part of my support under my heavy calamity from the oblivion of what I have lost; on the contrary, to hear my son spoken of as he deserves, and so spoken of by a man like you, affords me as much comfort as I am capable of deriving from any human source. You say kind things, with all that fine spirit, point, and originality,* which others have employed in satirizing the faults or follies of mankind. They are soothing to my mind, not because on my part they are founded, but because they are a proof of the sacrifices which great geniuses are capable of making to great humanity. This instance of your condescension has something healing in it, to a mind deeply wounded by domestic misfortune, and which, when that misfortune came, was sore, and irritable enough, from the sufferings of others, under the unexampled atrocity of the age we live in. Preserve and cultivate that humanity, which in you is the effect both of nature and reflection-without it, the benefit of the greatest ability is, at best, ambiguous. You talk, my dear sir, of my son's continuing my fame, if he had lived. Indeed, he had a good career, wholly his own, before him. I am sure that if it had not pleased God to permit him to be taken from us, just as he had set his foot upon the threshold of public life, instead of his being distinguished by keeping up my reputation as a son, I should have derived all my title to fame, from having been his father. His virtues overshadowed his abilities; what he kept back was known only to those who were in a situation to inspect the magazines that were in his mind. If, for some years past, there was anything in my conduct which can merit your approbation, I faithfully assure you that it has been in a great measure (and in some parts wholly) owing to the counsels of my dear lost friend and adviser, who has paid back to me, and in kind, and with usury, whatever care I had taken in his early education, by becoming, in his turn, my instructor and my guide. * Mrs. Burke, to whom application was made for this letter, informed me she could not find it. 154 MR. BURKE'S LETTER ON THE [CHAP. VI. But that is past. I am retired, and have the less call for his instruction, but the more for his support in retreat and in age. I have now no objects which can employ my mind, but to spin out with second-hand and worn-out materials, the broken staple of this life-quæ voluerit meminisse-quæ mandaverit exequi-that is, so far as a mind impaired by age and sorrow will permit, and as a man retired from the busy scene can do, to forward those objects, which I know he had the most at heart. I know that whilst he was removed from the desire of any official situation, there (very far indeed removed from any such thought), his eye was fixed on Ireland to the last hour of his life, and his eye was fixed on you, as the only man who could serve it essentially. I ought, perhaps, to come nearer to his idea, by saying, the only man who could save it. He never spoke to any one on the subject without expressing this sentiment; nor have I ever spoken, nor shall I ever speak any other language than his, because it was always the language of truth and wisdom. You have given to Ireland the great, but critical and perilous blessings of liberty and independence. It has been your peculiar virtue and felicity that you have preserved your country from the abuse of those blessings. That these two things should happen to the same man, is a singular instance of the favour of Providence. Government ought not to overlook this designation; and this point I should press, if I was at all consulted, as I have not been, on matters of this sort. Perhaps you will be full as successful by standing on your own ground. You cannot forget, (if you should, others ought not) the great part you acted in the Emancipation of the Catholics; that is, of three-fourths of the people of Ireland. You remember, too, the active and zealous, though very subordinate part, which my Richard acted in that great concern. He saw with sorrow the systematic pains which were taken, and which, perhaps, still are taken to frustrate the effects of your labours, so far as the union and concord of the nation was to be promoted by them; he saw with sorrow an attempt to demonstrate that a great mass of mankind may be made to feel all the weight and pressure of penal statutes, even after they are repealed, AND THAT WHEN THE LAWS HAVE TAKEN MEN INTO * This alludes to the proceedings of the Volunteer Convention of 1783, as well as to the French revolutionary principles. |