20 MEETING OF THE CITIZENS OF DUBLIN. [CHAP. I.

pledged to oppose the misconstruction or the alteration of the Act of the 33rd of Geo. II., whereby the Commons of this city have a peremptory right of rejection, which peremptory right we will support. If anything is here omitted, it will be found in our original declaration; and we have already appointed a committee to procure copies of the bills already mentioned, that the country may, if she pleases, adopt them, or at least may know how far and how specifically we are embarked in her interest. We have no personal animosity; but should any of the Ministers of the Crown attempt to trample on the people, we are ready to defend them. We conclude

Resolved, That the affectionate and respectful thanks of this body be returned to the Earl of Moira and the Earl of Charlemont, for their spirited and dignified avowal of the part which they have taken in our deliberations and resolutions; and for the truly patriotic regard which their Lordships have shewn for the invaded privileges of their fellow-citizens, and for their zealous support of the law of

the land.

Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to sit during the vacation, to correspond with the members of this and other societies, and to prepare such measures as may be rendered necessary to defend our principles and our character; with a power to assemble this club on any emergency, to submit said measures to them for their consideration, on giving due notice.

(Signed) HENRY GRATTAN, Pro Sec. All these proceedings of the Chancellor served only to rouse the spirit of the citizens. They immediately assembled, and appointed some of the ablest of their body to examine into the case of the Lord Mayor, and adopted at a full meeting the report given in the Appendix,* which correctly details the measures taken by the Government, and sets forth the complaints of the people; it is a very important public document.

Mr. Conolly being absent, the office of Secretary to the Whig Club was filled by Mr. Grattan, who occasionally discharged its duties, until Mr.

* See Appendix, No. I.

CHAP. I.]

MR. M'CAN.

21

Ross M'Can was appointed. This individual was the friend and confidential agent of Mr. Grattan. His name will appear hereafter connected with some important occurrences. He was a publicspirited, and tender-hearted man, a faithful and an honest Irishman, and warmly attached to Mr. Grattan, of whom, however, he used humorously to observe that "he was the best patriot, but the worst patron. The following letters shew the intimacy that subsisted between them.

MR. GRATTAN TO MR. M'CAN.

Friday Night. MR. M'CAN, If you don't come on Sunday, I'll make a motion in the Club that Ogilvie* be appointed Secretary in your place, with all the great profits, salaries, and emoluments annexed to that wealthy place!! Be so good as not to write a miserable lame apology, but come.

Yours,

H. GRATTAN. Let me know how Lord Charlemont is. I don't think he was well the other day.

SAME TO SAME.

Tinnehinch.

DEAR M'CAN,-You promise to come to see me often; but you break your promise. That is the only instance in which you appear to have become a courtier. Yours truly, H. GRATTAN.

Mr. Day was now appointed Chairman of Sessions for the county of Dublin, and on the occasion Mr. Grattan wrote to him in the following jocose style :

MR. GRATTAN TO MR. DAY.

MY DEAR DAY,

Tinnehinch, 13th July, 1790. You are an ass. Were you engaged to your Kilmainham friends dinner in haste before your host was hanged by your own decree? I suppose you get many dinners of this sort: Mr. O'Murder's compliments to Justice Dayhopes for his company the day before he is hanged-any time after will be too late." Will you come on Sunday, and fix a party with Broome and me to the mountain? H. GRATTAN. * Mr. Ogilvie, who was married to the Duchess of Leinster.

Yours ever,

You

I don't see, because I prefer my Lord Westmoreland's company to yours, that I must therefore be an ass. may call that good reasoning; but a logician would say it was a non sequitur. Had I, indeed, been apprised in time that the "phrenzy rolling eye" of Napper* was to be at the board, I might have been an ass between two bundles of hay,-divided between the representative of his Majesty, and the representative of the majesty of the people. If I can escape out of Kilmainham, you may expect me on Sunday, and of the mountain party. Ever yours, ROBERT DAY.†

The resolutions of the Whig Club embraced the principal point that the members of the opposition had long contended for in Parliament, and they received very general circulation. They appeared under the title of "Whig Vindication," and gave rise to several pamphlets in reply. They were submitted to Mr. Grattan, as appears from the letters to Mr. M'Can and Mr. Berwick. The latter was chaplain to the Earl of Moira, and connected with Mr. Grattan by intermarriage with the daughter of his early acquaintance and relative, Mr. Bermingham. He was a public-spirited, liberal-minded individual, possessed a great sense of humour and a charming temper. He was an excellent classical scholar, and the author of

* This was James Napper Tandy, who, before this period had taken a very active part in politics, and who took a more active and unfortunate one afterwards. He had been elected master of the corporation of merchants, and had rendered himself popular by his efforts on behalf of the citizens of Dublin, on the election of the Lord Mayor, and was invited by the Lord-Lieutenant.

Since these pages have gone to press, this excellent and humane man has ceased to exist. He died at his seat near Dublin, at the age of 98. I saw him shortly before his death, in full possession of his faculties. He was reading a manuscript volume of English History that he had compiled, and on turning to the part relating to Jeffries, he broke out into expressions of horror at such a man polluting the bench of justice," that monster in a human form!" It would have been well if such had been the sentiments of some of the former judges in Ireland.

CHAP. I.]

REV. E. BERWICK.

23

several productions, which shew his taste and research. He was mild, charitable, and humane; and, at the period of the insurrection of 1798, shewed a disposition becoming a man and a Christian, at that time a circumstance of no ordinary occurrence. His acquaintance with the Moira family and his connexion with Mr. Grattan led him into much intercourse with the opposition. Mr. Preston the poet, Joseph Cooper Walker, author of "Tracts upon Ireland," Mr. Hardy, Mr. Curran, Mr. Berwick, and Mr. Grattan, formed altogether a circle which shed a lustre on private society, softened the asperity of party, and wore off the hard habits of the politicians; they often assembled at Tinnehinch, and there are many who even now may recollect the agreeable hours passed in that society, which united taste and talent, public spirit and public virtue.

MR. GRATTAN TO MR. M'CAN.

DEAR M'CAN,

Harrowgate, Aug. 11th, 1790.

Send me the Evening Post regularly, and also any news. I think the Whig publication still wants correction, before it is published, as our Resolutions were in a distinct paper circulated to the Members. Some further corrections should be made in the line, "Superior height of public virtue," superior should be omitted; however, I have some doubts. There are some other alterations: in the line, "Men fallible and suspicious," men should be omitted. Talk to Lord Charlemont about it. Yours ever,

H. G. I just got the Irish papers. What do they say of our Resolutions?

MR. GRATTAN TO THE REV. EDWARD BERWICK.

Harrowgate, Sept. 3rd, 1790.

MY DEAR SIR, Thanks to you for your kind letters and their contents. I am glad to find the Whig vindication* has made an im

* Mr. T. W. Tone in his memoirs, published in America, relates the following occurrence in reference to this public document :-Mr. Wogan

24

THE LEINSTER BAR.

[CHAP. I. pression; sure I am at present it is necessary to make some impression, otherwise the administration will tread Browne, here alluded to, was a public-spirited, active individual, who always supported the liberal cause, and was very useful in upholding the independence of the county of Dublin, at a very trying election on behalf of the Talbot family, when the present Lord Talbot was returned one of its representatives to serve in the Imperial Parliament.

'August 4th, 1790, Wogan Browne, Esq., foreman of the grand jury of the county of Kildare, sent down this evening to the bar-room, a newspaper, of the 3d, containing the resolutions of the Whig Club, in answer to a printed speech, purporting to be that of the Chancellor on the election of Alderman James. It was enclosed in the following letter: Mr. Wogan Browne presents his compliments to the gentlemen of the bar; he encloses therein this day's paper, which he has just now received; he requests they will return it to him, and hopes they will find in the vindication of the Whig Club, principles similar to his own; as honest and blunt men must look up to talents for the support of their most undenied rights, in times when they are so shamefully invaded.' -This bold and manly epistle struck the bar of a heap. The father, a supporter of opposition in Parliament, was here only solicitous how he should escape giving an answer; which indeed, every man save one or two, seemed desirous to shift on his neighbour. Burne* and Burrowest were decided to meet the letter boldly; Brownrigg and Espinasse for taking no further notice than acknowledging the receipt; the first, on the principle of preserving the harmony of the bar; the latter for some time, could assign no reason for his opinion, other than that he did not know who Mr. Browne was; but at length when pressed, he said with equal candour and liberality, that he did not like to receive anything from a reformed papist.' The general sense seemed to be for something in reply which should be perfectly insipid; I grew out of patience and proposed, I confess, without hope of its being adopted, a resolution to the following purport:- That the Leinster Bar, in common with the Whig Club, and many other respectable societies, felt the warmest indignation and abhorrence at the late unconstitutional proceedings of the Privy Council in the election of Alderman James,-proceedings no less formidable to the liberties of the capital than alarming to every city in the kingdom,-as forming part of a system evidently subversive of their franchises, whether established by custom, charter, or the established law of the land.'

"This resolution, the majority seemed determined to conceive that I was not serious in; yet I was: however, being utterly hopeless of support, I did not press it. Two or three civil notes were proposed, of which the following by Rochford may serve as a sample. The Leinster Bar present their compliments to Mr. Wogan Browne, and are thankful to him for his obliging communication of this day's paper, which they have the honour of returning.'

66

However, the sense of shame in the majority was too high to admit so milky a composition, and at length, after much irregular scuffling, the following was adopted as an answer: The Leinster Bar return their

* A liberal minded and constitutional lawyer.

Mr. Peter Burrowes, the distinguished advocate, and on all occasions, the friend of public liberty.