. 440 MRS. GRATTAN TO MR. M'CAN. [CHAP. XI. scription of person I could get, that would be called respectable. Give me an idea of any one that strikes you as proper, and I will try to get Mr. Grattan's consent; he is very indifferent this last week-had much of those affections, and the least thing agitates him. I have not dared to mention the name of Tinnehinch, except one day when he desired me to write to you about it. He thinks the labourers too numerous; he does not like expense when he is not there. As to returning to Ireland, that is a jest he does not like going even out of town, because of removing from the physicians. He walks much, and rides every day, but cannot bear noise, or crowd, or heat. I am sometimes fearful that this disorder will hang a long time on him. I read to him constantly, and he never writes. I am most truly yours, H. GRATTAN. SAME TO SAME. Cowes, Isle of Wight, June 29, 1799. DEAR SIR, We are much obliged to you for the account of Tinnehinch, and since we mean to visit it, without fail, in a few months, hope to find it as you describe, and the country tranquil. We arrived at the Isle of Wight without any fatigue; the place agrees wonderfully with Mr. Grattan, and has already been of service to him; he is in perpetual exercise, and for ever on the sea; bathing has done him good, and except his rest, which is not quite returned, he is astonishingly recovered; he does not attempt either to read or write, but his appetite is good, and so are his spirits. The island is very beautiful, and the little town very commodious for bathing and boating, with good accommodation of every sort; the village is mostly built up the side of the hill, and overhangs the sea beautifully, which is covered with boats and ships. It is a most healthful situation. My girls and boys are well, and delight in this place; they desire to be remembered to you, and Mr. Grattan sends his best regards. I fear Mr. Browne has no chance of the Provostship; I wish it was in my gift, and he should not fail. I am, yours, &c. H. GRATTAN. insurgent did when his men acted in a similar manner near Lord Wicklow's. In more instances than this could the Irish Government have profited by the maxim--" Fus est ab hoste doceri!"-See page 397. CHAP. XI.] MR. GRATTAN RETURNS TO IRELAND. 441 SAME TO SAME. Cowes, Sept. 8, 1799. SIR,-I am sorry to say that we are not as well as when I last wrote. Mr. Grattan has had a return of his complaint; the sleepless nights make him very dejected in the day, and he intends going for a week to Twickenham, before our return to Ireland. The latter end of this month, we quit this island, and I am grieved it will not be with that advantage which I had hoped Mr. Grattan would have received; he looks well, but his appetite is not as good as usual, yet I make him take nourishing things; he has been obliged to give up reading, which is a great distress to him, it makes him so dependent on others for that amusement he always had in his own power. You were very kind in your intention about the horses; but he will have job-horses, and everything that will prevent trouble or thought to him; one safe horse of his own he must have, I have written to Mr. Bermingham to look out for one, and you also do the same; a safe trotting pony would be the best, I should think. Our weather is better this last week; I do not find it warmer than our own, but with less rain. Though the wind is easterly and strong, Mr. Grattan sits in a boat in the sea for hours, to get the air round him, and the exercise, which does not fatigue. If he continues at all well, we shall return in winter to Ireland; but his changes are so sudden, that it is impossible to fix on any plan a week before. My children are all well, and Mr. Grattan joins me in best regards to you and wishes for you.-I am, yours, &c., HENRIETTA G. Mr. Grattan's parliamentary career in Ireland was now fast approaching to its close. At the end of the year 1799 he returned to dedicate the remainder of his days to the service of his country. These, indeed, promised to be few. Distracted in mind-distempered in body-broken down in spirits, in health, and in hope-he came too feeble and too late to be of service. How fallen!-how changed!—no longer what he was when, with a Charlemont* at the head of forty thousand Volun *He died in 1799, and his death at this critical period greatly afflicted Mr. Grattan. 442 REMARKS ON MR. PITT'S [CHAP. XI. teers, he called forth the nation to arms and to liberty Hei mihi! qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo ! The spirit of better days had fled-like a dream it had passed away, and no signs appeared of its resurrection. Other times, and other men had come-Clare, Pitt, the Beresfords,-these were the lords of the ascendant: and the old and steady assertors of their country's rights, stigmatised and reviled, were now cast unfeelingly into the shade. What, then, could be hoped for Ireland?-what could she expect?-Nay, what could have been expected or said even of England, if, after expelling James II., the English had chosen his advisers for their ministers, or if, after their Revolution, they had discarded Lord Somers, who had given them liberty?-the same fate as now befel Ireland. Her staunchest supporter was not only disabled for the fight, but he came late into the field Inutile ferrum Cingitur, ac densos fertur moriturus in hostes. The enemy had been in occupation the entire of the year, and though defeated at the outset, remained unsubdued and unterrified. Mr. Pitt was obstinate in his labours; Lord Castlereagh was indefatigable. Mr. Pitt had treasured up in his mind the remembrance of his defeat on the Regency question, and came down upon Ireland with a hoarded resentment. He allowed the people to deceive themselves by the blind expectations which he dexterously held out. He gained some-neutralized others- took advantage of both, and, finally, broke faith with all. He sought to bribe the Roman Catholic clergy; he strove to cajole the Roman Catholic laity, and buy the representatives of the nation:-to the first he held CHAP. XI.] POLICY TOWARDS IRELAND. 443 out the hopes of salary and pension; to the second, the imperial phantom of privilege; and to the third, gold, silver, and titles (not honour!) His caitiffs of corruption were everywhere: stooping to the basest arts of public and private prostitution, and destroying the morals as well as the independence of the community,-they could be observed creeping into every man's house with the wages of iniquity, and seeking to tempt the vanity of the wife when they had failed to reach the venality of the husband. It seemed as if the failure of Mr. Pitt's continental policy was now to be atoned for by his new experiment upon Ireland, and that he sought to build his fame upon the wreck of her constitution. But his Irish Government will ever be an eternal disgrace to his name, and sully the hereditary honour he acquired from his great progenitor. This guilty minister - baffled abroad, and entailing ruin at home*-with the brand of bribery in his hand, and the lash of the Gault upon his back, stood forth, the shameless perpetrator of the basest deeds towards Ireland; and in every thing relating to that country, showed a fatal infirmity of thought and of action which ever accompanies a degradation of soul, and a debasement of faculties, consequent upon the dereliction of civil principles and of human virtues. The next volume will relate the particulars. * The debt he left upon the nation was near 800,000,000l. |
