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no interest in the Imperial Parliament ; it is too far, and its remedies too late. . . The Union has sunk the country. Ireland held up her head formerly, but she is now a beggar at the door of Great Britain." Then striking his forehead, he exclaimed, as in anguish : "There is no thinking of it : but these countries from their size must stand together — united quoad nature — dis- tinct quoad legislation." During his re- sidence in London he enjoyed the society of a large circle of such men as Wilber- force and Rogers, and was especially happy at Holland House, where he was greatly beloved and esteemed. His mag- nanimity never shone out more strongly than on occasions when he defended Lord Castlereagh, his bitterest opponent con- cerning the Union, from what he consi- dered the unjust attacks of his own party. The autumn of 1 8 19 he resided with his family for a time at Luggelaw, and on his return to Tinnehinch complained of diffi- culty of breathing. In December these symptoms increased, and he consulted Mr. Crampton. His mind appeared singularly active, and his conversation as brilliant and fresh as ever. At the election that followed George III.'s death in 1 820, Grat- tan was, on i6th March, retiimed without opposition, but was too weak to appear on the hustings. He spoke calmly of the state of his health, and quoted Caesar's wish for "a short death, and unexpected." Speak- ing of Ireland he said: "To keep alive the spirit of liberty, a man must belong to some country: here there is no country — England is not our country ; it vsdll take a century before she becomes so." Again, he remarked: "What a pleasing reflection it is for me, that I have taken an indepen- dent part through life. I can look back without reproach. I know what I have done, and what othei's have not done: it is a great consolation, a second immor- tality." '^n 1 2th May, having rallied a little, he visited Dublin, and received a deputation from the Catholic Association, headed by O'Connell. Although it was evi- dent that his end was near, he adhered to his determination of going to London to make a final appeal for the Catholics in Parliament, and sailed from Dublin on 20th May. The quays were lined with crowds to bid him farewell, and just as the vessel began to move, he asked for a glass of wine, and drank to the health of the citizens of Dublin. From Liverpool, the fatigue of land travelling was more than he could bear, and with extreme difficulty he was conveyed by canal in an open boat, fitted up with matting and canvas cover. On 31st May he ai'rived 232
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in London; but mortification had set in, and there was an end to any hope of his being able to appear in Parliament, al- though the Speaker of the House of Com- mons offered to give up his apartments to him. As the end approached he said, " Tell the Catholics if I cannot speak, I can pray for them. I shall then die contented." Again, to his daughter : "My life, my love, God gave me talents to be of use to my country, and if I lose my life in her ser- vice, it is a good death." " He lingered for a few days," says Mr. Lecky, "retaining to the last his full consciousness and interest in public affairs. Those who gathered round his death-bed observed with emotion how fondly and how constantly his mind reverted to that legislature which he had served so faithfully and had loved so well. It seemed as though the forms of its guid- ing spirits rose more vividly on his mind as the hour approached when he was to join them in another world ; and, among the last words he is recorded to have uttered, we find a warm and touching eulogium of his great rival, Flood, and many glowing recollections of his feUow-labourers in Ireland." He expressed a strong desire to be buried at his estate of Moyanna; but being somewhat importuned, and it being represented to him that there was a general wish that he should rest in Westminster, he at length feebly whis- pered, " Well, Westminster Abbey." He drew up a paper containing his last de- sire — that Ireland should not seek for other connexion than with Great Britain ; that Great Britain should help to repeal the civil and political disabilities of the Catholics. Nearly his last words were: "I die with a love of liberty in my heart, and this declaration infavourof my country in my hand." He passed away at six o'clock on the morning of the4th June 1 820, aged 7S. That day forty years the Volun- teers had presented him an address for his assertion of the liberties of Ireland. He was buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey. His person is thus described: "Grattan was short in stature, and unprepossessing in appearance. His arms were disproportionably long : his walk was a stride. With a pei-son sway- ing like a pendulum, and an abstracted air, he seemed always in thought, and each thought provoked an attendant ges- ticulation. Such was the outward and visible form of one whom the passenger would stop to stare at as a droll, and the philosopher to contemplate as a study. How strange it seems that a mind so re- plete with grace and symmetry, and power and splendour, should have been
