Same to Mr. Berwick, September 8, 1805 Same to Mr. James Grattan, October 10, 1805 Same to Mr. Plowden, December 28, 1805 .. Same.. to James Grattan, February 16, 1806 Mr. Fox to Mr. Ryan, February 18, 1806 The Lord Lieutenant to Mr. Grattan, February 19, 1806 Same.. to Henry Grattan, February 20, 1806 The Lord Lieutenant to Mr. Grattan, March 14, 1806 Same to Same, April 1, 1806 .. Same to James Grattan, April 7, 1806 Same.. to Mr. M'Can, April 15, 1806 Same to Archibald Hamilton Rowan, April 22, 1806 Same to Mr. M'Can, May 8, 1806 Same.. to Same, June 5, 1806 273 . 275 . 277 . 277 to Mr. Berwick, November 23, 1805 . 278 . 278 . 279 . 292 . 295 . 296 297 . 300 . 302 . 303 . 305 . 306 . 307 . 307 . 308 . 311 . 315 . 315 Same.. to Same, June 17, 1806 . 316 Same.. to Same, March 7, 1807 Same.. to Same, June 30, 1806 The Lord Lieutenant to Mr. Grattan, September 30, 1806. Mr. Grattan to the Secretary of the Board of Education, March Mr. John Keogh to Mr. Grattan, November 8, 1806 The Lord Lieutenant to Mr. Grattan, November 9, 1806 Mr. Elliot to Mr. Grattan, March 10, 1807 Mr. Grattan to the Duke of Bedford, March 16, 1807 Same to Mr. Berwick, June 20, 1808 Same to Mr. Henry Grattan, December 3, 1809 Same to Same, December 6, 1809 .. Same.. .. to Mr. Hardy, February 15, 1810 Same to Mr. M'Can, February 19, 1810 Lord Dungannon to Mr. Grattan, September 8, 1810 .. Same to Mr. Edward Hay, June 5, 1811 Lord Grenville to Mr. Grattan Mr. Horner to Mr. Allen, September 14, 1811 Same.. to Mr. Berwick, April 21, 1812 Sir H. Parnell to Mr. Grattan, February 14, 1817 Mr. Grattan to the Countess of Charleville, July 17, 1817 Same.. to Mr. Day, November 19, 1819 Lord Holland to Miss Fox, June 20, 1820 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY GRATTAN. CHAPTER I. Ministers of George III. and Queen Elizabeth compared.-Policy of England towards Ireland.-Influence of the Crown in the Irish Parliament. The superior advantages possessed by Ireland.-Conduct of the Irish Parliament.-Probability of a Union.-The proceedings of the Irish Government justified the course pursued by Mr. Grattan.-Inevitable consequence of their proceedings.-Sketch of the events that led to the Union.-Natural consequences.-Means adopted by Government.-Secret Service Money.-Sir John Parnell and James Fitzgerald dismissed from their offices for opposing the Union.-Letter of Mr. Fitzgerald to the Bar.-Their conduct.-Meeting and Resolutions as to the Union.-Meeting of Parliament, 22nd January, 1799.-Mr. Ponsonby's amendment against Union lost only by one!-Mr. Plunket's speech.-Sir Lawrence Parson's amendment against the Union carried on the 24th by five majority.-Union Paragraph rejected. -Great joy of the Irish People.-Addresses to the Members.—Mr. Saurin's reply. The Regency Bill proposed by Mr. Fitzgerald.Mr. Foster's (Speaker) speech against Union. In one of Essex's letters to Queen Elizabeth, he writes," If your Majesty will have a strong party in the Irish nobility, and make use of them, you must hide from them all purposes of establishing English government, till the strength of the Irish be so broken that they shall see no safety but in your Majesty's protection."* Such was the spirit of the time of Elizabeth; such it was in the time of George the Third: his minister practised what her deputy recommended:† for * Birch's Memoirs of Elizabeth, 2d vol. p. 416, 15th June, 1598. † See Pacata Hibernia, for her orders to the Deputy in Munster, to torture the Irish. years he had artfully concealed his real design; but when the strength of the Irish was broken, their Volunteers disbanded-their people divided, and their nobles corrupted, then the plot transpired. Lord Clare, who had opposed the idea in 1785, only disclosed it when success was certain, and when the conspiracy of the minister against the Constitution was likely to be more successful than the conspiracy of the people against the Government. That Government had laboured for years to degrade the Legislature, and surrender it to Great Britain; and in one of his speeches, Lord Clare not only admits, but almost boasts that he had been for eight years engaged in this horrid plot. The minister had more powerful means at his disposal than the people; he had an abundant treasury, an army of occupation, military government, and martial law: he had a House of Lords subservient to his will, and a House of Commons packed with his dependents; a distracted and dispirited people, and a brokendown insurrection: he had brought Ireland on her knees, and was about to place England on her back. To the latter, success was a great object, for by it she could dispense with the inconvenience of a second parliament, and disentangle herself from a constitution wrested from her in the moments of weakness,-which Ireland had strove to render independent, and which England had sought to prostrate from the outset in 1782. Another object Another object of prominent importance to her was the trade and commerce of that kingdom, which she knew she could direct and divert See Burke's Posthumous Letters.-In 1781, the Treasury was so reduced that the Irish Government were obliged to borrow money, for the service of the State, from a private individual, and 20,000l. was advanced by Messrs. Latouche,-they then applied to a wealthy Roman Catholic of the county of Cork, Mr. Goold, who advanced 5000l., thus were the Roman Catholics generous in the extreme, supporting a party that kept them excluded from honour, office, and power. |