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The south front or centre of the edifice is a grand lonic colonnade, occupying three sides of a square, with lofty and graceful columns resting on a flight of steps, which are continued round the court-yard to the extremities of the colonnades, which terminate in two noble arched entrances. The four central columns support a pediment on the apex of which stands a figure of Hibernia flanked oy statues of Fidelity and Commerce, whilst the tympanum displays the Royal Arms. Entering the building and turning to the right, we are ushered into the House of Lords, standing just as the Peers left.it, stately, gloomy, and deserted. Passing the bar of the House, we observe the throne, and the battle scenes tapestried on the walls. Emerging, we seek the busier House of Commons, and find it still alive, but with a far different activity from that of old, for this chamber is now the principal apartment of the Bank of Ireland. Instead of repartee and declamations, we hear the clink of gold; the Speaker with his wig and mace has vanished, and we see only busy merchants depositing money, faded old ladies drawing annuities, and active clerks shovelling sovereigns about with an apparently reckless contempt which only great familiarity with money could enable them to acquire, or counting, handling, and paying sheaves of the crisp and beautiful notes of the Bank, with the long vanishing line of ladies' faces across the top, corresponding to the long vanishing perspectives of the same notes in a lady's hand, in a manner acutely tantalizing to a poor man. We leave the building with a curious sense of regret that it has come down in the world, and degenerated from a Temple of Government to a shrine of Mammon; but Fortitude looks down on us and bids us bear up; Justice, with bandaged eyes, still poises the even scale, and Liberty smiles as though to tell us she still maintains her ancient post; whilst, over the main entrance, Hibernia still keeps point

ing hopefully to the west, and Fidelity and Commerce still appropriately crown the headquarters of Finance.

As we turn reluctantly away from the exquisite and majestic pile, let us review the history of the Parliament which is no more, and see what lessons it suggests for the present and the future. Edgar, Saxon King of England, in the tenth century, is said to have added to his dominions 'the greater part of Ireland with its most famous city of Dublin.' If he did, he left no traces of his conquest; it must have been like Julius Cæsar's conquest of Britain, 'he came, he saw, he conquered,'-or said he did and went straightway home again. William the Red gazed from the Welsh hills at the green shore of Erin and vowed to conquer the island; but he never was able to keep his vow. Henry II. came over, invited the Irish chiefs to dinner, received their courteous homage, settled his followers in Dublin, and along the eastern coast, promulgated the English law; and then, he too went home again, and ever afterwards called himself Lord of Ireland. Henry is said to have sent into Ireland a 6 modus tenendi parliamentum,' or writ explaining the method of holding a parliament, and John specially confirmed to Ireland the provisions of Magna Charta. But even as late as the reign of Henry VIII., the English pale only extended over a space twenty miles square, and no parliament equal in importance to a county council could have been summoned from such a limited area as that. The fact is that for a century and a half after the so-called conquest by Henry II. no parliament was summoned in Ireland.

The English Acts of Parliament were promulgated in such parts of Ireland as owned the English King's sway, under the great seal. Occasion

ally some of the Irish magnates, that is, be it always remembered-the Anglo-Irish-were summoned to England, and that was all. Parliaments were held in Ireland in the reigns of

Edward II., Richard II., Henry IV. and V.; no Acts, however, appear in the Statute Book between the reigns of Edward II. and Henry VI.

In the reign of Henry VII., a law was passed in the English Parliament called Poyning's Law, which made all laws and statutes, passed in England up to that date, binding upon Ireland, and provided that in future no Act should be passed in the Irish Parliament which had not previously been discussed and approved in the Privy Council in England; moreover, the English Parliament, by naming Ireland in any statute, made that statute binding upon Ireland without the intervention of the Irish Parliament at all.

Since then it appears that the Irish Parliament had no independence, that its business can scarcely have equalled in importance that of a municipal corporation, we may safely pass over its history previous to the period of the successful assertion of its legislative independence, although the narrative would not be without certain points of interests, one or two of which we will venture to notice.

The Irish Parliament consisted of three hundred members, of whom, said Mr. Grattan, 'above two hundred are returned by individuals, from forty to fifty are returned by two persons, several of the boroughs have no resident elector at all; and on the whole twothirds of the representatives in the House of Commons are returned by less than one hundred persons.' Add to this, that by an English Act passed in the fourth year of William and Mary, Roman Catholics were excluded from the Irish Parliament, and by an Act of the first year of George II. they were prohibited even from voting at the elections, and it is plain that the Irish House of Commons, regarded as a representative assembly, was a cruel farce. In 1793 the Irish House of Parliament passed an Act permitting Roman Catholics to vote at the election, but still forbidding them to sit as members. Such was the so-called

National Parliament, a fraction of the nation had alone the right to be elected, and about one hundred lords and gentlemen elected nearly all that did sit.

It is a matter of amazement that the nation was so long contented to endure such a sham and pretence of representation till we reflect on the impoverished condition and dreadful ignorance of the bulk of the people, and on the jealousy and weakness of the handful of Protestants encamped on the soil;-jealousy of the native Irish, dependence upon their fellowcountrymen in England, without whose protection they would have been speedily massacred.

We naturally ask why so able a man as Sir Edward Poyning did not complete his work by ordaining one Parliament for both kingdoms? Cromwell anticipated the Union and summoned an Imperial Parliament, allotting twenty-one members to Scotland and thirty to Ireland. No unfair proportion considering the poverty and sparseness of the population.

To recapitulate-for a century and a half there was only one legislature for both kingdoms in which Ireland was not in any way represented, during the Commonwealth there was a joint legislature. Previous to 1782 an old couplet well describes the sessions of the Irish Parliament

'Little said, soon mended,

A subsidy granted, parliament ended.'

We now, however, approach stirring times. England was at war with France; at war with her revolted colonies in North America; republican theories were being broached, and the French were threatening a descent in Ireland. Ireland was in a most distressed condition, her industries chained by repressive laws, her commerce in ruins; she had no money and she had no Appealing to England for protection, she was told that Ireland must arm and defend herself. In

arms.

stantly the nation sprung to its feet; a hundred thousand volun

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teers were marshalled in their country's defence, and England amazed and alarmed found herself fronting a nation of soldiers. So intolerable had the evils under which Ireland laboured been felt to be, that a legislative union had been more than once proposed as a remedy for them; now, however, a new idea presented itself, that of legislative independence. The sovereign rights of the nation were discussed by men with arms in their hands, and at a great meeting of the Ulster volunteers held at Dungannon, presided over by Col. Irwin, the following, resolutions were unanimously adopted:

'Whereas it has been asserted that volunteers as such cannot with propriety debate or give opinions on political subjects, or the conduct of Parliament or public men, resolved unanimously

'That a citizen by learning the use of arms does not abandon any of his civil rights:

'That a claim of any body of men, other than the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind this kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a grievance.

That the power exercised by the Privy Council of both kingdoms, under the pretence of the law of Poyning, is unconstitutional and a grievance :

'That the ports of this country are by right open to all foreign countries not at war with the king; and that any burdens thereupon, or obstructions thereto, save only by the Parliament of Ireland, are unconstitutional, illegal and a grievance :

'That a mutiny bill not limited in duration from session to session is unconstitutional and a grievance:

"That the independence of judges is equally essential to the impartial administration of justice in Ireland as in England; and that the refusal or delay of this right to Ireland, makes a distinction where there should be no distinction, may excite jealousy when perfect union should prevail; and is

in itself unconstitutional and a griev

ance:

"That it is our decided and unalterable determination to seek a redress of those grievances; and we pledge ourselves to each other and to our country, as freeholders, fellow-citizens, and men of honour, that we will at every ensuing election support those only who have supported us therein, and `that we will use every constitutional means to make such our pursuit of redress speedy and effectual:

'That as men, and as Irishmen, as Christians, and as Protestants, we rejoice in the relaxation of the penal laws against our Roman Catholic fellow subjects, and that we conceive the measure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to the union and prosperity of the inhabitants of Ireland.'

The fiery spirit of independence spread from the Irish volunteers to the Irish Parliament. The Irish Roman Catholics, though forbidden to arm, loudly expressed their sympathy with their Protestant brethren, and thus with the nation at its back, Parliament established the Dungannon resolutions as the law of the land.

But we must now turn to that distinguished man whose eloquence and genius so largely contributed to the success of the national cause that he was called the Father of Irish Independence; and though his popularity suffered a reverse after the first glow of the national gratitude which voted him an estate of £50,000, yet he returned to Parliament to fight against the Union, and to shed the glory of his pathetic eloquence around the dying form of that assembly which he had baptized into independent life, and vindicated later still in the Imperial Legislature at once the cause of his Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and his own reputation as a thinker and a statesman.

Henry Grattan was born in the year 1750, of respectable parents; his father being a barrister and his mother the sister of Dean Morley. In 1765

he entered Trinity College, and here his diligence and ability enabled him to carry off all the prizes. Leaving the University, he entered as a student of the Middle Temple, London; and such was his zeal for work that he invented an apparatus which compelled him by its curious ingenuity to rise early in the morning. A small barrel filled with water dripped into a basin which projected over Grattan's bedhead; the basin filled at a calculated time, and then ran over on to the sleeping student and drenched both him and the bedclothes; as a result, he always got up. In 1772 he was called to the Irish Bar, and being very poor, he, Irish like, determined to mend his position by matrimony. Accordingly he fell in love with and espoused a Miss Fitzgerald, a beautiful and penniless girl, and with her he had much poverty, much happiness, and by her thirteen children. Some one once said that with a light heart and a thin pair of breeches, an Irishman will get through the world; Grattan is a case in point. In 1775, Grattan entered Parliament as a member for the borough of Charlemont, and soon made his mark as a leading spirit of the opposition.

In person, Grattan was very small and ungainly, with a long angular chin, and a yellow complexion somewhat pitted with small pox. From a habit of walking on his toes, he was called 'the elastic boy.' Two distinguished American visitors calling on the celebrated orator, were surprised to find a little insignificant, ugly, yellow, stooping figure come into the room with a hop-step-and-a-jump gait, with a shoe on one foot and a slipper on the other, breeches unbuttoned at the knees, cravat untied, and an old hat on his head. His voice was shrill, harsh, and unmusical, and at times he sunk it so low as to be inaudible.

Here is a picture of him in the English Parliament in later years, painted by an eye-witness: You saw

a little oddly compacted figure of a man, with a large head, and features such as they give to paste-board masks or stitch on the shoulders of Punch in the puppet-show, rolling about like a mandarin, sawing the air with his whole body from head to foot, sweeping the floor with a roll of parchment which he held in his hands, throwing his legs and arms about like the branches of trees tossed with the wind, every now and then striking the table with impatient vehemence, and in a sharp, slow, nasal, guttural tone drawling forth, with due emphasis and discretion, a set of little, smart, antithe tical sentences, all ready, cut and dry, and polished, and pointed, that seemed as though they would lengthen out in succession to the crack of doom. Alliterations were tacked to alliterations, inference was dove-tailed into inference, and the whole derived new brilliancy and piquancy from the contrast it presented to the uncouthness of the speaker and the monotony of his delivery.'

On the 16th of April, 1782, the Irish Parliament assembled, and the speech from the throne recommended to their consideration the difficulties existing between the two countries for final adjustment. The House was thronged with members, and the spacious gallery running round the inner edge of the dome and supported by Tuscan pillars, was filled by some seven hundred ladies of rank, prominent citizens, and students of the University. Mr. George Ponsonby proposed a vague reply to the speech from the throne, and then Mr. Grattan rose and delivered his great speech, closing with an amendment to the address. The following are a few brief extracts from it :

'I admire, Sir, that steady progressive virtue which has at length awakened Ireland to her rights, and aroused her to her liberties. I am not yet old, but I remember her a child, I have watched her growth; from childhood she grew to arms, from arms to liberty.

Whenever historic annals tell of great revolutions in favour of freedom, they were owing to the quick feeling of an irritated populace excited by some strong object presented to the senses, such was the daughter of Virginius sanctified to virtue, such were the meagre and haggard looks of the seven Bishops sacrificed to liberty.

'But it is not the sudden impulse of irritated feelings that has animated Ireland. She has calmly mused for centuries on her oppressions, and has deliberately risen to rescue the land from her oppressors. For a people to acquire liberty they must have a lofty conception of themselves. What sets one nation above another but the soul that dwells within her? Deprive her of her soul, she may still retain a strong arm, but from that moment she ceases to be a nation. Of what avail are the exertions of Lords and Commons if unsupported by the soul and exertions of the people? Gentlemen will perceive I allude to the transaction at Dungannon. Not long ago the meeting at Dungannon was considered a very alarming measure, but I thought otherwise. I approved, yet I considered the meeting at Dungannon an original transaction. As such only it was matter of surprise. What more extraordinary transaction than the attainment of Magna Charta? It was not attained in Parliament, but by the barons armed in the field. A great original transaction is not founded in precedent; it contains in itself both reason and precedent. The Revolution had no precedent; the Christian religion had no precedent; the Apostles had no precedent. The Irish volunteers united to support the laws and constitution. The usurpations of England have violated both; and Ireland has, therefore, armed to defend the principles of the British Constitution against the violence of the British Government.

'Let other nations basely suppose that people were made for governments, Ireland has declared that go

vernments were made for the people; and even crowns-those great luminaries whose brightness they all reflect

-can receive their cheering fire only from the pure flame of a free constitution. England has the plea of necessity for acknowledging the independence of America; for acknowledging Irish independence she has the plea of justice. America has shed much English blood, and America is to be free; Ireland has shed her own blood for England, and is Ireland to remain in fetters?

'Is Ireland to be the only nation whose liberty England will not acknowledge, and whose affections she cannot subdue? We have received the civic crown from our people, and shall we, like slaves, lay it at the feet of British supremacy? I move, sir, as an amendment to the address, that "We assure His Majesty of our unshaken attachment to His Majesty's person and government, and of our lively sense of his paternal care in thus taking the lead to administer content to His Majesty's subjects in Ireland. That thus encouraged by his royal interposition, we shall beg leave, with all duty and submission, to lay before His Majesty the cause of all our discontent and jealousies; to assure His Majesty that his subjects of Ireland are a free people, that the crown of Ireland is an imperial crown, inseparably connected with the crown of Great Britain, on which connexion the interests and happiness of both nations essentially depend; but that the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct kingdom, with a Parliament of her own, the sole legislature thereof; that there is no body of men competent to make laws to bind the nation but the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland, nor any Parliament which hath any sort of authority or power whatever in this country, save only the Parliament of Ireland; to assure His Majesty that we humbly conceive that in this right the very essence of our liberty consists-a right which we, on

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