Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan (born July 3, 1746 in Dublin , † June 6, 1820 in London ) was an Irish politician who stood up for the parliamentary sovereignty of Ireland from the United Kingdom , so that due to his use the Irish House of Commons between 1782 and 1800 was colloquial was also called "Grattan's Parliament". In addition, he made particular efforts to the emancipation of Catholics in Ireland.
Life
Member of the Irish House of Commons
Grattan, son of longtime Dublin city clerk James Grattan, studied after school at Trinity College of Dublin University and discovered his passion for classic literature and the art of debating . Although he was admitted to the bar in 1772, he barely worked as a lawyer . Together with his long-time friend Henry Flood , he studied the works of Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke and Hadrianus Junius . While visiting the House of Lords , he found infinite admiration for the eloquence of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, and wrote an article about it in the magazine Baratariana .
Flood's influence contributed significantly to the beginning of Grattan's political career. In 1775 he was with the support of James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont Member of Parliament of Ireland (Irish House of Commons) for Charlemont and shortly afterwards leader of the National Party as successor to Floods, whose popularity declined. He was particularly suitable for this because of his unsurpassed eloquence. He lacked the gestures of Lord Chatham, which he admired so much , the lasting dignity of his son William Pitt and the power of close conclusions as with Charles James Fox and Flood, but his speeches were filled with epigrams and rarely expressed happiness. His concise and meaningful sentences were enriched with profound aphorisms and maxims of political philosophy such as those of Edmund Burke . Grattan also had the talent to transfer his own enthusiasm to his listeners and thereby convince them of the importance of his goals.
Resistance to Poynings' Law
The primary goal of the national party (Irish Patriot Party) was to detach the Irish Parliament from its constitutional link with the English Privy Council . Due to the so-called Poynings' Law from the reign of Henry VII of England , every draft law of the Irish Parliament had to be submitted to the Privy Council of England for review before it could be discussed by the Irish Parliament after being awarded the Great Seal of England. A bill that had been examined in this way could then either be accepted or rejected by the Irish House of Commons, but not changed. Numerous other English laws underlined the complete dependence of the Irish Parliament, such as the abolition of the jurisdiction of the Irish House of Lords on appeals . Ultimately, the House of Commons in London attempted to take over the legislation completely, excluding the Irish Parliament.
The Poynings' Law has already been rejected by William Molyneux and Jonathan Swift and attacked by Flood, while Grattan fought for the rule to be repealed completely. The threatening attitude of the Irish volunteers instrumentalized by Grattan at their meeting in Dungannon in 1782 ultimately led to England giving way. On April 16, 1782, he gave a speech in front of the Parliament building, which was enthusiastically received by the volunteers, in which he declared the independence of the Irish Parliament with the following words:
- “I found Ireland on its knees. I have watched over it with paternal care; I have brought progress back from injuries with guns, and from guns to freedom. Spirit of Swift, Spirit of Molyneux, your genius has prevailed! Ireland is now a nation! "
- 'I found Ireland on her knees. I watched over her with a paternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms, and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift, spirit of Molyneux, your genius has prevailed! Ireland is now a nation! '
After a month of negotiations, the Irish claims were granted. In gratitude for his achievements, he was granted a grant of 100,000 pounds , decided by Parliament , which was halved to 50,000 pounds shortly before his approval.
"Grattan's Parliament"
Loyalty to William Pitt
One of the first acts of this independent Irish parliament, colloquially known as "Grattan's Parliament" for its commitment, was to show loyalty to Great Britain by accepting a vote to provide 20,000 seamen for the Royal Navy . Grattan himself remained loyal to the British crown and relations with Great Britain throughout his life. However, he was concerned about moderate parliamentary reforms and, unlike Flood, favored the emancipation of Catholicism . However, it became apparent that the new independence of the Irish House of Commons would be useless without reforms necessary.
Although it was now free of constitutional control, it remained under the influence of the British government's corruption on the Irish property owners, known as the Undertakers, or, more directly, on senior administrators. The new Parliament had no control over the Irish administration, as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Chief Secretary in particular were still appointed by England as representatives of the British monarch . Their term of office was determined by the changes in British, but not Irish, party politics. The official powers in Ireland took place after consultation in the British Cabinet. As a result, Parliament was by no means a representative of the Irish people, as the vast majority of the population, as Catholics , were excluded from the right to vote . In addition, two-thirds of the members of the Irish House of Commons came from small circles under the influence of a single landowner whose support was bought through the lavish distributions of peerages and pensions .
To give the new parliament stability and true independence, Grattan had to push through reforms. Grattan argued with Flood not only about simple reforms called "Simple Repeal", but also over the question of the continuation of the agreement on Irish volunteers. He opposed the policy of protective tariffs , but supported Pitt's well-known trade proposals in 1785 for free trade between Great Britain and Ireland, which, however, are abandoned due to hostilities within the British merchant navy . Overall, Grattan supported the British government for some time after 1782 and in 1785 advocated mandatory legislation due to the riots of the Whiteboys (Buachaillí Bána), an Irish secret society founded by farmers.
Opposition to Pitt
However, after receiving no personal support from Pitts regarding parliamentary reforms, he joined the opposition in which he agitated for the conversion of the tithe in Ireland . In 1788 he supported the Whigs on the question of regency. In 1790 he became a representative of Dublin City in the Irish Parliament. In 1792 he succeeded in passing a law granting the right to vote for Catholics and in 1794 he worked with William Ponsonby to draft a law reform that was no less democratic than the draft law drafted by Flood in 1783.
Like Flood, he was also concerned about large landowners having supremacy in Parliament because “he had a strong belief throughout his life that if Ireland could best be ruled by Irish hands, then democracy in Ireland would inevitably lead to pillage and anarchy. “('He had through the whole of his life a strong conviction that while Ireland could best be governed by Irish hands, democracy in Ireland would inevitably turn to plunder and anarchy.').
The Catholic question
At the same time, he wanted the Roman Catholic landed gentry to be allowed to join the Irish House of Commons, a logical consequence of the Relief Act of 1792. However, Grattan's weak efforts eventually fostered far more extreme positions that emerged in Ireland due to the influence of the French Revolution .
The Catholic question quickly became of paramount importance and when an influential Whigs group entered the government of Prime Minister Pitt in 1794 , it was announced that the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland would be taken over by William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam , who shared Grattan's views. expectations were raised that the Catholic question could be resolved in a manner satisfactory to Ireland's Catholics.
This appeared to be Pitt's intention, too, although there was great disagreement as to how far Lord Fitzwilliam was authorized to make promises to the government. After Lord Fitzwilliam had taken Grattan into his confidence, it was agreed that Grattan should introduce a draft for Catholic emancipation and that this should then receive the support of the government. Ultimately, however, it appeared that the Lord Lieutenant had either misunderstood or expanded his instructions and was therefore recalled on February 19, 1795. In the outcry this event produced and increased discontent in Ireland, Grattan acted in a conspicuously moderate and loyal manner, which was recognized by a member of the British Cabinet. However, this government was undoubtedly by the wishes of King George III. influenced and now resisted the Catholic demands, with the result that the country quickly fell into a rebellion.
In a series of masterly speeches, Grattam warned the British Government of the lawless situation Ireland had gotten into. However, he had just under forty supporters in the Irish House of Commons, so his speeches went largely unnoticed.
In May 1797 he resigned from parliament. Shortly afterwards, he left his previous moderate stance by attacking the British government in a inflammatory letter entitled Letter to the Citizens of Dublin .
Irish Rebellion of 1798 and Act of Union 1800
By that time, religious animosity in Ireland had almost died out, with people of different faiths willing to unite for common political views. Thus it came about that the Presbyterians from the north of Ireland , who held predominantly Republican views, joined forces with a group of Roman Catholic Irish to form the Society of United Irishmen , which advocated revolutionary ideas adopted from France . This went so far that a possible invasion by French troops was also welcomed. This eventually led to the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , which was harshly and cruelly suppressed.
Shortly afterwards there were again serious talks within the Pitt government about the establishment of a parliamentary union between Great Britain and Ireland, which had been discussed again and again since the beginning of the 18th century. Grattan was among the first to reject the idea because of irreconcilable hostility. On the other hand, advantages could also be named, since the state of Grattan's parliament offered no security. The disagreement over the question of regency clearly demonstrated that the Irish and British Parliaments were consensual on matters of royal interest. Second, at a time when Britain and France were at war, it was impossible that the cabinet could ignore the danger, as the independent constitution of 1782 offered no protection against armed revolt.
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 put an end to the growing attempts at reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants and violence based on religious beliefs flared up, with the result that the Protestant Orange and the Catholic divided Ireland into two hostile camps. From the point of view of the history of Irish politics, it is a curious fact that the most bitter opposition to union emanated from the Protestant Church, and especially from the Orange, while the support for union emanated essentially from the Catholic clergy and especially from the bishops, and especially in Cork was greatest. This attitude of the Catholics was justified by Pitt's encouragement of the expectation that the Catholic emancipation, the conversion of the tithe and the endowment of the Catholic priesthood are connected with the settlement of this matter, or at least would follow shortly afterwards.
When the government introduced such a bill in 1799, it was rejected by the Irish House of Commons. The popularity of Grattan, who still had no new mandate, had temporarily declined. The fact that his proposals for parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation became the buzzwords of the revolutionary Society of United Irishmen earned him bitter hostility among the ruling classes. So much so that he was expelled from the Privy Council, his portrait was removed from the premises of Trinity College and his name was removed from the list of the Dublin Merchants' Guild.
However, the progressive destruction of the constitution of 1782 meant that Grattan, as its author, received his old recognition among the Irish people. Another contributing factor was that the government used the parliamentary break for bribery in order to obtain a large majority for its policies.
The Irish Parliament met for the last time on January 15, 1800. On the same day, Gratten bought a seat in Parliament for Wicklow Borough and then appeared late at night during the debate in the House of Parliament to take his seat. There, weakened by illness, he gave an extraordinary two-hour final speech in front of the Irish House of Commons against the adoption of the bill and concluded with the words:
- "I will remain here faithful to the happiness of my country, true to its freedom, true to their case."
- 'I will remain anchored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her freedom, faithful to her fall.'
The draft law establishing the parliamentary union ( Act of Union 1800 ) was finally passed with a large majority and came into force on January 1, 1801.
Member of the British House of Commons
During the next five years Grattan retired from political life before he became a member of the British House of Commons for Dublin City in 1805 . There he took a seat as a backbencher until Charles James Fox asked him to take a seat near him with the words “This is no place for the Irish Demosthenes !” ('This is no place for the Irish Demosthenes!').
In his first speech he dealt with the Catholic question. This speech was named in the Parliament's Annual Register as "one of the most brilliant and expressive speeches ever made within the walls of Parliament". When William Wyndham Grenville became prime minister and Fox became foreign minister in January 1806 , they offered Grattan a government office, which the latter refused.
In 1807 he showed the strength of his judgment and his supportive character, despite the unpopularity in Ireland, in the question of how to deal with the situation in Ireland. Catholic emancipation, which he still strongly advocated, became more difficult because of the question of whether the British monarch should veto the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops. Grattan supported such a right of veto, but a very extreme Catholic party emerged in Ireland under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell . As a result, Grattan's influence gradually waned.
After 1810 he made little speeches in the House of Commons, with one notable exception in 1815 when he broke away from the Whigs and supported the final battles against Napoleon Bonaparte . He gave his very last speech in 1819 and again underlined his rejection of the Union with the words:
- "The wedding that has taken place is now duty, as it should be the inclination of each individual to make it as fruitful, as profitable and as beneficial as possible."
- 'The marriage having taken place it is now the duty, as it ought to be the inclination, of every individual to render it as fruitful, as profitable and as advantageous as possible.'
In the summer of 1820, after crossing from Ireland to London, he fell seriously ill and was unable to raise the Catholic question again. On his deathbed he is said to have spoken nobly about Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry and his former rival John Flood. After his death on June 6, 1820, he was buried in Westminster Abbey near William Pitt and Charles James Fox. In addition, a bust was placed in the outer lobby of the Palace of Westminster .
Grattan had been married to Henrietta Fitzgerald since 1782 and had two sons and two daughters with her.
Web links
- Henry Grattan in nndb (English)
- Biography (historyhome.co.uk)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Grattan: The Speeches of the Right Honorable Henry Grattan in the Irish and Imperial Parliament (askaboutireland.ie)
- ↑ Grattan's Parliament (irelandseye.com)
- ^ Entry on the homepage of Westminster Abbey
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Grattan, Henry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish politician, Member of the House of Commons |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 3, 1746 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dublin |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 6, 1820 |
| Place of death | London |