What he did may be briefly summed up. He established the Independence of Ireland, by procuring the repeal of the statute by which it had been declared that Ireland was inseparably annexed to the Crown of Great Britain, and bound by British acts of Parliament, if named in them--that the Irish House of Lords had no jurisdiction in matters of appeal--and that the _dernier resort_, in all cases of law and equity, was to the peers of Great Britain.
For his great services in thus establishing Ireland's rights, the Parliament voted him £50,000. He considered that this was a retainer for the future as well as a mark of gratitude for the past, and henceforth devoted the remainder of his life--a period of nearly forty years--to the service of his country.
Grattan's last act, as an Irish legislator, was to oppose the Union, which destroyed the nationality _he_ had made--his last act, as a public man, was to hurry to London, in his seventy-fifth year, under the infliction of a mortal disease, to present the petition in favour of the Irish Catholics, and support it, at the risk of life, in Parliament.
Grattan's great achievements were all accomplished in early life, while the "_purpurea juventus_" was in its bloom, while the heart was in its spring. Great men, of all shades of political and party passion have been eager and eloquent in his praise. Byron, speaking of Ireland, ranked him first among those
"Who, for years, were the chiefs in the eloquent war, And redeemed, if they have not retarded, her fall."
"What an union of all the affections and powers, By which life is exalted, embellished, refined, Was embraced in that spirit--whose centre was ours, While its mighty circumference circled mankind."
Faithfully too, as well as poetically, did he describe his speeches as exhibiting
"An eloquence rich, wherever its wave Wandered free and triumphant, with thoughts that shone through, As clear as the brook's 'stone of lustre,' and gave, With the flash of the gem, its solidity too."
Lord Brougham said that it was "not possible to name any one, the purity of whose reputation has been stained by so few faults, and the lustre of whose renown is dimmed by so few imperfections." After describing the characteristics of his eloquence, he added, "It may be truly said that Dante himself never conjured up a striking image in fewer words than Mr. Grattan employed to describe his relation towards Irish independence, when, alluding to its rise in 1782, and its fall, twenty years later, he said, 'I sat by its cradle--I followed its hearse.'"