DEATH AND BURIAL 703 be the inclination, of every individual to render it as fruitful, as profitable, and as advantageous as possible.' In 1820 he insisted, contrary to the advice of his physician, in going over to London, to bring the Catholic question forward again, when the illness under which he had for some time been labouring assumed a more violent and deadly character. He lingered for a few days, retaining to the last his full consciousness and interest in public affairs. Those who gathered around 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 guiding 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 fellowlabourers in Ireland. It is remarkable, too, that he spoke with special kindness of Castlereagh, and made it a dying request to his son to abstain from attacking him in Parliament. 'The Union,' he said, has passed. The business between him and me is over, and it is for the interests of Ireland that Castlereagh should be minister.' He passed away tranquilly and happily on June 6, 1820. He died, as a patriot might wish to die, crowned with honours and with years, with the love of friends and the admiration of opponents, leaving a nation to deplore his loss, and not an enemy to obscure his fame. It is at the tombs of great men that succeeding generations kindle the lamp of patriotism; and it might have been supposed that he whose life was fraught with so many weighty lessons, and whose memory possesses so deep a charm, would have rested at last in his own land and among his own people. Another and, as it would seem to some, a nobler lot was reserved for Grattan. A request was made to his friends that his remains might rest in Westminster Abbey, and that request was complied with. He lies near the tombs of Pitt and Fox. The place is an honourable one, but it was the only honour that was bestowed on him. Not a bust, not an epitaph marks the spot where the greatest of Irish orators sleeps; but one stately form seems to bend in triumph over that unnoticed grave. It is the statue of Castlereagh, the statesman of the Legislative Union.' END OF THE FIRST VOLUME PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARE A Classified Catalogue OF WORKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, AND 32 HORNBY ROAD, BOMBAY MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. History, Politics, Polity, Political Memoirs, &c. Abbott.-A HISTORY OF GREECE. Part I. From the Earliest Times to the 3 Baillie.-THE ORIENTAL CLUB, AND Besant.-THE HISTORY OF LONDON. By Sir WALTER BESANT. With 74 Illustrations. Crown 8vo., Is. 9d. Or bound as a School Prize Book, gilt edges, 2s. 6d. |