ance was useless Grattan gave up the struggle, and retired to Tinnehinch, co. Wicklow, where he amused himself with the study of the classics and the education of his children. In 1801 he refused Lord Fitzwilliam's offer of one of the seats for Peterborough. But, persuaded at length by Fox and Fitzwilliam, he was elected for the borough of Malton in April 1805. Grattan made his maiden speech in the imperial parliament on 13 May in support of Fox's motion for a committee on the Roman catholic petition (ib. iv. 57–79). Unlike Flood's on a similar occasion, it was a complete success. In the ‘Annual Register’ it is stated to have been ‘one of the most brilliant and eloquent speeches ever pronounced within the walls of parliament’ (p. 95). Pitt is said to have turned round to one of the members who sat near him and exclaimed: ‘Burke told me that Grattan was a great man for a popular assembly, and now I believe it’ (Grattan, Life, v. 262); and Lord Holland has described the remarkable effect which it produced upon the house (Memoirs of the Whig Party, 1852, i. 199–200). On the formation of the Ministry of All the Talents in 1806 Grattan was immediately restored to the Irish privy council. At the same time he was offered the post of Irish chancellor of the exchequer, but, preferring to retain complete independence of action, he refused to take office. At the general election in November 1806 he was elected one of the members for the city of Dublin, for which constituency he continued to sit until his death. The contest was a severe and expensive one, but though the Roman catholics subscribed 4,000l. to defray the expenses of his election, Grattan declined to accept it. In 1807 Grattan gave his support to the Irish Arms and Insurrection Bills, and in the debate on Sheridan's motion on the state of Ireland defended the course which he had taken with regard to these bills in a speech of great ability (Speeches, iv. 126–33). On 25 May 1808 Grattan's motion for a committee to take into consideration the Roman catholic petition, which he had previously presented, was defeated by 281 to 128 (ib. iv. 142–63). In 1810, 1811, and 1812 Grattan again brought forward the Roman catholic question without success. In February 1813 his motion for a committee to examine into the laws affecting the Roman catholics was carried by 264 to 224 (ib. pp. 297–314), and on 30 April he introduced his Roman Catholic Relief Bill. Though the second reading was carried by 245 to 203, Abbot's amendment excluding Roman catholics from sitting in parliament was carried by 251 to 247, and the bill was consequently withdrawn. From 1814 Grattan began to relax his attendance in parliament, and occupied much of his spare time in taking up the study of French literature, and in translating some of Miss Edgeworth's stories into French. Like Grenville he differed from the whigs on the question which arose on Napoleon's escape from Elba, and on 25 May 1815 supported the ministry in an eloquent speech in favour of the immediate prosecution of the war (ib. pp. 374–84). In 1816 and 1817 he again brought forward the Roman catholic question, and was again defeated. Though returned for Dublin without opposition at the general election in 1818 he was attacked by a mob on leaving the hustings, and narrowly escaped losing an eye from a blow which he received in the face during the struggle. On 3 May 1819 he presented several petitions in favour of the Roman catholic claims, and once more moved for a committee to inquire into the laws affecting the Roman catholics (ib. pp. 410–27), but was defeated by 243 to 241. Two days afterwards he spoke for the last time in the House of Commons (ib. pp. 428–31). In the autumn of this year Grattan was taken ill. Though still far from well, on 13 May 1820 he received a Roman catholic deputation in Dublin, and told them: ‘I shall go to England for your question, and, should the attempt prove less fortunate to my health, I shall be more than repaid by the reflection that I make my last effort for the liberty of my country’ (Grattan, Life, v. 549). Travelling from Liverpool by canal he arrived in London on 31 May, and, getting gradually worse, died in Baker Street, Portman Square, on 4 June, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. At the request of the leading whigs, who signed a memorial to the family drawn up by Rogers the poet, Grattan was buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey, close to the graves of Chatham and Fox, on the 16th, a simple flat stone marking the spot. On moving for the issue of a new writ for the city of Dublin Sir James Mackintosh paid an eloquent tribute to Grattan's memory (Parl. Debates, i. 1054–60).
In his maiden speech in the English House of Commons Grattan concisely summed up the result of his own labours in the Irish parliament: ‘Of that assembly I have a parental recollection. I sate by her cradle, I followed her hearse. In fourteen years she acquired for Ireland what you did not acquire for England in a century—freedom of trade, independency of the legislative, independency of the judges, restoration of the final judicature, repeal of a perpetual mutiny bill, habeas corpus act, nullum tempus act—a great work! You will exceed it, and
