Henry Grattan

“ Henry Grattan has great requisites, but he has great deficiencies too. The favor that he wins in the senate, he loses in society. We want a man who shall speak for us in public the sentiments that fall from us at our tables; who shall assure the English Government, and the English nation too, that the Irish Catholic is equal in loyalty as in courage,—that his fealty is not less because his faith is that of his fathers. ”

“ In 1772 he was called to the Irish bar, and quickly acquired a very lucrative practice; he also inherited his father’s large fortune on the death of his elder brother. In 1778 he entered the Irish House of Commons as member for Dublin University, and at first gave a general support to the popular party led by Henry Grattan (q.v.) . He was, however, from the first hostile to that part of Grattan’s policy which aimed at removing the disabilities of the Roman Catholics; he endeavoured to impede the Relief Bill of 1778 by raising difficulties about its effect on the Act of Settlement. ”

“ In the ‘Life and Times of Grattan’ (v. 104–6) , it is said: ‘He was unquestionably a man of talents ... In early life he began with the people, though he ended against them, and like most renegades ... he ran violently into the other extreme. ... He was bribed by the court and his wants compelled him to sell the country. ... In early life he was a close acquaintance of Mr. Grattan, and a frequent visitor to Tinnehinch ... As a person of no property, he was over-placed and over-salaried. ... ”

“ The things she sacrifices to idols she sacrifices to devils. O for light! light! Millions grope at noon, and stumble into perdition without a warning voice. They know not the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. And we in England and America are content to preach and press the gospel, time after time, with measureless labor and expense on our home thousands, and leave these millions untaught, unwarned, unshepherded! ”

“ Vile images of men, monkeys, bulls, and elephants are adored. The mind and conscience of the people are in abject slavery to the vilest superstitions. The darkness of India can be felt. It is a world of moral night. Religion has become animalism. The immoral priest washes his senseless idol, and worships it before your face. The Brahman stands there to argue in his defense. The fakir sits naked in the sun, smeared with ashes, with wild, uncombed locks, like a beast from the woods, and deems himself the most religious of mankind. India worships three hundred millions of divinities. ”

“ Scarce one Christian in a thousand has the heart to help them. Mammon is too mighty for our pity and piety. Our small home interests hide from us the immeasurable interests of a perishing world. The millions of the heathen to most of us are as though they had no existence whatever. ”

“ You had not the advantages which were common to other great countries; no monuments, no trophies, none of these outward and visible signs of greatness, such as inspire mankind and connect the ambition of the age which is coming on with the example of that going off, and form the descent and concatenation of glory: no; you have not had any great act recorded among all your misfortunes, nor have you one public tomb to assemble the crowd and spread to the living the language of integrity and freedom. ”

“ No door is shut in India. The cities are open, the towns, the villages, the streets the shops, the zenanas, the halls, the market-places, the whole country and population. You may go where you will, and say what you will, none daring to make you afraid. The people sit by the wayside waiting for you. ”

“ What right have the churches to delegate this tremendous work of raising up the entire heathen world to a few overburdened societies? Let every church arise and do its share directly for the salvation of mankind, and the problem of the world's evangelization will soon be solved. ”

“ Hindus exhibit an amount of suavity, docility, and submissiveness never seen in the natives of England and America, with a remarkable absence of strong, self-reliant assertiveness. Their gentleness attracts and awakens sympathy, for it is largely due to prolonged oppression. ”

“ The effect of this on family life must be tremendous. The inmates swarm like bees in a hive, or ants in an anthill. Virtue and morality are thus loosened at their foundations, and independence and self-respect must suffer in proportion. ”

“ Henry seems to have gone as far as man can go, to combine wisdom, dignity and courage with all those endearing qualities of private life which alone give men a prominent hold upon the sympathies of their kind. We acknowledge his errors, his faults, his follies, only to love him the better. We admire his valor and generosity, without being shocked by cruelty or disgusted by profusion. We look on his greatness without envy; and in tracing his whole career we seem to walk hand in hand beside a dear companion, rather than to follow the footsteps of a mighty monarch. ”

“ There is an overwhelming impression of almost countless multitudes, with needs and destinies as important as our own. One is stirred to compassion, for they are still as sheep without a shepherd. India contains one fifth of humanity, and the bulk are still utterly unevangelized.
5. Similarity of race. Unlike many others, the people of India belong to the same race as those of England, America, and Europe. ”

“ In the home the wife is a servant, and often little better than a slave. The treatment of widows is infamous. Woman is crushed here, and knows not how to raise herself out of ignorance, oppression, and degradation. ”

“ They wait, with their meek eyes looking out for the advent of the messenger of saving truth. A change has come over their thoughts. They have begun to scorn their priests and suspect their idols. They are willing to hear God's word when it is brought to them. ”

“ Aileran was not a member of their order, yet they deemed the work of such extraordinary merit that it deserved being better known. To quote their own words, "Aileran unfolded the meaning of Sacred Scripture with so much learning and ingenuity that every student of the sacred volume, and especially preachers of the Divine Word, will regard the publication as most acceptable." ”

“ The people breathe a free air, live under just laws, are protected from civil wars and cruel massacres; education is spreading; and, altogether, a new nation is being born.
13. Presence of idolatry. This vast people is wholly given to idolatry. Temples, small, dark, dirty, ugly, and repulsive, stand open everywhere. ”

“ Want of funds alone prevented the publication of all the priceless material which Colgan had transcribed and prepared for press, and from the catalogue of the manuscripts found in his cell after his death, it is evident that the great Irish hagiologist had given a detailed account of the labours of Irish missionaries in England, Scotland, Belgium, Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy, Germany, and Italy. ”

“ Miss Holmes composed a four-act opera, 'La Montagne noire,' which was successfully given at the Grand Opera, Paris, on 8 Feb. 1895. Two other operas, 'Astarte' and 'Lancelot du Lac,' were from her prolific pen. Her interest in Ireland grew, and after reading much about the country she revised her symphonic poem 'Irlande,' for production at the first Feis Ceoil, in Dublin, on 18 May 1897, and she planned an Irish opera in the following year. For a time a theosophist and afterwards a spiritualist. ”

“ The republic did not view with an eye quite favorable this advancing aggrandizement of the House of Orange. Frederick Henry had shortly before been dignified by the king of France, at the suggestion of Richelieu, with the title of "highness," instead of the inferior one of "excellency"; and the states-general, jealous of this distinction granted to their chief magistrate, adopted for themselves the sounding appellation of "high and mighty lords." ”

“ In Asia you seem to enter a new world. The tropical strength of the sun, the dark skins and foreign dress of the people, their languages, shops, trades, houses, and ways, all impress you as utterly different from anything in Europe or America.
3. Its vastness. India is nineteen hundred miles in length, and also in its greatest breadth. It is itself a continent. England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, put together, would scarcely make so large a country. ”

“ He was the son of Cormac, King of Leinster, and he founded numerous churches in the district of Ui Cennselaigh, almost conterminous with the present County Wexford and Diocese of Ferns, His principal monastery was at Magheranoidhe, subsequently known as "Abbanstown," today, Adamstown; but he also founded an abbey at Rosmie-treoin, or New Ross, which afterwards became famous as a scholastic establishment. ”

“ Oppression of women. They are treated as beasts of burden. They pass by thousands, carrying fuel, fruits, manure, and loads of grass, or other vegetable produce, on their heads. They are mostly short, thin, worn looking, lightly clothed, with bare arms and legs, brown as a berry, walking with short, quick steps and upright carriage. ”

“ It is no easy thing to get three hundred millions of people, who have lived without proper drains, to mend their ways. The country is hot and dry, or the results would be much worse. Still, under English rule, a better state of things is gradually being brought about.
12. Signs of progress. Magnificent buildings, good shops, railways, post offices, telegraph stations, hospitals, libraries, schools, colleges, abound as evidences of immense progress. English rule in India is rapidly transforming social habits and civilization. ”

“ For the majority of the people the houses are all open to the street. The rooms are rude in construction, often of unpainted boards, without ornament, with scarce any furniture, mere eating and sleeping places. The people sit in the streets. Privacy can hardly be said to exist, except in the dwellings of the rich. ”

“ His setting of 'Fling out the Banner' (by Bishop G. W. Doane) has a great vogue in America and the colonies, and is included in the Canadian 'Book of Common Praise,' edited by Sir George Martin in 1909. His 'Agape' was composed specially for the 'Church Hymnary' of Scotland in 1871, to the words 'Jesu, most loving God,' and was inserted in the 'Church Hymnal' of Ireland in 1874. ”

“ Grattan is a tinhorn who is in a class all by himself. He seems to have all kinds of nerve, and to be willing to take all sorts of chances. That moving-picture deal gives us a pretty good line on him. ”

“ Bede is lavish in praise of the episcopal rule of St. Aidan, and of his Irish co-workers in the ministry. Oswald, king of Northumbria, who had studied in Ireland, was a firm friend of St. Aidan, and did all he could for the Irish missioners until his sad death at Maserfield near Oswestry, 5 August, 642. St. Aidan died at Bamborough on the last day of August, 651, and his remains were borne to Lindisfarne. Bede tells us that "he was a pontiff inspired with a passionate love of virtue, but at the same time full of a surpassing mildness and gentleness." ”

“ Aengus in his "desert", and though he sought to be far from the haunts of men, his fame attracted a stream of visitors. The result was that the good saint abandoned his oratory at Dysert-Enos, and, after some wanderings, came to the monastery of Tallaght, near Dublin, then governed by St. Maelruain. He entered as a lay-brother, concealing his identity, but St. Maelruain soon discovered him, and collaborated with him on the work known as the "Martyrology of Tallaght", about the year 790. This is a prose catalogue of Irish saints, and is the oldest of the Irish martyrologies. ”

“ He showed much musical ability during his college course, and his singing of the services during Holy Week in 1857 and 1858 attracted attention. The degree of M.A. from the catholic university not being legally recognised, he continued his studies at London University, Paris, and Bonn, and was called to the English bar from the Middle Temple on 6 June 1863. ”

“ In the United States Grattan gained considerable reputation as a speaker and raconteur. Returning to England in 1846 he was permitted, in consideration of his services, to resign his consulship in favour of his eldest son, Edmund (now Sir Edmund) Grattan. From this period he chiefly resided in London, where he resumed his literary labours, and among other works produced, in 2 vols., in 1862, ‘Beaten Paths and those who trod them,’ which contains his autobiographical recollections. He died at his residence in Jermyn Street, London, 4 July 1864, leaving a daughter and three sons. ”

“ Aedh of Kildare. King of Leinster, an Irish saint, commemorated by Colgan under date of 4 January; but much obscurity attaches to his lifework. The "Annals of the Four Masters" and the "Annals of Ulster" agree in the account of this monarch, who resigned his crown and eventually became Bishop of Kildare. Under the name of Aidus, a latinized form of Aedh, his name is to be found in several martyrologies. The year of his death was 639, according to the corrected chronology of the "Annals of Ulster." ”

“ From 1859 to 1865 she attracted attention as a piano prodigy and singer of French songs of her own composition. As early as 1862 she published some pieces under the pseudonym of 'Hermann Zenta.' After a course of instruction from H. Lambert, Klosé, and Saint-Saëns, she became a pupil of César Franck in 1876. having previously acquired no little fame by her setting of 'In Exitu Israel,' in 1873, and an opera 'Héro et Léandre,' produced at the Opéra Populaire in 1874. ”

“ Columba's College was a school mainly for the boys of the upper classes and for candidates for the ministry of the Church of Ireland; music and the Irish language were prominent features in the curriculum. From 1846 to 1853 Calkin zealously maintained a high standard of choral music at St. Columba's, and he cultivated composition. From 1853 to 1863 he was organist and choirmaster of Woburn Chapel, London; from 1863 to 1868 organist of Camden Road Chapel; and from 1870 to 1884 organist at St. Thomas's Church, Camden Town. In 1883 he became professor at the Guildhall School of Music under Mr. ”