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| THE GRATTAN STATUE, COLLEGE GREEN. -In 1876, the corporation of Dublin caused Foley's striking statue of Henry Grattan, the greatest of not alone Irish, but also of European, orators, of modern times, to be erected in College Green, opposit the old House of Parliament, in which he uttered the splendid speeches that have made his name immortal. Grattan, unlike O'Connell, was noted for vehemence and what may be called angularity of gesture. In fact, he was not what is termed a graceful speaker, but his language was sublime, and he had a magical influence over his audience. He could not move the masses of the people, like the great Catholic Emancipator, but before the most critical parliamentary body in the world, as was the Irish House of Commons, he stood unrivalled. The artist represents him moving his famous Declaration of Irish Rights, April 19, 1780, in supporting which he said: "I never will be satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his rags. He may be naked, he shall not be in irons. And I do see the time is at hand, the spirit is gone forth, the declaration is planted; and though great men should apostatize, yet the cause will live, and though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ which conveyed it, and the breath of liberty, like the work of the holy man, will not die with the prophet, but survive him." |
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