on. The
commencement of the debate was suspended. Opposition, with the dignified
courtesy which distinguished their leaders, even proposed the adjournment
of their motion; the messengers of the House were dispatched in all
directions to bring some tidings of me; and I had afterwards the
satisfaction to find that none imputed my absence to any motive unbecoming
my personal and official honour. Thus, when I entered the House, nervous
with apprehension, I was received with a general cheer; my colleagues
crowded round me with enquiries and congratulations; members crossed from
the opposite benches to express their welcome. The galaxy of the living
and the lovely in the gallery, which the expectation of the great debate
had filled with all the fashionable portion of the capital, chiefly, too,
in full dress, as was the custom of the time, glanced down approvingly on
me; and, when at last I took my seat, I felt myself flattered by being the
centre of one of the most splendid and interesting assemblies in the
world.

The House was at length hushed, and Grattan rose. I cannot revert to the
memory of that extraordinary man, without a mixture of admiration and
melancholy--admiration for his talents, and melancholy for the feeling
that such talents should expire with the time, and be buried in the common
dust of the sepulchre. As a senatorial orator, he was incontestably the
greatest whom I have ever heard. With but little pathos, and with no
pleasantry, I never heard any man so universally, perpetually, and
powerfully, command the attention of the House. Thee was the remarkable
peculiarity in his language, that while the happiest study of others is to
conceal their art, his simplicity had the manner of art. It was keen,
concentrated, and polished, by nature. His element was grandeur; the
plainest conception in his hands, assumed a loftiness and power which
elevated the mind of his hearers, as much as it convinced their reason. As
it was said of Michael Angelo, that every touch of his chisel was life,
and that he struck out features and forms from the marble with the power
of a creator, Grattan's mastery of high conceptions was so innate, that he
invested every topic with a sudden magnitude, which gave the most casual
things a commanding existence to the popular eye. It was thus, that the
grievance of a casual impost, the delinquencies of a police, the artifices
of an election, or the informalities of a measure of finance, became un