course, was
summoned by Simon de Montfort in 1265. Grattan was accustomed to claim
"seven centuries" as the lifetime of the Irish Constitution; but in
that, of course, he went back behind the days of a representative
Parliament.

[57] Poynings' Law was passed by the Irish Parliament, at Drogheda, in
1495, under the influence of Sir Edward Poynings, the Lord Deputy of
Ireland to the Viceroy Prince Henry, afterwards King Henry VIII. The
essential provision of Poynings' Law was that it secured all initiative
in legislation to the English Privy Council, leaving to Ireland nothing
but the simple power of acceptance or rejection. Ireland was thus left
only a veto, though a veto is often a considerable weapon.

[58] An Act in the reign of Mary forbade the Irish Parliament to alter
or add to an Act of Parliament returned to her from England.

[59] 6 of George I. made the Irish Parliament subordinate and
dependent.

[60] See Appendix B.

[61] Among the Viceroys converted of later years to Home Rule by
experience of the present system of Irish Government may be named Lord
Spencer, Lord Dudley, and probably the last Lord Carnarvon. The
resignation of Mr. George Wyndham was due to the suspicion of his
conversion.

[62] Quoted by Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., in his brilliant book "The Case
for Home Rule." (Maunsel & Co., Dublin.)

[63] See the essays on Flood and Grattan. (Longmans, 2 vols., 1903.)

[64] Grattan, 16th April, 1782.

HOME RULE IN HISTORY

GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT

"To destroy is easy: the edifices of the mind, like the fabrics
of marble, require an age to build, but ask only minutes to
precipitate: and as the fall of both is an effort of no time,
so neither is it a business of any strength. A pick-axe and a
common labourer will do the one--a little lawyer, a little
pimp, a wicked Minister the other."

GRATTAN (1800.)

"Yet I do not give up my country. I see her in a swoon, but she
is not dead--though in her tomb she lies helpless and
motionless, still there is on her lips a spirit of life, and on
her cheeks a glow of beauty--

'Thou art not conquered: Beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson on thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And Death's pale flag is not advanced there.'"

GRATTAN
(In the final debate on the Act of Union,