"I would now wish to draw the attention of the House to the alarming measure of drilling the lowest classes of the populace, by which a stain had been put on the character of the Volunteers. The old, the original Volunteers had become respectable, because they represented the property of the nation: but attempts had been made to arm the poverty of the kingdom. They had originally been the armed property of Ireland. Were they to become the armed beggary! Will any man defend this? These measures I lament and condemn, because they have been called the measures of the people of Ireland; but the people have not been guilty, and are incapable of being guilty of such vanities."
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Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomPoliticians from IrelandPeople from DublinAnglicansWhig (British political party) politicians
Original Language: English
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Speech in the Irish House of Commons (21 January 1785), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, The Second Session of the Fourth Parliament in the Reign of his Present Majesty; which met at Dublin on the 20th of January, and ended the 7th of September, 1785. Vol. IV (1785), p. 41
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Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan (3 July 1746 – 4 June 1820) was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century from Britain. He was a Member of the Irish Parliament (MP) from 1775 to 1801 and a Member of Parliament (MP) in Westminster from 1805 to 1820. He has been described as a superb orator and a romantic. With generous enthusiasm he demanded that Ireland should be granted its rightful status, that of an independent nation, though he alwa
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