A Letter by Grattan.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 307, 13 October 1888, Page 4

A Letter by Grattan.

There has just come into the writer's temporarypossessionan important and historical autograph letter of the great Irish patriot and statesman, Henry Grattau. This interesting document does not hear a date, but it appears from internal evidence to have been written in the year 1806, wher Grattan refused to accept £4,000 which the Roman Catholics had subscribed to defray the expenses of his election for Dublin. It was not published in the Life of Gi'attan by his son, and will be new to the public. The following is the text of the letter : — ' Gentlemen, — In answer to that portion of your address which attributes to me >vhat I do not pi-etend to arrogate to myself, I can only say that I took my part in the public service in common with others. The honour of representing the capital of my native country I feel to be great, and still greater from the zeal which was manifested in my favour. To you and your body lam very much indebted. You supported me with activity and with effect, and though the Catholics could not vote as freemen, yet I hope the corporations, from good sense and good tempei', coupled with a regard to their own real interest, will not long hesitate to second the intention of the Legislature and give you the full benefit of those franchises which the State designed. The last idea contained in your address, which proposes to discharge the expense of myelection, is in a high degree generous and splendid. It does honour to yourselves and to the person who is the object of it. Gratified most sincerely by that honour, I must decline the offer, but I feel the obligation undiminished, unabated, and perpetual.'

Wife (whose husband is rescuing her from drowning) :—": — " Shall I keep my mouth shut, John?" Husband— " Yes, if you can." Mrs Hammersley, now Lady Marlborough, has a pearl necklace valued at £10,000. A comic paper, illustrating " the books which have helped me," has a cub of a small boy standing on top of the family Bible and Webster's Unabridged and reaching for a pot of jam. A" gentleman just returned from the Oxford , district states that the deer originally turned out by Mr Thornton in the Maungakawa ranges are rapidly increasing. They-are as big as yearlings.