GRATUITOUS DEED 



GRAVEL 



365 



1805 as member for Multon in Yorkshire, and for 

 Dublin the following year. His first speech in Un- 

 English House of Commons fully .-n-iaim-d his 

 oratorical reputation. It contained the well-known 

 passage about the Irish parliament: 'Of that 

 assembly I have a parental recollection. I Hat by 

 her cradle ; 1 followed her hearse.' The remaining 

 energies of his life were devoted to the cause of 

 Catholic emancipation, which he reiterated was 

 tin- ] i rice of the union, apart altogether from the 

 inirin>ic justice of the demand. 'A great majority 

 cannot overcome a great principle. God will guard 

 M* own cause against rank majorities!. In vain 

 -hull men appeal to a church cry, or to a m<>ck 

 thunder ; the proprietor of the lx)lt is on the side 

 of the people. Instead of one-sided 'securities' 

 lie demanded from his opponents adequate reasons 

 for their opposition ' some apology to after ages 

 for inflicting on one-fourth of their fellow-sub- 

 jects political damnation to all eternity.' Despite 

 all his eloquence and the support of Canning and 

 other statesmen, he was not to see triumph in his 

 lifetime. In December 1819 his health began 

 finally to give way ; but as he grew weaker his 

 responsibility to this question weighed the more 

 upon his mind. On the 20th of the following May 

 he crossed from Dublin, a dying man, to speak once 

 more for the cause, and, unable to bear the motion 

 of a carriage, was carried to London from Liver- 

 pool by canal. But his voice was never to be heard 

 again. A day or two after his arrival he sank, a 

 prayer for his country on bis lips, June 4, 1820. 

 He was buried in Westminster Abbey beside the 

 grave of Fox. 



Grattan's figure was small and spare ; his face 

 long, thin, and slightly marked by smallpox. His 

 gestures in speaking were violent and eccentric, 

 and his voice of no great volume, yet he wielded 

 his listeners at will by his energy and passion, his 

 overpowering earnestness and enthusiasm. He was 

 a consummate master of epigram, and few orators 

 have had his rapidity and vigour. His description 

 of Flood as standing ' with a metaphor in his mouth 

 and a bribe in his pocket ' is but one among a 

 hundred phrases that will never be forgotten. His 

 patriotism was enlightened and incorruptible, and , 

 nis honour remains without a stain. 



The best collection of his Speeches is that made by his 

 son, Henry Grattan, M.P. (4 vols. 1822), who also edited 

 in the same year his Miscellaneous Works. The standard 

 Life is also that by his son (5 vols. 1839-46), but this 

 is far from being a satisfactory work. See also 'the sym- 

 pathetic essay in W. E. H. Lecky's Leaders of Public 

 Opinion in Ireland (2d. ed. 1872); Dunlop's excellent 

 study in the ' Statesmen ' series ( 1889 ) ; and Lecky's 

 England in the Eujhteenth Century, vols. vii and viii. 



Gratuitous Deed, in the law of Scotland, 

 means a deed granted without any value received. 

 Such deeds, if made after the contracting of debt, 

 and in favour of a near relation or confidential 

 friend, are presumed to be fraudulent and so null. 

 In Englanu gratuitous deeds are usually styled 

 Gifts. See the article GIFT. 



Gratz, or GRAZ (formerly Gratz), the capital of 

 Styria, in Austria, 141 miles SS\V. of Vienna by 

 rail, is a picturesque old town with four suburbs, 

 built on both sides of the Mur, and encircled by 

 fine gardens and pleasure-grounds. Of the formeV 

 fortress, erected on a hill in the centre of the town, 

 and dismantled in 1809 by the French, two tower; 

 and other remains still exist. The town itself con- 

 tains several old buildings, as the Late Gothic 

 cathedral (1462), two other Gothic churches (one 

 built in 1283), the ancient castle of the Styrian 

 dukes, the Landhaus, where the nobles of the 

 iluehv held their meetings, the university, originally 

 founded in 1586 (with 11.14 students in 1885, and 

 a library containing 120,000 volumes), an armour}', 



Salaces of the Styrian noble*, and four monasteries 

 ating from the 16th and 17th centime*. There 

 are also national archive*, a cabinet of coin* and 

 antiquities, a technical school (.lohannenm), a 

 second library of 70,000 volumes, and a botanic 

 L':ti'l'-ri. Tlii' most important of it- many indns- 

 tries are the manufacture of machines, -t'-.-l 

 goods, rails and railway carriages, sugar, wine, 

 peifamerj, stearine candles, soap, \-c. Fat capons. 

 biscuits, and chocolate figure prominently an 

 articles of trade. Gratz is a favourite place of 

 residence for Austrian officials retired from service. 

 1'op. (1890) 113,540, inclndingagarrison of 5000 men. 

 The town is mentioned in the annals as early as 

 881. In 1481 it repulsed the Hungarians from it- 

 walls, and in 1532 the Turks. In 1797, and again 

 in 1809, it was occupied by the French. In the 

 vicinity are several hydropathic establish men ts and 

 holiday resorts. See Ilwof and Peters, Geschichte 

 und lopographie der Stadt Gruz ( 1875). 



Graubunden. See GRISONS. 



Graudenz, an old town in the province of 

 West Prussia, on the Vistula, 37 miles N. of 

 Thorn. It carries on a trade in corn, wool, and 

 cattle, and has iron-foundries, breweries, and 

 tapestry and cigar manufactories. Pop. (1875) 

 14,553;' (1885) 17,336; (1890) 20,385. About a 

 mile north of it on a hill (282 feet) is the fortress of 

 Graudenz, built in 1776, and successfully defended 

 against the French in 1807. It was maintained as 

 a fortress till 1874, and now serves as a barrack and 

 military prison. 



Grauwacke. See GREVWACKE. 



Gravel, the name given to aggregations of 

 water-worn and rounded fragments of rocks, vary- 

 ing in size from a pea to a hen's egg. When th 

 fragments are smaller, the deposit is sand ; when 

 larger, it is* called shingle. Beds of gravel occur 

 in formations of every age. While the materials 

 have been a long time in being prepared, and have 

 travelled perhaps a great distance from the mother- 

 rock, gravel deposits have been formed speedily and 

 by the action of a strong current of water. They 

 form very irregular and limited deposits, occurring 

 generally as banks or hummocks in strata of sand. 

 Unless in the most recent deposits, they almost 

 always form a hard rock called conglomerate or 

 puddingstone, the pebbles being compacted together 

 by some infiltrated cement, either calcareous, 

 ferruginous, or siliceous in character. Even recent 

 gravels are sometimes formed into a compact con- 

 crete, though these and later deposits are generally 

 loose. The stones of a gravel or conglomerate may 

 be fragments of almost any kind of rock ; but the 

 harder species are the most common pebbles of 

 quartz and quartzite forming as a rule the chief 

 material in gravel-beds of all ages. In our own 

 day gravel and shingle are formed both bv rluviatile 

 and marine action, and the same was the case in 

 the older periods of the earth's history. Thus 

 certain conglomerates mark out for us the sites of 

 old sea-coasts, while others represent old river-beds. 



Gravel varies much in character and appearance 

 according to the formation from which it is derived. 

 In the making of roads and walks, particularly in 

 gardens, pleasure-grounds, and public parks, it i- 

 the last ingredient used. Essential qualities in a 

 good gravel are ( 1 ) that it should be binding that 

 is to say, it should not shift like sand under foot : 

 (2) it should be durable ; and (3) its colour should 

 be agreeable to the eye and in harmony with 

 vegetation. It is rare to find a gravel in which 

 all these qualities are combined. The only sort 

 known in Britain to possess them all in itself is 

 the famous Kensington gravel, which has long been 

 regarded by landscape-gardeners at home and on 

 the Continent as the most perfect natural walk or 



