■ 
 
JfCEMOIRS jF THE 
 r;IGHT HONOURABLE 
 RICHARD Li LOR 3AtlL 
 By. V. Torrcns McCullagfc 
 In two volumes 
 Vol. I 
 
 London, Henry Colburn 
 1855 
 
I 
 
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 HENRY LABOUCHERE, M.P., 
 
 AS A TRIBUTE OF 
 PUBLIC RESPECT AND PERSONAL REGARD, 
 BY HIS ATTACHED FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The biography of a man of genius ought to be the 
 history of his thoughts. If he has been a man of 
 action, the narrative of his life will necessarily consist 
 in the chronicle of his deeds : if he has been a man of 
 letters, his ideas must be sought for in his works ; and 
 the story of his life will best be told by accounting 
 for these, — how they came to be designed, and under 
 what circumstances they were executed. Auto- 
 biography — which for clearness of outline and truth of 
 colouring is generally regarded as the best — often 
 fails in the particular just mentioned. It is a true 
 picture, but it is of the pre-Raphaelite school. The 
 most faithful self-analyst, as he gazes intently at his 
 own image in the glass, is apt to become unconscious 
 or unmindful of the many incidents that have con- 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 tributed to make him what he is. Artist though he 
 be, he forgets perspective ; and in the want of back- 
 ground we lose much of the reality of the portrait. 
 A few of kindred spirit and quick fancy, may indeed 
 supply at will the deficiency for themselves : but after 
 all, it is for the unimaginative many that biography 
 is written. 
 
 On the other hand, we seem to have fallen too 
 much of late into the practice of enumerating com- 
 monplace details, which only serve to prove how 
 numerous are the points of identity between the 
 outward lot of those possessing high intellectual gifts, 
 and that of those around them. I do not question 
 the tendency of such proof to check the vanity of 
 some who may, on insufficient grounds, persuade 
 themselves that they too belong to nature's privileged 
 class : and every day's observation shows how insa- 
 tiable public curiosity becomes, when once accustomed 
 to biographic catalogues of casual acquaintances, 
 inventories of household stuff, and all the indescribable 
 trivialities of social life. It seems to me that there is 
 hardly time for reading such as this ; and that what is 
 chiefly worth knowing of remarkable men, is wherein 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 they differed from their ordinary fellows, and how 
 they came so much to differ, — rather than an elaborate 
 demonstration by the exhaustive method, of the 
 flattening theory, that all are, in the main, pottery of 
 the same clay. 
 
 My desire in the present work has been, as far as 
 the materials placed at my disposal enabled me, to 
 present in succession the feelings and ideas of my 
 lamented friend as they occupied his mind, in his 
 own way, and generally in his own words. With 
 this view I have not hesitated to give numerous 
 extracts from his speeches, plays, and essays, most of 
 which are inaccessible to ordinary readers. Reminis- 
 cences of conversations with myself and others have 
 enabled me to supply, in some degree, the want of 
 correspondence upon subjects of importance. He was 
 not what is called a letter-writer ; and I have perused 
 whole piles of written communications, addressed by 
 him at various times to different persons, without 
 being tempted to make a single quotation. The 
 truth appears to have been that at all times, and more 
 especially in his latter years, writing upon ordinary 
 subjects was irksome to him : and hence the com- 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 \ 
 
 parative scarcity and the almost invariable brevity of 
 his epistles. When excited by some sudden piece of 
 news, he would sometimes sit down and indite to a 
 friend in the country what he used to call " a telegra- 
 phic despatch." But there were few, even of his 
 intimates, to whom he wrote at any length on the 
 topics that most interested him; and his happiest 
 thoughts are to be gathered from recollections of 
 social converse, and from his known compositions. 
 My desire has been to collect and illustrate these by 
 just so much of explanatory observation as might 
 render them fully appreciable. In many of the opinions 
 strikingly expressed throughout these volumes I en- 
 tirely concur ; while from others, were it necessary, 
 I should be disposed to dissent. But I felt that it 
 would have been an unpardonable intrusion if, as a 
 biographer, I had sought to intermix my own senti- 
 ments unnecessarily with those, of which I had un- 
 dertaken to give the substance and the sum. 
 
 W. T. M. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 1791-1809. 
 
 Bellevue — Birth and parentage — Valley of the Snir — School- 
 days at Kensington — Charles X. — Stoneyhurst — University of 
 Dublin — Dramatic tendencies — A fancy ball — Family reverses 
 —Dr. William Foley pp. 1-34 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 1810-1813. 
 
 Historical Society— The Catholic question — Speeches in 1811— 
 Personal appearance and manner — Lincoln's Inn — Quarrel 
 with his uncle — Public events of 1812 — The Veto — Speech 
 at the Catholic Board— Reply of Mr. O'Connell . pp. 35—72 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 1814—1817. 
 
 Called to the Bar — Play of Adelaide — Curran and Grattan— 
 Pius VII. and the Veto — Political apathy — First marriage 
 —Tragedy of T/ie Apostate — Its first performance — The 
 " Quarterly Review" pp. 73—102 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 1818—1820. 
 
 Attack on Mr. Grattan by the mob — Interposition of Mr. Sheil 
 —Play of Bellamira— Rehearsal— Miss O'Neil : Mr. Gifford— 
 Shirley's Traitor — Evadne — Visit to Paris : Talma — Dramatic 
 writings — Montoni — Damon and Pythias . . pp. 103 — 133 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 1821—1823. 
 
 Controversy with O'Connell — Law and Literature — The Fatal 
 Dowry — The King's Visit to Ireland — Plunket and Saurin — 
 Birth of his son — Death of Mrs. Sheil — Sketches of the 
 Irish bar — Charles Kendal Bnshe — Tragedy of The Huguenot 
 —Sketch of Saurin pp. 134—182 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 1823—1824. 
 
 Catholic Association — Administration of justice; petition and 
 debate thereon — Epigram on Baron M'Clelland — Religious 
 education — Polemics — Archbishop Magee — Lord Cloncurry 
 on Repeal — Influence of the Association — Agrarianism — The 
 forfeited estates; Lord Redesdale — Appeal to the English 
 people — Prosecution of O'Connell— Mr. Plunket, pp. 183 — 217 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xi 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 1825. 
 
 Deputation to England — Archibald Hamilton Rowan — Mr. Peel 
 and Mr. Brougham — Act suppressing Association — The wings 
 — Dinner at Mr. Brougham's — Meeting at Freemasons' Hall 
 — Lord F. L. Gower's proposition regarding the payment 
 of the Catholic clergy — Mr. Littleton's motion — Speech 
 at Carlow — Duke of York's speech — Relief Bill thrown 
 out pp. 218—245 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 1825—1826. 
 
 New Catholic Association — Revival of agitation — Speech at the 
 Boyne — Visit to Paris — L'Etoile — American sympathy — 
 Lord "Wellesley — Leinster provincial meeting — Prayer for 
 Emancipation — Mr. G. R. Dawson — Manufacturing distress 
 in England pp. 246—284 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 1826. 
 
 General election— Marquis of Waterford— Return of Mr.Villiers 
 Stewart — Contest for Louth— The forty-shilling freeholders — 
 Sir Balaam — Dinner to Lord Fitzwilliam — Case of Kieran 
 v. Callan— Chief Justice Bushe— Health of the Duke of 
 York — M. Duvergier d'Hauranne — Connaught provincial 
 meeting PP' 285 — 316 
 
xii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1827. 
 
 Speech on the death of the Duke of York — Theobald Wolfe 
 Tone — Articles in VEtoile — Prosecution of Mr. Sheil— 
 Mr. Staunton — Defiance of the Government — The Times — 
 Attempt to obtain evidence — Conduct of Mr. Hughes — True 
 bills found pp. 317— 347 
 
 CHAPTER, XI. 
 1827. 
 
 Mr. Canning Premier — Suspension of agitation — Nolle prosequi 
 — King's counsel — Accident to Mr. Sheil while riding- 
 Death of Mr. Canning — Lord Manners — Renewal of agitation 
 — Lord Anglesea Viceroy — Agrarian disturbances — "Wealth 
 of the Established Church pp. 348—387 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE EIGHT HONOUKABLE 
 
 RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 1791_1809. 
 
 Bellevue — Birtli and parentage — Valley of the Suir — School 
 days at Kensington — Charles X. — Stonyhnrst — University of 
 Dublin — Dramatic tendencies — A fancy ball — Family reverses 
 —Dr. William Foley. 
 
 On the left bank of the Suir, about three miles from 
 Waterford, is situated Bellevue, the home in childhood 
 of Richard Lalor Sheil. The estate, of which it 
 forms a part, originally bore the name of Gurteens, 
 and is mentioned in the Inquisitions of Leinster as 
 belonging, in the year 1607, to one Nicholas Fitz- 
 gerald.* Being forfeited in the civil wars it became 
 the possession of Samuel Skrimshiere, one of the sol- 
 
 * Temp. Jac. L Thomastown, 16th July, 1607. 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 diers of the Commonwealth who accompanied Cromwell 
 into Ireland ; and, under the Act of Settlement, it 
 was confirmed to him in 1667 by the Court of Claims.* 
 Won without thrift, the estates of the military 
 colonists were seldom preserved with care. In the 
 second or third generation their descendants were 
 frequently compelled to alienate the lands, which, in 
 the hope of founding families, had been invariably 
 tied up in the strictest forms of entail. Partly owing 
 to this circumstance, and partly no doubt to the 
 condition of things which prevailed in Ireland from 
 the Revolution to the end of the American war, little 
 progress was made in reclamation or tillage, and still 
 less in building or planting.f The industry of the 
 many was forbidden by law to invest its savings in 
 the purchase or permanent occupancy of land 4 so 
 the land which nature had meant to be prolific was 
 
 * Report Record Commissioners, 1825, p. 120. 
 
 f Reflections and Resolutions proper for the Gentlemen of Ire- 
 land, by R. E. Madden, 1738.— State of Ireland, by Thomas 
 Prior, 1742 ; Arthur Young's Tour, 1779. 
 
 X By the 9 Will. III., ch. 3, and 2 Anne, ch. 6, Catholics were 
 disabled from purchasing or holding lands for a longer time than 
 thirty-one years ; a son who conformed to Protestantism might 
 dispossess his father of his estate by a bill of discovery; and by a 
 similar proceeding a Protestant landlord might break the lease of 
 any Catholic tenant who could be proved to have made more 
 than oae-third above the rent of his farm. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 3 
 
 condemned to lie profitless and unfruitful; and the 
 enterprise interdicted at home sought in foreign 
 realms for honour and reward. 
 
 Edward Sheil, the father of the subject of these 
 memoirs, had passed his earlier years in Spain. He 
 was a man of quick intelligence, and active in the 
 pursuit of business. Many of his countrymen were 
 settled at Cadiz, where they gradually acquired wealth 
 and distinction by their devotion to trade. Mr. Sheil, 
 although possessing the advantage of some family 
 connexions in the place, was mainly, if not altogether, 
 indebted to his own energy and perseverance for the 
 acquisition of a considerable fortune, with which he 
 returned to his native country. It was about the 
 period when a disposition had manifested itself to 
 relax the severities of the penal code. An act had 
 been passed in 1778 by the Parliament of Ireland, 
 extending the term for which land might be held by 
 Catholics to ninety-nine years; and in 1782, through 
 the exertions of Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Grattan, 
 backed by the impressive petitions of the Volunteers, 
 the right to purchase and transmit property in fee, 
 with other important privileges, was further conceded. 
 In the following year Gurteens was for sale, and 
 Mr. Sheil became the purchaser. It had previously 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 passed into the possession of the Honourable Henry 
 Ponsonby, who had already chosen the site of a 
 dwelling-house near the spot on which the present 
 mansion stands, when he was summoned to join his 
 regiment abroad, whence he was not destined to return. 
 Other portions of the original estate had been mort- 
 gaged or leased to different parties, but they were re- 
 united in the hands of the successful merchant. An 
 ancient keep, the relic of troubled times, and which 
 the peasantry were used to call Gurteens Castle, 
 still overlooked the broad and winding river from 
 the summit of the undulating hill on which it stood. 
 A few old trees likewise remained ; but nothing had 
 been done to improve the natural capabilities of 
 the soil, and a considerable portion of the lands 
 had long been overgrown by the wild thorn and 
 the fern. The place soon assumed a very different 
 aspect. A handsome and commodious dwelling- 
 house was built by the new possessor, and the 
 plantations formed that now render it an object 
 of no little attraction in a neighbourhood full of 
 noble mansions and picturesque localities. The valley 
 of the Suir, of which Spencer speaks in admiration, 
 has at all times been a favourite place of residence 
 with the gentry of the neighbouring counties ; and 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 5 
 
 may well vie with that of the Lee in rich and 
 varied beauty. 
 
 Not long after his return from Spain, Mr. Sheil mar- 
 ried Miss Catherine McCarthy, of Spring House, in the 
 county of Tipperary, whose sister was the wife of General 
 D' Alton, an officer who served with distinction in the 
 Austrian army. These ladies were nearly related to 
 Count McCarthy, who had formerly possessed large 
 estates in Ireland ; but who, having disposed of them, 
 settled at Toulouse, where his family subsequently 
 resided. By this marriage, Mr. Sheil had several 
 children. The eldest son, Richard, was born on the 1 7th 
 of August, 1791, at Drumdowney, a small country 
 house occupied by his father previous to the com- 
 pletion of Bellevue. Of his childhood, few traits have 
 been preserved. He is said, indeed, to have early 
 evinced that quickness of apprehension, and impulsive 
 readiness to be excited or depressed, by which the 
 whole tenour of his after-life was strongly marked. 
 In boyish pastimes, he does not seem to have taken 
 any great interest, choosing, in preference, to listen to 
 tales of wonder, or the stories so full of capricious 
 humour with which, in Ireland, every fire-side abounds. 
 An old man, named James Hincks, who was born in 
 the neighbourhood, and who for many years was en- 
 
6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 gaged in their service, speaks with the warmest affec- 
 tion of the whole family. The old gentleman was, he 
 says, hasty and hot-tempered, but the best hearted 
 man in the world, and always looking after the com- 
 forts of his workpeople and dependents. "When any 
 of the cottagers in the neighbourhood happened to be 
 ill, not only were their wants provided for " from the 
 big house," but one of the young ladies would generally 
 administer relief from her own basket. As young 
 Richard grew up, Hincks distinctly recollects the 
 peculiarities of manner, which sometimes made people 
 who did not know him fancy that he was out of his mind. 
 " I have often seen him walking about with his book 
 in his hand, and talking to himself, and theu, all of a 
 sudden, he would put his book on the stump of a tree, 
 and he would throw and fling his arms about, and he 
 would scold at it as if it was a man he was in a 
 passion with." 
 
 On the susceptible mind of the moody and imagi- 
 native boy, the scenery in the midst of which his 
 early home was situated was well calculated to make 
 a deep and lasting impression. The house, which is 
 finely situated, stands about three hundred yards from 
 the river, on a gentle slope, rising gradually from the 
 water's edge, along which the park extends for a 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 7 
 
 considerable distance. From different points there are 
 beautiful views, of great variety, both up and down 
 the Suir (which is here nearly half-a-mile broad), and 
 over many miles of the barony of Gaultier, in the 
 county of Waterford. Immediately opposite are the 
 woods of Faithleg, behind which rise the rocky sum- 
 mits of Minaun Hin. 
 
 The traffic on the river has at all times been con- 
 siderable between Waterford and many English and 
 foreign ports. So early as the time of Spencer 
 the intercourse with the continent was so frequent 
 that, next to Cork, Waterford, he says, most needed 
 to have a garrison, as being the chief " in-gate of the 
 Spaniards."* At the beginning of the present century 
 its commerce bore the same proportion to that of 
 other places in the southern part of the kingdom ; 
 and then, as now, the constant passing to and fro of 
 vessels of large tonnage rendered the scene in front 
 of Bellevue a very animated one. From the memory 
 of the youthful wanderer by the river side, the dream- 
 like pleasure he derived from the scenes and objects 
 that surrounded him does not seem to have ever 
 passed away. In long after years he thus recalled 
 
 * View of the State of Ireland in 1596, by Edmund Spencer. 
 217. 
 
8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 his last look, ere leaving home for school, at the woods 
 and hills with which his boyhood had been familiar. 
 
 " How often have I stood upon its banks, when the 
 bells in the city, the smoke of which was turned into 
 a cloud of gold by a Claude Lorraine sun-set, tolled 
 the death of the departing day ! How often have I 
 fixed my gaze upon the glittering expanse of the full 
 and overflowing water, crowded with ships whose 
 white sails were filled with just wind enough to carry 
 them on to the sea, by the slowness of their equable 
 and majestic movements giving leave to the eye to 
 contemplate at its leisure their tall and stately beauty, 
 and to watch them long in their progress amidst the 
 calm through which they made their gentle and for- 
 bearing way ! The murmurs of the city were heard 
 upon the right, and the lofty spire of its church rose 
 up straight and arrowy into the sky. The sullen and 
 dull roar of the ocean used to come over the opposite 
 hills from the bay of Tramore. Immediately before me 
 were the fine woods of Faithleg, the noble seat of the 
 Bolton family (Protestants, who have since that time 
 made way for the Catholic wealthy Powers); on the 
 left was the seat of another branch of the same opu- 
 lent family, Snow Hill ; and in the distance, where the 
 three rivers, the Suir, the Nore, and the Barrow, meet 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 9 
 
 in a deep and splendid conflux, the ruins of the old 
 abbey of Dunbrody threw the solemnity of religion 
 and of antiquity over the whole prospect, and by the 
 exquisite beauty of the site, afforded a proof that the 
 old Francisians who had made a selection of this 
 lovely spot for their monastery, and who have lain 
 for centuries in the mould of its green and luxuriant 
 church-yards, were the lovers of nature ; and that 
 when they left the noise and turmoil of the world, 
 they had not relinquished those enjoyments which 
 are not only innocent but may be accounted holy. I 
 had many a time looked with admiration upon the 
 noble landscape in the midst of which I was born, 
 but I never felt and appreciated its beauty so well as 
 when the consciousness that I was leaving it, not to 
 return for years to it again, endeared to me the spot 
 of my birth, and set off the beauty of the romantic 
 place in which my infancy was passed, and in which 
 I once hoped (I have since abandoned the expecta- 
 tion) that my old age should decline. It is not in 
 the midst of its woods that I shall fall into the sear 
 and yellow leaf !"* 
 
 His first instruction in the rudiments of French 
 
 * Schoolboy Recollections, &c. New Monthly Magazine, 
 August, 1829. 
 
10 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and Latin had been derived from the Abbe de 
 Grimeau, a native of Languedoc, who had been forced 
 to leave his country during the Revolution, and who 
 for some years had been domesticated as tutor in the 
 family at Bellevue. At the conclusion of the Peace of 
 Amiens, the Abbe availed himself of the permission 
 afforded to so many of his fellow-exiles to return to 
 France, and as young Sheil was then in his eleventh 
 year, his parents resolved that he should accompany 
 his old preceptor on his way, as far as London, in 
 order that he might be placed at school. Arrived at 
 the end of their journey, the Abbe kindly devoted 
 several days to the business of showing his pupil some 
 of the sights of the great city which fill the mind of 
 a boy with wonder and delight. This done, he 
 informed him that the time for their separation drew 
 near, and that his instructions were, to leave him at 
 Kensington House, where a school had been estab- 
 lished under the auspices of certain French refugees, 
 who styled themselves the Peres de la Foi. Thither 
 they proceeded accordingly. Through the openwork 
 of the large old-fashioned gates was to be seen a 
 garden, filled with shrubs and flowers. It was the 
 first glimpse of his new abode, and struck the curious 
 eye of the little stranger with a certain sense of 
 pleasure. Instead of immediately entering the house, 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 11 
 
 he was led by his old friend to the playground, which 
 was situated at the rear of the building. 
 
 The moment he entered, his ears were filled with 
 the shrill vociferations of some hundreds of little emi- 
 grants who were engaged in their various amuse- 
 ments, and babbled, screamed, laughed, and shouted 
 in all the velocity of their rapid and joyous language. 
 He did not hear a word of English, and at once per- 
 ceived that he was as much amongst Frenchmen as if 
 he had been suddenly transferred to a Parisian college. 
 Having got this peep at the gaiety of the school into 
 which he was to be introduced, he was led, with his 
 companion, to a chamber covered with faded gilding, 
 and which had once been richly tapestried, where he 
 found the head of the establishment, in the person of 
 a French nobleman, Monsieur le Prince de Broglie.* 
 
 M. de Broglie was the son of the well-known 
 Marshal who bore a considerable part in the events 
 of 1790, in France. Like most of his family, he had 
 been trained to the profession of arms ; but during 
 the Emigration he was induced, while residing in 
 Germany, to take Orders : and coming to England 
 some years later, he endeavoured to support himself 
 by opening a school, where the sons of his fellow- 
 * Schoolboy Recollections, &c. 
 
12 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 countrymen in exile, in addition to the ordinary oppor- 
 tunities of instruction, might preserve a knowledge of 
 the dialect and associations of the country they 
 had lost. The political and ecclesiastical ideas of the 
 Abbe were alike uncompromising. He refused to 
 return to France, after the amnesty conceded by 
 Napoleon, because he could not conscientiously take 
 the oath of fidelity to the constitution; and his 
 repugnance to the Concordat granted by Pius VII. 
 led him, in concert with others who entertained 
 similar opinions, to constitute themselves into a species 
 of schismatic church, denominated La Petite Eglise. 
 He found it difficult to relinquish the enjoyments of 
 society and those habits of expense to which he had 
 been early accustomed. He kept a well-appointed 
 curricle and pair, which he prided himself on driving 
 with grace and skill. By the more ascetic members 
 of the establishment he was thought to retain too 
 much of the man of the world ; but his foibles, such 
 as they were, lay wholly in too great a love of 
 expense, for in all more important particulars his life 
 was a blameless one. Credulous and inexperienced 
 in business, he was sometimes tempted to speculate 
 in matters of which he knew little. He was thus 
 led into expenditure above his means, and was eventu- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 13 
 
 ally obliged to give up the establishment at Ken- 
 sington. 
 
 His person and manners,, which retained all the 
 impress of the vieille cour 3 are thus described from 
 recollection by his new pupil : " I saw in him a 
 little, slender and gracefully- constructed Abbe, with a 
 sloping forehead, on which the few hairs that were 
 left him were nicely arranged, and well-powdered and 
 pomatomed. He had a gentle smile, full of suavity, 
 which was made up of guile and of weakness, but 
 which deserved the designation of aimable in the best 
 sense of the word. His clothes were adapted with 
 a peculiar nicety to his symmetrical person, and 
 his silk waistcoat and black silk stockings, with 
 his small shoes buckled with silver, gave him alto- 
 gether a glossy aspect. Notwithstanding his humble 
 pursuits, he was designated by everybody as ' Monsieur 
 
 le Prince/ 
 
 . . . The preliminaries of introduction having been 
 gone through, my French tutor took his farewell ; 
 and, as he embraced me for the last time, I well 
 remember that he was deeply affected by the sorrow 
 which I felt at my separation from him ; and turning 
 to Monsieur le Prince, recommended me to his care 
 with an emphatic tenderness. The latter led me into 
 
14 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the school-room, where I had a desk assigned to me 
 beside the son of the Count Decar, who has since, I 
 understand, risen to offices of very high rank in the 
 French court. His father belonged to the nobility 
 of the first class. In his son it would have been at 
 that time difficult to detect his patrician derivation. 
 He was a huge lubberly fellow, with thick, matted 
 hair, which he never combed. His complexion was 
 greasy and sudorific, and to soap and water he seemed 
 to have such a repugnance that he did not above 
 once a week go through any process of ablution. He 
 was surly, dogged and silent ; and spent his time in 
 the study of mathematics, for which he had a good 
 deal of talent. I have heard that he is now one of 
 the most fashionable and accomplished men about 
 the court — that this Gorgonius smells now of the 
 pastiles of Rufillus. 
 
 " On the other side of me was a young French West 
 Indian, from the colony of Martinique, whose name 
 was Devarieux. The school was full of the children 
 of the French planters, who had been sent over to 
 learn English among the refugees from the Revolu- 
 tion. He was an exceedingly fine young fellow, the 
 exact reverse in all his habits to Monsieur le Compte 
 Decar, on my left hand, and expended a good deal of 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 15 
 
 his hours of study in surveying a small pocket mirror, 
 and in arranging the curls of his rich black hair, the 
 ambrosial plenty of which was festooned about his 
 temples, and fell profusely behind his head. Almost 
 all the French West Indians were vain, foppish, 
 generous, brave and passionate. They exhibited 
 many of the qualities which we ascribe to the natives 
 of our own islands in the American archipelago ; they 
 were a sort of Gallican Belcours in little ; for, with 
 the national attributes of their forefathers, they 
 united much of that vehemence and habit of domina- 
 tion which a hot sun and West Indian overseership are 
 calculated to produce. In general, the children of the 
 French exiles amalgamated readily with these Creoles. 
 There were, to be sure, some points of substantial 
 difference ; the French West Indians being all rich 
 roturiers, and the little emigrants having their veins 
 full of the best blood of France without a groat in 
 their pockets. But there was one point of reconcilia- 
 tion between them — they all concurred in hating 
 England and its government. This detestation was 
 not very surprising in the TTest Indian French ; but 
 it was not a little singular that the boys whose fathers 
 had been expelled from France by the Revolution, and 
 to whom England had afforded shelter and given" 
 
16 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 bread, should manifest the ancient national antipathy 
 as strongly as if they had never been nursed at her 
 bosom, and obtained their aliment from her bounty. 
 Whenever news arrived of a victory won by Buona- 
 parte, the whole school was thrown into a ferment ; 
 and I cannot, even at this distance of time, forget 
 the exultation with which the sons of the decapitated 
 or exiled hailed the triumph of the French arms, the 
 humiliation of England, and the glory of the nation 
 
 whose greatness they had learned to lisp Old 
 
 gentlemen, the neatness of whose attire was accom- 
 panied by indications of indigence, used occasion- 
 ally to visit at Kensington House. Their elasti- 
 city of back, the frequency and gracefulness of their 
 well-regulated bows, and the perpetual smile upon 
 their wrinkled and emaciated faces, showed that they 
 had something to do with the vieille cour ; and this 
 conjecture used to be confirmed by the embrace with 
 which they folded the little marquises and counts 
 
 whom they came to visit 
 
 I recollect, upon one occasion, having been witness 
 to a very remarkable scene. Monsieur, as he was 
 then called (Charles X.), waited one day, with a large 
 retinue of French nobility, upon the Prince de Broglie. 
 The whole body of the school-boys was assembled to 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 17 
 
 receive them. We were gathered in a circle at the 
 bottom of a flight of stone stairs that led from the 
 principal room into the play-ground. The future 
 King of France appeared, with his cortege of illustrious 
 exiles, at the glass folding-doors which were at the 
 top of the stairs, and the moment he was seen we 
 all exclaimed, with a shrill shout of beardless loyalty, 
 ' Five le Roi P Monsieur seemed greatly gratified 
 by this spectacle, and, in a very gracious and con- 
 descending manner, went down amongst the little 
 boys, who were at first awed a good deal by his 
 presence, but were afterwards speedily familiarized to 
 him by the natural benignity of Charles the Tenth. 
 He asked the names of those who were about him, 
 and when he heard them, and saw in the boys by 
 whom he was encompassed the descendants of some 
 of the noblest families of France, he seemed to be 
 sensibly affected. One or two names which were 
 associated with peculiarly melancholy recollections, 
 made him thrill; ' Helas ! mon enfant V he used to 
 say, as some orphan was brought up to him ; and he 
 would then lean down to caress the child of a friend 
 who had perished on the scaffold of the Revolution."* 
 The pupils, though chiefly, were not, indeed, alto- 
 
 * Schoolboy Recollections, &c. 
 VOL. I. C 
 
18 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 gether of French origin. In the want of places of 
 elementary instruction which then existed in Ireland 
 for the sons of the wealthier classes of the Catholics, 
 many parents were disposed to avail themselves of the 
 advantages held forth by the school at Kensington. 
 One of its earliest pupils was Thomas Kenny, the 
 son of a gentleman residing in Galway, with whom 
 young Sheil contracted a boyish friendship which 
 the difference of their pursuits in after life did 
 not efface from the memory of either. He was, 
 according to Mr. Kenny, at this time a strange, 
 wayward boy, careless and slovenly in dress, and very 
 imperfectly educated. Another of his companions in 
 these school days was Christopher Fitzsimon, with 
 whom he was afterwards associated in public life, and 
 who for many years represented the county of Dublin 
 in Parliament. Mr. Fitzsimon remembers his early 
 quickness of parts and kindliness of disposition. He 
 seemed to be impressed, he says, with strong devotional 
 feelings. These sentiments were no doubt strength- 
 ened by the care and kindness shown him during his 
 stay at Kensington by one of whom he has himself 
 left the following grateful reminiscences : — 
 
 " M. Molinari, a Genoese, was an exceedingly kind, 
 amiable, and well-informed man. He was the only 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 19 
 
 one in the 'whole school that knew a word of Greek. 
 He had been educated, though an Italian, at Prague, 
 and practised as a lawyer. He then became a J esuit, 
 and was certainly sincerely devoted to religion. 
 Though entirely free from monkish gloom, there 
 was a large infusion of fanaticism in his character. 
 He believed firmly in witchcraft, and was versed in 
 all the mysteries of demonology. . . . Another point 
 on which he was a little weak was the influence of 
 the Illumines in Germany. He improved on Barruel, 
 which was his manual, and regarded Waishoupt as an 
 
 incarnate fiend But with the exception of these 
 
 strange credulities, he was a most estimable man. 
 He had an heroical disinterestedness of character, and 
 dedicated himself with all the ardour of spiritual 
 chivalry to the cause of the Jesuits, which he regarded 
 as identified with that of true religion. I was a 
 considerable time placed under his care, and am 
 indebted to him for a zealous solicitude for my welfare. 
 He took the greatest and most disinterested pains 
 in giving me instruction, and would devote hours of 
 unremunerated labour (for the salaries of the boys 
 were all paid in to M. le Prince) to the explanation 
 of difficulties, and in clearing the way to knowledge. 
 .... Severity towards his pupils he considered a 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 part of his duty; and he sometimes shed tears at 
 seeing the pain he felt bound to inflict. 
 
 " The Pere Caperon was a great Oriental scholar, 
 and was regarded as a master of the Arabic language. 
 He was not employed in teaching the boys (an occu- 
 pation for which he would have been wholly unfit), 
 but in composing essays upon the mysterious litera- 
 ture of the East. It was one of our favourite amuse- 
 ments to disturb him in his studies. A group would 
 collect under his windows, and assail him with all 
 kinds of stormy noises, when he would rush forth 
 with a huge stick, which made us all take to our 
 heels, and woe betide the urchin on whom he first 
 seized. ( Oh, petit mal/ieureux V he would exclaim, 
 as he grasped some intruder upon his meditations, 
 and avenged upon him the losses which Oriental 
 learning had sustained by the trespass which we had 
 committed on his meditations .... There was one 
 very eloquent preacher, the Pere Colman, who was a 
 German by birth, but French in language and man- 
 ner. He had a most noble bearing ; a visage fit for 
 canvas, a deep sonorous voice, and a great command 
 of pure oratorical diction. He was, however, too 
 valuable to be allowed long to remain in so inferior a 
 spot as Kensington House, and was ordered by the 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 21 
 
 general of the Jesuits to proceed to Russia. So was 
 Molinari, who acted towards me a part of great kind- 
 ness and friendship previous to his leaving the esta- 
 blishment. The Prince de Broglie, he informed me, 
 had got himself into great embarrassments, and had 
 made an effort to induce the Jesuits of Stoneyhurst to 
 assist him. With this view he had offered to annex 
 Kensington House to the Anglican province. The 
 English Jesuits were, however, too shrewd to acquiesce 
 in this proposal, and it was manifest the institution 
 must be broken up. Molinari further informed me that 
 he had himself been ordered into the deserts of Siberia, 
 with instructions to penetrate if possible into China as 
 a missionary of the Gospel. He recommended me to 
 write home, and to apprise my friends of what was 
 about to take place, and Stoneyhurst he pointed out 
 as the best seminary which I could select. 
 
 "The system of instruction at Kensington was 
 miserably defective. Some attention was paid to com- 
 position. . . . There was also some relish manifested 
 for the beauties of the Latin writers, and pains were 
 taken to make the scholars feel the strength of the 
 expression. But arithmetic, geography, history, were 
 all neglected. A worse course of education cannot be 
 well imagined."* 
 
 * Schoolboy Recollections, &c. 
 
22 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 In the month of October, 1804, he left Kensington, 
 and proceeded to the College of Stoneyhurst, where 
 he was entered as a student on the 24th of that 
 month. Stoneyhurst, formerly the property of the 
 family of Sherbourne, and subsequently purchased by 
 Mr. Weld, and bequeathed by him to the order of 
 Jesuits, is situated near the town of Clitheroe, in 
 Lancashire. From the principal approach, it presents 
 an imposing aspect. The buildings are spacious, 
 although the original design was never carried to 
 completion, and the extensive walks and grounds be- 
 speak the fortunes of its founders. For the most part, 
 the country around it is flat and uninteresting, the 
 principal feature being the dark ridge of Pendle, 
 which stretches from east to west, at no great dis- 
 tance. The sombre aspect of his new abode was not 
 calculated to dissipate the sense of loneliness which 
 had weighed upon the spirits of the young traveller 
 during his tedious journey from London. The short- 
 ening days and the clouded atmosphere, and all the 
 external images around him, combined to cast a chill 
 over his susceptible and imaginative temperament. 
 What sort of place was this? Was its discipline 
 harsh and rigorous ? Were its pursuits and pastimes 
 darkened by ascetic gloom? Should he find new 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 27 
 
 love of distinction which the Jesuits had a particular 
 faculty in creating. Between students of different social 
 rank no distinction was ever shown. The only claim 
 of superiority among class-fellows recognised by their 
 teachers was, that asserted by pre-eminence in intel- 
 lectual attainments ; and the son of the tradesman 
 and the heir to an ancient earldom were treated, 
 both in school and play-hours, perfectly alike. The 
 tone of national sentiment encouraged was also very 
 different from that which prevailed at Kensington 
 House. When the first tidings of Trafalgar were 
 brought, cheers were given by the masters, which 
 were unanimously echoed by their pupils. Several 
 holidays were given in honour of the event ; and a 
 poem in its celebration was composed by one of 
 the professors, and publicly recited in the great 
 hall."* 
 
 The Irish pupils at this time were not nearly 
 so numerous as those of English birth. A good deal 
 of rivalry appears to have existed between them. It 
 prevailed in the competition of the class, and occa- 
 sionally broke forth in angry gestures and exclama- 
 tions in the playground, when parties at football not 
 unfrequently were formed according to national divi- 
 * Schoolboy Recollections, &c, &c. 
 
28 
 
 MEM01KS OF 
 
 sions. " In general the English were successful, 
 because they showed more prudence and self-control. 
 The Irish were so precipitate and headlong as con- 
 stantly to miss the victory when they were on the 
 point of gaining it. In the school exercises, wherever 
 attention and assiduity were required, the English 
 were generally superior ; but in matters of display the 
 Irish went far beyond them. In recitation, in prose 
 as well as verse, the difference between them was 
 especially remarkable, — the Irish usually showing 
 greater flexibility and a more musical ear."* 
 
 Young Sheil continued as a student at Stoneyhurst 
 until the 15th of November, 1807. In the year 1805, 
 we find him occupying the second place in the class 
 of poetry, Henry Beaumont, who is described as a 
 person of remarkable ability, retaining the first place 
 throughout the entire of the classical course. Among 
 his class-fellows was Richard Cruise, afterwards 
 well known and esteemed as a member of the Irish 
 Bar. On quitting Stoneyhurst it was the wish of 
 his father that he should become a student of Trinity 
 College, Dublin; and in November, 1807, he entered 
 as a pupil of Doctor Wall, now Vice-Provost of the 
 University. As he did not reside within the walls of 
 * Schoolboy Recollections, &c. 
 
EICHAED LALOK SHEIL. 
 
 29 
 
 the college, lie came less under the personal observa- 
 tion of his tutor than others of his class. Doctor 
 Wall's recollections of him, however, confirm the im- 
 pression of his sound classical scholarship. For science 
 he never appears to have shown any particular capacity 
 or addiction. During the " Freshman " years of his 
 collegiate course his vacations were spent chiefly at Bel- 
 levue, whose surrounding scenes and associations he was 
 more than ever capable of enjoying. Full of vivacity 
 and humour, and with the schoolboy reputation among 
 his family and friends of possessing talents of no 
 common order, he would often realize the fond dreams 
 his mother had long cherished regarding him, fixing 
 the attention of his seniors by his keenness and origin- 
 ality in argument ; and when worsted in more serious 
 controversy, by his powers of oversetting the gravity 
 of the discussion, and enlisting on his side the sym- 
 pathy of the less learned listeners by some audacious 
 stroke upon the bell of laughter. There was some- 
 thing grotesque and extravagant in the ideas with 
 which at will he delighted to perplex the sober politi- 
 cians and priests of the old school that used to 
 assemble at his father's table. He loved to start new 
 questions under the thin disguise of seeking for infor- 
 mation, and when he had drawn forth some solemn 
 
30 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 answer which only served to sound the shallowness of 
 the provincial sage, he would come out with a showy 
 if not always very substantial stock of objections, 
 difficulties, and citations of authority to which there 
 was seldom at hand any ready answer. In all this 
 there was no doubt much to spoil the taste and warp 
 the habit of his mind. His father — who was fond of 
 legal argumentation, and who unluckily for himself 
 had acquired the reputation of possessing a very com- 
 petent knowledge of law — enjoyed at heart the signs 
 of future capabilities, as he deemed them, of winning 
 distinction at the bar, for which his son's inclinations 
 as well as his own desires had destined him. As was 
 inevitable, perhaps, there would often arise points of 
 difference between them on matters of opinion, when 
 the eagerness and abruptness of the collegian would 
 overpass the bounds of deference to age and to ex- 
 perience; and then parental authority would assert 
 itself in a way deeply mortifying to a proud and 
 easily depressible nature. While the cloud of dis- 
 content hung over him by which collisions of this 
 sort were generally followed, he would betake himself 
 to the river side or the more unfrequented paths that 
 lay through the neighbouring fields, and busy with 
 the images of his own prolific fancy, spend long hours 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 31 
 
 in earnest converse with the imaginary beings whom 
 his dramatizing brain was ever ready to conjure up. 
 
 His love of the drama and dramatic repre- 
 sentation under every form, constituted from his 
 earliest years a prominent feature in his character. 
 His thoughts, words, and gestures involuntarily took 
 dramatic shape, and this characteristic was frequently 
 more observable in the complete undress of conversa- 
 tion with a familiar friend than in the presence of a 
 numerous company. It was not any craving after 
 admiration that gave thrilling intensity to his ac- 
 cents, and caused them to be accompanied by vehe- 
 ment looks and gestures. He was by nature an actor 
 in the true sense of the term — not a mechanician of 
 emotion of other men's conceiving — but one whose 
 mind was full of emotions of its own, the echoes of 
 which rang forth unbidden in the piercing tones of 
 his rapid but impressive articulation. 
 
 At a fancy ball given at Waterford, he appeared in 
 the character of a French quack-doctor ; and sustained 
 his part with much eclat. He spoke the language 
 with more volubility probably than precision. This 
 was the case at a later period, according to the testi- 
 mony of more than one who had abundant opportuni- 
 ties of judging. But one can readily conceive with how 
 
32 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 many subordinate traits suitable to the occasion his 
 recollections of school-days at Kensington may have 
 supplied him ; and in pantomimic looks and gesticula- 
 tions he required no teacher. 
 
 While pursuing the course of his studies at the 
 University, the first misfortune that was destined to 
 darken his path suddenly broke over his hitherto 
 cheerful home. His father's early habits of active 
 enterprise had led him to engage in more than one 
 commercial speculation after his return from Spain. 
 Amongst the rest, he had embarked a considerable 
 sum (stated variously at from 10,000/. to 15,000/.) 
 in a mercantile house in Dublin, which was ex- 
 tensively engaged in the Mediterranean trade. This 
 he did under what was termed the Anonymous 
 Partnership Act, which was passed in 1782, by 
 the Parliament of Ireland, with a view of encou- 
 raging mercantile enterprise, by securing to capi- 
 talists who would not risk their entire fortunes the 
 protection of limited liability. By the provisions 
 of this statute, the name of a partner so contributing 
 to the capital stock was not to appear in any act of 
 the firm ; and he, on the other hand, was inhibited 
 from taking any part in the direction or control of 
 the business. The courts of law held any infraction 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 33 
 
 of these conditions to amount to a defeasance of 
 the limitation of liability. As few, however, 
 availed themselves of the privileges thus afforded 
 them,* no very precise notions seem to have gene- 
 rally prevailed as to what would and what would 
 not constitute a renunciation of the limited and 
 anonymous character of a partnership. Mr. Sheil 
 unfortunately undertook to judge for himself on the 
 point ; and after the house with which he was con- 
 nected, as above stated, had failed, the creditors 
 sought to render him fully liable : and this they 
 ultimately succeeded in doing, by proving that on 
 one or two occasions he had been seen in the counting- 
 house, taking part in the management of the concern. 
 The effect of this decision was almost equivalent to 
 his ruin. He was compelled to break up his esta- 
 blishment, and reduce his mode of living from one of 
 luxury to that of the most frugal expenditure. He 
 was no longer able to afford the expenses necessary 
 for his son's collegiate studies ; and these must have 
 been interrupted for a considerable time, if not wholly 
 
 * Every deed of partnership under the statute in question 
 was required to be registered ; and by a reference to the depart- 
 ment in which the memorials of such deeds are enrolled, it 
 appears that from the year 1782 to 1854, but 523 such deeds 
 have been thus registered. 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 abandoned, but for the kindness and liberality of a 
 relative, who spontaneously undertook to make Richard 
 an allowance of a hundred pounds a year, until he 
 should have been called to the bar. Doctor William 
 Foley, by whom this generous offer was made, was a 
 physician of eminence in "Waterford, where he had 
 acquired in his profession a considerable fortune. He 
 was connected through her mother's family with that 
 of Mrs. Sheil, and had long been the intimate friend 
 of her husband. In a letter dated 17th May, 1809, 
 the young collegian warmly acknowledged the obliga- 
 tion thus conferred on him ; and in a postscript his 
 father added his own expressions of gratitude. He 
 wished, however, that the allowance should not 
 exceed eighty guineas a year, which would, he 
 thought, suffice to enable Richard to complete his 
 terms at the University and the Inns of court ; and 
 this sum appears to have been paid by Doctor Foley 
 during the four following years. 
 
 In the autumn of the same year, Bellevue, together 
 with some property which lay contiguous to it, were 
 sold for the sum of 28,000/. to Mr. Nicholas A. 
 Power, in whose possession they still remain. Mr. 
 Sheil and his family removed to Dublin, where they 
 continued to reside during the remainder of his life. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 1810—1813. 
 
 Historical Society — The Catholic question — Speeches in 1811 — 
 Personal appearance and manner — Lincoln's Inn — Quarrel 
 with his uncle — Public events of 1812 — The Veto — Speech 
 at the Catholic Board — Reply to O'Connell. 
 
 During the latter part of his academic course, and 
 while he was pursuing his studies for the bar, young 
 Sheil was a constant attendant at the meetings of the 
 Historical Society, which then were held within the 
 walls of the University. Notwithstanding the latter 
 circumstance, and the existence of a rule forbidding 
 any direct reference to modern politics, strong opinions 
 on the great subjects that have at all times divided 
 thoughtful and inquiring minds, often found expres- 
 sion in the animated debates of the society. Regard for 
 collegiate authority, which marked with jealous vigi- 
 lance its proceedings, (and by which they were even- 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tually, in a moment of public excitement, summarily 
 suppressed) , prevented the use of party appellations 
 and the open recognition of party distinctions. But 
 the banners of Conservatism and Liberalism, though 
 they waved unseen, were followed by the eye of 
 youthful faith with ardour and enthusiasm. There 
 were cheers and counter cheers for eloquent allusions, 
 thinly veiled, to the stirring topics of the day, and 
 not a few of those who afterwards bore a prominent 
 part in Irish politics and polemics, were arrayed 
 against one another in this preparatory school of 
 earnest controversy. Looking back on these scenes 
 of ingenuous and seemingly resultless excitement, 
 some may perhaps have been tempted to regard them 
 as little better than undress rehearsals of parts which, 
 to be played well and effectively, require a greater 
 audience and a more enkindling scene. But in the 
 chill of after life, and amid its disenchantments, we 
 commit few stranger errors than those which arise 
 from the obliteration of early thoughts and imma- 
 ture convictions. If memory did not so frequently 
 doze and deceive us, we should read, with exquisite 
 sympathy for our former selves, any chance record 
 that might remain of the intellectual struggles of our 
 early days — struggles not intellectual only, but sus- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 37 
 
 tained oftentimes by as much of moral energy and 
 earnestness and feeling, as those more profitable and 
 pompous controversies in which we mingle when our 
 hairs are grey. That youth and inexperience are 
 sometimes led to form hasty opinions, and hotly to 
 express them, and that thus a whole course of life is 
 sometimes determined unadvisedly, is doubtless true. 
 But there is little wisdom in seeking to ignore the 
 depth and strength of the impressions which reading, 
 however limited, and observation of existing circum- 
 stances, however circumscribed, form in the fresh and 
 germinating soil that is only to be found in youthful 
 breasts. In a letter, written after an interval of forty 
 years, by one of the most eloquent and earnest of Mr. 
 Sheilas cotemporaries in the Historical Society, the 
 writer says : " His opinions and mine were quite as 
 opposite at that time as at any part of our future 
 lives." And an incident, in itself trivial, may serve to 
 illustrate the importance seemingly attached by him 
 to the divisions taken on questions of peculiar interest 
 in the society. A gentleman whose acquaintance he had 
 made during a journey from London to Dublin, still 
 recollects the anxiety which he evinced to arrive 
 before a given horn*; and as the passage of the 
 Channel was at that time a matter of no little uncer- 
 
38 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tainty, his impatience became uncontrollable as day- 
 went down, and there seemed no prospect of the 
 vessel reaching the harbour. Late in the evening 
 they did arrive, however, to his great satisfaction, 
 when, leaving his luggage to the care of his new 
 acquaintance, he hurried away in order that, if possible, 
 he might gain the college gates in time to vote upon 
 the question which was that night pending. 
 
 ee I have a full recollection," observes the writer of 
 the letter above quoted, " of Mr. Sheil. His powers 
 as an orator were, at that time, very imperfect. His 
 fancy was very vivid, and his speeches more remark- 
 able for their display of imagination than of argument. 
 His voice was weak and squeaking, and his man- 
 ner very theatrical ; but he was evidently a youth of 
 very promising talent, of very ardent mind, and one 
 who was likely to be distinguished in his future career. 
 He was always listened to with pleasure ; his feelings 
 were excitable ; and I recollect, on one occasion, his 
 making a sharp and clever retort to some remarks 
 which I had ventured to make, on an allusion to 
 modern politics, contrary to a rule of the society."* 
 This estimate of his undeveloped powers is certainly 
 much more favourable than that which he himself was 
 * Letter to the author, dated 30th December, 1853. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 39 
 
 accustomed to express when, late in life, lie looked 
 back upon his college days. No one could be more 
 conscious of the physical defects with which Nature, 
 like a step-dame, seemed resolved to thwart his 
 boyish ambition to be an orator. His early efforts in 
 debate, like those of Curran, were often unsuccessful, 
 and owing probably to a similar cause, namely, that 
 of precipitancy in his mode of utterance.* 
 
 No art, indeed, could soften the shrillness of his 
 voice; but care in the attainment of an elaborately 
 distinct articulation, aud the adoption of a marked 
 and modulated tone of utterance, redeemed, though 
 it could not cure, the faults of the vocal organ. The 
 habit of speaking frequently in public subsequently 
 strengthened his voice, which, though never sufficient 
 to enable him to address effectively a large assemblage 
 in the open air, seldom failed completely to fill any edi- 
 fice, however spacious or lofty. Of the theatrical charac- 
 ter of his elocution more will be said hereafter. It is 
 probable that, at no period of his life, was he disposed 
 to regard it as a fault, however anxious he may have 
 been to avoid the imputation of permitting it to de- 
 generate into extravagance. 
 
 He was not discouraged by his want of success in 
 * Life of Curran, by his Sou. Vol. i. } p. 34. 
 
40 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the mimic field of party battle. He longed to mingle 
 in the actual strife of politics, conscious, in some 
 degree, that his powers, which he used half-jestingly 
 to say were those of " popular inflammation," needed 
 for their exercise the real field of popular grievance and 
 popular passion. From the discussion of historical 
 and speculative questions he. began to turn his 
 thoughts to those of the day, and more especially 
 to that round which in Ireland all others long 
 grouped themselves — the removal of religious disa- 
 bilities. The position of the Catholic question at 
 this period was strange and anomalous. One of the 
 chief inducements to the Union held out by the 
 British Ministers, had been the facility it would afford 
 for the final settlement of that great controversy. 
 Lord Castlereagh, on whom, as Chief Secretary to 
 the Lord-Lieutenant, the conduct of the more impor- 
 tant transactions connected with the carrying of the 
 Union devolved, subsequently avowed that "he had 
 been authorized, in 1799, to communicate with the 
 Catholic clergy. It was then distinctly understood 
 that the political claims of the Catholics must remain 
 for the consideration of the Imperial Parliament ; but 
 the expediency of making, without delay, some pro- 
 vision for their clergy, under proper regulations, was 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 41 
 
 fully recognised. The result of their deliberation 
 was laid before Government in certain resolutions, 
 signed by ten of their bishops, including the four 
 metropolitans, in January, 1799."* 
 
 When the Union was carried, Mr. Pitt felt bound 
 in honour to requite the aid he had obtained from the 
 hierarchy and upper classes of the Catholics in carry- 
 ing a measure so difficult and so important, by urging 
 without delay upon the king the fulfilment of the 
 expectations held forth. George III., however, was 
 not to be moved, and refused his assent ; the Minister, 
 in consequence, resigned, and remained out of office 
 until 1804. On his death, Lord Grenville and Mr. 
 Fox, who had uniformly advocated the claims of the 
 Catholics, were called to power. They formed an 
 administration strong in talent and in influence, but 
 not strong enough to attempt the task of Catholic 
 emancipation. To use the words -of Mr. Fox, "they 
 were desirous, by the removal of Lord Redesdale 
 [from the Chancellorship of Ireland], Mr. Foster, and 
 justices of the peace whose conduct had been noto- 
 riously oppressive, to show their good intentions; 
 and steps still more important would be taken 
 
 * Speech of Lord Castlereagk, in House of Commons, 25th 
 May, 1810. 
 
42 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to do for the Catholics all that was consistent with 
 existing bad laws, by giving them all the share in 
 the government of their country" that Ministers could 
 give. But they despaired of success in any immediate 
 attempt at remedial legislation, " unless they could 
 have active assistance from a quarter in which to 
 look for passive acquiescence was perhaps more than 
 they could reasonably expect." Mr. Fox, therefore, 
 advised that the Catholic petition should not be 
 brought forward in 1807, as its supporters were cer- 
 tain to be in a minority, and the result might be to 
 wreck the administration. At the same time he de- 
 clared that " if, notwithstanding their wishes it should 
 be presented, he would support it with all his power."* 
 His death, in the autumn of the same year, was 
 speedily followed by the formation of a cabinet in 
 which the opponents of all concession, including Lord 
 Liverpool, Lord Eldon, and Mr. Perceval, constituted 
 a decided preponderance. Mr. Canning and Lord 
 Castlereagh asserted, indeed, their individual right to 
 express, whenever the subject was brought forward, 
 their dissent from their colleagues. But the Secretary 
 of the Treasury treated their mutinous eloquence as 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Ryan, in Lord Holland's Memoirs of the 
 Whig Party. Vol. i. } p. 214. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SIIEIL. 
 
 43 
 
 sweet-smelling salve for the discipline his whip in- 
 flicted on thin-skinned supporters : and there were 
 those who did not scruple to say that such manifesta- 
 tions of fruitless freedom were meant to serve as a 
 blind for compliance in other matters of more imme- 
 diate moment.* Be that as it may, however, the 
 question seemed to be fairly a-ground; and no one 
 could suggest any better way of rescuing it from its 
 desperate position than that of ridding it of some of 
 those terrors with which, to the minds of many, it 
 seemed burthened. 
 
 And thus arose the incidental controversy about 
 what was termed " the Veto." When applied to by 
 Mr. Pitt, on the eve of the Union, the Catholic pre- 
 lates above alluded to had adopted a series of reso- 
 lutions, declaring that a provision through Govern- 
 ment for the Roman Catholic clergy, competent and 
 secured, ought to be thankfully accepted ; and that 
 in the appointment of the prelates to vacant sees, 
 
 * At the table of Mr. Bushe, when Solicitor-General for 
 Ireland, Lord Lansdowne expressed, soon after the close of 
 the session of 1810, a more charitable estimate of Lord Castle- 
 reagh's conduct in this respect, adding that " by his recent speech 
 on the Catholic question, he had made great character." Chief 
 Baron 0' Grady instantly replied, " Then, if he has, depend upon 
 it he'll spend it like a gentleman." 
 
44 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 such interference of Government as might enable it 
 to be satisfied of the loyalty of the persons appointed 
 was just, and ought to be agreed to under certain 
 regulations, therein stated, regarding the mode of 
 election by the clergy of each diocese, &c. ; and that 
 when the names of the candidates duly chosen should 
 have been forwarded to the Government, if Govern- 
 ment had any proper objection against such candidates, 
 the president of the election should be informed 
 thereof within one month of the presentation, who, in 
 that case, should convene the electors (the parochial 
 clergy) to the election of another candidate. But 
 inasmuch as by the discipline of the Catholic church 
 these conditions, before being entered into, needed 
 the sanction of the Holy See, such sanction the 
 Roman Catholic prelates of the kingdom should, as 
 soon as may be, use their endeavours to procure.* 
 These resolutions were first referred to in Parliament 
 by Mr. Grattan, on 25th of May, 1808. Mr. Pon- 
 sonby, who had filled the office of Chancellor in 
 Ireland in the previous year, declared his belief that 
 the terms therein indicated would be readily acquiesced 
 in by leading persons, both lay and clerical, among 
 the Catholics. Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, 
 
 * Butler's Hist. Memoirs of the Catholics. Vol. iv., p. 151, 
 et seq. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 45 
 
 confirmed what had been thus stated in the Commons, 
 and both friends and foes conceived that a great effect 
 favourable to concession was likely to be produced 
 thereby. In September, 1808., a resolution, how- 
 ever, was come to by the Irish Catholic prelates, de- 
 claring that it was inexpedient to introduce any 
 alteration in the mode theretofore observed in the 
 nomination of bishops. When appealed to as to the 
 exact import of this declaration, by Sir Edward Bellew 
 and Lord Southwell, Archbishop O'Reilly explained 
 that the prelates did not mean to decide that the ad- 
 mission of a veto on the part of the Crown, with the 
 consent of the Holy See, would be contrary to the 
 doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, or to any 
 practice or usage essentially or indispensably con- 
 nected with the Roman Catholic religion; candour, 
 however, and truth obliged him to say that the decla- 
 ration was dictated by a well-founded apprehension 
 that the concession in question might eventually be 
 attended with consequences dangerous to the Roman 
 Catholic religion ; such danger, in his mind, and in 
 the opinion of several other prelates, was of a tem- 
 porary nature, resulting from existing circumstances, 
 though many persons supposed it to arise from the 
 nature of the measure, thus giving to the resolution 
 
46 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of the bishops a meaning it did not deserve. But 
 by the opponents of emancipation no litjble use was 
 made of the last-named resolution. Lord Grey and 
 Mr. Windham, foreseeing the advantage to which it 
 would be turned in debate, conferred with the beads 
 of the English Catholic party as to the means of con- 
 ciliating the differences which were likely to arise on 
 the point in question. But it was not ki the power 
 of individuals to allay the spirit of discord that had 
 already begun to display itself. Two parties were 
 gradually formed — the Vetoists, comprising the greater 
 portion of the educated and opulent classes, who 
 despaired of obtaining the relaxation of civil dis- 
 abilities without some ecclesiastical guarantees ; and 
 the Anti- Vetoists, who rejected all compromise, and 
 declared themselves ready to wait for emancipation 
 until it should be gained without conditions. The 
 former had the sympathy and confidence of all who 
 in Parliament had hitherto striven disinterestedly for 
 the assertion of sectarian liberty : the latter were 
 sustained by popular feeling in Ireland, and were 
 led by O'Connell. Mr. Grattan in 1809 and 1810 
 presented, as before, the national petitions for relief; 
 but he urged, upon all occasions, the necessity of mu- 
 tual concessions if anything practical was looked for. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 47 
 
 For a time, a disposition was shown in Ireland to 
 follow this advice. In the Catholic committee, which 
 had been organized for the purpose of directing the 
 general affairs of the body, persons who differed 
 widely on the admissibility of compromise met and co- 
 operated freely. The heads of many of the old aris- 
 tocratic families mingled with the merchants and pro- 
 fessional men, with whom they were united by the com- 
 mon tie of disfranchisement on account of their faith. 
 In point of substance and respectability, the periodical 
 meetings of the committee could generally boast of an 
 influential platform, to which, however, the character of 
 the bulk of the assembly was seldom found to corre- 
 spond. There were, indeed, widely diffused feelings 
 of discontent, if not of disaffection, but habits of 
 political deliberation among the mass of the trading 
 and agricultural classes, as yet there were none ; there 
 were a few malcontent nobles, a few malcontent law- 
 yers, and a few malcontent merchants, who, whenever 
 they met in public, were sure to be vociferously 
 cheered ; but effective organization with a settled pur- 
 pose was a thing unknown. Towards the close of 
 1810 an idea seems to have been adopted, that without 
 infringing the existing law which forbade the assem- 
 bling together of persons professing or claiming to 
 
48 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 be elected delegates from different parts of the king- 
 dom, it might be possible to constitute a permanent 
 society which, practically, would possess the influence 
 and wear the aspect which the legislature had 
 jealously interdicted. A plan was publicly proposed 
 by which the committee should in future embrace, 
 beside other persons individually joining it, all Catholic 
 peers, bishops, baronets, peers' sons, and the surviving 
 delegates of the Convention of 1793, together with 
 a certain number of individuals chosen by each county, 
 and by each parish of the metropolis. Great expec- 
 tations were formed of the effect of this project, which 
 Mr. O'Connell had pronounced to be perfectly legal. 
 A more numerous attendance than previously, marked 
 the public assemblies periodically summoned by the 
 committee ; and at several of these many persons of 
 distinction among liberal Protestants lent their 
 assistance. 
 
 Richard Sheil had for some time been a listener to 
 these proceedings, and he became at length impatient 
 to take part in them. On the 9th February, at a 
 meeting where Lord Ffrench presided, a resolution was 
 moved to select seven persons who should accompany 
 Lord Fingal to London, where they were to confer 
 with members of both Houses of Parliament, and to 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 49 
 
 act in the capacity of national representatives, on all 
 questions of detail that might arise during the 
 session. It was obvious that upon the selection so 
 made the fate of the question of compromise might 
 possibly depend; and the mutual distrust between 
 Vetoists and Anti-Vetoists, hitherto suppressed, threat- 
 ened to burst forth anew. After many had spoken, a 
 young man, carelessly dressed, and whose appearance 
 was unknown to a majority of those present, asked for 
 a hearing. The tone of his voice, and something 
 wild and unsettled in his look, did not at first favour- 
 ably impress his questioning auditory. What he said, 
 moreover, though conciliatory in its tenor, was 
 uttered with a spasmodic abruptness and vehemence, 
 calculated rather to provoke a laugh than to take 
 admiration by surprise. As he proceeded, however, 
 his earnestness began to win its way ; and some, more 
 impressible than those around them, gave him an 
 encouraging cheer. The effect of this was to render 
 his manner more collected, and his articulation more 
 clear. " The Edinburgh Revieio had cast ridicule upon 
 them, as a mere mob of orators, without a substantial 
 following, or any true representative character. The 
 contemplated mission to England," he said, " would 
 tend to remove these aspersions, and correct whatever 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 misapprehensions might exist as to the character of 
 those who commanded a guiding influence in their 
 affairs. They would best accomplish this by sending 
 men of education and of fortune, who, as ambassadors 
 from Ireland, would conduct the cause of aggrieved 
 and injured millions. The root of their power was 
 indeed hidden in that subsoil of society which oppres- 
 sion was accustomed to regard with peculiar contempt ; 
 but at least they would demonstrate that there were 
 branches distinguishable and distinguished, which 
 raised their heads as proudly as the best of those who 
 affected to deem them worthy of being treated with 
 sectarian contumely and disdain." After dwelling on 
 this subject at some length, in a strain of fanciful, but 
 striking and picturesque embellishment, he proceeded 
 to answer a somewhat disingenuous objection which 
 had been raised, that those who were to accompany 
 Lord Fingal might be regarded by his Lordship as 
 spies set upon his conduct. " There was no need to 
 fear anything of the kind. The persons who were 
 chosen, he would feel were sent to act as aids, not as 
 sentinels around him. Peers as well as Commoners 
 ought to be selected, for as the latter would have 
 access to members of the Lower House friendly to 
 their cause, so the former would most fitly represent 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 51 
 
 them with the House of Lords, as claiming, by consti- 
 tutional right and ancient usage, to take their here- 
 ditary place in that Assembly in which he trusted 
 they would yet live to see them recognised as no 
 unworthy ornaments. Their cause was indeed that of 
 the nation ; that of the peasant as well as of the peer. 
 The rights of humanity were violated by the penal 
 code, and the cause of humanity was as immutable 
 and comprehensive as the wide and permanent 
 heaven. If they sent seven men they would send 
 seven trumpets which would sound a note of sum- 
 mons and of warning at the gates of oppression. At 
 the trumpets' sound, the walls of Jericho would fall, 
 and the stronghold of corruption and exclusion sink 
 into the dust." Adverting to an address to the 
 Prince of Wales, he said, " that he still, as an Irish- 
 man, desired to place confidence in the disposition of 
 his Royal Highness. » Suspicion was an evil coun- 
 sellor at all times. The serpent was not suffered by 
 nature to bask on their shores ; let them not, then, 
 harbour that distrust whose coil was more insidious, 
 and whose tongue was more full of poison. All, how- 
 ever, would depend on the preservation of unanimity 
 among themselves. If they were either to be success- 
 ful or to be happy in the enjoyment of success, they 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 must be tolerant towards each other, and united. 
 Rome, after the civil wars in Italy, would have built 
 a temple to Freedom ; but no, she did what was wiser 
 and better. She built a temple to Concord, because 
 concord leads to freedom." Much applause greeted 
 the young orator when he sat down. The reports 
 published in the newspapers of the time were very 
 imperfect ; and it is only in fragmentary portions 
 that we are able to form any judgment of the whole. 
 Some weeks later he spoke again at an aggregate 
 meeting held in Fishamble-street Theatre, and which 
 was attended by many peers and commoners of dis- 
 tinction. The subject was, an address to the Prince 
 Regent, whom the Parliament of Ireland had, in 1788, 
 been willing to invest with plenary rights and powers 
 of sovereignty, while the majority of the Parliament of 
 England, swayed by the advice of Mr. Pitt, would 
 have limited his authority by restrictions. Mr. 
 Sheil believed that "the same feelings which pre- 
 vailed at that time, still animated the public mind. 
 There was no longer, indeed, an Irish Parliament, 
 but there was still an Irish people, who looked with 
 confidence to the heir of the Crown as ready, when 
 opportunity should serve, to facilitate their attainment 
 of freedom. They wished to show that there was no 
 
EICHAKD LALOK SHEIL. 
 
 53 
 
 French party in Ireland, as had been recently alleged ; 
 and if the occasion should ever arise, it wo old be 
 found by the usurping tyrant of France that he had 
 no allies among the Catholic inhabitants of the realm. 
 Even though denied a participation in the privileges 
 of the constitution, they were not insensible to its 
 blessings : with how much more zeal would they be 
 found ready to fight for their country, when politi- 
 cally as well as socially they should have a country to 
 fight for." Among those present on the occasion was 
 the Knight of Kerry, the late M r. Maurice Fitzgerald, 
 who complimented the young speaker highly, and said, 
 he hoped one day to see him in the House of Commons. 
 Just twenty years later the anticipation was fulfilled. 
 A more cautious and accomplished critic was struck 
 with the indications of original thought and expression 
 which the reports, imperfect as they were, of his early 
 speeches contained. Mr. Alexander Knox, with whose 
 life and correspondence the public have since become 
 acquainted, happened to be in Dublin at the time, and 
 expressed a wish to see the youthful demagogue. 
 Pleased with his simplicity and enthusiasm, he took 
 some pains to point out the principal faults of imma- 
 turity in his style, but added many kind words of 
 encouragement, which were not thrown away. 
 
54 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 His personal appearance and bearing at this time 
 are described — by one who mentions his having first 
 seen him at a county meeting, held in the spring of 
 the same year, at the Court House of Kilmainham — as 
 grave and self-possessed. Though hardly numbering 
 twenty years, he looked nearer thirty, and seemed as 
 if he felt that he was one day to enact a part. In his 
 recent displays, he had attracted much attention by 
 his force of phrase and novelty of elocution. His 
 figure was thin, but square and compact. It would 
 probably have appeared large and muscular on the 
 stage, for which many thought he had considerable 
 qualifications. The crowd became very dense, and it 
 was manifest that the place where the meeting was to 
 have been held could not afford room to one half of 
 the persons likely to be assembled. Some one pro- 
 posed an adjournment to an open space adjoining, 
 which was resisted by those who had obtained good 
 seats within the building. At length Sheil under- 
 took the task of persuading these reluctant persons to 
 surrender their advantage, and take their chance with 
 others. What the entreaties of others had failed in, 
 he readily accomplished, and he never spoke better 
 than on this trivial occasion. 
 
 Having completed his collegiate course, he took his 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 55 
 
 degree of A.B. in July, 1811. On the 13th of No- 
 vember, in the same year, he entered as a student of 
 Lincoln's Inn, where he continued to keep terms 
 during the two subsequent years, preparatory to being 
 called to the Irish bar. 
 
 During his residence in London he became a mem- 
 ber of The Eccentrics, a debating club, to which Can- 
 ning and several of his cotemporaries once belonged. 
 His powers as a debater were probably much im- 
 proved by his practice in this society, where a tone 
 prevailed wholly different from that to which he had 
 been previously accustomed. Fancy was less valued, 
 and argument more, in the forensic club of Lincoln's 
 Inn that in the politico-religious society of Dublin 
 University. The moral atmosphere was less electric ; 
 but, to the intellect of the future lawyer, its air was 
 more bracing. 
 
 His father's brother, Richard, was then living in 
 London, and during his first winter in the metropolis 
 he appears to have resided with him. " Uncle Dick" 
 was a good-natured man, but, like others of his family, 
 somewhat choleric and fretful. The recent disturb- 
 ances in Spain had compelled him to quit the land 
 which had long been that of his adoption ; and he had 
 suffered at the same time certain pecuniary losses, 
 
56 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 which had not contributed to improve his temper. 
 Uncle and nephew did but ill agree. The student 
 was wayward, and not a little vain of his premature 
 exploits in the demagogic line ; while the old man 
 was, doubtless, peevish about trifles, and disposed to be 
 authoritative in tone, without the possession of autho- 
 rity. After various little disputes and some noisy 
 altercations, matters came at length to a crisis, and 
 early in 1812, Richard the younger quitted his uncle's 
 roof, and betook himself to the paternal home. He 
 soon repented, however, of this foolish quarrel. His 
 father could not or would not supply him with the 
 means of returning to London after Easter, and he 
 began to fear lest he should lose the ensuing term. 
 Meanwhile "Uncle Dick's" anger passed away; he 
 began, perhaps, to think that he had been somewhat 
 too hasty, and he offered to receive his nephew as an 
 inmate in his house once more. Richard gratefully 
 accepted the kind offer; but being still without 
 money for travelling expenses and other necessaries, 
 he felt that he had no other resource than that of 
 which he had already so largely availed himself. He 
 applied to Dr. Foley for a loan of twenty pounds, 
 telling him, without reserve, the nature of his per- 
 plexity, and penitentially taking to himself the whole 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 57 
 
 of the blame. "My uncle's extreme kindness/' he 
 said, " should have induced me to forgive those fits of 
 anger into which an unfortunately irascible temper 
 sometimes betrays him. Upon one occasion, how- 
 ever, my feelings got the better of my prudence, and 
 hurried me into a warmth of expression which I had 
 afterwards too much reason to regret. Being obliged 
 to leave him, and having no money to support my- 
 self in a town so expensive as London, I was neces- 
 sitated to return instantly to Dublin. I received on 
 Saturday a letter from my uncle, requesting that I 
 would excuse the intemperance of his passion, and 
 offering to receive me with renovated cordiality. 
 However, I have not a sum equal to the expenses of 
 my journey and the purchase of a few books, and I 
 cannot press my father for assistance in his present 
 distressed circumstances ; indeed, he has given me to 
 understand that he will not furnish me with the 
 means of going to England, as it was my own fault 
 that I should have left it. The observation is but 
 too true." He deprecated the idea of his relatives 
 supposing that he wished to fall back upon the 
 original terms of the offer made by Doctor Foley on 
 the eve of his quitting Bellevue, and he undertook to 
 repay the loan as soon as his means should enable 
 
58 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 him. His request was granted, and he lost no fur- 
 ther time in returning to England. His journey was 
 interrupted in consequence of a severe cold, caught by 
 his exposure to heavy rain as he travelled on the out- 
 side of the stage coach from Holyhead to Shrewsbury, 
 where he was forced to remain for several days before 
 he could proceed further. The circumstance is alluded 
 to in a letter to Doctor Foley, written from London, on 
 the 6th of May, in which he warmly acknowledges the 
 forgiving and the affectionate reception he met with 
 from his uncle. In the same letter are some general 
 remarks on the politics of the day, and the existing 
 state of parties. Government and Opposition seemed 
 to him alike destitute of any strong hold on popular 
 regard, and were chiefly distinguishable by their con- 
 flicting opinions on the Catholic question. Its friends 
 out of doors were at the time full of hope of its suc- 
 cess; and in their justification an anecdote is men- 
 tioned by him, which, if correct, curiously illustrates 
 the fallaciousness of political prophecies, even when 
 the seers are amongst the most thoroughly initiated 
 in statecraft, and the place of their oracular mutter- 
 ings the steps of the throne. At the conclusion of a 
 recent debate in the House of Lords, Mr. Sheil states 
 that the Marquis Wellesley, addressing a friend of 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 59 
 
 his* who stood behind the woolsack, said — " Sir, if 
 the Catholics conduct their cause with propriety, I 
 insure you success in three years, perhaps in one." 
 
 Throughout their previous disappointments the Ca- 
 tholics had clung to the belief that the Prince Regent 
 was at heart their friend, and that when an oppor- 
 tunity served he would prove the sincerity of his oft- 
 repeated assurances, by calling to power the party 
 whose leaders had lessened their influence with the 
 English people by nothing so much as their readiness 
 to become the apologists of his personal errors. But 
 when, on the death of Mr. Perceval on the 11th of 
 May, the occasion presented itself, these anticipa- 
 tions were speedily dispelled. Not only were Lords 
 Grenville and Grey discarded, but the basis upon 
 which the old administration was re-constituted, under 
 Lord Liverpool, was so narrowed regarding principles, 
 that neither Mr. Canning nor Lord Wellesley would 
 consent to form part of it. In both Houses a resolu- 
 tion was moved by them, proposing a pledge that 
 Parliament would in the ensuing session seriously set 
 about a settlement of the Catholic question ; in the 
 Lords it was only lost by one, the numbers being for 
 Lord Eldon's amendment, 125 to 124; but in the 
 * Probably Mr. Charles Butler. 
 
60 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Commons it was rejected by a large majority. In 
 the course of the autumn a dissolution took place, 
 and " notwithstanding the coalition/' writes Sir J. 
 Mackintosh, " of the court, the parsons, and the mob, 
 against all the men of sense in the country,"* the 
 Opposition gained at the elections. 
 
 In Ireland, feelings of deep distrust and resent- 
 ment at the conduct of the Prince found expression in 
 every variety of form. Far from evincing any readi- 
 ness to adopt the idea of compromise, the popular 
 sentiment was one of vehement hostility to every 
 proposition of what seemed to savour of the Veto. 
 Many individuals, however, of influence and character 
 concurred with those who in the legislature believed 
 it to have become wholly impossible to carry any 
 large measure of relief without some species of 
 " security." Of these were Mr. Grattan, Mr. 
 Plunket, and Mr. Canning. On the 25th Fe- 
 bruary, 1813, Mr. Grattan brought forward the ques- 
 tion with his usual ability and earnestness ; and was 
 supported by Mr. Ponsonby, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. 
 Whitbread, Mr. Canning, and Lord Palmerston. It 
 was on this occasion that Mr. Plunket delivered the 
 celebrated speech of which so many of his contempo- 
 
 * Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 263. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 61 
 
 raries have recorded their unbounded admiration.* 
 By all, the principle of " securities" was conceded, 
 though in general terms; and upon a division the 
 numbers were, for leave to bring in the bill, 264, 
 against, 224. When the measure was laid before 
 the House, it appeared to Mr. Canning and his 
 friends to be too vague on the point adverted to. He 
 accordingly undertook to frame clauses providing for 
 the exercise of a Veto by the Crown; and to these 
 Mr. Grattan hesitated to give his assent until the opi- 
 nions of the Catholic body should be known. Mean- 
 while, the bill was read a second time, by a majority 
 of 42. 
 
 After a long and stormy discussion, the Catholic 
 Board, at the instance of Mr. O'Connell, pronounced 
 the conditions to be inadmissible; and the bishops 
 about the same time declared that they likewise con- 
 sidered them highly objectionable. Sooner than 
 abandon all chance of settling the long-vexed ques- 
 tion, Mr. Grattan was willing to incur the responsibi- 
 lity of agreeing to the amendments of Mr. Canning. 
 
 * "This admirable speech," says Sir J. Mackintosh, "has 
 made more impression than any speech since Mr. Sheridan's, in 
 1787, on the charge against Hastings respecting the Begnms of 
 Onde — Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 263. See also Lord Dudley's Cor- 
 respondence. 
 
62 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " Upon my head/' he exclaimed, " be the odium of 
 the clauses. To insure the principle of concession, I 
 shall submit to the minor infringements. The alleged 
 unpopularity of the bill can only be temporary."* 
 He was speedily relieved, however, from all further 
 responsibility in the matter. The Speaker, Mr. 
 Abbott, as soon as the House was in committee, moved 
 that the first clause admitting Catholics to Parliament 
 be omitted ; and such use was made of the declarations 
 in Ireland against any conditions, that his amendment 
 was carried by 251 to 247. Upon this the bill was at 
 once withdrawn. Disappointment and distraction 
 were the fruits of this strange drama of tantalization. 
 Bitter reproaches and angry recriminations formed 
 the staple of public discussion in Ireland for a long 
 period. Mr. Grattan, dejected and debilitated by ill- 
 health, declined to renew the Parliamentary struggle, 
 which he had found by experience to be alike 
 thankless and unavailing. 
 
 At the Catholic Board the battle of the Veto was in- 
 cessantly renewed. On the hardships by which they 
 were aggrieved in common, and on the difficulties that 
 beset their path to a remedy, all were agreed; but 
 between Vetoists and Anti-Vetoists an interminable 
 
 * Debate, 24th May, 1813. Speeches, vol. iv., p. 336. 
 
EI CHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 63 
 
 strife prevailed, and each party anxiously sought to 
 strengthen itself by the aid of new recruits. Among 
 those who enlisted on the side of the former was 
 young Sheil. His name appears in the latter part of 
 this year as a frequent attendant at the meetings of 
 the Board. On the 8th of December he delivered 
 a speech which attracted no little attention at the 
 time. It was against a proposition made by Dr. 
 Drumgoole, intended to assert more stringently than 
 ever the expediency and duty of resisting every kind 
 and description of securities as a condition of emanci- 
 pation. After some prefatory observations, Mr. Sheil 
 said : — 
 
 " This is indeed a debate in which much of Ireland's weal is 
 involved. It has drawn together a numerous assembly of the 
 members of the Board : this room is crowded with men who, 
 although they do not constitute a part of our body, are equally 
 interested in its proceedings.* 
 
 " The learned mover bids me to remember that I have a religion 
 to preserve — I hope that I shall never forget it — but does he 
 remember that he has a country to obtain ? It is, my Lord, with 
 great reluctance that I enter upon the unfortunate, topics which 
 this resolution embraces. But let not the fault be imputed to 
 me — let all the consequences which may result from this dis- 
 cussion rest upon the head of him who has introduced the debate. 
 
 * Amongst others who were present, was General Mathew, 
 M.P. for Tipperary, to whose popularity Mr. Sheil in passing 
 paid a just tribute. 
 
64 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 It is he who breaks our unanimity. There are many who have 
 assented to the general tenor of our measures, because they 
 thought it better to sacrifice their individual opinions than to 
 dissolve our union. But there is an extreme to which they 
 ought not to be driven. If reason be hunted down by the learned 
 Doctor, reason will turn back and defend herself. Why has 
 he roused this disastrous subject from that oblivious sepulchre 
 where it had enjoyed repose ? Why has he, in place of stanching 
 the bleeding of the ulcered wound, why has he torn away its 
 bandages, and, in the spirit of experimental adventure, probed it 
 to the bottom ? Why, instead of allowing the arrow to extricate 
 itself, has he poisoned it with new resentments, barbed it with 
 new jealousies, and driven it deeper into the heart ? I shall 
 begin by agreeing with the learned Doctor, that nothing can be 
 more absurd than to insist upon securities as a condition of our 
 emancipation. We have already afforded the best securities. 
 The thousands of our countrymen who have perished in the cause 
 of Britain — the battles of which Ireland has paid the bloody price, 
 and of which England has won the renown — these are the glorious 
 evidences of our loyalty. We have endeavoured to appease the 
 irritated genius of the British constitution with the libations 
 of our blood : we have been true to the state even in our servitude. 
 They ask us for a pledge that we shall be faithful to ourselves 
 when we are free. Against what are securities to guard? 
 Against foreign influence ? What can give it an operation ? 
 Popular Discontent — it is the conductor through which it passes ; 
 remove it, and that influence can no longer reach us. Besides, 
 there is no connexion between Catholic emancipation and 
 Catholic securities. Catholic emancipation acts upon the laity- 
 securities upon the clergy. The clergy are to remain in the same 
 state after emancipation, as they are now placed in j how, then, 
 does it happen that securities will be necessary then, and are not 
 necessary now ? But, it will be asked, if this is the case, why 
 have our advocates in Parliament entreated us to make these 
 concessions ? Why have Lords Wellesley and Castlcreagh — why 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 65 
 
 has Mr. Canning, made them a condition of onr liberty? It 
 is not difficult to explain. Because they regard concession as 
 necessary to pass emancipation, though not necessary for the 
 safety of the State. Concession will disarm prejudice — it will 
 take away fear from the fool, and pretext from the knave. The 
 learned Doctor says, that securities are but a pretext : deprive 
 them of it — concession upon our part will pluck out the roots of 
 the antipathies of England. The English are a nation pampered 
 with glory, and their pride must be nattered. The hinges upon 
 which the gates of the constitution are suspended are incrustated 
 with prejudice and bigotry, and concession must be employed to 
 remove their rust before they are opened to us. The Con- 
 stitution, like the Castle of Necromancy, is guarded with phan- 
 toms and chimeras : that ideal monster, Church and State, has 
 been stationed its sentinel ; and those phantoms must be dispelled, 
 and that monster must be discomfited, before we can attain the 
 seat of happiness and freedom. The question is thus reduced to 
 a simple form of practical utility. We are to investigate, not 
 whether it is absurd of them to ask, but whether it is wise of us 
 to refuse. This is to be determined by an easy inquiry — would 
 concession be useful in the promotion of our emancipation ? I 
 assert that it would ; and I appeal to the obvious proof — to the 
 debates in Parliament, and to the petitions against us, almost 
 every one of which is directed against unconditional emancipation ; 
 nor am I surprised at it, for I own I have not that opinion of 
 the wisdom of mankind which would lead me to conclude that 
 their fears are always built upon a just foundation. I have 
 compassion for the prejudices of all men, but especially of an 
 Englishman. What is his education? He is nursed in a 
 horror for popery — he is taught to hate his neighbour, before he 
 is instructed in the fear of God. When he advances from 
 infancy to childhood, the hunger of his mind is fed with the bar- 
 barities of convents : his imagination is conducted down the 
 caverns of inquisitions, and the feeble lamp of reason lowers, and 
 is extinguished in the mental mist and damp that spreads through 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the labyrinth of horrors. When he attains maturity, he opens the 
 page of English History, and finds it blackened with the fires of 
 Popish persecution. The learned Doctor has appealed to an un- 
 fortunate period of the English History, the reign of John. Let 
 me ask him, whether the perusal of that part of the British 
 annals would not be alone sufficient to consolidate the prejudices 
 against our church, for was not the influence of the Pope the 
 greatest evil of which the Barons complained ? Is it then wonder- 
 ful that when his mind has been thus imbued with hatred, a 
 Protestant should retain, in after-life, those antipathies and those 
 fears which are infused in infancy ? Is it matter for surprise that 
 he should look upon Popery with the vague and undefined ap- 
 prehension with which a child looks upon the dark, and dreads a 
 spectre ? He fears — he knows not what — but still he fears. At 
 this the Doctor may, if he thinks proper, be surprised ; but if he 
 is, it is at human nature. He may lift up his hands and eyes to 
 heaven, and ask God why he made man so imperfect ? It is not 
 our office to inquire whether those fears are rational, but whether 
 they are operative. I will make use of a familiar illustration: 
 what would you think of a traveller who, if he were to meet a 
 mountain in his journey, would sit down at its foot, and instead 
 of endeavouring to ascend it, would enter upon a disquisition 
 why nature had put it in his way ? Do we not act thus ? securi- 
 ties are an obstacle in our progress to freedom, and in place of 
 endeavouring to surmount that obstacle, we indulge in invectives 
 against them. And, after all, have we much right to com- 
 plain of the prejudices of others ? have we none ourselves ? My 
 Lord, we pursue precisely the same conduct as our opponents. 
 They exclaim 'emancipation without securities will ruin our 
 religion;' we cry out 'emancipation with securities will ruin 
 ours.' ' You have nothing to fear,' cries the Doctor ; 'you have 
 nothing to fear, retorts the Protestant.' 'The church is in 
 danger/ exclaims the Parson ; ' the church is in danger,' re-echoes 
 the Priest. And how long is this melancholy recrimination 
 to continue ? How long is our liberty to be procrastinated ? 
 
RICHARD LALOR SIIEIL. 
 
 67 
 
 To what period of futurity are we to defer our country's hap- 
 piness ? Does he expect that, by the cogency of his reasoning, or 
 the splendour of his eloquence, he will be able to defeat 
 prejudice ? 
 
 " But we are told, we shall obtain unqualified emancipation at 
 last. At last! He who consents to be a slave one instant 
 after he can be free, deserves to be a slave for ever. But shall 
 we sacrifice our religion ? It is not now, my Lord, after ages of 
 persecution, that Roman Catholics will renounce that faith 
 which has been endeared by suffering. It is not in the last 
 agony of human endurance, when heaven is opening on his eyes, 
 that the martyr will pronounce apostacy. But, great as my 
 regard for my religion is, I will not sacrifice my country's freedom 
 to the mere possibility of danger to my religion. This is not a 
 Catholic, it is a Calvinistic resolution. It erects the standard of 
 religious revolt, and calls upon the people to rebel against their 
 spiritual governors. What is become of the learned Doctor's 
 judgment ? Could not his sagacity have discovered a sufficient 
 pledge in the integrity of our hierarchy, in the purity of their 
 lives, and the disinterestedness of their motives? What are 
 our clergy to gain by emancipation ? Nothing. And is it to be 
 supposed that they will open the door to corruption — become 
 panders to the lust of power, and yield the pure and lovely 
 form of religion to political prostitution ? And does he accuse 
 his bishops of this gratuitous kind of guilt? Let me remind 
 him of his own argument, ' What right has Parliament to interfere 
 with religion ?' And what right has he to interfere with it ? 
 Even if it were exposed to all the perils which he apprehends, 
 there are those whose office is its preservation. Let him re- 
 member that he who laid an unconsecrated hand upon the Ark 
 (though it was to prevent its fall) was struck dead. [Loud 
 applause.] But he is not contented with an attack upon our 
 bishops, he is likewise driven, in order that this sagacious 
 resolution may be supported, to the necessity of insulting Henry 
 Grattan by the instructions it contains. That name awakes a 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 train of exalted thought ; and I am happy to have this oppor- 
 tunity of bestowing praise upon the man whose character has of 
 late been vilified by obscure insinuations, for there was none so 
 daring as openly to accuse him. Henry Grattan is truly a great man. 
 When he entered into public life, he found his country without 
 trade and without a legislature ; he gave her both her commerce 
 and her independence. Ireland is the creation of his word. It 
 has been said that he was bribed by his country — it was a 
 sublime corruption. His country could not bribe him to do her 
 an injury ; he was too much her friend to be her flatterer. Other 
 patriots have given up their lives — he did more, he sacrificed his 
 reputation. Tell me, ye who have beheld him in those wonderful 
 nights when he went forth to fight the battles of his country — 
 ye who saw withered by the lightnings of his mind the cohorts 
 of pension and of place — ye who stood by him when he contended 
 for the liberty of Ireland to her last gasp — follow him in his 
 illustrious career — behold him, like the heroes of the Iliad, still 
 protecting her corpse from profanation, and seeking to obtain for 
 her independence an honourable sepulture in the emancipation of 
 her sons — behold him still in arms for Ireland — and tell me, will 
 ye dare to reproach him ? Will ye permit this resolution to be 
 flung in his way ? Will ye permit the learned Doctor to dictate 
 his duty to him? Is it from Doctor Drumgoole that Henry 
 Grattan is to receive instructions ? But it matters not. He is 
 raised above your reach. The imputations which are cast upon 
 him, the clouds which are exhaled from folly and credulity, and 
 with which it is attempted to obscure the setting of his glory, 
 instead of shrouding his splendour in their vapour and their 
 mist, become impurpled with his light, and gain effulgence from 
 the sinking orb. The subject before us, my Lord, is of so com- 
 plicated a nature that it is impossible, with so little time as must 
 be allotted to each speaker, to treat it with that method and 
 extent which it demands. I must be contented with glancing at 
 the principal topics which it embraces. I cannot refrain from 
 dwelling upon one point, however — I mean the influence of the 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 69 
 
 Crown, the increase of which is apprehended from the inter- 
 ference of the Government in the nomination of our bishops. It 
 has always appeared to me preposterous to connect the influence 
 of the Crown with Catholic emancipation; and that we are 
 guilty of the same absurdity as our enemies, in associating 
 Catholic emancipation with securities. What is affected by the 
 influence of the Crown ? Freedom. Are we free? No. There- 
 fore we are not affected by it. The members of the Established 
 church are affected by it, and I own I am not so solicitous about 
 the liberty of others when I am myself in bondage ; nor will I 
 consent to make a sacrifice of my own freedom, lest that of others 
 should be impaired. I care not about the influence of the 
 the Crown." [Here there were strong symptoms of disapproba- 
 tion, when Lord Efrench interposed.] 
 
 Mr. Sheil continued : " My Lord, you may permit these men to 
 hiss. It does not wound me. They disgrace themselves. But 
 I will repeat, in defiance of all their clamours, the expression of 
 my conviction. I am not afraid of censure, for there is in the 
 heart of every honest man a court of appeal from the tribunal of 
 public opinion. I repeat it, the influence of the Crown has no 
 connexion with emancipation. I would as soon live under a 
 despotism as under the penal code. Under a despotism, we 
 should enjoy the privilege of spilling our blood and paying our 
 taxes, and perhaps obtain reward if we deserved it. There 
 would be no Parliament, indeed; but that would be of little 
 importance, as we cannot now sit in it. I am astonished, there- 
 fore, at this confusion of ideas. I am astonished that my friend 
 Mr. O'Connell should have been guilty of it. Is he, too, con- 
 tented to sacrifice his liberty to that of others ? [Mr. O'Connell 
 exclaimed ' Yes !'] Yes ! admirable philanthropy ! but miserable 
 patriotism. What, then, is the gentleman at last contented that 
 his children should be slaves ? I return, my Lord, to this resolu- 
 tion. It does not object to an alteration in our church, but it 
 objects to the alteration to be made by the legislature ; and if 
 the legislature should propose the very alteration of which you 
 
70 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 approve, you instantly reject it ; and is this the time for such 
 high-plumed and haughty discontents ? Is this the language of 
 a man who professes himself the advocate of moderation ? Truly, 
 a strange kind of moderation which outrages and insults. I, my 
 Lord, support a moderation of a different kind, though it does 
 not preclude me from a true love of my country. I, too, can 
 feel the miseries of Ireland ; but it is because my heart is grieved, 
 even to sadness, at the contemplation of her calamity, that I am 
 resolved to make a sacrifice for her happiness. The end is 
 freedom, and who will say that the means are ignoble ? But, my 
 Lord, there is not a man here who does not accord with me in one 
 great principle. Divided as we are by those differences which 
 are inseparable from all human transactions, there is one exalted 
 sentiment, one sublime sensation, in which we all concur — the 
 thirsting after, the ineffable desire of, freedom. The young are 
 elevated by the aspirations of hope, and the old — I have read that 
 an aged man who had been confined in a subterranean dungeon 
 was liberated at his last gasp ; he crawled to the gates of his 
 prison, and, as he expired, thanked God that he had seen the sun 
 before he died ! And where is he who, before he descends into 
 his grave, does not cherish the holy hope that he may behold the 
 liberation of his country ?" [Loud applause.] 
 
 When the applause had subsided, Mr. O'Connell 
 rose to reply : — " While the meeting was yet dazzled 
 and warmed with the brilliant and glowing language 
 of his young friend, he rashly offered himself to their 
 consideration. He rashly interposed the cold, dull 
 jargon of the courts — the unanimated and rough 
 dialect of the pleader ; but the cause of freedom and 
 of his country would enable him, even him, to unravel 
 the flimsy web of sophistry w T hich was hid beneath 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 71 
 
 the tinsel glare of meretricious ornament. He admired 
 the splendid talents of his young friend. They were 
 bestowed on him for the highest purposes — they 
 were suited to the greatest and best purposes — to 
 relieve and adorn his country. Let him raise his soul 
 to the elevation of his talents, and not take the puny 
 and pigmy ground of party or division. God and 
 Nature have been bountiful to him. Let him, in 
 recompense, as bountifully give, by consecrating to 
 the service of liberty and Ireland all the fascinations 
 of his fancy, and all the brilliant glories of his 
 genius. 
 
 "The proposition goes to declare that, either as 
 Irishmen or as Catholics, they never would consent 
 to allow to the Crown, or the servants of the Crown, 
 any interference in the appointment of their bishops. 
 He (Mr. O'Connell) supported the motion upon both 
 grounds : first, as an Irishman, that this interference 
 would be injurious to public liberty ; secondly, that, 
 as a Catholic, it would be destructive of the Catholic 
 
 religion Let the servants of the Crown, then, 
 
 be content with the patronage they had. It is suffi- 
 cient for their purpose ; and if this addition be but 
 small, let them leave us this small independence, for 
 this little is our all — and great it is, in fact." Mr. 
 
72 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 O'Connell continued to argue on the demoralizing 
 influence that would be exercised upon the priesthood 
 and the people by ecclesiastical patronage in the hands 
 of a Government professing a different creed. These 
 sentiments prevailed, and Mr. SheiPs amendment was 
 rejected by a great preponderance of opinion. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 73 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 1814—1817. 
 
 Called to the Ear— Play of Adelaide — Curran and Grattan — 
 Pius VII. and the Veto — Political apathy — First marriage — 
 Tragedy of The Apostate— The " Quarterly Review." 
 
 Having kept his terms at Lincoln's Inn, lie returned 
 to Ireland full of ambitious hopes connected with his 
 future professional career. He was impatient to 
 assume the privileged garb, yet he hesitated to draw 
 upon the diminished resources of his family for the 
 further expense attendant on being called to the bar. 
 An expedient suggested itself to his mind of which, 
 in secret, he prepared to avail himself. His fondness 
 for the stage, and familiarity with ancient as well as 
 modern drama, had often led him in hours of idleness 
 to try whether he, too, did not possess the gift of tragic 
 verse. Many unfinished scenes lay amongst his 
 papers, and many thoughts and images of a kindred 
 
74 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 nature thronged his brain. He would write a play, 
 and take it when finished to Miss O'Neil, and between 
 its intrinsic merits and the witchery of her acting, 
 he would make the money he wanted, and, possibly, 
 fame too. During the winter months he was occu- 
 pied in the execution of this project ; but January came 
 before it was completed. His father was as unwilling 
 as himself to defer his initiation as one of the legal 
 craft, and he was admitted a member of the Irish 
 bar on the first day of Hilary term, 1814. 
 
 Soon afterwards he presented his play to the manager 
 of Crow-street Theatre for his approval. It was 
 accepted. Some few alterations and curtailments were 
 made at the suggestion of Miss O'Neil, and to the 
 young author's infinite delight she undertook to 
 represent the character he had intended for her. 
 "Adelaide; or, the Emigrants, written by a young 
 gentleman of this city," was advertised for the 
 19th of February. The house was full, and in good 
 humour. The celebrated actress played her part to 
 perfection, and the other performers sustained theirs 
 with credit. One or two passages, expressive of 
 elevated feeling, and clothed in pure and eloquent 
 language, caught the attention of the audience, and 
 ere the third act closed, the success of the piece 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 75 
 
 was beyond the reach of doubt. Who that has 
 felt or witnessed the first success of all-believing, all- 
 attempting " two-and-twenty," will fail to appreciate 
 the keenness of the sense of mingled pride and joy 
 that such a triumph naturally afforded ? The tragedy 
 was announced for repetition, and was soon after- 
 wards published, with a dedication full of gratitude 
 and compliment to her whose " zealous exertion and 
 great talents" had mainly contributed to its favour- 
 able reception. 
 
 The story of Adelaide is founded on an incident 
 connected with the emigration of the noblesse during 
 the French Revolution. Whether the tragic tale was 
 derived from some narrative of suffering which the 
 author had heard from the lips of some of the youth- 
 ful exiles amongst whom his school-days had been 
 passed, or whether there lingered in his mind vague 
 memories of their misfortunes, from which his busy 
 imagination wove the fable afterwards embodied in 
 the play, — who now can tell? Few survive of the 
 intimates to whom he was accustomed to impart his 
 immature conceptions as they grew and formed them- 
 selves ; for never was there one whose nature oftener 
 impelled him to 
 
 " Snatch at his laurels while yet they were growing 
 
76 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 or who was more consciously dependent upon sym- 
 pathy for sustainment in his intellectual efforts. 
 When, in after years, the subject of his first play was 
 adverted to, he could rarely be induced to dwell upon 
 it. The pride and pleasure of its early success were 
 not forgotten, but his judgment of its defects had 
 become inexorable, and his over sensitiveness exagge- 
 rated both their number and degree. The truth is, 
 that while no one who cares for his fame can desire 
 that his first composition shall be regarded as a fair 
 test or specimen of his poetic powers, it cannot be 
 denied that it contains many passages of touching 
 beauty, and possesses, as a whole, no inconsiderable 
 merit. 
 
 St. Evermont, a refugee of noble birth, accepts the 
 hospitality of Count Lunenberg, a Viennese courtier, 
 who woos and deceives Adelaide, the only daughter 
 of the aged emigre. Her father's first misgivings are 
 excited by her refusal to accept the hand of a dis- 
 tinguished noble ; but he repels distrustful thoughts 
 respecting his daughter, remembering that 
 
 " Suspicion is the growth of meaner spirits ; 
 Yet does misfortune often cherish it, 
 And then it lurks a rank and leafless weed 
 Amid the ruins of a noble mind." 
 
 His grief and anger when he finds that he has lost 
 the confidence, though not the affection, of his child, 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 77 
 
 is heightened by her unexplained absence from the 
 cottage where Lunenberg had permitted them to 
 dwell. He goes to seek her, while Julia, the be- 
 trothed of her brother, endeavours to soothe her 
 mother's fears. 
 
 Julia. — She said that in the very deep of night, 
 Amid the abbey's ruined solitude, 
 The holy rite was done. 
 
 Madame St. Evermont. — Oh ! do not speak, 
 Lest you disturb the quiet of the air ; 
 And then — Hark ! there — a step — it conies this way. 
 'Tis she. 'Twas nothing but the fitful breeze 
 That rustled through the multitude of leaves. 
 
 Julia. — Perhaps — 
 
 Madame St. Evermont. — Perhaps ! It is a blessed sound, 
 And hope is fond of it. The sable slave 
 Stands on the beach of Western India's isles 
 In evening's breathing hour, and says "perhaps." 
 The captive in his darksome prison-house 
 Doth watch a ray of light upon the wall, 
 And gives an utterance to the holy word. 
 'Tis heard within Potosi's silver tombs, 
 Gasps in the fetid air of hospitals, 
 And in the naked huts of poverty. 
 "Why is that comfort then denied to me ? 
 "Why then not say "perhaps ?" Speak it again, 
 It is a drop of balm upon my heart. 
 
 An amusing anecdote relative to this period is told 
 by one who afterwards became one of his most zealous 
 fellow-workers in political life. Passing, one Sunday 
 morning, through Abbey-street, this gentleman heard 
 
78 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 his name called, in a low tone, by an acquaintance 
 who resided in a house exactly opposite to that of Mr. 
 Sheil. "Come/' he said, laughing, "I will show 
 you a strange sight." They entered the house, and 
 from the drawing-room window perceived through the 
 open casement of the same floor, on the other side of 
 the way, what the prosaic householder assured his 
 friend was a confirmed case of insanity. The young 
 dramatist alternately sat at a small table, where he 
 wrote with astonishing rapidity, and then starting up 
 approached a full-length mirror, clasped his hands, 
 and seemed to recite with passionate earnestness 
 what he had been composing. "There he is, poor 
 fellow," said his compassionate observer, " quite mad. 
 The rest of the family are all gone to prayers, and he 
 is making the most of his time while the house is 
 still ; for his father hates the notion of his writing 
 plays, and worries him about it." 
 
 Whatever pride his father may have taken in the 
 eclat attendant on his theatrical success, he had no 
 disposition to tolerate the abstraction of his son's 
 future thoughts from that profession towards the 
 attainment of eminence in which all his parental 
 dreams of ambition for years had tended. He had 
 watched with pleasure the early predilections of the 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 79 
 
 boy for all kinds of fervid declamation. He had re- 
 counted fondly to his intimates the good report of his 
 preceptors at Stoneyhurst of his progress in classical 
 study, English composition, and rhetorical exercises. 
 He had not concealed his exultation at the notoriety 
 won by the precocious demagogue at Catholic meet- 
 ings; and the praises bestowed on Adelaide were 
 enhanced in his estimation by the recollection that 
 they were due to an impatient energy on the part of 
 his son to be enrolled a member of the bar. And 
 were all the climbing hopes of professional profit and 
 renown to be suddenly dashed by a wayward pre- 
 ference for the applause of playgoers, and the tran- 
 sient celebrity attendant upon dramatic verse ? De- 
 clining health and fortune had not tended to improve 
 a temper naturally irritable ; and the frank and fear- 
 less avowals by his son, that he looked with more 
 confidence to the success of his powers as a writer 
 than a lawyer, oftentimes filled the old man's heart 
 with bitterness and vexation. He was accustomed, 
 during the sittings of the courts in term, to frequent 
 the " Hall," at that time the centre of all gossip and 
 news-telling in Dublin, and where he was sure to hear 
 whatever might be said of his son. But the sounds of 
 professional appreciation and promise for which he 
 
80 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 so anxiously listened, came not, or came only at long 
 intervals, and the disappointed father returned to his 
 house, inwardly cursing plays and players as the in- 
 contestible cause of his son's slow progress at the bar. 
 Feelings like these would frequently have way round 
 the domestic hearth, where Richard was ever ready to 
 defend himself from what were in reality unreasonable 
 reproaches, by a thousand arguments full of wit and 
 irony. In truth he was in few respects to blame. 
 Whatever junior business came to him he did with 
 exemplary diligence and punctuality. A professional 
 friend, who is still living, remembers having sent him 
 a brief, in some ordinary matter, which required his 
 attendance at the sitting of the court. Accident 
 brought the solicitor somewhat earlier than usual to 
 the Hall, where he found no other occupants than the 
 doorkeeper and the youthful advocate, who was pacing 
 to and fro. The testimony of many others might be 
 cited to the like effect. At no period of his profes- 
 sional life was he ever accused of neglecting business, 
 or coming into court unprepared. But it was not his 
 fate to win the preference, often unaccountable and 
 capricious, of those who have it in their power to 
 make the fortunes of young men of ability and attain- 
 ments in the law. Examples might be multiplied 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 81 
 
 without number, of men whose youth and prime 
 have passed away while waiting on the shore ere 
 the tantalizing tide has reached them, and whom, 
 nevertheless, it has at length raised rapidly and borne 
 securely into golden havens. Those in whose moral 
 constitution there has happily been infused sufficient 
 insensibility or phlegm, wait on without shivering or 
 sinking; and they have their reward. Of the broken 
 hearts that perish in the protracted struggle for 
 honourable existence the world takes no heed; and 
 as for the most part they disappear silently, no curious 
 inquisition is made into the cause. There are a few 
 to whom a different destiny from either appertains : 
 who have neither the unfeeling fortitude of the one, 
 nor the faint-hearted susceptibilities of the other: 
 who are neither insensible to the ill usage of fortune, 
 nor crushed by her buffetings : who fight with fate, 
 and try if haply they may cajole her into relenting; 
 and who, in the restless round of varied expedients 
 and attempts, necessarily incur more exposure, pain, 
 and humiliation than their pride will ever suffer them 
 to tell, or the insolence of the world would believe 
 were it told. Something of the terrible experience 
 in question was at a later period depicted by Sheil in 
 some of the essays which he published anonymously, 
 
 VOL. I. Gr 
 
82 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and to which allusion will hereafter more particularly 
 be made : and other evidences are still in existence of 
 the bitter mortifications which are the lot of every 
 man who, without the possession of a competency, 
 attempts to tread an ambitious path in life ; and who, 
 unable to stifle within himself the inspirations of a 
 divine nature, is perpetually beset and baffled by the 
 meanest exigencies of existence. Ought all these to 
 be set forth in detail to gratify the curiosity of the 
 crowd ? Assuredly, no. To the many, who after all 
 are, happily for themselves, secure from such trials 
 and temptations, and who happily also for themselves 
 are out of all true and practical sympathy with those 
 who undergo the struggle, — such details are, per- 
 haps, more likely to convey misleading than correct 
 impressions ; and to the comparatively few who have 
 been schooled by fellow-suffering in fellow-feeling, 
 such details are seldom acceptable when uttered in 
 the public way. If it be true of all men, surely it is 
 more especially true of men of genius, that " the heart 
 knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger compre- 
 hendeth it not." 
 
 In the course of this year he was an occasional 
 guest at the Priory, the country residence of Mr. 
 Curran, then Master of the Eolls. Few survive who 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 83 
 
 can recal the delightful evenings that a limited circle 
 were permitted to enjoy at the table of that remark- 
 able man. Of his eloquence in public many memorials 
 remain; but of the exuberant flow of his wit and 
 imagination in social converse, no adequate records 
 have been preserved. He loved to see around him 
 younger men of genius, in whose generous political 
 aspirations, in the intervals of the deepening gloom 
 that overshadowed his latter days, he keenly sym- 
 pathised. His irrepressible love of humour was some- 
 times, indeed, indulged at their expense, when some 
 extravagance of phrase or premature air of dignity 
 fairly provoked a laugh ; but no one ever more cor- 
 dially recognised the promise of undeveloped ability, 
 or cheered more readily by his praise, the early efforts 
 of his friends. Instances of both are narrated, re- 
 specting Sheil, who was at the time more given to an 
 ambitious tone of conversation than others of his 
 standing, and whose consciousness of the defects in his 
 personal appearance was apt to betray itself upon 
 trivial occasions. The latter peculiarity soon caught 
 the eye of Curran. It is possible that he set it down 
 to morbid vanity, but in any case he was sure to give 
 it no quarter. "One day at dinner," says Mr. Charles 
 Phillips, " somebody made a passing remark which 
 
 g2 
 
84 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 appeared to make the colour rise to the cheek of our 
 young author, who affected gravely to repudiate the 
 imputation. With tragic emphasis, Mr. Curran ex- 
 claimed — ' I did not think that aught could bring a 
 blush into that casearius countenance.' " Sheil was 
 much annoyed at this joke, and did not recover his 
 good humour during the evening. But when, on 
 another occasion, some one whose colder temperament 
 led him to speak disparagingly of SheiFs intellectual 
 resources as compared with his affluence of diction, 
 Curran warmly replied : u No, no ; you underrate 
 greatly the ideas of which his mind is full, and which 
 are not the less valuable and varied because the cur- 
 tains hang in splendid drapery 
 
 Somewhat later he became acquainted with Mr. 
 Grattan, on whom he looked with feelings of mingled 
 wonder and veneration, and in whose political foot- 
 steps he continued to walk until death terminated the 
 aged patriot's career. His recollections of the pleasure 
 and profit derived from intercourse with these two 
 gifted men, remained to the latest period of his life 
 fresh and unfading. Comparing them, some years 
 afterwards, with other eminent persons whom he had 
 known, he thus writes : " Curran was certainly the 
 most eloquent man whose conversation I ever had an 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 85 
 
 opportunity of enjoying. But his serious reflections 
 bore the character of harangue, and his wit, with all 
 its brilliancy, verged a little upon farce. He was so 
 fond, indeed, of introducing dialogue into his stories, 
 that at times his conversation assumed the aspect of 
 a dramatic exhibition. The conversation of Mr. 
 Grattan was not of an after-dinner cast. You should 
 have walked with him through the woods of Tinne- 
 hinch, and listened to his recollections of a better day, 
 by the sound of the lulling and romantic waters of 
 those enchanting groves, in which, it is said, he 
 studied the arts of elocution in his youth, and through 
 which he delighted to wander in the illuminated sun- 
 set of his glorious age. It was necessary that his 
 faculties should be thrown into a swing before they 
 could come into full play. He poured out fine senti- 
 ments and glittering epigrams. It was in sketches of 
 character that he excelled; but you should give him 
 time and leisure for the completion of his miniatures." 
 
 Little inducement existed to take part at this time 
 in Irish politics. The schism regarding the Veto still 
 continued. The authorities at Home, to whom eccle- 
 siastical powers had been intrusted by the Pope dur- 
 ing his captivity in France, did not, when appealed 
 to, confirm the views taken by the Anti-\ etoists. 
 
8G 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 The publication of a letter, addressed 16th February, 
 1814, by Monsignore (afterwards Cardinal) Quaran- 
 totti to Dr. Poynter, excited afresh the vehemence of 
 controversial passions. " Having taken the advice of 
 the most learned prelates and divines/' said the writer 
 of this memorable letter, — "having examined the 
 letters which had been transmitted to him, both by 
 Dr. Poynter and the Archbishop of Dublin (Dr. Troy), 
 and the matter having been maturely discussed in a 
 special congregation, it was decreed, that the Catholics 
 might with satisfaction and gratitude accept and em- 
 brace the Bill which was last year presented for their 
 emancipation." A hope was expressed that, having been 
 lost by a small majority in the previous session, the 
 Bill would be introduced anew ; it was declared that 
 ' ( it was highly proper that their prelates should be 
 agreeable and acceptable to the king; that they 
 should exercise their ministry with his full consent 
 and finally, it was " allowed that those who were 
 designed for a bishopric or deanery, and were proposed 
 by the clergy, might be admitted or rejected by the 
 king, according to the proposed Bill."* By the 
 Anti-Vetoists, the decision thus pronounced was not 
 regarded as ecclesiastically binding; and on the libe- 
 * Butler. Yol. iv. ; Appendix, p. 518. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 87 
 
 ration of Pius VII. expectations were entertained that 
 it would be reversed. Both clergy and laity addressed 
 the Pontiff on the subject; but his answers did not 
 contain the condemnation looked for. 
 
 In a letter from Cardinal Litta to Dr. Poynter, 
 dated 26th April, 1815, the Pope was described as 
 " feeling no hesitation," in case the Bill requiring 
 securities should pass, " in allowing those to whom it 
 appertained to present to the King's Ministers a list 
 of candidates, in order that if any of them should be 
 obnoxious, or suspected, the Government might im- 
 mediately point him out, so as that he might be 
 expunged,"* &c. &c. 
 
 The terms here used were fully adopted and con- 
 firmed by the Pontiff in a letter to the Irish bishops, 
 February 1, 1815. 
 
 " For the prevention, therefore, of those evils which 
 were to be apprehended on the part of so powerful a 
 Government, no other means appeared to us sufficient, 
 but that of agreeing to those rules relative to the 
 election of bishops, which are mentioned in the letter 
 of Cardinal Litta. Now with regard to the powers 
 which we have expressed an intention of granting, 
 we consider it, not only as making part of a fit and 
 * Butler. Vol. iv. ; Appendix, p. 534. 
 
88 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 wise arrangement of ecclesiastical affairs, which shall 
 be at once not injurious to religion, and a means of 
 averting from it many calamities otherwise to be 
 feared, but also as a likely motive towards the attain- 
 ment of emancipation."* 
 
 The conditions are fully recapitulated under which 
 it had been agreed to acknowledge a Veto in the 
 Crown, and those to whom the letter was addressed 
 were exhorted to acquiescence therein. 
 
 But the Government of the day paid little regard 
 to concessions so offered ; and all who in Ireland 
 adopted their tone and spirit, became the objects of 
 popular suspicion and dislike. 
 
 On their side, the Vetoists too sanguinely believed 
 that by combinations in Parliament and negotiations 
 with Rome, the question of religious disabilities might 
 be ere long adjusted ; and the notion seems to have 
 been industriously circulated that agitation was more 
 likely to prove a hindrance than a help to the end 
 desired. To what extent this feeling may have con- 
 tributed to the long cessation of any combined effort 
 for the removal of religious disabilities during the 
 period which followed, it is difficult perhaps to say. 
 Certain it is that the angry altercations about the 
 
 * Butler. Vol. iv.; Appendix, p. 544. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 89 
 
 Veto tended to sow doubts and divisions in the minds 
 of every class of the community. Popular incredulity 
 quickly begot popular apathy ; and the most hopeful, 
 by temperament, were at length forced to confess that 
 civil equality looked as though it were further off 
 than ever. 
 
 Disgusted with the condition of things, in which 
 he saw no likelihood of a speedy change, the mind 
 of Mr. Sheil soon became engrossed with other 
 thoughts and feelings. His habit of soliloquizing 
 upon subjects that most deeply interested him, 
 regardless of time or place, often rendered him 
 a source of comment, and sometimes of amusement 
 to strangers as well as friends. A story of this 
 kind is told, for which there probably is some 
 foundation, and at which, when rallied on the sub- 
 ject by one who knew him intimately, he laughed 
 heartily himself. A short time after he became 
 acquainted with Miss O'Halloran, he was much 
 struck by the beauty of her person and many accom- 
 plishments. But he seems nevertheless to have 
 doubted for a time whether his admiration was 
 sufficiently warmed into affection to justify him in 
 offering his hand. With conscientious care he set 
 about examining his own emotions, and with habitual 
 
90 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 candour answered every question which a metaphysical 
 imagination could suggest. While engaged in this 
 process of self-introspection he was overheard by his 
 friend in one of the passages of the Four Courts 
 anxiously interrogating himself : " Well, truly, admi- 
 ration is akin to love, but is the kindred close enough 
 with me ? I think it is : but let me see ; — if she 
 were now to die, would it mar my future happiness ? 
 I am sure it would ; — yes, I am in love, there's no 
 denying it." Soon afterwards he made his proposals 
 to the lady, which were accepted. She was the 
 daughter of a merchant of respectability in Dublin, 
 who had died not long before, leaving but a slender pro- 
 vision for his family. Mrs. O'Halloran was the sister 
 of Colonel MacMahon, private secretary to the Prince 
 Regent, through whose influence the Mastership 
 of the Rolls had recently been conferred upon his 
 brother. Whatever anticipations may have been 
 formed as to the advantages of this connexion, it is 
 certain that none, even of a professional kind, were 
 derived from it by Mr. Sheil. When spoken to on 
 the subject by others, Sir William MacMahon always 
 excused himself, intimating pompously that " a sense 
 of public duty rendered it impossible for him to 
 identify himself with a person holding and expressing 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 91 
 
 such violent opinions." When it was suggested to 
 him, two or three years later, that he might easily 
 obtain a commissionership of bankruptcy for the hus- 
 band of his niece, who there was reason to suppose if 
 it were offered would accept it, although the emolu- 
 ments were inconsiderable, he declined to interfere. No 
 greater service could probably have been rendered to 
 him whom it was intended to slight, than this refusal. 
 The office was one calculated to lead to nothing in 
 the way of professional advancement, while it was 
 one that must have tended to withdraw the individual 
 who held it from any active participation in political 
 life. But the neglect and indifference of the Master 
 of the Rolls was not the less felt by the still briefless 
 barrister, because some dim consciousness perhaps of a 
 higher destiny, and a natural elasticity of temperament, 
 rendered him more inclined to laugh at the solemn 
 affectations of his judicial relative than seriously to 
 resent his demeanour towards him. "The only thing 
 which provokes me," he would say, " is that people 
 should fancy I have never got anything out of him ; 
 it is quite untrue, he once asked me to breakfast." 
 
 Adelaide was performed on the 23rd of May, 
 1816, at Covent Garden. Mr. Young, Mr. C. Kemble, 
 Miss O'Neil, and Miss Foote, sustaining the prin- 
 
92 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 cipal parts. Owing to some accidental circumstance, 
 the house was thinly attended, and though many 
 scenes excited applause, the performance, as a whole, 
 went off flatly, and it does not appear to have been 
 repeated. 
 
 During the winter of 1816, his thoughts were full 
 of a second dramatic effort. The incidents he selected 
 for the groundwork of the plot, were taken from the 
 tragic story of the oppression suffered by the Moors 
 in Spain, previous to their final extirpation. Persecu- 
 tion for political purposes, in the desecrated name of 
 religion, had about this time been revived in the 
 Peninsula, under Ferdinand VII., and the eager spirit 
 which chafed daily at Catholic disfranchisement in his 
 own land, gladly sought occasion to depict in unsus- 
 pected verse, the hatefulness of intolerance, as exhi- 
 bited by a despot professing the Catholic creed. The 
 interest of the play turns upon the love of Hemeya, 
 the titular prince of the Moors of Granada, for the 
 daughter of a Christian noble, who rejects his suit, as 
 being that of an Infidel. Pescara, the tyrannical 
 governor of the province, is, moreover, a rival, and to 
 secure the unwilling hand of Florinda, produces a 
 decree of Philip II., interdicting the marriage of a 
 Mahomedan with a Christian. After a long struggle 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 93 
 
 between his faith and his affection, Hemeya declares 
 himself ready to conform. A revolt, of which it was 
 intended he should be the head, is disconcerted by the 
 discovery of his apostacy. Filled with remorse by 
 the reproaches of the veteran counsellor of his youth, 
 he endeavours to persuade Malec to fly, and subse- 
 quently joins in the attempt to rescue him when con- 
 demned to death by the Inquisition. The faithful 
 Moor escapes, while Hemeya is made prisoner, and 
 Florinda is compelled to wed Pescara, as the only 
 means of saving her lover's life, but dies by poison, 
 that she may not violate her early vow. Hemeya, 
 having slain his cruel rival, falls by his own hand. 
 
 In the spring of 1817, there were rumours at 
 Covent Garden, of an expected tragedy by the author 
 of Adelaide. The reputation of the young poet ex- 
 tended beyond the walls of the theatre, from the part 
 he had already taken at public meetings in Ireland. 
 Miss O'Neil expressed great interest in him, and 
 augured well of future success. He came to town, 
 accompanied by his young and accomplished wife, to 
 whom he had been recently married, and an early 
 day in April was named for the reading of the play. 
 " When he began to read The Apostate in the green- 
 room, there was a disposition," says 'Sir, Macready, 
 
94 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " to smile at his very peculiar voice and manner, but 
 its earnestness soon riveted attention, and the reading 
 terminated to the satisfaction of all but myself, who 
 had to undertake the disagreeable character of Pescara. 
 I had met him the day before at Wallace's*' chambers, 
 and it was impossible to be in his company and not 
 to like him. Our acquaintance soon ripened into 
 friendship, which was never relaxed during his life."f 
 After due preparation The Apostate was produced 
 on the 3rd May, 1817, Mr. Young, Mr. C. Kemble, 
 Mr. Macready, and Miss O'Neil sustaining the prin- 
 cipal parts. The anxiety with which an author wit- 
 nesses the first representation of his play has passed 
 into a proverb, and there never was any one, perhaps, 
 who by natural temperament was doomed to suffer 
 more intensely from the oscillations of hope and fear 
 incident to such an occasion, than our youthful dra- 
 matist. With painful solicitude he watched the per- 
 formance during the first and second acts. All went 
 well, however. There was some applause, no mur- 
 murs, and at length, sick of his own misgivings, 
 and conscious perhaps that he betrayed a certain want 
 
 * Wallace, the contimiator of Sir J. Mackintosh's History of 
 England. Lardner's Cyclopaedia. 
 
 f Letter of Mr." Macready, January 28th, ]854. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 95 
 
 of dignity in the irrepressible excitement of his 
 look and manner, he betook himself to the green- 
 room when the third act began, resolved to remain 
 there during the remainder of the play. Few of 
 its usual occupants were lingering there ; and one 
 of the attendants soon observed the restless author 
 pacing with measured steps the estrade, or narrow 
 platform, which was placed all round the room, and 
 on which a continuous row of seats was specially 
 devoted to the performers. For a time he seemed 
 wholly unconscious that any one was present ; he then 
 suddenly stopped, and in a low tone exclaimed, "Can 
 you tell me, sir, about what time they generally begin 
 to hiss tragedies at this house ?" 
 
 The success, however, was in every respect com- 
 plete. It ran through Miss O'NeiPs remaining nights 
 of the season, and was resumed during the next. 
 The character of Florinda was eminently suited to 
 this distinguished actress, and seemed as if it had 
 been specially written for her. Contrary to his anti- 
 cipations, the part of Pescara, as sustained by Mr. 
 Macready, afforded him ample opportunity for the de- 
 velopment of powers which previously had hardly 
 won their due meed of appreciation. All who remem- 
 ber this remarkable performance concur in opinion 
 
96 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 regarding it. Amongst them was one whose critical dis- 
 crimination and impartiality are alike beyond question. 
 Ludwig Tieck, the German commentator on Shake- 
 speare, describes himself as having been peculiarly 
 attracted by the performance of a villain in one of 
 Mr. SheiPs tragedies. " This villain," he says, " was 
 admirably represented, and was indeed so vehement, 
 truthful, and powerful a personation that, for the first 
 time since he had been in England, he felt himself 
 recalled to the best days of German acting. If the 
 young man continued in this style, he would go far." 
 This opinion he repeated in 1839. It was by Mr. 
 Young, who personated the character of Malec, that 
 the lines were uttered regarding the Inquisition, which 
 drew forth at the time the liveliest expressions of 
 applause. 
 
 The following is the passage thus alluded to : — 
 
 Hemeya. — Are we not bound to each ? The lordling Spaniard 
 Treads on our heads. "We groan beneath the yoke 
 That, shaken, gores more deeply ! — 
 Resistance will but ope new founts of blood, 
 To gush in foaming torrents. — Dost thou forget 
 The Spaniard lifts the sword, and almost wishes 
 That we should give pretence to tyranny ? 
 Look at yon gloomy towers ; e'en now we stand 
 Within the shadows of the Inquisition. 
 
 Malec. — Art thou afraid ? Look at yon gloomy towers !— 
 Has thy fair minion told thee to beware 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 97 
 
 Of damps and rheums caught in the dungeon's vapours ? 
 
 Or has she said those dainty limbs of thine 
 
 Were only made for love ? Look at your towers ! — 
 
 Ay ! I will look upon them, not to fear, 
 
 But deeply curse them. There ye stand aloft, 
 
 Frowning in all your black and dreary pride, 
 
 Monastic monuments of human misery, — 
 
 Houses of torment, — palaces of horror ! 
 
 Oft have you echoed to the lengthened shriek 
 
 Of midnight murder ; often have you heard 
 
 The deep choaked groan of stifled agony 
 
 Burst in its dying whisper. Curses on ye ! 
 
 Curse on the tyrant that sustains you, too ! 
 
 Oh, may ye one day from your tow'ring height, 
 
 Fall on the wretches that uphold your domes, 
 
 And crush them in your ruins ! Oh, Hemeya ! 
 
 Look there, Hemeya ! think how many Moors, 
 
 How many of our wretched countrymen 
 
 Are doom'd to perish there, unless 
 
 Hemeya. — By Heavens ! 
 Thy burning front, thy flaming eyes proclaim it — 
 Some glorious thought is lab'ring— speak — what mean'st thou ? 
 I feel thy spirit's mastery — my soul 
 Fires in the glowing contact. — Malec, speak 
 Tell me, what can we do ? 
 
 Malec. — What men can do 
 Who groan beneath the lash of tyranny 
 And feel the strength of madness. Have we not scimitars ? 
 'Twas not in vain I sought those rugged heights, 
 Nor vainly do I now again return — 
 Amid the Alpuxerra's cragged cliffs, 
 Are there not myriads of high-hearted Moors, 
 That only need a leader to be free ? 
 Thy voice would be a trumpet in the mountains, 
 That from their snow-crown'd tops and hollow vales 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Would echo back the blast of liberty, — 
 Dost thou not understand me ? 
 
 Hemeya. — Speak ! — Can I free my people ? Can I rend 
 Our shameful bonds asunder, and revenge ? 
 
 Make. — Can'st thou ? 
 
 Hemeya. — Do not command me not to love; 
 But, if there be a road to liberty, 
 Provided Death, with his uplifted dart, 
 Stand at its entrance Speak — is there a way ? 
 
 Malec. — And, were there not a way, 
 We'd hew one in the rock ! — There is a way 
 
 Hemeya. — My soul hangs in thy lips — 
 
 Malec. — I fear thee still — 
 I fear thy wav'ring nature. 
 
 Hemeya. — No, you wrong me ! — 
 By Heav'n you wrong me ! — 
 
 Malec. — Pall upon the earth, 
 And by thy father's sacred memory — 
 By all thy people's wrongs — by Allah's name — 
 Swear 
 
 He was desirous of disposing of the copyright of 
 his play, but was at first somewhat at a loss to whom 
 he should offer it. The publishing world was to him 
 a region still unknown. All he could do was to ask 
 the names of the chief bibliopoles of the day, and 
 take his chance of coming to terms with some of 
 them. One day, when passing along Piccadilly, the 
 name of Hatchard eaught his eye. " A first-rate 
 house, I'm told," he muttered to himself, as he stopped 
 at the door, and made up his mind to enter. He was 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 99 
 
 shown into the private room, and in a few minutes 
 found himself in the presence of the well-known 
 publisher of orthodox divinity. " I have a work/' he 
 said, " which I wish to know if you will purchase." 
 
 " Serious, I presume, sir ?" was the circumspect 
 reply. 
 
 " Yes, decidedly ; rather too much so, perhaps ; but 
 still one whose popularity I think you will admit 
 may be anticipated, inasmuch as it has already made 
 some noise — it is a tragedy." 
 
 Something between a shiver and a smile passed 
 over the features of Mr. Hatchard as he gravely 
 uttered the decisive words — " We, sir, print nothiug 
 but sermons." 
 
 " Oh, then, I need not waste your time or my own; 
 for I, sir, write nothing but plays." 
 
 A critic in the Quarterly Revieiv, while declaring his 
 belief that the days of dramatic excellence had passed 
 away, and that, with the exception of three or four 
 plays which he enumerates, nothing had been pro- 
 duced since the days of Shakespeare worthy of remem- 
 brance, acknowledges the great success which The 
 Apostate had met with in representation. Much of 
 this he ascribes to the manner in which it had been pro- 
 duced, and to the skilful adaptation of character to the 
 
 h 2 
 
100 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 varied powers of the chief performers. He candidly 
 admits, however, that " this tragedy possesses the 
 merit of preserving unremitted interest in the pro- 
 gress of the narrative, from the first act to the last ; 
 the dramatic excitement never ceases or languishes ; 
 it is supported by a rapid succession of events, which, 
 though destitute of intrinsic novelty, are very varied ; 
 and by a catastrophe, which, though common-place, is 
 certainly unexpected : — this is a great and necessary 
 art in dramatic composition; without it, poetry 
 fatigues and passion exhausts us ; but still, it is rather 
 an art than a talent ; it savours more of the experience 
 of the mechanist than of the inspiration of the poet. 
 But let us estimate it as we may, its use on the stage 
 is as indispensable as its effect is resistless ; and that 
 which produces a powerful effect must be allowed to 
 possess some share of merit." He likewise owns that 
 " The versification does not resemble that of any other 
 author; and in this age ofsc7wols, not to be a plagiarist 
 is to be not wholly without praise."* The writer 
 compensates himself for these admissions by carica- 
 turing the scenic accidents of the piece, by complain- 
 ing that the language does not adequately sustain the 
 " strength of the situation," and by objecting that 
 * Quarterly Review », for April, 1817, No. xxxiii, p. 259. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 101 
 
 the Inquisition is denounced by the unhappy Moors 
 who were its victims, and who, he conceives, had no 
 right whatever to complain of the cold-blooded perse- 
 cution of Philip II., because men of the same creed 
 elsewhere had been fanatical conquerors some centuries 
 before. As a matter of historic criticism this objec- 
 tion is singularly infelicitous. Whatever their other 
 faults may have been, or those of their kindred and 
 creed elsewhere, the Mahomedans of Spain are allowed, 
 even, by the annalists of their exterminators, to have 
 been eminently tolerant and humane. The Christians, 
 in all matters exclusively relating to themselves, were 
 governed by their own laws administered by their 
 own judges, their churches and monasteries were 
 scattered over the principal towns, Cordova retaining 
 seven, Toledo six, &c. ; and their clergy were allowed to 
 display the costume and celebrate the pompous cere- 
 monial of their communion.* Such of the Christians 
 as chose were permitted to remain in the conquered 
 territory in undisturbed possession of their property. 
 They were allowed to worship in their own way, to be 
 governed by their own laws, to fill certain civil offices, 
 and serve in the army ;f Christian students were per- 
 
 * Prescott's Hist. Ferdinand and Isabella, Introd. ; § 1, note, 
 f Prescott's Hist., Part 1st, chap. 8. 
 
102 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 mitted to frequent the Moslem Universities of Anda- 
 lusia ; and among those who came from far to par- 
 take of an educational hospitality too seldom imitated 
 in Christendom, were men who, like the exemplary 
 Gerbert, subsequently rose to the highest eminence 
 in the Church, and who contributed to found new 
 seats of learning in their own lands. 
 
 Besides the gratification derived from its success, the 
 publication and performance of The Apostate were pro- 
 ductive of other advantages, not less acceptable. The 
 copyright was purchased by Mr. Murray for 300^., and 
 in his hands it passed through several editions. In 
 addition to this, the author is said to have received 
 400^. from the managers of the theatre. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 103 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 1818— 1S20. 
 
 Attack on Mr. Grattan by the mob— Interposition of Mr. Sheil 
 — Play of Bellamira — Rehearsal — Miss O'Neil : Mr. Gifford — 
 Shirley's Traitor — Era due — Visit to Paris : Talma — Dra- 
 matic writings — Montoni — Damon and Pythias. 
 
 At the general election of 1818, Mr. Grattan and 
 Mr. Shaw were returned for the city of Dublin 
 without opposition. The proceedings at the hustings 
 passed off quietly, and Mr. Grattan' s friends had 
 arranged that, as was customary, he should be chaired. 
 His appearance on the steps of the court-house was the 
 signal for vociferation and insults from the mob, with 
 whom he had recently become unpopular. The cavalcade 
 had not proceeded very far when symptoms of violence 
 began to be manifested : stones from various quarters 
 were thrown at the chair ; and at length Mr. Grattan 
 was compelled to seek for safety in a house in Capel- 
 
104 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 street, the door of which was soon beset by his sense- 
 less and infuriated pursuers. The decorated car was 
 in a few moments torn to pieces ; the windows of the 
 house in which the venerable patriot had sought a 
 shelter were quickly broken ; and in the absence of 
 any police force sufficient to disperse the rioters, serious 
 alarm was felt lest an attempt should be made to 
 break in the door. At this critical moment Mr. Shei], 
 having quitted the court-house, where he had been 
 present at the nomination, reached the street which 
 had become the scene of this disgraceful outrage, and 
 hearing that Mr. Grattan was supposed to be in danger, 
 he entered the first door which he found open, and, 
 hastening to a balcony, commenced an earnest and 
 eloquent appeal to the populace on topics not imme- 
 diately connected with the subject of their irritation. 
 Caught by the sound of his shrill, though then un- 
 familiar voice, and the passionate gestures with 
 which his impromptu harangue was accompanied, the 
 curiosity of the multitude rapidly passed into admira- 
 tion; and finding his object gained, the young orator 
 continued to amuse and flatter his fickle audience 
 until time had been given for the rescue of the aged 
 and insulted statesman. 
 
 Encouraged by the success of his dramatic efforts, he 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 105 
 
 had devoted a considerable portion of his too abundant 
 leisure, in 1817, to the composition of a tragedy- 
 called Bellamira ; or, the Fall of Tunis. The story 
 is founded on an incident in the life of Charles V., 
 who, provoked by the incessant piracies of the Moors, 
 led a considerable army into Africa, to liberate the 
 many Christians held in captivity, and to avenge the 
 cruelties to which southern Christendom had long 
 been exposed. The incidents mainly consist of the un- 
 expected recognition, by a father, of his daughter, who 
 on the same day finds in a fellow prisoner the husband 
 whom she had long mourned as dead. An early rival 
 of the latter, banished from Venice for his crimes, and 
 become a renegade to faith as well as country, is 
 in command of the garrison of Tunis, and seeks to 
 avenge his early wrongs against the husband by the 
 dishonour of the wife, whom he now treats as his 
 slave. A revolt of the Christians, on hearing the 
 tidings that an army of deliverance is at hand, inter- 
 cepts the oppressor in his purpose, and he falls by the 
 dying hand of the father, whom he had wounded 
 when unarmed. The unities, regarding which the 
 old controversy had about this time been revived, are 
 strictly observed throughout the piece. The cha- 
 racters are classically few, and the emotions by which 
 
106 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 they are animated are of that touching simplicity and 
 depth that is best fitted to enlist the sympathies of 
 the many in the tale of tragic woe. There are several 
 passages of much force and beauty ; and, for the most 
 part, the interest of the dialogue is well sustained. 
 But an impartial judgment could not deny that many 
 of the faults found by the critics of the day mar (espe- 
 cially in reading) the pleasure which the composition 
 is otherwise calculated to produce. 
 
 Sanguine and enthusiastic, however, our author 
 laid his new performance before Miss O'Neil, and 
 successfully solicited her all-powerful aid in bringing 
 it before the 'public. He was likewise fortunate 
 enough to find that at Covent Garden Mr. Young, 
 Mr. Charles Kemble, and Mr. Macready were willing 
 to undertake the principal parts ; and it was finally 
 arranged that the play should be produced early in 
 the ensuing season. Mr. Sheil himself constantly 
 attended the rehearsals ; and one of the distinguished 
 actors already named used to recount a laughable 
 blunder made on one of these occasions. At the end 
 of the fourth act, Montalto, when seeking to rescue 
 his daughter from the grasp of Amurath, instinctively 
 feels for the handle of his sword, forgetting that in 
 the previous scene he had given it to his brother. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 107 
 
 The intention of this gesture not being understood, 
 some embarrassment arose at the rehearsal as to the 
 tone and action with which the line — 
 
 " My scimitar, my scimitar, — my child !" 
 
 ought to be given. The author eagerly interposed, 
 and in his ardent method of instructing the actors, 
 he put himself in the place of Young, to show him 
 how he wished the conduct of the scene to be 
 managed : " Now observe, — here's Mr. Young, here's 
 Mr. Kemble. Well, the guard comes on — Mr. Young 
 draws his sword, and finds he has not got it." 
 
 A somewhat caustic, though far from unfriendly 
 notice of Bella mi ra, from the pen of Mr. Leigh Hunt, 
 appeared soon after its first performance, in the 
 Examiner. " The tendency to declamation/ 5 and to 
 " mistake vehemence for strength, the impatience of 
 lowness for the attainment of height, and excessive 
 tragic effect physically overpowering for real effect at 
 once carrying away and sustaining," — are justly re- 
 proved. But these comments are intermingled with a 
 cordial appreciation of the scenic merits of the piece, and 
 the fervid expression of sentiments pure and exalted, in 
 language chastened by good taste and unaffected feel- 
 ing. The faults are ascribed to a " 3 r oung ambition, 
 
108 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ardent for its purpose, without the experience requisite 
 to obtain it." But the evidences of future promise 
 are freely acknowledged, and Mr. Sheil is described 
 as one obviously possessing " sense and spirit enough to 
 pursue the hints" thus given, by "cultivating his 
 reading, and still more by his observation of human 
 nature."* These stimulating admonitions, as we 
 shall hereafter see, were not thrown away. 
 
 Bellamira was well received at first, and appears to 
 have been repeated frequently during the season of 
 1818. A sum of 300/. was received by the author 
 from the theatre; and Mr. Murray became the 
 purchaser of the copyright for 100/. Miss O'Neil, 
 however, was not satisfied with the effect of the 
 character she had to sustain, and intimated to Mr. 
 Harris, at that time lessee of the theatre, her indis- 
 position to its performance being continued. 
 
 It was at Mr. Murray's that Mr. Sheil became 
 acquainted with Mr. Gifford, who was then preparing 
 an edition of the works of Shirley for publication. 
 Gifford spoke of one of the plays as almost fit for 
 representation, and asked Mr. Sheil to call upon him, 
 that he might give him a printed copy : he did so 
 
 * Examiner, April 26, 1818. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 109 
 
 next day, and received from him the proof sheets of 
 the Traitor, with which he was greatly delighted; he at 
 once applied himself to the task of its adaptation, and 
 exnlted in being able to find a new character in 
 Lorenzo for his friend Macready. He made con- 
 siderable alterations, and, omitting altogether the 
 most important scene of the old drama, substituted 
 for it one wholly different in conception and language. 
 Old Mr. Harris, to whom it was then submitted, 
 returned it with the remark that an altered play 
 never had the same interest and attraction as a new 
 one, and that the person who could write such a scene 
 as that in the third act, (the statue scene afterwards 
 embodied in Evadne) ought to write the entire play 
 himself.* This suggestion was not unfruitful. His 
 mind continued to dwell upon the subject, and some 
 months after he had completed what was destined 
 to prove the most lastingly popular of his compo- 
 sitions. 
 
 On the 10th of February 1819, was produced Evadne , 
 which, both as regards poetic merit and originality of 
 dramatic effect, has generally been considered the most 
 successful effort of our author. The accomplished 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Macready, 20th January, 1854. 
 
110 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 critic whose strictures and suggestions regarding the 
 preceding play have been already noticed, was prompt 
 to recognise the superior power of delineation and 
 purity of style manifested in Evadne. " This play has 
 very interesting passages of character, plot, and 
 dialogue. The character of Evadne, who is so devoted 
 to her lover that she cannot bear the idea of his being 
 miserable or hurt, even though he has forsaken her 
 — who smiles and dries up her tears, and then 
 appeals to the staring gladness of her poor eyes to 
 persuade her brother that he has not injured her — 
 and who goes to her lover's supposed wife to get her 
 to use her usurped influence in order to prevent a 
 duel — this truly feminine and noble character is a 
 delightful relief from the selfish and extravagantly 
 virtuous wives who have been palmed upon us of late 
 for women. The scene amidst the statues of her 
 ancestors, where she puts herself, as it were, under the 
 protection of the marble image of her father,, who had 
 instructed the king and saved his life, and then asks 
 him whether he can take her away, is very fine ; if it 
 does not come from Shirley, who is said to be Mr. 
 Sheilas original, it does great honour to that gentle- 
 man's invention, and is the best and perhaps the only 
 novelty of incident in living tragedy. We have not 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. Ill 
 
 Shirley's play of the Traitor by us, of which Mr. 
 Sheil is said to have made use; but either he has 
 made great use of it indeed, or agreeably to the 
 advice we gave him on a former occasion, he has set 
 himself to think, as well as to produce effect, and has 
 thought to some purpose ; he has felt his own way 
 through the dialogue, and had a sense of things, as 
 opposed to words. We always thought he had a 
 nice, delicate, and ingenuous nature; and if this 
 dialogue is his own, his powers of intellect are on a 
 par with it."* 
 
 In the Preface to Evadne, as originally published, f 
 it is stated that a portion of the fable on which 
 Shirley's Traitor is founded had been employed in 
 the construction of the plot ; and from this, doubtless, 
 arose the groundless impression that some of the finer 
 passages, as well as a part of the general conception 
 of character and grouping, were derived from the old 
 and forgotten play. But no one who is at the pains 
 to compare the two tragedies will find any further 
 resemblance between them than that which the author 
 himself indicates. In both, the lawless passion of an 
 Italian despot for the sister of one of his nobles is 
 
 * Mr. Leigh Hunt : Examiner, Feb. 14th, 1819. 
 t Murray, 1819. 
 
112 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 encouraged by the traitorous counsels of his chief 
 minister, who hopes thereby to compass his dethrone- 
 ment and death, but who, in his guilty purpose is 
 baffled by the constancy and resolution of the heroine, 
 who, to save the prince from her brother's vengeance, 
 meets him alone, and shames him back to virtue. 
 
 But beyond these incidents, little, if any, resemblance 
 is perceptible. The character of Amidea is one of 
 the least interesting or striking which the vigorous 
 pen of Shirley has portrayed ; and her resort, in her 
 defence, is to a concealed dagger, with which she 
 wounds herself, exclaiming — 
 
 Let this deserve your faith — I dare be just — 
 This crimson river issuing from my arm. 
 Duke.— Hold ! 
 
 Amidea. — Never ; it shall flow ; and if this channel 
 Yield not enough, I'll strike another vein, 
 And after that another, and not pity 
 The murmuring stream till, through a prodigal wound, 
 I have drain'd the fountain: this doth weep for you, 
 And shall extol my death, if it may teach 
 You to correct your blood.* 
 
 The interest of the story in Shirley's play is not a 
 little spoiled by a sort of second plot, serving appa- 
 rently no other purpose than to make away with 
 nearly all the lives that have been saved in the 
 * The Traitor, Act iii., scene 3. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 113 
 
 previous one. Amidea having escaped suicide, falls 
 by the mistaken hand of her brother, in a moment of 
 unjust suspicion, while the tyrant is slain by his 
 perfidious minister, whom fate overtakes in the same 
 scene. Passages of great power and beauty are sullied 
 by coarseness, not of expression only, but of idea ; 
 and there is throughout a want of concentration and 
 simplicity, calculated to mar the effect of the whole. 
 
 Nothing can be more unlike in almost every 
 feature than the chaste and simple drama of Mr. 
 Sheil. Feminine tenderness and generosity are com- 
 bined with noble courage in the conception of the 
 principal character. The lover, beguiled into the 
 unjust belief of her inconstancy during his absence, 
 ere he renounces her, thus mourns over the beauty 
 that had so long enchained him : — 
 
 Let me peruse the face where loveliness 
 Stays, like the light after the sun is set. 
 Sphered in the stillness of those heaven-blue eyes, 
 The soul sits beautiful ; the high white front, 
 Smooth as the brow of Pallas, seems a temple 
 Sacred to holy thinking ! and those Hps 
 Wear the sweet smile of sleeping infancy, 
 They are so innocent. — Ah ! thou art still 
 The same soft creature, in whose lovely form 
 Virtue and beauty seemed as if they tried 
 Which should exceed the other, — thou hast got 
 That brightness all around thee, that appeared 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 An emanation of the soul, that loved 
 To adorn its habitation with itself, 
 And in thy body was like light that looks 
 More beautiful in the reflecting cloud 
 It lives in, in the evening. Oh ! Evadne, 
 Thou art not altered — would thou wert ! 
 
 Vicentio is about to wed another. Evadne thus 
 forgives and blesses him : 
 
 May you be happy with that happier maid 
 
 That never could have loved you more than I do, 
 
 But may deserve you better ! May your days, 
 
 Like a long stormless summer, glide away, 
 
 And peace and trust be with you ! — May you be 
 
 The after patterns of felicity, 
 
 That lovers, when they wed, may only wish 
 
 To be as blest as you were — loveliness 
 
 Dwell round about you like an atmosphere 
 
 Of our soft southern air, where every flower 
 
 In Hymen's yellow wreath may bloom and blow ! 
 
 And when at last you close your gentle lives, 
 Blameless as they were blessed, may you fall 
 Into the grave as softly as the leaves 
 Of two sweet roses on an autumn eve, 
 Beneath the soft sighs of the western wind, 
 Drop to the earth together ! For myself — 
 I will but pray — I will but pray my lord. 
 
 Vicentio. — I must be gone, else she may soon regain 
 A mastery o'er my nature. 
 
 Evadne. — Oh! Vicentio, 
 I see that I am doomed a trouble to you. 
 I shall not long be so. I soon shall cease 
 To be of care to you, or to myself, 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 115 
 
 Or to auglit else in this gay glittering world : 
 There's but one trouble I shall ever give 
 To any one again. I will but pray 
 The Maker of the lonely beds of peace 
 To open one of his deep hollow ones 
 Where misery goes to sleep, and let me in ; — 
 If e'er you chance to pass beside my grave, 
 I am sure you'll not refuse a little sigh, 
 And if my friend (I still will call her so) 
 My friend, Olivia, chide you, prithee tell her 
 Not to be jealous of me in my grave. 
 
 In the closing scene, when pursued by the unworthy 
 solicitations of the King, Evadne relies on the potency 
 of her eloquence alone. And there are few finer con- 
 ceptions in our dramatic literature than that in which 
 she appeals for protection to the statues of her ances- 
 tors ; and, pointing to her father's marble effigy, asks : 
 
 Know you this statue ? 
 King. — No, in sooth, I do not. 
 Ecadne. — Nay, look again — for I shall think but ill 
 Of princely memories, if you can find, 
 Within the inmost chambers of your heart, 
 No image like to this — look at that smile — 
 That smile, my liege — look at it ! 
 King. — It is your father ! 
 Evadne. — {Breaking into exultation) 
 
 Aye ! — 'tis indeed my father ! — 'tis my good, 
 Exalted, generous, and god-like father ! 
 Whose memory, though he had left his child 
 A naked, houseless roamer through the world, 
 Were an inheritance a princess might 
 
 i2 
 
MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Be proud of for her dower ! — It is my father ! 
 Whose like in honour, virtue, and the fine 
 Integrity that constitutes a man, 
 He hath not left behind ! — There is that smile 
 That, like perpetual daylight, shone about him 
 In clear and bright magnificence of soul ! 
 Who was my father ? 
 
 [With a proud and conscious inter rogatory.'] 
 
 King. — One, whom I confess 
 Of high and many virtues. 
 
 Fvadne. — Is that all ? 
 I will help your memory, and tell you first, 
 That the late King of Naples looked among 
 The noblest in his realm for that good man, 
 To whom he might entrust your opening youth. 
 And found him worthiest. In the eagle's nest 
 Early he placed you, and beside his wing 
 You learned to mount to glory ! Underneath 
 His precious care you grew, and you were once 
 Thought grateful for his service. His whole life 
 Was given to your uses, and his death — 
 Ha ! do you start, my lord ! On Milan's plain 
 He fought beside you, and when he beheld 
 A sword thrust at your bosom, rushed — it pierced him ! 
 He fell down at your feet, — he did, my lord ! 
 He perished to preserve you ! [rushes to the statue] 
 
 Breathless image, 
 Although no heart doth beat within that breast, 
 No blood is in those veins, let me enclasp thee, 
 And feel thee at my bosom. Now, sir, I am ready — 
 Come and unloose these feeble arms, and take me ! — 
 Aye, take me from this neck of senseless stone, 
 And to reward the father with the meet 
 And wonted recompense that princes give — 
 Make me as foul as blotted pestilence, 
 
EICHAED LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 117 
 
 As black as darkest midnight, and as vile 
 As guilt and shame can make me. 
 
 King. — She has smitten 
 Compunction thro' my soul ! 
 
 Eoadne. — Approach, my lord ! 
 Come in the midst of all mine ancestry, 
 Come and unloose me from my father's arms — 
 Come, if you dare, and in his daughter's shame 
 Reward him for the last drops of the blood 
 Shed for his prince's life ! — Come ! 
 
 King. — Thou hast wrought 
 A miracle upon thy prince's heart, 
 And lifted up a vestal lamp to show, 
 To show my soul its own deformity — my guilt ! 
 
 The copyright was purchased by Mr. Murray for the 
 sum of a hundred guineas, and the play went through 
 many editions. From the theatre the author received 
 four hundred pounds. As an acting play it has kept its 
 place longer than any of the others. Of late years 
 the principal part has frequently been sustained with 
 great effect by Miss Helen Faucit : and the lovers of 
 the modern drama in the United States have recently 
 become familiar with Evadne as performed by Miss 
 Julia Dean. 
 
 In September, 1819, he visited Paris, where for the 
 first time he became acquainted with Talma. He 
 found the great actor affable and frank, easy of 
 access, and apparently pleased with the opportunity 
 
118 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of talking to one who was well acquainted with Eng- 
 lish dramatic literature and with the existing English 
 stage. Talma understood the language of Shak- 
 speare well, and had long cherished the idea that he 
 would succeed in the representation in English of the 
 leading characters which he had himself seen Kemble 
 play. He spoke of Kemble's performances in a tone 
 of the highest admiration, but doubted whether his 
 voice would have been strong enough for the require- 
 ments of the French stage. He had studied Hamlet, 
 in particular, and one day, at SheiFs request, recited 
 for him, as he conceived it ought to be delivered in 
 representation, the celebrated soliloquy, "To be or 
 not to be," &c. There was much originality and im- 
 pressiveness about it ; it would not perhaps have alto- 
 gether satisfied a London audience, " but a discrimi- 
 nating actor would have found in it much for study, 
 and even for imitation. It was at once solemn and 
 abrupt. The pauses were long, but the utterance was 
 sudden, and occasionally precipitate. There was an 
 earnestness, and, if I may so say, an impatient curi- 
 osity in his investigations of the mysteries of the 
 grave, which he seemed to open and search like one 
 looking for its secrets like a treasure in its dark and 
 impenetrable depth. Yet there was no less of dignity 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 119 
 
 in this impassioned scrutiny. He was more swift 
 than hurried. The images appeared to pass, like the 
 shadows of rapid clouds, over an elevated mind. He 
 seemed to spring at once over the boundaries which 
 separate us from futurity, and to traverse vast tracts 
 of meditation in a single thought. It was not ex- 
 actly consistent with our notions of Hamlet, but it 
 was a noble portraiture of a man holding discourse 
 with death."* 
 
 His acquaintance with Talma was to him a source 
 of infinite gratification, and a theme on which in after 
 years he often used to dwell. His keen appreciation 
 of the subtler arts of recitation, and of those refine- 
 ments of dramatic enunciation and delivery, of which 
 this great artist is said to have possessed so profound 
 a knowledge, constituted a bond of sympathy between 
 them that took but little time to form. There was, 
 indeed, much that was congenial in their natures : 
 the same " promptitude to feel" deeply and intensely, 
 which manifested itself in private as well as in public, 
 and the same longing for undisturbed repose and 
 thorough love of the tranquillity that the listless and 
 passionless are erroneously believed to be alone fitted 
 to enjoy. To both, long intervals of quietude seemed 
 
 * Article on Taluia. New Monthly Magazine, July, 1S22. 
 
120 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to be the necessary and fitting compensations craved by- 
 Nature for the intense excitements she permitted them 
 to crowd into one delicious hour of effort and success. 
 The mutual recognition of many similar traits and 
 characteristics quickly ripened into intimacy what 
 had seemed at the outset likely to prove but a casual 
 acquaintance. This intimacy doubtless suggested 
 much to the youthful dramatist of which he was not 
 slow to avail himself. But it was likewise suggestive 
 of many other things. His ambition was soon to 
 take another turn; and his talk with Talma was, per- 
 haps, all the more enjoyable by both of them, because 
 it involved but little of the spirit or the tone of pupil 
 and teacher. He was far, indeed, from being insen- 
 sible to the value of the opportunities afforded him 
 of studying, closely and critically, Talma's elaborate 
 elocution. But he felt perplexed by the avowal of 
 impassivity in the delivery of deep and stirring 
 thoughts acquired by constant repetition; and he 
 wisely discarded the notion that to the purposes of 
 popular rhetoric the highly artificial manner of the 
 stage could be suitably applied. 
 
 It had been for some time the wish of his family 
 that one of his brothers should seek for public employ- 
 ment in the East India Company's service. A pro- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 121 
 
 mise of a cadetship had been obtained through the 
 influence of one of the directors, Sir Kobert Campbell : 
 and towards the close of the year, through the inter- 
 vention of Mr. WoulfFe, a second nomination was 
 obtained for a younger brother from Mr. Canning, 
 who then filled the office of President of the Board of 
 Control. Some delay arising in the matter, Mr. 
 Sheil, who took a lively interest in all that concerned 
 the prospects and wishes of his family, proceeded to 
 London in December, accompanied by the two lads, 
 and by his energy succeeded in completing the neces- 
 sary arrangements, so that they were enabled to set 
 out for their distant destination at the same time. 
 Both did well, and rose in due time to positions of trust 
 and distinction. Of the younger, John, honourable 
 mention is made by Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, in a 
 report of an attack on the Pagoda of Key Kloo, dated 
 10th October, 1824* The elder brother, Justin, 
 was likewise distinguished in the Company's service, 
 in which he remained until he was named to the 
 British legation at the Court of Persia, in 1838. 
 
 A third brother, Edward, early devoted himself to 
 mercantile pursuits ; and having been induced to form 
 some business connexions in South America, he 
 * Published in the London Gazette, 24th March, 1S25. 
 
122 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 eventually settled there, and amassed a considerable 
 fortune. 
 
 Mr. Sheilas success in dramatic composition was in 
 a degree attributable to the singular power which he 
 possessed, of keeping vividly before his imagination 
 not only a complete picture of the stage, and of the 
 actors and actresses who were intended to support his 
 characters, but also of their appropriate positions and 
 shifting of positions, with every variation of voice and 
 gesture, so that every scene, when finished on paper, 
 might be said to have already gone through a 
 rehearsal in his own mind. It was often said of 
 him that he had a more thorough knowledge of stage- 
 effect than any manager, writer, or actor of his day. 
 Many traces are perceptible that he relied too much 
 upon this power of producing scenic impressions, and 
 that he was tempted thereby to commit the errors 
 incident to haste and carelessness in composition. 
 For the most part his plays were written with great 
 rapidity. 
 
 In the autumn of 1819 he completed a fifth tragedy, 
 called the Huguenot; and in the winter of the same 
 year he found time for the composition of what 
 perhaps may be more correctly designated a dramatic 
 poem, than in the theatrical sense of the term, a play. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 123 
 
 His eagerness to profit by friendly criticism and 
 counsel was closely associated with his ambition to 
 excel. His sense of obligation in this respect to 
 Miss O'Xeil, as well as for the " zealous and brilliant 
 exertion of her rare talents/** was gracefully acknow- 
 ledged in the dedication to her of a former work. He 
 sought for a suitable occasion to pay a similar tribute 
 of acknowledgment to the friend to whose talents and 
 exertions he felt he likewise owed so much ; and meant 
 to inscribe the Huguenot to Mr. Macready. The prin- 
 cipal character, that of Adolphus, was confessedly 
 written for him, while that of Margaret, by far the 
 most lovable and exalted of the female characters he 
 has drawn, was intended once more to call forth all 
 the passionate tenderness and unaffected dignity of 
 Miss O'Neil. She had accepted the part, and at the 
 beginning of the Covent Garden season our author 
 was again in London, busily engaged in consultations 
 and arrangements for the due production of a work 
 of whose success he not unreasonably entertained 
 confident hopes. But after many weeks had passed 
 in fruitless expectation, "the news of Miss CVNeiTs 
 marriage with Sir William Beecher threw author, 
 manager, and actors into a state of despair. Sheil 
 * The Apostate, a Tragedy, &c. Fifth edition. Murray. 1818. 
 
124 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 was very anxious for the production of his play, and 
 looked at every actress in the hope of finding a repre- 
 sentative of his favourite character of Margaret. But 
 there was only one Miss O'Neil."* There was 
 nothing for it but to postpone for a time the intended 
 performance, and to turn to other thoughts and 
 projects. 
 
 Montoni, which he thought fit to designate a 
 " serious drama/' was read with no little interest in 
 manuscript, and deemed by those whose judgment he 
 usually sought, well suited for representation. The 
 subject had been already dramatised for one of the 
 French theatres, where it had had considerable success. 
 A castle in Calabria is supposed to be haunted by a 
 spectre, which turns out to be the lord of the chateau, 
 whose troubled conscience causes him to walk in his 
 sleep. The accomplice, who had wrung from his 
 fears of exposure the promise of his daughter's hand, 
 is, in the moment of his triumph, terror-stricken by 
 the supposed apparition, and betrays the secret of 
 their common guilt. Out of these incidents it was 
 not difficult to weave a melo-dramatic poem, affording 
 occasions for the expression of conflicting emotions ; — 
 courage palsied by remorse, and parental love para- 
 * Letter from Mr. Macready, already quoted. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 125 
 
 lysed by fear. The grouping is for the most part 
 good, and the situations are throughout well chosen. 
 
 Montoni, the usurper of his nephew's inheritance, 
 is summoned by Gregorio, the abbot of a neighbour- 
 ing monastery, to attend, with other nobles, at the 
 tomb of his murdered brother, that he may join in 
 the invocation of his disembodied spirit. Montoni 
 excuses himself on the ground of his habitual seclusion. 
 
 Montoni. — I have found 
 A woeful plea in the infirmity 
 That broods upon my spirit — this wan cheek 
 Will be my sad approver. With an eye 
 Of pale lack-lustre envy do I see 
 The wretch that in his raggedness displays 
 Unto the biting of the mountain wind 
 A ruddy face of stubborn hardihood. 
 O'er all my soul the sick and pallid fiend 
 Of melancholy sits, and fans to ice, 
 With the slow movement of his yellow wings, 
 My cold and stagnant blood. 'Tis this of late 
 Hath made an exile of me from the sight 
 Of my compeers in nobleness. Yet learn, 
 Had I not feared mine absence might be deemed 
 A negligence of your great dignity, 
 I had not adventured on the moonlight air 
 At old Gregorio's bidding. 
 
 Calatro. — I did pray 
 My lord to take some mercy on his weal, 
 But vainly. 
 
 Montoni. — Tales like this one, in the wilds 
 Of our deserted forests, have enjoyed 
 
126 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 A mournful prevalence. The shadowy wastes, 
 The eternal mutterings of the dismal wave, 
 The solitude's cold taciturnity, 
 Inspire the mood, where superstition moulds 
 Its hideous shapes and wildered phantasies. 
 
 chant. — {Outside.) 
 
 While the moon shines bright 
 
 In the clear cold night, 
 
 With our voices so sweet and slow, 
 
 In long order due, 
 
 Between ivy and yew, 
 
 To the lonely aisles we go. 
 
 For the troubled dead 
 
 In their mould'ring bed 
 
 Do list to a holy prayer ; 
 
 And obey the soft sound 
 
 At the burial ground, 
 
 Of a sweetly chanted air. 
 
 {Procession enters.) 
 
 And lo, to the place 
 
 Where all Adam's race 
 
 Must down at last be laid, 
 
 We have come with the song, 
 
 Which the voices prolong, 
 
 Of robed priests and of sainted maid. 
 ***** 
 
 Gregorio. — There are who thro' the wilderness have seen 
 The dreadful phantom, wafted with a slow 
 And solemn movement ; and the dauntless men 
 Who from tempestuous Ocean win their food, 
 Have from their barks at night beheld a form, 
 Wrapped in the folds of its sepulchral robe, 
 Along the white waste of the moonlight beach 
 Holding its paceless way. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 Montoni. — What action in my life hath given yon 
 To think Montoni's sonl so seared that, like 
 The withered leaf of winter in the wind, 
 I shiver at your breathing ? Go, Gregorio, 
 And teach these mockeries to men are made 
 Of other stuff than I am. Go, and make 
 Their minds as soft as the warm wax, to stamp 
 Your own authority upon their fears, 
 And be they cowards, that you may be lords ! 
 Well too you have prevailed. This hideous lie, 
 This monster sprung full-sheeted from your brain, 
 Affrights Calabria. 
 
 4 -Sfc ifc ¥fc 
 
 Gregorio. — If by the risen dead the murderer 
 Could be denounced, would not Montoni pray 
 That Roderick himself should from the grave 
 Ascend, a horrid witness ? 
 
 Montoni. — If the proofs 
 That o'er Sebastian gather, could receive 
 Such dreadful confirmation from the voice 
 Breathed from the tomb, I would — 
 
 Gregorio. — Roderick arose. 
 That here he stood before us, in your ear 
 With horrid attestation to pronounce 
 Who plunged the murdering knife into his heart, 
 And give him to our vengeance ? Then forefend 
 That I should bid him back ; but with the voice 
 Of holy conjuration, from the earth 
 Let me call up the spirit. — Hark, Montoni ! 
 With sad religious holy melody 
 We summon up the dead. Awake your hymns 
 And let them reach unto the marble depth, 
 To raise its slumbering habitant in all 
 The ghastly vesture of mortality. 
 
MEMOIRS OF 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 First Voice. 
 
 Arise from the grave, 
 
 And obey the dread spell, 
 So from all blasts of hell 
 
 May thine angel thy sad spirit save. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 To human eyes 
 Sad spirit rise, 
 And come again 
 To the world of men ; 
 Arise, arise, arise ! 
 
 Second Voice. 
 
 Spirit, whether of weal or woe, 
 
 Wait thine eternal doom : 
 Tor virtue or for sin below, 
 
 Arise, and burst the tomb. 
 
 Third Voice. 
 
 If in the dwellings of bliss thou art, 
 From the mild light of heaven depart ; 
 Or if in purging fires thou pine, 
 At our sweet song be mercy thine ; 
 And that pale angel at the gates 
 Of penal sorrow, that awaits 
 And hears with such a woeful face, 
 The wailing of that suffering place, 
 Open the iron portals there, 
 And render thee to balmy air, 
 That clad in cold mortality, 
 Thy bleeding shade we see ! 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 129 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Thine airy limbs around 
 
 The solemn shroud be bound, 
 
 And may thine opened heart 
 
 Show where thou didst depart, 
 
 And let the dagger be 
 
 Struck in it deatlifully ; 
 
 And speak, that as the heavens have said, 
 
 Blood for blood be meetly shed. 
 
 In the second act, the exiled heir returns from 
 Palestine, and is introduced to the presence of Montoni, 
 in the disguise of a pilgrim. Montoni questions him 
 of medicinal charms, by which the aching of sick 
 hearts is lulled into repose. 
 
 Montoni. — There are of far-famed science, who full oft 
 Have given me draughts of slumber that have closed 
 The body's sense, but set the brain on fire ; 
 I ask for sleep, and like the mockers, who 
 Poured down the miser's throat the burning gold, 
 For sleep they give me dreams. 
 
 Sebastian. — Once you enjoyed 
 A sweeter quiet ? 
 
 Montoni. — Once ! Oh, the freshful thought 
 Comes like the recollection of a green 
 And pleasant garden, with its running streams, 
 To the faint mariner in the torrid seas. 
 I once was airy as the morning wind, 
 And o'er the mountains, on my gallant steed, 
 Flew at the break of day, in the wild cry 
 Of the rejoicing chase ; my very breath 
 Heaved from my breast so lightly, there was in 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 My common respiration of the air 
 A free, a cheerful, and an open joy. 
 My spirit, like the feather in my cap, 
 Dancing unto the music of the breeze, 
 Prom every small and trivial circumstance 
 Felt the sweet stir of pleasure. Now — but I 
 Can bear with all the rest : I do not hope 
 (For at mine age the elasticity 
 Of the young soul is gone) to feel again 
 The bounding pulse of life in my warm heart ; 
 All that I ask of thee is that thy prayer, 
 Thy medicine, or thy conjuration, win 
 One dreamless slumber for me. 
 
 Other passages of no little poetic merit might be 
 quoted, but Montoni, as a play, had but indifferent 
 success. The secondary characters were ill sustained, 
 and to this circumstance was attributed at the time 
 the little effect which it produced. It must be 
 owned, however, that there is a want of variety and 
 relief in the general tone and colouring. The gloom 
 of supernaturalism alternates only with that of sordid 
 crime, and there is too little development of the better 
 natures that shadowily come and go upon the scene. 
 
 Montoni was first performed on the 3rd of May, 
 1820, and does not appear to have been repeated more 
 than three or four times. 
 
 It was about this time that Mr. Banim submitted 
 his play of Damon and Pj/t/iias to Mr. Sheil, who saw 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHE1L. 131 
 
 in it at once much to praise, but likewise the necessity 
 for many and extensive alterations. Their acquaintance 
 had commenced some time before. While on circuit, 
 the name of the future novelist had been mentioned 
 to Mr. Sheil as that of a young man of much pro- 
 mise, who, without the ordinary advantages of higher 
 education, had already evinced signs of considerable 
 literary power. He had composed a volume of poems 
 possessing no little merit ; and upon his subsequently 
 asking the opinion of Sheil regarding a work of more 
 pretension, to which he had devoted much care, the 
 latter offered to lay it before Sir Walter Scott, with 
 whom he had himself recently become acquainted, 
 and to ask for the young author the benefit of his 
 judgment and advice. Sir Walter returned a kind and 
 encouraging answer ; and soon afterwards, through the 
 intervention of Mr. W. H. Curran, a bookseller named 
 Warren was induced to purchase the copyright, and 
 to undertake the publication of the poem. Sheil was 
 much delighted at this result ; and happening to be 
 in London at the time, two promissory notes for the 
 amount agreed on were placed in his hands. The 
 transaction is alluded to in a letter written some time 
 after, apparently on the eve of circuit, in which he 
 says, that in consequence of his departure for Water - 
 
 k2 
 
132 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ford, and fearing* that Banim might come to town 
 before his return, he had left Mrs. Sheil one of the 
 bills he had got from Warren, in order that it might 
 be delivered to him. 
 
 Banim' s next effort was the play above referred to, 
 in which he be^ffed of Sheil to make whatever altera- 
 tions might be necessary. These, after some hesita- 
 tion, the latter undertook, upon the understanding 
 that the work should be considered as their joint 
 production. A large proportion of the entire was 
 in consequence rewritten. It is still a matter of 
 doubt what passages are to be ascribed to each. The 
 fine scene in the fourth act, where Damon takes 
 leave of his wife and child, is believed to have been 
 written by Banim, while the greater part of the 
 third and fifth acts seems to bear the impress of a more 
 nervous hand. When completed, the play was pro- 
 duced with great eclat, and was well received when- 
 ever it was performed. The story includes little 
 more than a single incident ; but the grouping is 
 highly picturesque, and the dialogue full of feeling 
 and animation. The copyright brought one hundred 
 guineas, and the performance about double that sum. 
 A disagreement unfortunately arose between the joint 
 authors, the origin of which, like that of most foolish 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 133 
 
 quarrels, it were difficult to assign, and hardly worth 
 while to investigate. It is, perhaps, enough to say, 
 that Sheil received a hundred pounds as his share ; 
 and that the dispute caused an estrangement of many 
 years. It never led, however, to any alteration in the 
 tone of generous praise with which he always spoke of 
 Bamm's powers as a writer ; and there are un- 
 doubtedly more than one of his novels which fully 
 justify the opinion. In the course of years, when, on 
 the current of their diverse fortunes they had drifted 
 far apart, Banim found in the literary associate with 
 whom he had foolishly quarrelled, the same ready 
 sympathy and desire to render him service which he 
 had experienced in earlier days. 
 
134 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 1821—1823. 
 
 Controversy with O'Connell — Law and Literature — The Fatal 
 Dowry — The King's Visit to Ireland — Plunket and Saurin — 
 Birth of his son — Death of Mrs. Sheil — Sketches of the 
 Irish bar — Charles Kendal Bushe — Tragedy of The Huguenot 
 — Sketch of Saurin. 
 
 Me. Sheil had hitherto enjoyed little political 
 popularity. He had started in public life on the side 
 of the Vetoists, and nothing had occurred to detach 
 him from the more moderate party. By taste and 
 inclination he was naturally drawn towards persons 
 of the class who are apt to incur the reproach of being 
 fastidious, and of lacking earnestness in political 
 affairs. The members of the old Catholic families 
 who occasionally took part in the public proceedings 
 of the body, were looked upon by the multitude with 
 coldness, and by adversaries with contempt. There 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 135 
 
 was not one man of moral energy amongst them ; for 
 all they were capable of doing, or believed that they 
 could do, disability might have attached to their 
 creed to the end of time. Their utmost idea of agita- 
 tion consisted in the annual reiteration of complaint 
 in petitions to Parliament, worded with such scrupu- 
 lous care, lest any phrase should offend their con- 
 descending advocates in either branch of the legisla- 
 ture, that they seemed almost designed to prove with 
 what entire impunity great wrongs might be inflicted. 
 Every outburst of impatience was reproved by them 
 as injudicious ; every word that savoured of menace 
 was anxiously disclaimed as liable to be misconstrued 
 into disloyalty. The history of past relaxations of the 
 penal code, had for the Catholic aristocracy been 
 written in vain. All the concessions hitherto obtained 
 had been wrung from the fears of domination in its 
 hours of need ; while to the meanness of meek impor- 
 tunity, little, if anything, had yet been yielded. No 
 one saw their weakness or understood its causes better 
 than the young and ambitious advocate, who shrunk 
 not from bearding the popular favourite when he 
 recommended hot or hazardous measures ; and no one 
 strove more sedulously to infuse a worthier spirit into 
 their timid counsels. But they continued to do 
 
136 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 haunted by dreams of compromise ; and they asked, 
 with the force of seeming truth, if they should alienate, 
 by a change of tone, the friends who now pleaded 
 their cause in Parliament, what was there to fall back 
 upon for support in Ireland ? 
 
 There was indeed a multitudinous peasantry in the 
 southern counties, and a pauperized populace in the 
 capital and other large towns ; but a people there was 
 none. Every institution — fiscal, judicial, municipal, 
 educational — was in the exclusive keeping of the here- 
 ditary garrison; and thus every means by which in Eng- 
 land during the worst of times public sentiment has 
 found legally recognized expression, was denied to the 
 professors of the outlawed creed. And general combi- 
 nation was a thing unknown. Secret association would 
 have naturally involved the ideas and the dangers of 
 conspiracy ; and public yet peaceable agitation, with 
 multitudinous membership, a permanent directory, 
 and a national exchequer, was a riddle yet unsolved. 
 The need of its solution, indeed, O'Connell felt to be 
 indispensable. Yet he likewise felt the importance, if 
 not the necessity, of combining the upper classes with 
 the lower in any movement for their common libera- 
 tion. Two things then were essential, that the mode- 
 rate party should be induced to confide in the single- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 137 
 
 ness of the object and the safety of the means pro- 
 posed, — and that the more volatile and inflammable 
 elements of popular passion should be concentrated and 
 directed by him whom they were already accustomed to 
 obey. How were these requisites to be reconciled ? No 
 one knew. O'Connell chafed at the thought of indefi- 
 nite delay, and looked around eagerly, but in vain, for 
 some party already formed or forming, with whom 
 the more democratic section of the Catholics might 
 enter into alliance. Sometimes he imagined it possible 
 that the middle and the working classes of his Pro- 
 testant fellow-countrymen might be re-animated with 
 the feelings of resentment they had shown at the 
 time of the Union, and be persuaded to join in a cry 
 for its repeal. Again he turned towards the Radicals 
 of England, and was ready to co-operate and combine 
 with them for the attainment of Parliamentary Re- 
 form. 
 
 In his annual address to the Catholics of Ireland, 
 on the 1st January, 1821, he excited considerable sur- 
 prise by counselling them to postpone the question of 
 Emancipation for that of Reform. The retirement of 
 Mr. Canning had reduced, he said, their friends in 
 the cabinet to a hopeless minority. It was vain to 
 expect from Parliament, as then constituted, any 
 
138 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 effectual measure of relief; and as the petition en- 
 trusted to Lord Donoughmore and Mr. Plunket had 
 not been presented in the previous session, he objected 
 to its being considered that of the Catholic body in 
 that of 1821. The promulgation of these sentiments 
 naturally excited much surprise, and by many they 
 were deemed alike inexpedient and unsound. Reform 
 as yet commanded but an inconsiderable minority in 
 the Commons, while in the Lords its name was never 
 heard. The cabinet might be unequally divided regard- 
 ing Emancipation, but against Reform its members 
 were unanimously agreed. Would it not, therefore, 
 be in the last degree impolitic to adjourn the pursuit 
 of a cause to which already were committed the 
 highest names in the legislature and in the adminis- 
 tration itself, for the distant and difficult attainment 
 of an entire change in the representative system ? So 
 thought Mr. Plunket and all who acted with him at 
 the time in Parliament. So thought likewise what 
 were termed the moderate party among the Catholics 
 themselves. Mr. Sheil undertook to express their 
 sentiments and his own ; and he did so in the follow- 
 ing letter : — 
 
 "TO THE CATHOLICS OF IRELAND. 
 
 "Mr. O'Connell has published his accustomed 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 139 
 
 annual invocation at the commencement of the new 
 year. To demonstrate the fallacy of his reasoning, 
 and to point out the pernicious tendency of his advice, 
 is my object in addressing you. The concern of every 
 Roman Catholic in our national cause supersedes the 
 sensitiveness with which, upon ordinary occasions, an 
 individual ought to shrink from the public contact. 
 To Mr. (yConnelPs address is annexed the authority 
 of his name. I trust that I shall be able to supply 
 any absence of comparative personal importance upon 
 my part, by the weight of argument and of fact ; 
 and from the high sense which I entertain of Mr. 
 O'Connell's authority, I cannot refrain from making 
 use of it against himself — 
 
 ' Nil se quale fuit hoim'ni illi !' 
 
 I shall state to you the substance of his letter, as 
 well as it can be reduced to coherence and shape. 
 This annual eruption, in which he has flung out such 
 a flaming fragment of declamation, is accompanied 
 with a considerable obscuration, arising from the 
 shower of volatile opinion with which it is attended, 
 nor is it easy to analyse the lava which is compounded 
 out of such a variety of heterogeneous materials. 
 "Upon his preliminary observations on our grievances 
 
140 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 no comment is necessary ; suffice it to say that they 
 are written with feeling and force. Did he confine 
 himself to such exercitations, he would be as wise as 
 he is impassioned. I have to do with the practical 
 part of his letter. He advises for the adoption of 
 Parliamentary Reform the abandonment of our peti- 
 tion for relief; he dwells upon Mr. Canning's resigna- 
 tion — insists that Mr. Plunket shall make no tender 
 of what, by a piece of professional dexterity, he calls 
 the Veto — insinuates that the petition already en- 
 trusted to Lord Donoughmore and Mr. Plunket ought 
 not to be presented, as some of the petitioners are 
 dead, and because he, forsooth, has changed his mind — 
 and concludes with the singular project of amalga- 
 mating (as he terms it) a Quaker into an Irishman. 
 Such are the fashions for January, 1821. Well, then, 
 does Mr. O'Connell really think that you are to be 
 so blinded with all the vapour which he has raised, as 
 to imagine that there exists any connexion whatever 
 between Roman Catholic Emancipation and Parlia- 
 mentary Reform ? Whatever may be the sentiment 
 of a Roman Catholic, in his individual capacity, upon 
 that topic, what has his creed to do with it ? If we 
 cannot obtain relief for ourselves, what shall we 
 procure for others ? If the Roman Catholic question 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 141 
 
 cannot pass through the prejudices, will Reform over- 
 come the interests of the House of Commons ? Mr. 
 O'ConnelFs reasoning 1 goes to show the weakness of 
 the Catholics — why then ally their imbecility to the 
 cause of Reform? What will that cause gain by 
 Mr. O' Connellys casting a peacock's feather into the 
 scale? Where, too, is the certainty of a reformed 
 parliament passing Emancipation? The penal code 
 was enacted by a Parliament which set at defiance the 
 authority of the Crown. It is notorious that many 
 of the opponents of Reform are the advocates of our 
 cause, and it is strange that, even while Mr. O'Connell 
 expatiates upon its necessity, he sets such a high 
 value upon the support of Mr. Canning, who is a 
 zealous enemy to that measure. He even admits 
 that there was lately a mere majority of one against 
 us in the cabinet, and yet he bids us despair, unless 
 his new nostrum be employed. How different was 
 his language, when scarcely one minister was favour- 
 able to our views, and when the late King's opposition 
 operated as an insurmountable barrier for a time ! 
 How did Mr. O'Connell speak, when our hopes hung 
 like wet osiers, and it was needful to employ a strong 
 and commanding spirit to lift them from the stagnant 
 despondency over which they drooped? If we 
 
142 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 identify our question with Reform, will not the oppo- 
 nents of the latter become our foes ? Why accumu- 
 late new obstacles in our way? If our question, 
 simplified as it is by plain right and obvious expe- 
 diency, cannot pass through the needle's eye, will 
 Mr. O'Connell, mounted upon a camel loaded with 
 the Union and Parliamentary Reform, spur the slow 
 and unwieldy animal through the narrow orifice? 
 The Roman Catholics of Ireland do not feel the least 
 inclination to connect themselves with the Reformers. 
 The latter are well aware that we could render them 
 no benefit, and must disarm ourselves. Besides, has 
 it ever occurred to Mr. O'Connell that Catholic 
 Emancipation is to pass the House of Lords as well 
 as the Commons ? And what has the purification 
 of one branch of the legislature to do with the success 
 of the Catholic question in another. Perhaps, how- 
 ever, both Houses of Parliament may fall within the 
 comprehensiveness of his projects, and his next 
 address is to blow the mitres of thirty bishops into 
 the paradise of fools. Enough, however, upon this 
 new speculation, upon which it was scarcely worth 
 my while to insist at so much length. 
 
 " Let us now examine Mr. O'ConnelPs assertion 
 that there is no likelihood — nay, that there is no 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 143 
 
 possibility — of success. It must have been since 
 the month of J uly last that he made this discovery ; 
 nor has he condescended to state by what process he 
 has arrived at this grand political result. The only 
 fact on which he relies is, the resignation of Mr. 
 Canning. He builds upon this single circumstance 
 his ill-constructed fabric of despair. Even if we did 
 lose a vote in the cabinet, as our question is not 
 made a cabinet measure, the loss would not be of 
 much importance. But how has Mr. O'Connell 
 ascertained that the vacancy is to be filled by an 
 opponent of our claims ? He conjectures it, indeed, 
 and it is upon his guess-work that the measures of a 
 nation are to be founded ? Where are the evidences 
 of hopelessness ? Are they to be found in the opening 
 of the army ? If this most valuable concession had 
 been wrenched from the ministry — if it had been 
 ushered in with the sound of trumpets — it would 
 be regarded as a great victory ; and so it was to those 
 brave men whose laurels had, till then, been blighted 
 by their creed. This was the measure which re- 
 moved the Whigs from office, and there was, perhaps, 
 a time when it would have been wise to postpone 
 our petition, nor press upon our earnest friends so 
 perplexing a subject. Did Mr. O'Connell, at that 
 
144 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 time, advise the Roman Catholics to forbear ? No ! 
 he reserves this novel doctrine for the present period, 
 and spares this ministry the embarrassment of a 
 question which distracts them, and is the topic on 
 which they differ. But how does Mr. O'Connell act 
 at this juncture? The very moment that he bids 
 you be silent, he is himself most loud. Does he 
 intend to reserve all expatiations upon our grievances 
 to his own oracular self, and are you to forbear 
 petitioning, that he may continue to address ? Upon 
 the remainder of Mr. O'ConnelPs letter I need not 
 occupy you long. From the subject of Reform he 
 suddenly wheels round to Mr. Plunket : men are not 
 always conscious of their own motives, nor does the 
 mind see itself. The patriotism of Mr. O* Conn ell 
 may be as pure as amber, but even in amber we may 
 find a straw. Mr. O'Connell could not allow any 
 personal feeling to influence him where his country 
 is at stake ; yet, in speaking of Mr. Plunket, he says, 
 ' Neither Mr. Plunket nor Mr. Anything-else shall V 
 The phrase is a transparent one, and the rushlight, 
 with its feeble and fretful fire, is seen behind. It is 
 as clear as glass ; it covers, but does not hide. Mr. 
 O'Connell does not deal very candidly, when he says 
 that Mr. Plunket shall not offer the Veto. Mr. Plunket 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 145 
 
 has already distinctly stated that as the Catholics 
 disapprove of the Veto, it should be abandoned. As to 
 the particular form in which the question may be 
 brought forward, let me remind Mr. O'Connell that 
 upon his proposing, at a very mumerous meeting, a 
 resolution expressive of the unwillingness of the 
 Roman Catholic body to accede to any ecclesiastical 
 arrangement, that resolution was carried by a majority 
 of only six; and when it was communicated to Mr. 
 Plunket, he answered that he should act as he deemed 
 it meet. Let him remember that several of the parishes 
 of Dublin confided their petitions to Mr. Plunket, 
 without the annexation of any resolution whatsoever 
 to control him in the exercise of his discretion. 
 Upon that occasion, when Mr. O'Connell revived the 
 unhappy question of the Veto, I read several passages 
 from his address of January, 1819, in which, after 
 dwelling upon the value of a silk gown, he advises 
 that the subject of the Veto should be buried in utter 
 silence, says that it is not in the power of the Roman 
 Catholics to prevent its real operation, and intimates 
 that it is already in force. 
 
 (C One would have hoped that after these opinions, 
 deliberately set down in all the permanence of ink, 
 Mr. O' Conn ell would hardly have adventured upon a 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 resuscitation of the topic. But inconsistency has no 
 terror for him. In his present address, indeed, he 
 states that he firmly believes in the Roman Catholic 
 religion : I presume he also believed in it in 1819 ; I 
 hope, too, he does not enjoy a monopoly of faith ; nor 
 will the public be inclined to think that such a man 
 as Lord Fingall affords less practical evidence of his 
 creed than any of its more clamorous professors. 
 
 "Mr. O'Connell (and that I take to be the gist of 
 his address) intimates that the petition which has 
 been entrusted to Lord Donoughmore and Mr. 
 Plunket ought not to be presented by them. He 
 says, of the numerous persons who signed that petition 
 some must be dead — is it the petition of the dead 
 men ? Really, when we read arguments of this sort, 
 knowing the ability of the advocate, we must think 
 lamentably of the cause. It is the drowning grasp of 
 a sophist in the agonies of confutation. Even in an 
 ordinary action, the death of one of several parties 
 shall not abate a suit ; and shall the imperial cause of 
 Ireland perish in the death of John Stiles ? He also 
 says that some of the petitioners are abroad, and 
 therefore have no interest. What has become of Mr. 
 O'ConnelFs patriotism? He gives in this opinion a 
 bad sample of the Irishman into which he wishes to 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 147 
 
 transmute every sect. Does he mean to say that an 
 absence from this country would wash all its sufferings 
 from his memory? It is said that an orator of anti- 
 quity had a flute-player always beside him to sound 
 the key by which his voice was to be pitched. It 
 were well if Mr. CVConnell would, before he pens his 
 next address, renovate his languid love of country 
 with the ' Exile of Erin? Mr. O'Connell also says that 
 he has changed his mind. If in the midst of a debate 
 upon a petition of thousands, a single individual was 
 so rash before the House of Commons as to exclaim, 
 ( I have changed my mind — I disclaim the petition, 
 though I have signed it/ should this person, by 
 throwing a pebble into the stream, stop the whole 
 current of a great proceeding? Let Mr. O'Connell 
 remember that all these arguments of his are as ap- 
 plicable to every former petition as to the present. 
 Our petitions are generally submitted to Mr. Grattan 
 seven or eight months before they are presented. Did 
 Mr. O'Connell ever allege that some of the petitioners 
 were dead, or absent, or had changed their minds? 
 Mr. O'Connell insists that the resolution entrusting 
 our petitions to Lord Donoughmore and Mr. Grattan 
 contained a clause that they would be presented forth- 
 with, or immediately, he forgets which. A person who 
 
 L % 
 
148 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 builds an argument upon a word, and does not re- 
 member it, shows what sort of validity he sets upon 
 it. Does Mr. O'Connell really mean to non-suit the 
 Catholics of Ireland ; and is it with a ' forthwith ' 
 that he is to upset the cause of his country ? But 
 neither Mr. CVConnell nor ' Mr. Anything-else/ to 
 borrow his own phraseology, shall dictate to the 
 Catholic body ; and I must inform him, that he wants 
 the power to do ill. The petition was given to Lord 
 Donoughmore and to Mr. Plunket that it might be 
 presented as soon as possible, and it was not possible 
 to present it during the last session, when the Queen's 
 case blocked up all the avenues of the state. To this 
 Mr. O'Connell, however, pays no attention, nor does he 
 affect to know that the question at that time before 
 the legislature was of so absorbing a character as to 
 render every other topic, for the moment, of compara- 
 tive insignificance. It is not in the shocks of an earth- 
 quake that a house is to be repaired. But to oppose 
 arguments of this sort is to combat with shadows : 
 neither Lord Donoughmore, our faithful advocate, nor 
 Mr. Plunket, the legitimate successor of Mr. Grattan, 
 will be swayed by such futilities. The latter gentle- 
 man knows the value of all the points of law made by 
 Mr. O'Connell. He will not be much disturbed by 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 149 
 
 any splenetic pleading. He is placed upon an emi- 
 nence which Mr. O'ConnelPs addresses and harangues 
 cannot reach. 
 
 1 The murmuring surge 
 That on th' unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, 
 Cannot be heard so high.' 
 
 " Mr. Plunket well knows that Mr. O'Connell does 
 not speak the sentiments of the Roman Catholic 
 body ; once, indeed, by following, he appeared to guide. 
 By a flexible accordance between his sense of public 
 duty, with his love of popular praise, he served for 
 some time to indicate the varieties of popular excita- 
 tion. I should be loth to compare him to a sort of 
 political vane, by which all the veerings of the breezes 
 might be determined ; but it were as idle to imagine 
 that the currents of air on which the balloon is borne 
 are regulated by the painted machine that floats upon 
 them, as to suppose that a person swelled out with 
 the very inflammable patriotism of Mr. O'Connell, and 
 raised by the very levity of his opinions, should create 
 the vicissitudes of passion on which he ascends. That 
 gentleman was certainly elevated in a very gaudy 
 vehicle, embellished with every diversity of hue. He 
 had risen with the shout of the multitude, and after 
 throwing out all his ballast, and waving his green 
 
150 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 flag, lie very skilfully adapted his course in this aerial 
 voyage to all the mutations of impulse which agitated 
 the stormy medium through which he passed, until at 
 last, in attempting to rise into a still more lofty 
 region, he has allowed the thin and combustible 
 materials of his buoyancy to take fire, and comes 
 tumbling down in a volume of fiery vapour, composed 
 of the Veto, the Union, and Parliamentary Reform. 
 
 "Richard Sheil." 
 
 To this O'Connell published, on the 12th of January, 
 a reply full of caustic humour. " He was at a loss to 
 know how he had provoked the tragic wrath and 
 noble ire of his Iambic rhapsodist. It seemed to 
 him that anything so unprovoked never appeared in 
 the annals of causeless incivility. He had set out in 
 a passion, and had preserved his inconsistency to the 
 end ; and yet, after all, he would venture to wager that, 
 like the rabid animal in the fable, Mr. Sheil was not 
 
 half so mad as he pretended to be He had 
 
 begun by calling him a ' 'flaming fragment? next he 
 was ' lava? and thirdly, ( heterogeneous materials? 33 
 
 After marshalling the other metaphors of his an- 
 tagonist in grotesque array, he professes to put aside 
 all these as " tawdry and tinsel decorations of melo- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 151 
 
 dramatic oratory M unsuitable to the gravity of the 
 subject. Recapitulating the grounds of his former 
 opinion, "that an unreformed Parliament could not 
 emancipate the Catholics/' he concluded thus : " Mr. 
 Sheil was no doubt, in his own opinion, a diamond of 
 the first water : he was heartily welcome to sparkle at 
 his expense ; but he implored of him, with all the 
 earnestness of the plainest prose, to refrain from his 
 sneering sarcasms, directed against, after all, the 
 finest as well as the most faithful — the long-suffering 
 and very wretched people of Ireland."* 
 
 Mr. Sheil was much irritated at certain insinuations 
 of mercenary motives which the reply contained ; and 
 he consulted his friends, Mr. Ball, Mr. Woulffe, and 
 Mr. W. H. Curran, as to whether he had not a right to 
 call his antagonist to personal account. They found it 
 at first difficult to convince him that, however bitter 
 the retort he had provoked, political invective must be 
 fairly distinguished from personal insult, and that an 
 ineffectual attempt to fix a quarrel upon one whom he 
 had first assailed would only serve to lower him in 
 public estimation. At length he yielded : " I see it 
 now," he exclaimed, " I'll think no more of the matter; 
 I'll go home and finish my tragedy." This contro- 
 * Memoir of O'Coiinell, by Ms Son. Vol. ii., p. 309. 
 
152 
 
 MEM01KS OF 
 
 versy, while it served to injure the general cause, tended 
 to weaken still further whatever claim Mr. Sheil may 
 have had on popular favour. He turned aside once 
 more from politics, in which no path for him seemed 
 likely to open of usefulness or distinction ; and again 
 busied himself, as formerly, with law and literature. 
 One who passed much time in his society at this period 
 describes him as being still without profitable business 
 at the bar ; but as, nevertheless, continuing to keep up 
 his professional reading with diligence. Many an 
 interval was snatched, indeed, from graver study, and 
 devoted to the classics, works of travel, modern fiction, 
 and the elder dramatists. He had many projects of 
 poetic composition, some original, and others con- 
 nected with the adaptation of old and obsolete plays 
 for the modern stage. Amongst the latter was one 
 which he proposed to Mr. Macready, respecting the 
 Maids' Tragedy, which, if partly re- written, he 
 conceived might be rendered highly popular and 
 effective. This project was never executed; but 
 another was about the same time suggested to him, 
 which he entered into with his customary zeal and 
 spirit, and which eventually proved eminently suc- 
 cessful. This was the adaptation of Massinger's 
 almost forgotten play of The Fatal Dowry. On the 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 153 
 
 modern stage the dialogue, as it stands in the original 
 text, would certainly not be producible. There are, 
 moreover, defects in the construction of the plot, 
 which must under any circumstances have rendered 
 it difficult to sustain the interest sufficiently to the 
 end. Both faults disappear in the adaptation. The 
 two most effective scenes, that between Eomont and 
 Young Novall in the fourth act, and that with which 
 the fifth act closes, between Charolois and the father 
 of his bride, are well worthy of being associated with 
 those that have been left unchanged from the pen of 
 Massinger. Beside other alterations, nearly the whole 
 of the latter part of the play was rewritten. When 
 finished, it was submitted to the committee of Covent 
 Garden Theatre, Messrs. Kemble, Willett, and Forbes, 
 who declined acting it. It was, however, produced at 
 Drury Lane in the winter of 1824, and had a splendid 
 success the first night. On the second night Mr. 
 Macready, who sustained the principal character, was 
 suddenly struck down by illness, and as he did not 
 again appear for more than three months, the prestige 
 attending its first production was lost. It remains on 
 the list of acting plays, but no effort seems to have been 
 subsequently made to present it, in a manner worthy 
 of its many and genuine claims to public attention. 
 
154 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 In the summer of 1821, the intended visit of 
 George IV. to Ireland was announced. Sanguine 
 anticipations, soon to be dispelled, were thereby created. 
 " His visit was regarded as the result of high political 
 design, and not of vitiated appetite for applause. No 
 one imagined that his object was merely to ascertain 
 the difference of intonation between the shouts of an 
 English and an Irish mob. The Orange party con- 
 ceived that the liberation of Ireland entered into the 
 royal purposes of George IV. They well knew that 
 such a project would have been easy of achievement, 
 and made a tender of amnesty, if not of peace. Poli- 
 tical opponents met and broke bread together. The 
 king came. The air was rent with applause. The 
 Catholics suppressed all utterance of their wrongs. 
 The king left an injunction of peace as a precious gift, 
 and amidst the acclamation of a whole, and an ap- 
 parently united people, bade them an affectionate fare- 
 well. Love each other, said the king; hate each 
 other, said the law; and the law was speedily 
 obeyed."* 
 
 A change in the Irish administration seems to have 
 been resolved upon soon after the departure of the 
 king. It was at first contemplated to have the Duke 
 * Speech of Mr. Sheil, 21st January, 1822. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 155 
 
 of Wellington as viceroy, but this idea was quickly 
 laid aside, lest it should seem an admission that the 
 condition of Ireland needed the presence of a military 
 chief at the head of local affairs. Such is the only 
 reason stated by the Home Secretary in the despatch 
 which recalled Lord Talbot. There is reason to 
 believe, however, that other considerations had their 
 weight in the preference given by ministers to the 
 Marquis Wellesley, whose success as an administrator 
 in difficult times in India was assigned as the deter- 
 mining cause of his appointment as Lord Lieutenant 
 of Ireland. He had lon^ been amongst the most 
 distinguished advocates of the Catholic claims, of 
 which his brother was equally well understood to be 
 an opponent j and, however little intention may have 
 been felt, either by George IV. or his Ministers, 
 of endeavouring to realise the hopes of equality 
 which he had not scrupled to excite among his 
 Catholic subjects during his stay amonst them, it was 
 deemed expedient to make some show of sincerity, and 
 to prolong, as much as possible, the sedative illusion. 
 The Green Riband had been conferred on the Earl of 
 Fingall ; and the Catholic bishops had been received 
 by the sovereign, wearing the insignia of their office, 
 and had been addressed by him by titles denoting 
 their rank. To what extent might not expedients of 
 
156 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 a similar kind be pushed by a courtly and sagacious 
 viceroy, who had himself given proofs, moreover, that 
 the favours he might officially confer were, in his mind, 
 but a trivial foretaste of that equality which Parlia- 
 ment alone could yield ? 
 
 But then there was the danger of alienating the 
 Ascendancy party, whose power and influence had 
 hitherto been undisputed and supreme. This danger 
 neither Lord Liverpool nor his colleagues had any 
 mind to brave. Their majorities in Parliament during 
 the past session had, on more than one trying occasion, 
 almost wholly disappeared ; and the state of popular 
 feeling in England was not calculated to induce them 
 to hazard the loss of the support they had been accus- 
 tomed to receive in both Houses from the Irish Tories. 
 The double purpose of the cabinet is hardly veiled in 
 the confidential letter of Lord Sidmouth, already re- 
 ferred to. " Being most anxious that the Irish Go- 
 vernment should be so constituted as to conciliate the 
 confidence both of Protestants and Roman Catholics, 
 Lord Liverpool and the other members of the cabinet 
 conceived that object could not be more effectually 
 accomplished than by the association of Mr. Goul- 
 burn with Lord Wellesley, as chief secretary."* And 
 
 * Letter to Mr. C. Grant, 29th Nov., 1821. Life of Lord 
 Sidmouth. Vol. iii., p. 337. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 157 
 
 thus, while it was hoped that the expectations of one 
 party might be vaguely cherished by the nomination 
 of a liberal viceroy, it was supposed that the appre- 
 hensions of the other might be as effectually appeased 
 by the appointment of a chief secretary who was gene- 
 rally believed to be a member of the Orange Society. 
 The Chancellor, Lord Manners, the vice -treasurer, 
 Sir George Hill, and, what was more important than 
 either, the under-secretary, Mr. Gregory, were re- 
 tained, each and all of them being stanch partizans 
 of Ascendancy. 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Bushe remained Solicitor- 
 General, while Mr. Plunket was appointed Attorney- 
 General, in the room of Mr. Saurin, who, indignant 
 at being compelled to make way for his rival, and 
 mortified at finding himself no longer trusted by those 
 whom he had zealously served, refused to be pro- 
 moted to the Chief-justiceship of the King's Bench. 
 Lord AVellesley had stipulated, however, for this 
 change, as indispensable. Mr. Saurin was not a mem- 
 ber of the House of Commons, while Mr. Plunket 
 occupied a pre-eminent station there ; and Lord TVel- 
 lesley foresaw that for the difficult part he had under- 
 taken to play, he would often stand in need of a 
 defender, at once intimately acquainted with facts and 
 
158 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 motives, and possessing at the same time the prompti- 
 tude and discretion of a skilful debater. But besides 
 all this, Mr. Plunket was justly regarded, since the 
 death of Mr. Grattan, as the foremost man amongst 
 the advocates of Catholic claims at the Irish bar, and 
 in the Irish representation. His appointment, there- 
 fore, could scarcely be regarded in any other light 
 than as an earnest of better things to come. Mr. 
 Saurin, on the other hand, was universally looked 
 upon as the soul of the exclusive system; and his 
 removal, more than any other personal change, perhaps, 
 which could at the time have taken place, was calcu- 
 lated to damp the confidence of men in its permanency. 
 A letter was indeed addressed to Lord Manners by 
 the Home Secretary, containing the assurance that 
 " conciliation, not concession" was the principle about 
 to be followed in the government of Ireland, whither 
 Lord Wellesley was sent to " administer the laws, and 
 not to urge an alteration of them : and that, in his 
 conduct towards Catholics and Protestants, no distinc- 
 tion but what was made by law would be made by his 
 secretary."* 
 
 While, by these confidential assurances, it was hoped 
 
 * Letter from Lord Sidmouth, 12th Dec., 1821. Life. Vol. iii., 
 p. 381. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 159 
 
 that the suspicions of the ascendant classes might be 
 allayed, pains were taken to foster the hopes which 
 the Catholics had been led, by the language and man- 
 ner of the king, during his recent visit, to entertain. 
 A meeting to congratulate Lord Wellesley on his ap- 
 pointment took place on the 7th January, 1S22, at 
 which Lord Fingall presided, and at which an address 
 was moved by Mr. O'Connell, and seconded by Mr. 
 Sheil. The address was from the pen of the latter, 
 and briefly but clearly indicated that its congratula- 
 tions were not merely suggested by the recollection 
 that the noble Marquis was the first Irishman since 
 the days of Ormond that had been named as the 
 delegate of the Crown, or the circumstance " that his 
 fame had been long cherished by the people of Ireland 
 as a portion of their national renown." It avowed 
 the sanguine expectation that a wiser and a more 
 generous policy had been determined on, and their 
 hope that the appointment of the new viceroy might 
 be deemed its inauguration. 
 
 A few days after this, an event of domestic interest 
 occurred, from which Mr. Sheil anticipated much in- 
 crease of happiness. He had been some years married, 
 without having had any children. On the 9th of 
 January his only son was born, and after a short in- 
 
160 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 terval his wife was able to receive the congratulations 
 of her friends, and seemed likely to regain her usual 
 health. She was soon afterwards, however, seized with 
 fever, which in a short time terminated fatally. An 
 intimate friend who visited him immediately after this 
 melancholy event, found him engaged in the perusal 
 of certain portions of Scripture, which he referred 
 to with deep emotion. Thus, at the moment when 
 he had most reason to look forward to the comforts 
 and enjoyments of a home, he was unexpectedly left 
 companionless. He sought occupation more than ever 
 in his books and papers ; and in addition to the literary 
 works which had heretofore occupied so much of his 
 attention, he was led to enter upon a new and hitherto 
 untried field of literary labour, in which, during several 
 years subsequently, he was destined to gain no incon- 
 siderable reputation. 
 
 It was during the year 1822 that the first of the 
 well-known series of papers, entitled " Sketches of the 
 Irish Bar," appeared in the " New Monthly Magazine." 
 It presented a striking and characteristic delineation 
 of Mr. Plunket, then Attorney- General, and after- 
 wards Chancellor of Ireland. The conception and 
 execution of this remarkable portrait were alike 
 masterly and original. His early career at the bar 
 and in the Irish House of Commons was picturesquely 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 161 
 
 treated, while his actual position, as occupying an 
 eminent place in his profession, both officially and by 
 the higher title which public opinion can alone confer, 
 was at once defined and accounted for. His singular 
 combination of powers as a reasoner and an advocate 
 were not merely enumerated in the cold method of 
 analysis, but were so finely touched and discriminated, 
 with a pencil at once critical and creative, that those 
 who had never listened to the searching voice, or 
 shrunk before the withering sarcasm of the great 
 orator, were made to feel that they could realize in 
 some degree the strength and the force which he 
 wielded. No man whom Ireland has sent to the 
 united parliament ever extorted such tributes of admi- 
 ration at the same time from the impressible many 
 and the fastidious few. Numerous testimonies to this 
 effect might be adduced from the cotemporary me- 
 moirs of those who had enjoyed the opportunities of 
 hearing him in debate, or meeting him in society; 
 and yet it was not so much from observing him in 
 either that the author of the sketch alluded to pro- 
 fessed to form a judgment regarding him. The Court 
 of Chancery, over which Lord Manners then presided, 
 but in which Mr. Plunket ruled with unacknowledged 
 but unrivalled sway, was the scene specially chosen as 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
162 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 x 
 
 that wherein the ordinary exercise of his rare faculties 
 might he hest appreciated. 
 
 The author of this admirable sketch was Mr. 
 "William Henry Curran, the son and biographer of the 
 illustrious orator whose name he bears. He had for some 
 years been the intimate friend of Mr. Sheil, who, with 
 his assent, undertook to co-operate with him in the 
 task which had been thus so felicitously begun. The 
 series extended over several succeeding years ; and as 
 its joint authorship was known but to few, the greater 
 portion, if not the whole of the merit, was sometimes 
 erroneously ascribed to the subject of the present 
 memoir. It is only right, however, that while his 
 share in these contributions is correctly stated, that of 
 Mr. Curran should likewise be known. To the pen of 
 the latter are to be attributed the biographical por- 
 traits of Lord Plunket, Mr. O'Connell,* Mr. Serjeant 
 Goold, Mr. North, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Doherty, 
 afterwards chief justice of the Common Pleas, in 
 
 * When the sketch of Mr. O'Connell was announced, he 
 evinced no little curiosity as to the tone it would assume, being 
 evidently uncertain as to how he was to be dealt with. He was 
 under the impression then, as many have subsequently been, 
 that it was from the pen of Mr. Sheil. A few days after the 
 publication, his first expression on meeting a friend who had been 
 aware of his anxiety on the subject, was, — "I am satisfied ; they 
 may say what they like of me now." 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 163 
 
 addition to which must be added three papers, entitled 
 "The Hall of the Four Courts/' " Confessions of a 
 Junior Barrister/' and "An Irish Circuit." Mr. 
 SheiPs contributions to the series were somewhat 
 
 and accomplished Charles Kendal Bushe. 
 
 Those who remember the personal appearance and 
 manner of Mr. Bushe will hardly fail to recognise the 
 
 "In bringing the remembrance of other speakers of eminence 
 to my contemplation, their several faculties and endowments 
 present themselves in a different order, according to the propor- 
 tions of excellence to each other which they respectively bear. 
 In thinking, for example, of Mr. Fox, the torrent of his vehement 
 and overwhelming logic is first before me. If I should pass to 
 his celebrated antagonist, I repose upon the majesty of his ampli- 
 fication — the wit of Sheridan, the blazing imagination and the 
 fantastic drollery of Curran, the forensic and simple vigour of 
 Erskine, and the rapid, versatile and incessant intensity of 
 Plunket — are the first associations which connect themselves 
 with their respective names. But there is no one peculiar faculty 
 of mind which suggests itself, in the first instance, as the charac- 
 teristic of Mr. Bushe, and which presses into the van of his qua- 
 lifications as a public speaker. The corporeal image of the man 
 himself is brought at once into the memory. I do not think of 
 any one distinguishing attribute in the shape of a single intellec- 
 
 tual abstraction — it is a picture I have before me. There is a 
 
 3l2 
 
 following description : — 
 
164 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 certain rhetorical heroism in the expression of his countenance, 
 when enlightened and inflamed, which I have not witnessed in 
 the face of other men. The complexion is too sanguineous and 
 ruddy ; but has no murkiness or impurity in its flush. It is indi- 
 cative of great fulness, but at the same time of great vigour of tem- 
 perament. The forehead is more lofty than expansive, and sug- 
 gests itself to be the residence of an elevated, rather than of a 
 comprehensive mind. It is not so much ' the dome of thought' 
 as ' the palace of the soul.' It has none of the deep furrows 
 and intellectual indentures which are observable in the fore- 
 head of Plunket, but is smooth, polished, and marble. The 
 eyes are large, globular and blue, extremely animated with ideas, 
 but without any of that diffusive irradiation which belongs to the 
 expression of genius. They are filled with a serene light, but 
 have not much brilliancy or fire. The mind within them seems, 
 however, to be all activity and life, and to combine a singular 
 mixture of intensity and deliberation. But the mouth is the 
 most remarkable feature in his countenance : it is endowed with 
 the greatest variety of sentiment, and contains a rare assemblage 
 of oratorical qualities. It is characteristic of force, fineness and 
 precision, and is at once affable and commanding, proud and kind, 
 tender and impassioned, accurate and vehement, generous and 
 sarcastic, and is capable of the most conciliating softness and the 
 most impetuous ire. Yet there is something artificial about it, 
 from a lurking consciousness of its own expression. Its smile is 
 the great instrument of its effects, but appears to be too sys- 
 tematic ; yet it is susceptible of the nicest gradations ; it merely 
 flashes and disappears, or in practised obedience to the will, 
 streams over the whole countenance in a broad and permanent 
 illumination ; at one moment it just passes over the lips and 
 dies at the instant of its birth, and at another it bursts out in an 
 exuberant and overflowing joyousness, and seems caught in the 
 fulness of its hilarity from the face of Comus himself. But it 
 is to satire that it is principally and most effectually applied. 
 It is the glitter of the poisoned sneer that is levelled at the 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 165 
 
 heart. His gesture is of the first order ; it is finished and rounded 
 with that perfect care which the orators of antiquity bestowed 
 upon the external graces of eloquence. But it is the voice of 
 this fine speaker which contains the master-spell of his perfec- 
 tions. His style and diction are remarkably perspicuous and 
 clear, but are deficient in depth ; he has a remarkable facility in 
 the use of simple and unelaborated expression, and every word 
 drops of its own accord into that part of the sentence to which 
 it most properly belongs. The most accurate ear could not easily 
 detect a single harshness or one inharmonious concurrence of 
 sounds in the course of his longest and most premeditated 
 speech* But at the same time there is some want of power in 
 his phraseology which is not either very original or picturesque. 
 He indulges little in his imagination, from a dread, perhaps, of 
 
 * A remarkable confirmation of this estimate of his style is to 
 be found in Lord Brougham's historic sketch of this eminent and 
 accomplished person, written after an interval of more than 
 twenty years. 
 
 " I had the great pleasure of his acquaintance, and I also, on 
 one remarkable occasion, saw him examined as a witness, before 
 
 the Irish committee of 1839 The choice of his 
 
 words was most felicitous : it always seemed as if the form of 
 expression was selected which was the most peculiarly adapted 
 to convey the meaning with perfect simplicity and without the 
 
 least matter of exaggeration or softening There 
 
 was shed over the whole the grace of a delivery altogether 
 singular for its combined suavity and dignity. All that one had 
 heard of the wonderful fascination of his manner, both at the bar 
 and upon the bench, became easily credible to those who heard 
 
 his evidence His power of narration has not perhaps 
 
 been equalled. If any one would see this in its greatest 
 perfection, he has only to read the inimitable speech on the 
 Trimblestone cause : the narration of Livy himself does not 
 surpass that great effort. 5 ' 
 
166 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 falling into those errors to which his countrymen are so prone. 
 
 Curran, with all his imperfections, would frequently 
 
 redeem the obscurity of his language by a single expression that 
 threw a wide and piercing illumination far around him, and left a 
 track of splendour upon the memory of his audience which was 
 slow to pass away. The wit of Mr. Bushe is perfectly gentle- 
 manlike and pure. It is full of smooth mockery and playfulness, 
 and dallies with its victim with a sort of feline elegance and 
 grace. But its gripe is not the less deadly for its procrastina- 
 tion. His wit has more of the qualities of railery than imagina- 
 tion. He does not accumulate grotesque images together, or 
 surprise by the distance of the objects between which he dis- 
 covers an analogy. He has nothing of that spirit of whim which 
 pervaded the oratory of Curran and made his mind appear, at 
 moments, like a transmigration of Hogarth."* 
 
 To some the terms of eulogy and admiration in 
 which Plunket and Bushe are spoken of in these 
 Sketches may possibly seem excessive. A calmer and 
 more dispassionate, though certainly not less discri- 
 minating, judge has recorded the impression which 
 a few years later these eminent persons left upon his 
 mind. Sir James Mackintosh, speaking of Bushe 
 and Plunket, when in 1827 the one presided in the 
 Court of King's Bench, and the other in the Court of 
 Common Pleas, said, " Perhaps there have been as 
 
 * Sketches of the Irish Bar, No. II. New Monthly Mag. 
 Oct. 1822. Before the article from which the above quoted 
 passages are taken, had appeared in print, Mr. Bushe was raised 
 to the dignity of chief justice of the King's Bench, which he 
 enjoyed until the year 1842. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 167 
 
 great lawyers, but two such accomplished men never 
 before filled the situation together." He repeated what 
 had he said some years before, that " Lord Plunket, 
 had he been regularly trained to a British House of 
 Commons, would have been the greatest speaker 
 there that he remembered."* 
 
 The Huguenot still lay over, without having been 
 played. A species of tantalization which neither the 
 remembrance of earlier or more recent success was 
 fitted to allay. Covent Garden no longer indeed pos- 
 sessed the singular combination of talents which had 
 lent such powerful aid to the illustration of every 
 piece that was presented during previous years. 
 There were intrinsic merits, however, in the composi- 
 tion, that more than justified the hope that even 
 though less powerfully represented, it would meet with 
 appreciation and applause. The story is taken from 
 one of the old chronicles of the League. Polignac, 
 one of the Huguenot chiefs, having been provoked 
 by unwonted insult to assassinate a noble of the 
 Catholic party, is saved from the punishment of his 
 crime by the heroic assumption of its guilt by his son. 
 In prison garb, and with the crimson brand of murder 
 on his arm, the latter is presented as deploring less 
 
 * Memoirs of Sir J. Mackintosh. Vol. ii., p. 437. 
 
168 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 his personal humiliation than the consequent forfeiture 
 of her esteem whose young heart he had won. Mar- 
 garet is still true to him, hut is urged hy considera- 
 tion for her father's loss of fortune to receive the 
 importunate suit of Montville. Within the precincts 
 of his prison Adolphus hears the notes of a familiar 
 song. 
 
 Adol. — Hush ! it is there ; 
 'Tis there again ! it melts — it flows upon me — 
 The falling dew refreshes all my soul, 
 Barren and flowerless as it is. Stay, stay, 
 Kind spirit, do not fly away from me ; 
 Waft thee not back to heaven ! It hears me not, 
 But in the dissolution of the air, 
 More faint, and as more faint more beautiful, 
 Dies of its own sad sweetness. 
 
 La Roche. — It hath moved you. 
 
 Adol. — It is an air I have heard in happier times ; 
 You wonder that I weep, sir ; yes, you do ! 
 I have heard it said permission has been given 
 To certain fallen spirits to abide, 
 Until the arrival of the ending day, 
 Within the moon's pale glimmerings, where they lie 
 Stretched on the frozen beams in agony. 
 If one of them ('tis a wild phantasy, 
 And yet it might be so) in the dead night 
 Should hear a sound of heaven come melting down 
 The stars' cold solitudes, that did recal 
 The memory of that heaven, and the sad thought 
 Of some dear angel that, before its fall, 
 Had loved and had not quite forgotten it 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 169 
 
 After, do you not think, if essences 
 
 Of a superior nature can shed tears, 
 
 That spirit, though condemned eternally, 
 
 Might weep, and you perceive that — Hush ! 'tis there ! 
 
 {Song heard outside.) 
 
 Star of evening, thou to me 
 Bring'st mournful thoughts for company ; 
 Thou art the planet of love, 'tis said, 
 And so perhaps for some thou art ; 
 But to the cold and withered heart 
 Thou bearest the pain of pleasures fled 
 And hopes long dead. 
 Adol. — That voice ! that voice ! Oh speak to me ! 
 That voice ? 
 
 {Song continued.) 
 
 Sweet star, thou shouldst not look so glad, 
 That in reality art sad — 
 The brilliant herald of decay ; 
 For like consumption's shining eye, 
 "Within that rich and hectic sky 
 Thou showest how soon the rosy day 
 Will die away.* 
 
 The struggle between Margaret's devotion to her 
 father, whose exigences are pressing, and fidelity to 
 Adolphus, of whose fate she is ignorant, is prolonged 
 through the second act. She consents at length to 
 be wedded to Montville, but desires that the rite 
 shall be performed in that part of the church where 
 
 * Act i., scene 1. 
 
170 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 her mother lies entombed. While the procession is 
 advancing to the appointed place, the prisoner is told 
 of the approaching nuptials, and, breaking from his 
 guards, makes his way through the crowd as the cele- 
 bration is about to begin. 
 
 La Roche. — Begin the sacred hymn. {Aside to Margaret.) 
 
 Be of good heart, 
 Margaret. — Oh fear me not, La Roche. I have wrought 
 
 at last 
 
 My resolution into constancy. 
 A spirit rises up from the cold grave 
 And breathes itself upon me: I am now 
 Determined and made up for misery. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 In the soft language of the skies, 
 
 In sweet aerial music call, 
 
 On two fond lovers all 
 
 The bliss in human hope that lies, 
 
 And let no harm appal 
 
 Their fond united hearts, until the day 
 
 When, in the natural decay 
 
 Of life, they pass away. 
 
 [The music of the organ continues. 
 Romont. — {Aside to Margaret.) Margaret, restrain 
 yourself, your shivering hands, 
 Your trembling limbs, and blanched countenance, 
 White as a shroud — for my sake, my dear child, 
 And for your mother's sake, my darling child ! 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Within each trusting bosom be 
 The light of a holy constancy ; 
 
EICHAED LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 171 
 
 Be theirs the pure and artless smile, 
 
 Void of effort, free from guile, 
 
 A soft reflection of the mind, 
 
 Calm and good and bright and kind ; 
 
 May their even lives be spent 
 
 In peace, affection, and content, 
 
 And every pair hereafter pray 
 
 To be as blest and true as they. 
 ***** 
 
 La Roche. — {Beginning the ceremony?) John de Montville. 
 
 {Enter Adoljphus, with frantic aspect. 
 Adol. — Hold ; I command you ! Do not dare to 
 breathe 
 
 Thy cursed spell upon them : Priest, let fall 
 The hand thou hast raised up to consecrate 
 The damned mockery ; and you that there 
 Hold to each other by the foulest touch 
 That e'er made fast a perjury, let go 
 Your impious clasp. I sunder you — I burst 
 Your faithless bonds to pieces, — do you hear me ? 
 There are a hundred echoes that take up 
 And turn my voice to thunder ! Hark ! 'tis sent 
 Back from the vaulted aisles — the very walls 
 Exclaim against you — the cold stone 
 Beneath your feet cries out — the sepulchre 
 Uprises and the dead take part with me. 
 
 Mont.— AVhat art thou ? 
 
 Adol. — What am I ? ask it of her. 
 Oh ask that question of that woman there, 
 If that indeed I have not blasted her 
 To senseless stone already. Margaret, 
 Can you not tell him who I am ? Enquire, 
 If you should need it of her ; she can tell you 
 Much better than myself. 
 
 ***** 
 
172 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Adol. — She faints, and as she faints, a parting beam 
 Of transport shone about her. There was in 
 The closing daylight of her holy face 
 A light as pure, and bright, and beautiful 
 As ever filled up heaven ; and there she lies, 
 Still as the dead, with all the loveliness 
 Of life as yet about her, and I may, 
 Like an enamoured mourner of the tomb, 
 Gaze, thus enrapt, upon her ! 
 
 Mont. — Romont, 
 Can you expound this marvel ? 
 
 Romont. — I cannot 
 Entrust my sense with its habitual faith. 
 
 Mont.— Tis a strange rival that I find, my Lord — 
 A convict, and a murderer ? 
 
 Adol. — Hush ! I pray you 
 Breathe not the terrible and ghastly word, 
 Lest it awake her from the beautiful 
 Undreaming sleep she lies in. Well I know 
 She did not mark the badge of infamy 
 That cleaves here like a vulture ; for her face — 
 Her face was like the sun when she beheld me, — 
 It was all one bright joy. 
 
 La Roche. — Romont, I charge you — 
 Eor more I know of this strange accident 
 Than it beseems me speak — to bear away 
 Your child as fast as possible. My Lord, 
 This rite must be deferred a little while : 
 Romont, I will assist you. 
 
 Adol. — Nay — not yet — 
 Bear her not yet for ever from my sight ; 
 While yet she smiles — for see, she smiles ; her face 
 Yet beams the light of gladness, tho' the soul 
 Hath sunk behind its beauty ; — while she smiles, 
 Let me behold her ! Let me feed my sight 
 
RICHARD LALOR SIIEIL. 173 
 
 With one long gaze upon her : never more 
 Shall we two meet in this dark world. I charge you, 
 Stay yet a moment. Oh ! she's gone for ever ! 
 But she will ne'er be thine. {Turning to Montville). 
 
 On returning to their home, they find the door 
 closed against them by officers, who have taken posses- 
 sion of the house, under the direction of an inexorable 
 creditor. Romont expostulates, but is refused admit- 
 tance. He turns to his daughter, from whose nuptials 
 he had hoped for rescue from the humiliation and pain 
 of penury, and in the bitterness of his breaking heart 
 exclaims — 
 
 Romont. — Come hither ; 
 Give me thy hand ! here are two ducats for thee, 
 "lis all I have ; buy bread with it, and get thee 
 A coverlet to-night. It will be a cold one. 
 I do not part in anger from thee, child. 
 Child, I don't curse thee. If thy tears should salt 
 The bread thou eatest, it shall not be made 
 More bitter for my malediction. 
 But I pray Heaven that we may never meet 
 Upon the earth again ! — May God forgive thee ! 
 
 [Exit Romont. 
 
 Margaret. — 'Twas lately in my heart, but now I feel it 
 Shooting out of my bosom to my brain : 
 All round is desolate and empty ; thro' [Rain. 
 The long-drawn streets there's not a footfall heard ; 
 The storm has no companion left but me — 
 But me and my poor father ! Yet we two 
 No more shall bear each other company. 
 What an' if I did seek my mother's grave, 
 
174 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 It were, methinks, a melancholy joy 
 To live for ever in that ancient church, 
 And sitting there upon a long flat stone, 
 Like any speechless statue of them all, 
 To emulate their coldness and the deep 
 Quiescence of their marble attitudes. 
 And I shall o'er my mother's monument 
 Do the sad office of those sculptured forms 
 We were not rich enough to raise to her. 
 Oh ! I shall play my part in such a still 
 And motionless affliction, that methinks 
 Even he would never recognise me there ; 
 Or if he did, he could not blame me for 
 My cold eternal wedding with the grave. 
 
 [The bell tolls. 
 Ah, me ! I hoped the pattering of the storm 
 Had muffled up this long and maddening sound ; 
 I would to God I did not hear thee ; but 
 Now that I hear, I needs must follow thee. 
 
 [Exit wildly, 
 
 Mr. Shell's unwillingness that the representation 
 of the play should be any longer postponed, is alluded 
 to in a letter to Mr. Curran, who happened to be in 
 London during the latter part of September. " I have 
 finished another tragedy, and it is better than anything 
 I have yet done, so that I have many inducements to go 
 over, i/'Macready be there in time. Ascertain for me, if 
 possible, the exact day of his arrival ; and if you cannot 
 learn it now, inform me of it as soon as you can ; but 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 175 
 
 let it be something certain." Preparations were soon 
 afterwards made for its production in the approaching 
 season. 
 
 Great pains were taken by Mr. Macready pre- 
 vious to its production, the part originally written for 
 Miss O'Neil was undertaken by Miss Kelly, while 
 that of Montville devolved on Mr. Abbott, who, at 
 one of the rehearsals, somewhat disconcerted the other 
 performers by suddenly exclaiming — " 'Twill never do, 
 the title is most objectionable." When asked to explain 
 what he meant, Abbott, with his usual levity, began 
 to laugh, and said, " Can't you guess ? Some scamp 
 will pun upon the name, and cry after the first act, — 
 You-go-not !" The jest w T as of evil augury to the 
 jester as well as to the play. On the first night of 
 its performance, it became speedily evident that Mr. 
 Abbott was very imperfect in his part. By the 
 audience, however, many verbal errors passed unde- 
 tected, and many omissions were unperceived. But 
 upon himself and those who were playing along with 
 him the vexation and misgivings which these faults 
 occasioned, had a far worse effect. It was impossible 
 to tell where his memory or self-possession might 
 altogether fail him ; and instead of being absorbed in 
 
176 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 their own characters respectively, their attention 
 was involuntarily distracted throughout by his short- 
 comings. To complete the ill-luck of the evening, the 
 person who was to have represented the officer sent to 
 take possession of Romont's house, was taken ill 
 during the performance, and being unable to appear, 
 a substitute was found in an individual wholly unac- 
 quainted with the part. Where the father, in the 
 fourth act, claims admission to his dwelling, the substi- 
 tuted officer of the law became very nervous, but 
 contrived to deliver the first few words — " Sir, I 
 am sorry for the task mine office has imposed 
 upon me." But, in reply to the old man's expostu- 
 lation, instead of uttering the words — "Even so, 
 you must not blame me, sir," he became confused, 
 coughed, hesitated, and at length stammered out, 
 "I can't help it, it's none of my fault." This 
 drew down shouts of laughter from the audience, 
 who, doubtless, gave the author credit for the 
 language. Abbott was conscious that he had been 
 the principal cause of the ill-success of the piece, and 
 confessed it to the audience when soliciting for a 
 second hearing. The next night there were fewer 
 actual mistakes, but an unfavourable impression had 
 been created; the representation, as a whole, was 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 177 
 
 inefficient, and its further repetition was not deemed 
 desirable. " Had Miss O'Neil performed the character 
 of Margaret/' says Mr. Macready, " I make no doubt 
 that the success of the play would have equalled at 
 least that of any of its predecessors. My own character 
 was quite equal in its power upon the audience, to the 
 effect of my most successful personations in other plays, 
 but I was worse than alone. Had it not been for the 
 miserable mounting of it, it must have been eminently 
 successful. ' '* 
 
 The disagreeable tidings were conveyed to the 
 author in a letter from his friend, who shared in the 
 ill-success he felt to be undeserved, and who was 
 capable therefore of sympathizing in the mortification 
 he knew that it must bring. The letter arrived in 
 the evening, while Mr. Sheil was enjoying the com- 
 pany of two professional friends ; and was couched in 
 terms intended to put the best face on the affair. It 
 alluded to some complimentary expressions which had 
 fallen from persons of judgment regarding the com- 
 position ; and was accompanied by copies of two or 
 three of the journals in which favourable notices had 
 appeared. But the truth was to be concealed as little 
 as the chagrin which it occasioned. " This is a blow \" 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Macready, 9tli Feb., 1854. 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 
 
 MEMOIES OF 
 
 he exclaimed, and continued silent for some time. 
 Then, as if he had during the interval made up his 
 mind not to suffer the disappointment to appear, he 
 said cheerfully, " Well, I believe this may be a useful 
 lesson, though not very pleasant in the learning ; I 
 see that I had much better dedicate my thoughts to 
 pleading instead of poetry ; let the drama alone, and 
 stick to the briefs. What say you?" he added, 
 addressing one of his companions. There would 
 probably have been no other advice given by his 
 forensic friend upon any occasion; but under the 
 painful circumstances in question, the opportunity for 
 confirming so prudent a resolve was not to be thrown 
 away ; and the conversation soon turned on profes- 
 sional prospects and plans. 
 
 Mr. Sheil thought, and perhaps with reason, more 
 highly of the Huguenot, as a whole, than of any of his 
 preceding dramatic works. Its failure was on this 
 account all the more mortifying, and contributed in 
 no slight degree to turn his ambition from a path 
 which had proved to him beset with disappointment, 
 though not unilluminated by success, into that for 
 which he was undoubtedly better suited, and through 
 which he was destined to reach a more enduring fame. 
 He continued to take interest in matters connected 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 179 
 
 with the stage. A new play, more especially when 
 he was acquainted with the author, seldom failed to 
 excite his curiosity and sympathy, and in the various 
 fortune of those with whom he had become personally 
 acquainted as performers, he continued to take no little 
 concern. His intimacy with Mr. Macready sub- 
 sisted without interruption during his life ; and 
 many who, as writers or as players, were associated 
 in his memory with his own dramatic days, found in 
 him a kind and considerate friend. 
 
 In his second contribution to the " Sketches of the 
 Irish Bar," he undertook to delineate the character of 
 Mr. Saurin, who had for many years occupied the 
 foremost place in his profession, and whose influence 
 in the Administrative Government of Ireland from 
 1808 to 1822 had, not without reason, been predomi- 
 nant. After noticing the incidents of his earlier life — 
 his manful struggle against the Union — his refusal 
 to enter the Imperial Parliament, even with the advan- 
 tages which official position would have given him 
 — his complete ascendency over the mind of Lord 
 Manners — his just indignation when suddenly thrown 
 overboard by the crew of the ship he had so long 
 faithfully steered — and his angry rejection of the chief 
 seat in the King's Bench — the sketch proceeds : — 
 
 n2 
 
180 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " He is now plain Mr. Saurin again, and he bears this reverse 
 with a great deal of apparent and some real fortitude. When he 
 was first deprived of his office I watched him in the Hall. The 
 public eye was upon him; and the consciousness of general ob- 
 servation in calamity inflicts peculiar pain. The joyous alacrity 
 of Plunket was less a matter of comment than the resigned 
 demeanour of his fallen rival. Richard was as much gazed at as 
 Bolingbroke. It was said by most of those who saw him that he 
 looked as cheerful as ever. In fact he looked more cheerful, and 
 that appeared to me to give evidence of the constraint which he 
 had put upon himself. There was a forced hilarity about him — 
 he wore an alertness and vivacity which were not made for his 
 temperament ; his genuine smile is flexible and easy ; but upon 
 this occasion it lingered with a mechanical procrastination upon 
 the lips, which showed that it did not take its origin at the heart. 
 There was also too ready a proffer of the hand to his old friends, 
 who gave him a warm but a silent squeeze. I thought him a sub- 
 ject for study, and followed him into the Court of Chancery. He 
 discharged his business with more than his accustomed diligence 
 and skill ; but when his part was done, and he bent his head 
 over a huge brief, the pages of which he seemed to turn with- 
 out a consciousness of their contents, I heard him heave at 
 intervals a low sigh. When he returned again to the Hall, I 
 observed him in a moment of professional leisure, while he was 
 busied with his own solitary thoughts, and I could perceive a 
 gradual languor stealing over the melancholy mirth which he had 
 been personating before. His figure, too, was bent and depressed, 
 as he walked back to the Court of Chancery, and before he passed 
 through the green curtains which divide it from the Hall, I 
 have seen him pause for an instant, and throw a look back at the 
 King's Bench. It was momentary, but too full of expression to 
 be casual, and seemed to unite in its despondency a deep sense of 
 the injury which he had sustained from his friends, and the more 
 painful injury which he had inflicted upon himself. 
 
 " If Rembrandt were living in our times he should paint a por- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 181 
 
 trait of Saurin ; his countenance and deportment would afford 
 an appropriate subject for the shadowy pencil of that great artist. 
 There should be no gradual melting of colours into each other ; 
 there should be no softness of touch and no nice variety of hue ; 
 there should be no sky — no flames — no drapery — no marble ; but 
 a grand sober-minded man should stand upon the canvas, with 
 the greater proportion of his figure in opacity and shadow, and 
 with a strong line of light breaking through a monastic window 
 upon his corrugated brow. His countenance is less serene than 
 tranquil ; it has much deliberate consideration, but little depth or 
 wisdom ; its whole expression is peculiarly quiet and subdued. 
 His eye is black and wily, and glitters under the mass of a 
 
 rugged and shaggy eyebrow His whole demeanour 
 
 bespeaks neither dignity nor meanness. There is no fraud about 
 him ; but there is a disguise of his emotions which borders upon 
 guile. His passions are violent, and are rather covered than 
 suppressed ; they have little effect upon his exterior — the iron 
 stove scarcely glows with the intensity of its internal fire. He 
 looks altogether a worldly and sagacious man — sly, cunning, and 
 considerate — not ungenerous, but by no means exalted — with 
 some sentiment, but no sensibility — kind in his impulses, and 
 warped by involuntary prejudice ; gifted with the power of dis- 
 sembling his own feelings, rather than of assuming the character 
 of other men ; more acute than comprehensive, more subtle than 
 refined ; a man of point and of detail ; no adventurer either in 
 conduct or speculation ; a lover of usage, and an enemy to inno- 
 vation; perfectly simple and unaffected; one who can bear 
 adversity well, and prosperity still better ; a little downcast in 
 ill-fortune, and not at all supercilious in success ; something of a 
 republican by nature, but fashioned by circumstances into a tory; 
 moral, but not pious ; decent, but not devout ; honourable, but 
 not chivalrous ; affectionate, but not tender ; — a man who could go 
 far to serve a friend, and a good way to hurt a foe ; and, 
 take him for all in all, a useful and estimable member of 
 society."* 
 
 * New Monthly Mag., February, 1823. 
 
182 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 In the course of the same year there appeared like- 
 wise from his pern in the " New Monthly/' sketches 
 of Mr. Joy, who had succeeded Mr. Bushe as Solicitor- 
 General, and of Mr. Sergeant Lefroy. His other 
 contributions to the same periodical in 1822 and 
 1823 were " Eecollections of Talma," already quoted; 
 a review of Casimir Delavigne's play, " Les Vepres 
 Siciliennes and the articles entitled " State of 
 Parties in Dublin/' which contain several graphic 
 etchings of the political groups most prominent at 
 the time in the Irish metropolis. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 183 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 1823—1824. 
 
 Catholic Association — Administration of justice ; petition and 
 debate thereon — Epigram on Baron M'Clelland — Religious 
 education — Polemics — Archbishop Magee — Lord Cloncuny 
 on Repeal — Influence of the Association — Agrarianism — 
 The forfeited estates; Lord Redesdale — Appeal to the 
 English people — Prosecution of O'Connell — Mr. Plunket. 
 
 The condition of things existing in Ireland at the 
 beginning of the year 1823, with reference to the 
 question of Catholic emancipation, as contrasted with 
 that which soon afterwards arose, was thus described 
 by Mr. Sheil : " An entire cessation of Catholic meet- 
 ings had taken place. We had virtually abandoned 
 the question; not only was it not debated in Parlia- 
 ment, but in Ireland there was neither committee, 
 board, nor association. The result was that a total 
 
184 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 stagnation of public feeling took place, and I do not 
 exaggerate when I say that the Catholic question was 
 nearly forgotten ; all public meetings had ceased ; 
 no angry resolutions issued from public bodies; no 
 exciting speeches appeared in the public papers ; the 
 monstrous abuses of the Church Establishment — the 
 frightful evils of political monopoly — the hideous 
 anomaly in the whole structure of our civil institu- 
 tions — the unnatural ascendency of a handful of men 
 over an immense and powerful population — all these, 
 and the other just and legitimate causes of public 
 exasperation, were gradually dropping out of the 
 national memory. The country was then in a state 
 of comparative repose, but it was a degrading and 
 unwholesome tranquillity. We sat down like galley- 
 slaves in a calm. A general stagnation diffused itself 
 over the national feelings. The public pulse had 
 stopped ; the circulation of all generous sentiment had 
 been arrested, and (if I may use the expression) the 
 country was palsied to the heart. What was the 
 result ? It was twofold. The question receded in 
 England, and fell back from the general notice, 
 There it was utterly forgotten, while in Ireland the 
 spirit and energy of the people underwent an utter 
 relaxation, and the most vigorous efforts were neces- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 185 
 
 sary to repair all the moral deterioration which the 
 whole body of the Irish Catholics had sustained."* 
 
 But how was this to be done ? Various schemes of 
 popular organization had been revolved from time to 
 time in the fertile brain of O'Connell; but that 
 which eventually commended itself above all others to 
 his judgment was one which, while it reserved to 
 persons of better education a controlling power, pro- 
 vided for the enrolment of the masses of the people as 
 associate members of the body, the former, on pay- 
 ment of one guinea, and the latter on payment of one 
 shilling a year. This plan was first suggested by him 
 in conversation with a few intimate friends, of whom 
 Mr. Sheil was one, at Glencullen, which was then 
 the residence of Mr. T. O'Mara. The difficulties 
 which it was felt must be encountered were freely 
 canvassed, and it was agreed that the more compre- 
 hensive and democratic portion of the scheme should 
 not at the outset be attempted. But the absolute 
 necessity of some means of combination had become 
 generally felt by all who were not content to relin- 
 quish the hope of civil equality. What continuous 
 
 * Speech at Catholic meeting, in Dublin, 22nd Sept., 1827. — 
 " The people of England care little either about the rights of the 
 Catholics or their own." — Notes by Sir R. Heron (1823), p. 152. 
 
186 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and systematic political agitation really meant, or 
 might practically accomplish, nobody then knew. 
 There were indeed many still living who recollected 
 the uprise and popular sway of the volunteers ; but 
 the armed embodiment of the aristocracy and middle 
 classes for national defence, however capable of being 
 directed under an elective system of officers and com- 
 manders to purposes of a political kind, afforded no 
 precedent or example for an association like that which 
 was then contemplated. The Society of United Irish- 
 men, one of whose professed objects had originally 
 been the emancipation of the Catholics, and the sin- 
 gular completeness of whose internal constitution had 
 enabled it to enrol and discipline vast numbers of the 
 population, afforded an example only to be avoided. 
 The one was the improvisation of a national militia 
 by the propertied and privileged classes — the other 
 the conspiracy of the disfranchised many. Both 
 sought to achieve a political reform : the one by over- 
 awing the Government, the other by undermining it ; 
 and both failed, with arms in their hands — the volun- 
 teers, because they were unable to enlist the sympathy 
 and support of the people — the United Irishmen, 
 because they had to encounter the hostility of nearly 
 the whole of the upper classes of the community. It 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 187 
 
 was clear, moreover, that the Government, warned by 
 experience, were resolved never again to allow any 
 form of political delegation to exist, and the Con- 
 vention Act supplied them with the ready and effectual 
 means of crushing any attempt at national organiza- 
 tion which should seem to be directed in this manner. 
 If therefore the new scheme was to be successful, it 
 must invite and secure the co-operation of persons of 
 every degree ; to win the confidence of the wealthier 
 classes it must avoid every semblance of illegality or 
 enmity to the established order of things ; and yet it 
 must, to kindle the smouldering passions of an infu- 
 riated and oppressed people, deal fearlessly with those 
 many-sided questions about which the opulent and 
 the poor, the well-born and the humble, can seldom, 
 if ever, be expected cordially to agree. All this, and 
 much else long since forgotten, occupied the energetic 
 and sagacious mind of the future "Agitator," and 
 filled with new and vigorous thoughts the creative 
 imagination of men who were destined so largely to 
 contribute to the ultimate success of the proposed 
 plan. 
 
 A few individuals agreed to meet in Dublin in the 
 last week of April to consult together on the subject. 
 At these preliminary meetings, which were held on 
 
188 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the 25th and 30th of that month, the requisite pre- 
 parations were made for summoning together the 
 leading persons of influence in the Catholic body to 
 inaugurate the contemplated association. The 12th 
 of May was fixed upon for the purpose, and a com- 
 mittee named to make the arrangements necessary. 
 The day arrived, the ardent projectors were punctually 
 in attendance, and, after some delay, Lord Killeen* 
 was called to the chair. Speeches were made urging 
 the necessity of union and exertion, and between fifty 
 and sixty gentlemen enrolled themselves as members. 
 Such was the beginning of the most remarkable 
 society perhaps of modern times — remarkable for the 
 difficulty of the task it undertook to perform — the 
 apparent poverty of the resources at its command, and 
 the peaceful triumph which, within a few years, was 
 destined to attend its efforts. 
 
 A petition to both Houses of Parliament, setting 
 forth the manifold abuses then existing in the ad- 
 ministration of justice, was on the 14th of June sub- 
 mitted by Mr. Sheil for the adoption of the Associa- 
 tion. It was prepared with great care, and depicted 
 in striking terms the varied and complex system of 
 partiality and unfairness of which every tribunal in 
 * The 'present Earl of Eingall. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 189 
 
 the land afforded daily examples. Not only were all 
 judicial and ministerial offices of consideration filled 
 by persons of the governing creed, but in the selection 
 of magistrates and jurors the same odious and oppres- 
 sive preference was shown. The exclusive character 
 of the magistracy, and the essentially lawless manner 
 in which they frequently exercised their summary 
 jurisdiction, had contributed in no slight degree to 
 widen the chasm between the owners and occupiers of 
 the soil. All hope and faith in even-handed justice 
 between man and man, when the disputants belonged 
 to opposite sects or conflicting classes, had become ex- 
 tinguished in the bosoms of the many. Their hearts 
 were hardened by injustice : was it strange that when 
 opportunities of revenge arose they seemed to be 
 incapable of mercy or discrimination ? The Catholic 
 peasant who had fallen under the suspicion of his 
 landlord was summoned to attend him in private, and 
 there to abide whatever sentence his worship, sitting 
 alone, and influenced by hate, caprice, or passion, 
 might think proper to award. In more serious matters, 
 the accused found himself arraigned before a judge 
 who harangued the grand jury on the duty of bigotry, 
 the policy of exclusion, and the necessity of making 
 examples of all whose demeanour betrayed an insub- 
 
190 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ordinate spirit : and when true bills had been found, 
 the miserable prisoner was told to look upon the 
 twelve most notorious partisans whom a trusty sheriff 
 could select, and to prepare to abide by their verdict. 
 Then came that most fearful of all mockeries, the 
 mockery of a fair trial, where counsel, witnesses, and 
 jurors seemed to be animated by a common sympathy, 
 and to vie with one another in the legal work of 
 striking terror, as it was called, into the rebel race. 
 The scene, which closed with an invective from the 
 bench, instead of a grave and calm sentence, was 
 speedily followed by the infliction of penalties which 
 nothing can sanction, in the eyes of the community, 
 but the conviction that, however severe, they have at 
 least been impartially inflicted. Had there never been 
 instances of fatal blunders as to personal identity and 
 reckless confusion as to degrees of guilt, the manner 
 in which criminal justice was frequently administered 
 would have sufficed to deprive its decrees of all moral 
 sanction.* The victims of the law came to be re- 
 garded as martyrs, and the number of executions and 
 
 * A learned and accomplished friend of the author, now no 
 more, used to say that when, as a young man on circuit, he 
 listened to Lord Norbury charging a jury in a capital case, or 
 sentencing the prisoner, he felt as though he heard a butcher 
 sharpening his knife. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 191 
 
 banishments were counted up by the peasantry as the 
 casualties of the social war in which they were en- 
 gaged with the hereditary garrison of the country. 
 
 A deep sense of the barbarising tendency of this 
 system had early impressed itself on the mind of Mr. 
 Sheil, and at all times and under circumstances the 
 most unpropitious, we shall find him earnestly striving 
 for its overthrow. The first important step taken by 
 him in the newly-organized association, was directed 
 to this object. The petition, which sought for 
 inquiry into the mode of administering the laws, 
 was entrusted for presentation in the Upper House to 
 Earl Grey, and in the Lower to Mr. Brougham. 
 
 In the Commons the petition was described by 
 Mr. Brougham as stating the subject of " complaint 
 with no less accuracy than force of language and 
 having been printed, he moved that it be referred to 
 what was called the Grand Committee on Courts of 
 Justice. Mr. Goulburn, as Secretary for Ireland, 
 objected to this course as one which, in point of form, 
 had fallen into long disuse, and further because no 
 specific instances were set forth, while to the general 
 tenour of the allegations he would give a comprehen- 
 sive denial. Mr. Daly and Mr. Martin, members for 
 Gal way, conceiving, perhaps not wholly without reason, 
 
192 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 that some of the statements made in the petition 
 were founded on malpractices in their own county, 
 angrily denounced those from whom it had proceeded. 
 They were followed in a similar strain by others, 
 while the motion was supported by Sir Henry Parnell, 
 Mr. Hutchinson, and Mr. Abercrombie. At the 
 conclusion of the debate, the Home Secretary, Mr. 
 Peel, spoke at considerable length, reiterating the 
 objections already urged with respect to the generality 
 of the imputations, and the absence of circumstantial 
 details regarding particular instances. He wished 
 " to rescue the Catholics of Ireland from the charge 
 of having prepared or transmitted so inflammatory a 
 petition, or of having been privy to or in any way 
 connected with it, couched as it was in such unbe- 
 coming, he had almost said such ferocious language ; 
 he discredited all insinuations thrown out against the 
 selection of magistrates, sheriffs, and jurors; and 
 would resist any reference to a committee of a petition 
 which he characterised as being more in the decla- 
 matory style of a condemned tragedy, than of a grave 
 representation to the Legislature."* 
 
 The allusion to the writer of the petition does not 
 appear to have been understood by the House, and the 
 * Hansard. Sess. 1823. Vol. ix., p. 1306. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 193 
 
 sneer so deliberately aimed seemed to fall harmless. 
 But its barb was not unfelt, because the wound was 
 at the moment unseen. In Ireland the authorship of 
 the petition was known. A laugh was raised, and 
 when attention is diverted from the nature of a 
 grievance to a joke regarding its description, the end 
 of the minister is, for the moment, gained. 
 
 The challenge, however, which had been thrown 
 out, as to substantiation by proof, was promptly taken 
 up in the association.' 54 ' No immediate result in Par- 
 liament followed ; but attention once aroused on the 
 subject, was never afterwards suffered to sleep. Slowly 
 but steadily salutary reforms were introduced ; and 
 before the end of his political career, Mr. Sheil had 
 the satisfaction of beholding the eradication of nearly 
 all the abuses which in 1823 were either defended or 
 denied. 
 
 An epigram in which the name of Mr. Martin was 
 
 introduced, but the point of which was directed 
 
 against another individual, may be mentioned here. 
 
 The member for Galway, whose efforts to obtain an 
 
 Act for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had 
 
 won for him the sobriquet of " Humanity Dick" had 
 
 become involved at the previous assizes in a highly 
 
 * See Proceedings of Meeting, 5th July, 1823. 
 VOL. I. O 
 
194 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 indecorous altercation with Baron McClelland. This 
 learned personage, although not wanting in judicial 
 ability, was unhappily distinguished by irritability of 
 temper and uncouthness of manner, which exposed 
 him frequently to sarcastic rebukes from the bar.* 
 Mr. Martin pronounced a long philippic against him 
 in the House of Commons, and vowed further ven- 
 geance. A group in the hall of the Four Courts 
 happened to be discussing the merits of the edifying 
 controversy, when Mr. Sheil, who had been a silent 
 listener for some minutes, suddenly interjaculated, 
 
 " Dick, your example to your precept suit, 
 M'Clelland spare ; have mercy ou a brute !" 
 
 For some time the principal difficulty the new 
 association had to encounter was that of obtaining the 
 attendance of a sufficient number of persons to con- 
 stitute a meeting. So deep was the apathy then pre- 
 vailing, that on more than one occasion ten individuals 
 could not be found to form a quorum within half an 
 hour of the time appointed ; and one of the funda- 
 
 * An eminent practitioner, who had on one occasion persevered 
 in reiterating several times the arguments in support of his case, 
 was at length interrupted by the impatient Baron with the inquiry, 
 " Am I to remain here for ever, to be baited like a bear upon a 
 chain ?" " No, my lord," was the reply, " nothing can be more 
 unlike a bear upon a chair" 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 195 
 
 mental rules required, that in such cases an adjourn- 
 ment to the following week should take place, as a 
 matter of course. In O'Connell's anxiety to be present, 
 he might be often seen leaving the court, where he 
 was busily occupied, ere it rose, passing quickly through 
 the robing-room, and hurrying to the place where the 
 earlier meetings of the association were held. This 
 was in a small room in the house of Mr. Coyne, a 
 bookseller, in Capel Street. Great was his vexation 
 at finding on his arrival that he made but the seventh 
 or eighth member present ; and when the time pre- 
 scribed was nearly exhausted, he would sometimes 
 repair to the shop, in the hope of finding there some 
 of his acquaintances, whom he might persuade to spare 
 a few minutes in order to make up the necessary 
 number. 
 
 A polemical tone characterised frequently the earlier 
 proceedings of the agitation. This arose less from a 
 desire on the part of men like Mr. Sheil to invite 
 theological dispute, than from the difficulty of avoiding 
 it when challenged thereto by others. The zeal for 
 proselytism had induced many persons of the Esta- 
 blished Church to endeavour to direct all the means of 
 popular education to that end. The Charter-schools 
 had indeed been established for the purpose long 
 
 o2 
 
196 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 before ; but the property assigned for their support 
 had by degrees been appropriated in great part to 
 private uses, and when a commission of inquiry 
 subsequently reported on the state of those establish- 
 ments, disclosures were made of peculation, cruelty, 
 and neglect, to an extent that afforded an ample 
 theme for denunciation by the eloquent tribune of the 
 people.* The schools which had recently been esta- 
 blished throughout the country by the voluntary aid 
 and under the superintendence of the Kildare Place 
 Society, became likewise the objects of sectarian sus- 
 picion. By the rules of the society all controversial 
 teaching was forbidden, and many persons had sub- 
 scribed to its funds in the belief that it offered to the 
 children of the poor the benefits of united education, 
 without incurring any just liability to the charge of 
 seeking to disturb the particular convictions in which 
 those of each sect were brought up. But as the 
 reading of the Scriptures without note or comment 
 was made an indispensable condition of instruction for 
 all the pupils, great objection was made on the part 
 of the Catholic clergy in general, and by not a few of 
 those who entertained what are usually called high 
 church views among the hierarchy and clergy of the 
 * Speech of Mr. Slieil in Association, 4th Dec, 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 197 
 
 Established Church. Those, on the other hand, who 
 held evangelical opinions in the Anglican communion, 
 together with the dissenters of all denominations, 
 adhered unwaveringly to what they regarded as an 
 essential principle; and having a decided predomi- 
 nance in the councils of the society, no deviation from 
 the rule regarding the Bible was under any circum- 
 stances allowed. Many benevolent and pious indi- 
 viduals, whose sincerity in their attachment to low 
 church opinions admitted of no doubt, expressed from 
 time to time their desire that some conciliatory scheme 
 might be devised, that would afford to all the benefits 
 in common of a sound, moral, and intellectual educa- 
 tion, without favouring distinctive tenets or offending 
 the peculiar susceptibilities of any. The Catholics 
 earnestly supported this view, but by the managers of 
 the Kildare Place Society it was as strenuously 
 resisted; and Government, which refused to take 
 upon itself the responsibility of national education, 
 continued year after year to obtain from Parliament 
 the grant of 30,000/?., which was placed at their 
 absolute disposal. 
 
 Such an appropriation of the public money, in 
 a country whose whole ecclesiastical property was 
 devoted to the maintenance of the religion of a small 
 
198 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 minority of the people, could not, under any circum- 
 stances, perhaps have failed to cause great discontent. 
 But when the Government, who thus partially applied 
 the proceeds of general taxation, were engaged in 
 actively resisting the claims of the discontented to 
 political privileges, the feeling of educational injustice 
 served but to add to the sense of religious wrong. 
 And when, in addition to all this, there came the pro- 
 clamation of a controversial war, and the avowal of 
 designs and hopes for the conversion of the many to 
 the faith of the few, the irritation and animosity 
 between the rival creeds became, as was inevitable, 
 more violent than it had ever been. Attack provoked 
 retaliation ; denunciations of the canons of Lateran 
 and Trent were answered by invectives against the 
 vacillating standards of faith enacted and enforced by 
 the Parliaments of the Tudors ; and the cruelties of the 
 reign of Mary were contrasted with the statutable 
 atrocities enacted in the time of Anne. Polemical 
 sarcasm and retort became habitual ingredients in the 
 rhetoric of the forum. Journalism of all kinds was 
 saturated with the poison ; and the most sacred asso- 
 ciations were, on both sides, remorselessly turned into 
 food for bitter jest. Few speakers or writers of the 
 period wholly escaped a contagion so subtle and per- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 199 
 
 vading ; and in those whose minds were quick with 
 idealism and wit, its influence was peculiarly shown. 
 On several occasions Mr. Sheil selected as the subjects 
 of elaborate irony and descriptive caricature those who 
 had rendered themselves conspicuous by their anti- 
 Catholic zeal. Among the most remarkable of these 
 were Archbishop Magee and Mr. Sergeant Lefroy. 
 His Grace was a man of learning and parts, who had 
 raised himself, unaided by fortune or connexions, to a 
 distinguished position in the University of Dublin. 
 The early friend of Mr. Plunket, and his intimate in 
 maturer years, he had throughout his academic career 
 professed as much political liberality as could perhaps 
 have been expected from a shrewd and ambitious 
 fellow of Trinity College, in the dark and dreary times 
 in which he lived. Soon after his elevation, however, 
 to the metropolitan see, he took occasion, when deliver- 
 ing a pastoral charge, to renounce the tolerant opinions 
 which had recommended him to the viceregal favour 
 of Lord Wellesley, and to declare himself the cham- 
 pion of exclusive orthodoxy. He admonished his 
 hearers to be thankful that their creed and ritual 
 severed them as widely from Geneva as from Rome ; 
 and with impartial insolence he contrived to offend in 
 a single sentence the feelings both of the Dissenters 
 
200 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and the Catholics. The former, he declared, had " a 
 religion without a church, and the latter a church 
 without a religion." These and several ebullitions 
 of archiepiscopal conceit soon became the favourite 
 themes of reproach and sarcasm; while certain peculiar- 
 ities of person and deportment afforded food for popular 
 ridicule. His lithe and erect figure on horseback was 
 daily seen moving through the streets of the city 
 with an air of prelatical pride and pedantic coxcombry, 
 that to the lovers of a laugh was irresistible. " Does 
 he not look," said Sheil, u like a compound of Car- 
 dinal Wolsey and Dr. Syntax ?" Frequent allusions 
 occur in the proceedings of the association to the vast 
 wealth of the Establishment, and to the supercilious 
 bearing which characterised too often the upper grades 
 of the hierarchy.* The following may be taken as 
 a specimen of the serious raillery which the anti- 
 national spirit of the Anglican church in Ireland at 
 that time provoked : — 
 
 " Let me suppose that the spirit of Plato were submitted to 
 some necromantic process of resuscitation, and that after he had 
 revisited 'glimpses of the moon,' the task of effecting his 
 posthumous conversion to Christianity were committed to the 
 pious divine, whose meek and apostolic forehead has been 
 recently invested with the archiepiscopal mitre of the metropolis. 
 
 * Speech; 1st May, 1827. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 201 
 
 Let me be permitted to imagine, that the ex-fellow of the 
 University of Dublin were to revert to those early occupations 
 from which his sacred prosperity is derived ; that he were entrusted 
 with the religious education of the reanimated philosopher, and 
 that, having again become tutor, he should have Plato for his 
 pupil. I pass by the preliminaries of introduction between these 
 distinguished personages, and say nothing of the astonishment of 
 Plato, at the episcopal jauntiness of air and the volatile agility of 
 demeanour which characterise the learned Doctor. Let me 
 imagine the wonder of Plato to have subsided at the novelty of 
 this our modern world, in which the Doctor performs so important 
 a part, and that after having been contented upon the other 
 subjects of his admiration, he exclaimed, 'Where are the gods of 
 the old time ? What has become of Jupiter ? Does the thunder 
 no longer roll at his behest ? What has befallen the martial maid 
 to whom Athens had devoted her peculiar adoration ? Where is 
 the sublime worship of the god of poetry and light ? Has he 
 been flung, like his own adventurous boy, from the chariot of the 
 sun ?' To this interrogatory the Doctor replies, ' These graceful 
 but unholy products of the idolatrous imagination of your country 
 have returned into the nothingness from which they rose. These 
 dreams of a fabulous creed have passed away, and that of which 
 you, or your master Socrates, in one of your noblest dialogues, 
 have given a prophetic intimation, has been realized, in a pure 
 and celestial system of worship and of faith. There came from 
 heaven a Being whose precepts carry an internal evidence of their 
 dignity, and who, to use your own words of remote prediction, 
 'hath taught us to pray.' His coming was not announced in 
 thunder, nor was his mission illustrated with flashes of lightning. 
 His arrival on the earth was told in the solitude of the night, and 
 in a peaceful and lonely song to 'shepherds abiding in the 
 mountains/ He descended as an emissary of that Godhead of 
 which he was at once a messenger and an emanation, in the 
 lowliest form with which miserable humanity could be invested. 
 His whole life was as simple as his birth was obscure. The poor, 
 
202 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the sorrowful, and the unfortunate were his companions. His 
 only pomp consisted in the grandeur of his revelations, and even 
 their sublimity was tempered by the meekness of his moral incul- 
 cations ; mercy dwelt for ever on his lips, and diffused its tender 
 attributes over all his actions. Humility was deified in his 
 person. It was from the throne of shame and suffering that he 
 proclaimed himself a monarch, and his last act of moral sove- 
 reignty was the pathetic cry of forgiveness, at the remembrance 
 of which, the infidel of Geneva could not refrain from lapsing 
 into an involuntary credulity, and exclaiming, in the spirit of the 
 soldier who attended his agony, that if the death of Socrates was 
 the death of a saint, the death of Jesus was that of God. His 
 disciples participated in the divine character of their preceptor, 
 and the twelve inspired teachers of Ins eternal word propagated 
 his doctrines with the humility of him from whom they had 
 received them. The spirit of their religion was typified by the 
 meekness of a dove. They went forth with naked feet, and with 
 scarce enough of raiment to shield them from the inclemency of 
 the air. They spent their lives in the fasting and the prayer 
 which they prescribed ; they taught mankind that there was a 
 sanctity in suffering, and a blessedness in tears ; that life was a 
 brief and miserable transition to that heaven towards which 
 their eyes were for ever turned ; and that the kingdom of J esus 
 was not of this world. Such were the first propagators of that 
 sublime religion in which I have undertaken to give you instruc- 
 tions. I am one of the anointed representatives of those inspired, 
 but meek and patient men — and in me you behold a successor of 
 the apostles.' 'You!' Plato would exclaim; and I leave you to 
 conjecture the expression of surprise that would needs invest the 
 features of the philosopher, in the utterance of the monosyllabic 
 ejaculation of astonishment. The Doctor (let us suppose) 
 proceeds to give the gospel to Plato, who peruses the holy 
 writings, and afterwards returns to his preceptor in humility. ' I 
 have read,' he may be imagined to say, ' I have read the wonderful 
 book which you have placed in my hands, and I confess that all 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 203 
 
 the volumes of philosophy vanish before it. It is impressed 
 with the seal of inspiration, and its pages are the records of 
 heaven. In ray own visions of perfection, I never reached, even 
 in conjecture, to a point of moral sublimity which could be com- 
 pared with the incalculable elevation of this superhuman system 
 of goodness, of mercy, and of love. But, Doctor, forgive me for 
 asking you whether you participate in that high conviction which 
 it is your profession to impart ?' 1 1 V cries the Doctor ; ' what a 
 question to the Author of the Atonement !' 1 I hear, indeed/ 
 the philosopher might reply, ' that you yourself made an atone- 
 ment, but without a sacrifice. You have expiated certain devia- 
 tions into liberality, into which you wandered before your 
 advancement to the glittering top from which you superintend 
 and overlook the religion of Jesus. Doctor, I must be candid 
 with you : of course I cannot controvert the truth of your asse- 
 veration, but I own I never should have taken you to be a 
 successor of the humble philosophers of Palestine. You remind 
 me more of some of the spruce and acrimonious disputants called 
 Sophists, who used of old to infest the groves of the Academy. 
 You tell me that the mildness of your master was expressed by 
 the softness of the dove ; your own spirit would find its emblem 
 in the proud and predatory falcon. You are a preceptor of for- 
 giveness, while your pen distils virulence in every word — your 
 lips, that should breathe nothing but mercy, are smeared with 
 the poison of polemics. You leave venom in your very kiss of 
 peace; even your pastoral injunctions, that should be the 
 effusions of tenderness and pity, overflow with bitterness 
 and gall. You have sent an arrow, in the shape of a barbed 
 antithesis, to rankle in the heart of your country. You and your 
 brother pontiffs talk of poverty, while the yearly income you 
 derive from the public would, at the rate of Athenian exchange, 
 amount to several talents. You speak of humility, while you 
 tread on the tip-toe of importance, and haughtiness sits mitred 
 on your brow. You prescribe the ascetic regimen of self-denial, 
 while you quaff the richest nectar out of silver and gold. You 
 
204 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 are lapped in down, while yon bid your followers make their 
 couch of the frozen earth; and you are over-canopied with 
 purple, while you tell them that a Christian should have no other 
 roof but the cope of heaven above his head. From the banquet 
 of Dives you hold up Lazarus to imitation. Your palaces outvie 
 the temples of the fallen gods ; and you have substituted your- 
 selves for the idols you deride.' "* 
 
 During a visit which he paid to Lord Cloncurry at 
 Lyons, his seat in Kildare, he was consulted regarding 
 certain views, which his Lordship soon afterwards 
 propounded in a letter addressed to the association. 
 These were in substance a dissuasion of the Catholics 
 from the hopeless pursuit, as he deemed it, of religious 
 equality by means of a separate agitation ; and a pro- 
 posal to substitute in its stead a combination of men 
 of different creeds for the recovery of an independent 
 legislature for Ireland. Mr. Sheil endeavoured to 
 convince him of the impracticable nature of his plan. 
 Sectarian agitation was unquestionably a great evil, 
 and tended of necessity to confirm the hostility which 
 it had been the aim of bad government to foster 
 between the separate races that inhabited the same 
 country. But so long as the law continued to recog- 
 nise the right of domination as the political inherit- 
 ance of the minority, it was vain to suppose that they 
 
 * Speech in Association, February, 1824. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 205 
 
 would ever cordially amalgamate with those whose 
 submission they could not but despise. "United 
 Irishmen/' mutually trusting and trusted — one in 
 every five of whom had been brought up in the belief 
 that the other four were unworthy of freedom and 
 unfit for its enjoyment, while these in their turn 
 regarded him as an accomplice in their degradation — 
 had been the dream of Fitzgerald, Emmett, and Tone ; 
 but it had ended, like all other dreams, in disenchant- 
 ment. If ever nationality of the true and legitimate 
 kind was to spring up in Ireland, the ploughshare of 
 equal laws must first be driven through the soil. 
 Homogeneity of resentments and regrets for the past 
 was not enough ; there must be unity of spirit and of 
 purpose as to the future, or national combination 
 there could be none deserving of the name. Such 
 arguments, however, failed of convincing Lord Clon- 
 curry ; and Mr. O' Conn ell, though more disposed to 
 concur in his views, publicly stated that, as the asso- 
 ciation had been formed specifically for the attain- 
 ment of religious freedom, the question of the Union 
 must at all events be postponed. 
 
 Topics of a more practical kind continued to form 
 the staple of popular discussion. Cases of individual 
 hardship or oppression were brought under public 
 
206 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 notice ; and the sufferings of a remote village would 
 often form the theme of eloquent and prolonged de- 
 bate, which, when reported and disseminated through 
 the medium of weekly journals in every part of the 
 country, produced results wholly unexampled. u The 
 speeches delivered in the association were read ; and, 
 whatever their defects in style, and however widely 
 they might have departed from the rules of pure and 
 simple oratory, still they contained a powerful appeal 
 to the feelings of the people ; their degraded position 
 was presented to them in its just light ; they were 
 called to look upon their own shame, and were made 
 to blush at the turpitude of their condition. Truths 
 of a most painful and exasperating kind were told. 
 The Catholic aristocrat was made to feel that his 
 ancient blood, which slavery had made stagnant in 
 his veins, was of no avail to him ; from the proudest 
 nobleman to the meanest serf, the whole body were 
 rendered sensible of their inferior position in the 
 state. The stigma was pointed at; men became 
 exasperated at their grievances when they were 
 aroused to their perception ; a mirror was held up to 
 Ireland to show her her own degraded image, and 
 when she beheld the brand upon her forehead, it 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 207 
 
 began to burn."* The Catholic Rent, at first but an 
 experiment, became a new source of power. It was 
 not the mere aggregate of humble offerings, though 
 these soon swelled to many thousands of pounds — it 
 was the spread of a vast system of civic enlistment, 
 which the regular payment into the popular treasury 
 of small sums denoted, that constituted its chief im- 
 portance. "Everywhere 'the Rent' raised a subsi- 
 diary association. The ' Rent collection' soon settled 
 into a system ; the collectors became the disciplined, 
 as the Rent-contributors were the irregular, troops of 
 the association."f 
 
 The agitation thus organized and stimulated began 
 to be regarded with no little uneasiness by the Govern- 
 ment. Its democratic character and tendency were 
 obvious. In a long misgoverned and deeply dis- 
 affected country it formed a tribunate unrecognised 
 indeed by law, but powerful in that which can alone 
 impart to law inherent strength and sanction — public 
 opinion. The freedom of discussion which was per- 
 mitted, served to invite the public exposure of every 
 description of grievance which the southern peasantry 
 
 * Speech of Mr. Sheil, in separate Catholic Meeting, 22nd 
 September, 1827. 
 
 f Hist. Catholic Association, vol. i., p. 209, by Mr. Wyse, now 
 British Minister at Athens. 
 
208 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 endured. Local oppression and general distress alike 
 found not only a voice, but sympathy and attention. 
 Social questions were soon inevitably intermingled 
 with controversies respecting political wrongs. To 
 the landed proprietor, the lawyer, and the priest, the 
 indignity of exclusion from political rank and station 
 was a sentiment more animating than any sense of 
 the actual loss which such disqualification entailed. 
 But when the farmer and shopkeeper became en- 
 listed in the movement, they naturally embodied in 
 their day-dream of emancipation, results in which 
 they looked for more substantial ameliorations of 
 their own condition. The splendid benefits held 
 forth in fervid eloquence by the leaders of the move- 
 ment, as certain to flow from the accomplishment of 
 their designs, were frequently translated by the pea- 
 santry into prophecies of a golden age about to come, 
 in which all the grievances and hardships whereof 
 they complained, connected with the tenure of land 
 and the collection of tithes, would for ever disappear. 
 Restless and plotting men, by whom at all times 
 agrarian combinations have been too easily led in 
 Ireland, did not fail to turn to their own purposes the 
 exciting language of Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Sheil ; 
 and there were not wanting among their opponents 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 209 
 
 credulous or ingenious persons, who incessantly 
 laboured to connect the praedial disturbances and 
 secret societies, which then widely prevailed, with the 
 stimulating speeches uttered in the association. 
 
 To all who are acquainted with the real history of 
 agrarian discontent and agrarian conspiracies in Ire- 
 land, the injustice of the imputation was indeed suffi- 
 ciently plain. For sixty years preceding, secret societies 
 — under the various names oi Heart s-of -Oak, Peep-o'- 
 Day Boys, and Defenders— -had maintained, with brief 
 intermissions, against the authority of the magistracy 
 and the Government, a species of servile war, the horrors 
 of which have too often been recounted to need a repe- 
 tition here. In 1822, disturbance and outrage had 
 reached a dreadful climax, and it needed the utmost 
 exertions of the Executive to restore the southern coun- 
 ties of the kingdom to something like security and 
 order. But as had often been the case before, the tran- 
 quillity imposed by the unaided efficacy of severe and 
 rigorous measures proved of but brief duration. The old 
 causes led anew to the effects before produced. Pro- 
 perty and life were not indeed so insecure during 1824 
 as they had been in 1822, when political agitation 
 was yet in its cradle, and when its cries could hardly 
 be heard ; but there was still enough to serve the 
 vol. L p 
 
210 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 purposes of party ; and from a distance the true rela- 
 tions of things was not easily discerned. Among 
 many of the great absentee proprietors, serious alarms 
 were entertained for the stability of their Irish posses- 
 sions ; and we find the panic shared even by persons 
 in England, who had had peculiar opportunities of 
 learning by observation the true sources of praedial dis- 
 affection, and how little its real objects were connected 
 with political aims. Lord Redesdale, who for several 
 years had filled the office of Chancellor of Ireland, 
 thus writes in December 1824, to Lord Eldon : — 
 
 " No one reads impartially the history of Ireland. 
 Read impartially, it cannot be denied that the mere 
 Irish had, at all times, much ground for complaint. 
 That the separation of Ireland from England is the 
 object of the Irish Roman Catholics, I have no doubt. 
 Without that separation, they can neither make the 
 Catholic religion the established religion of Ireland, 
 nor give to the mere Irish the forfeited lands in 
 Ireland."* And recurring to the same subject a few 
 days later, f he says, " The priests and the lower 
 orders of Catholics are urged by hopes and expecta- 
 tions of plunder. The higher orders, I have no doubt, 
 
 * Life of Lord Eldon, vol. ii., p. 530. 
 f Idem. p. 531. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 211 
 
 secretly dread the consequences ; and especially those 
 who are of English blood. The Irish families who have 
 embraced the Protestant religion know that they are 
 considered as renegades, and that they have as little 
 mercy to expect as the Protestants of English blood. 
 They know that, if the Catholics should prevail, the 
 marriage of their parents, if solemnized by a Pro- 
 testant clergyman, and the legitimacy of their birth, 
 will be denied; the titles to their lands will not be 
 disputed by claimants of forfeited estates, but by their 
 own Catholic relations, claiming as the legitimate 
 heirs of their families. They are perhaps more 
 agitated than those whose titles depend on the 
 strength of forfeitures. But there are many Catholic 
 as well as Protestant families of Irish blood who 
 tremble for the consequences of any explosion." 
 Apprehensions of a similar kind were continually ex- 
 pressed in the journals which supported Government. 
 In their very vagueness lay their capability of repro- 
 ducing themselves. Sometimes the sober-minded and 
 undiscerning public of Great Britain were assured 
 that a renewal of the scenes of 1641, in Ireland, was 
 at hand. Again, national jealousy was invoked by 
 the imputation of designs on the part of the agitators 
 of effecting a separation between the two countries. 
 
 p % 
 
212 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 To allay these fears, and remove apprehensions so un- 
 real, it was proposed to send a deputation to England, 
 towards the close of 1824. " We must try," said 
 Mr. Sheil, "to convince the people of England 
 that we are worthy of being incorporated in the gr eat 
 and free community of British citizenship, and that 
 its value and durability would in nowise be dimi- 
 nished by being shared. Liberty is like light, and 
 is not impaired by participation. The English 
 people are a wise, a generous, a lofty-minded people ; 
 we should appeal to their wisdom, their justice, and 
 their generosity. Our emancipation would be an act 
 of thrift as well as of humanity ; and it would be an 
 act of economy as well as of honour to make us free. 
 .... Things cannot stand as they are. Either a 
 great national reconciliation must be effected, or hosti- 
 lity must be deepened; reciprocal antipathies must 
 be strengthened — new force and activity must be 
 communicated to the popular passions, and if the 
 fountain of bitterness is not sealed, it must receive a 
 fresh supply. Are we to be everlastingly arrayed and 
 marshalled against each other by the infuriating pro- 
 vocations of the law ?"* 
 
 As the agitation proceeded, it became necessary to 
 * Speech in Catholic Association ; 31st December, 1824. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 213 
 
 exercise continual vigilance over the words and phrases 
 which, without deliberate purpose, were often used by 
 less practised speakers, and by the sinister interpreta- 
 tion of which the whole organization might to some 
 extent be compromised. It was not always prudent 
 to rebuke gravely indiscretions of this kind. A jest, 
 or a humorous reiteration of the questionable expres- 
 sion, with the view of effacing its original meaning, 
 frequently did the work of the censor more effectually. 
 On one occasion a gentleman named Adis made a rather 
 seditious speech, at the end of which he offered to lay 
 his head on the block for Catholic liberty. Sheil desired 
 publicly to repudiate in some degree the dangerous 
 sentiments of the new recruit, and with this view 
 commented with playful sarcasm on the concluding 
 phrase of the speaker : — " The honourable gentleman 
 has just tendered us an oblation of his head ; he has 
 accompanied his offer with abundant evidence of the 
 value of the sacrifice." 
 
 O'Connell was equally guarded at this period in the 
 use of language that might afford a handle to those 
 who did not conceal their determination, if oppor- 
 tunity were given them, to crush the association by 
 striking down its leaders. Yet, with all his habitual 
 caution, and his matchless dexterity in qualifying, with- 
 
214 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 out seeming to weaken, the force of an expression 
 which, when uttered, sounded upon his own watchful 
 ear as too daring — he was himself sometimes hurried 
 further than he had previously intended, and betrayed 
 into expressions upon which, when riven from their 
 context, Government was led to believe that a prose- 
 cution for sedition might be founded. When com- 
 menting on the career of Bolivar, whom he extolled 
 as " the Catholic deliverer of a Catholic people," he 
 became excited with the excitement his vivid por- 
 traiture of the South American Agitator had produced, 
 and was unable to suppress the feelings of emulation 
 with which he regarded that remarkable man. Criminal 
 proceedings were forthwith instituted in the name of 
 the Attorney- General ; and whatever we may now 
 think of the charge, there was sufficient reason — con- 
 stituted as juries in Ireland then were — to entertain 
 serious misgivings as to the result. 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1825, the grand jury, which 
 was composed of persons of various political opinions, 
 although the majority belonged to that most opposed 
 to Mr. O'Connell, after many hours' deliberation, 
 threw out the bills. Much exultation was manifested 
 at the defeat of the prosecution, the consequence of 
 which, had it succeeded, would have probably been to 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 215 
 
 deprive the agitation, at the moment when it seemed 
 to be gathering strength, of its most energetic and 
 influential spirit. It was felt, however, by many, that 
 a wiser use might be made of victory than the indul- 
 gence of idle vauntings. The part borne by Mr. 
 Plunket in the affair had been resented only while the 
 event was doubtful. He was believed to have been 
 throughout an unwilling instrument in the hands of 
 others. There was no disposition on the part of 
 O'Connell to glorify in the Attorney-General's defeat ; 
 and in moving a series of resolutions some days after 
 in the association, Mr. Sheil endeavoured to recal 
 the popular mind to the many eminent services Mr. 
 Plunket had rendered to the cause, and the many he 
 might still have it in his power to render. 
 
 " We lament that Mr. Plunket should have put his enemies to 
 elect whether they would make a martyr of Mr. O'Connell or a 
 victim of him. We do not forget the bonds of political cordiality 
 which united Mr. Plunket to the Roman Catholic body. We 
 feel as if we had snatched a poniard from the grasp of an 
 antagonist, and beholding in his face the lineaments of an early 
 friend, instead of turning back the dagger upon his bosom, we 
 exclaim in the accents of mingled reproach and sorrow — ( Is it 
 thus that you requite us ?' God forbid that we should indulge in 
 the language of contumelious triumph at the failure of a measure 
 which carries its retribution with itself. The weapon which was 
 pointed at us with so deadly a level has burst in Mr. Plunket' s 
 hands : I hope it has not shattered them. But it is fitting that 
 
216 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 we should abstain from every ungenerous vaunt. We are not 
 drunk with a base and delirious joy. In our Political Saturnalia, 
 we do not forget the ignominy of our condition. We do 
 not raise our arms in the attitude of triumph, for our fetters 
 are still upon us. But we owe it at the same time to the 
 abstract dignity of truth to record our condemnation more 
 
 of the measure than of the man When Mr. Plunket 
 
 read the words attributed to Mr. O'Connell, did he ask himself 
 — What is the provocation given to this man ? Who is he, and 
 what am I? Who is His Majesty's Attorney-General, the Right 
 Honourable William Conyngham Plunket ? I know not whether 
 he administered that personal interrogatory to himself ; but if 
 he did, this should have been the answer. ' I raised myself from 
 a comparatively humble station by the force of my own talents to 
 the first eminence in the state. In my profession I am without 
 an equal. In Parliament 1 had once no superior. When out of 
 office, I kindled the popular passion — I was fierce, violent, vitu- 
 perative ; at last I have won the object of my life ; I am 
 Attorney-General for Ireland ; I possess great wealth, great power, 
 great dignity, and great patronage. If I had been a Roman 
 Catholic, instead of an enfranchised Presbyterian, what should I 
 have been ?' I can tell him. He would have carried c up and 
 down a discontented and repining spirit he would have felt 
 like a man with large limbs who could not stand erect ; his vast 
 faculties would have been cribbed and cabined in ; and how would 
 he have borne his political humiliation ? Would he have been 
 tame and abject, servile and sycophantic ? Look at him, and say> 
 how would that lofty forehead have borne the brand of 1 popery '? 
 How would that high demeanour have worn the stoop of the 
 slave ? No, he would have been the chief demagogue, the most 
 angry, tumultuous, and virulent tribune of the people — he would 
 have superadded the honest gall of his own nature to the bitter- 
 ness of political resentment — he would have given utterance to 
 ardent feelings in burning words ; and in all the force of passion, 
 he would have gnawed the chain from which he could not break. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 217 
 
 And is this the man who prosecutes for words ? If the tables 
 were turned ; if Mr. O'Connell were Attorney-General, and Mr. 
 Plunket were the great leader of the people ; if Antony were 
 Brutus, and Brutus Antony, how would the public mind have been 
 inflamed ; what exciting matter would have been flung amongst 
 the people ? What lava would have been poured forth ! ' The 
 very stones would rise in mutiny.' Would to Heaven, that not 
 only Mr. Plunket, but every other Protestant that deplores our 
 imprudence in the spirit of a fastidious patronage, would adopt the 
 simple test of nature, and make our case his own, and he would 
 confess that, if similarly situated, he would give vent to his 
 emotions in phrases as exasperated, and participate in the feelings 
 which agitate the great and disfranchised community to which it 
 would be his misfortune to belong."* 
 
 * Speecli in Catholic Association, 8th January, 1825. 
 
218 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 1825. 
 
 Deputation to England — Archibald Hamilton Rowan — Mr. Peel 
 and Mr. Brougham — Act suppressing association — The wings 
 — Dinner at Mr. Brougham's — Meeting at Freemasons' Hall 
 — Lord F. L. Gower's proposition regarding the payment of 
 the Catholic clergy — Mr. Littleton's motion — Speech at 
 Carlow — Duke of York's speech — Relief Bill thrown out. 
 
 The condition of things which existed in Ireland 
 at the beginning of 1825 was too anomalous to last. 
 To all who possessed, even in a moderate degree, the 
 gifts of political insight and discernment, it was clear 
 that either too much or too little had already been 
 conceded to the Catholic community. Too little had 
 been yielded to satisfy, too much to allow the hope 
 and ambition to sleep of one day being able to extort 
 the rest. In the progress of population, the favoured 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 219 
 
 sect had Dot maintained their proportion. At the 
 Revolution their numbers were estimated as being 
 300,000 out of 1,100,000.* Under the operation of 
 the penal laws, their relative strength is supposed to 
 have become much greater. But, after the relaxa- 
 tions of 1783 and 1793, the Catholic population 
 multiplied more rapidly, and at the period in question 
 it was said to amount to upwards of 6,000,000. 
 
 " f The Philistines took Samson and put out his 
 eyes, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did 
 grind in the prison. Howbeit the hair of Samson 
 began to grow after he was shaven/ They put out 
 the eyes of Ireland; they made education illicit, and 
 declared knowledge to be contraband; they knew 
 that slavery and ignorance were companions ; they 
 quenched the intellectual vision of the people; they 
 bound them in penalties that cut into the mind, and 
 corroded the heart; they set them to grind in the 
 prison ; they declared them to be incapable of honour- 
 able occupation ; they fixed a brand upon their labour, 
 and to their industry they attached disgrace; — and 
 yet, in despite of all this, notwithstanding the 
 detestable ingenuity of this infernal process for the 
 demoralization and debasement of man, the innate 
 * Sir William Petty's Political Survey, chap. ii. 
 
220 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 power of the country defeated the abominable scheme. 
 Its original and native energy was insensibly re- 
 stored ; war, and massacre, and slavery, and exile 
 had not stopped the progress of population. The law 
 of nature was stronger than the law of the land. 
 Shorn, as Ireland was, of her native strength, she 
 imperceptibly regained her gigantic vigour. ' The 
 hair of Samson began to grow upon his head.' 
 What then was to be done with Samson ? Unlike 
 the strong man, Ireland had recovered her sight, 
 with the renovation of her strength. . . . The 
 Catholic now purchased the soil which he had once 
 scarcely dared to tread; he had acquired power 
 with the elective franchise ; a career was thrown open 
 to the intellect of the country in the professions. 
 Popery had become rich, influential, active, restless, 
 intelligent, and aspiring. They were more than six 
 millions of British subjects. What was to be done with 
 more than six millions of men ? The State must either 
 re-enact the penal code, or make them wholly free.""* 
 
 In the speech from the throne, at the opening of 
 the session of 1825, Parliament was called on to take 
 measures for the repression of political associations in 
 Ireland, which were declared to be "calculated, by 
 
 * Speech of Mr. Sheil in the Association, 13th January, 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 221 
 
 exciting alarm and by exasperating animosities, to 
 endanger the peace of society and to retard the cause 
 of national improvement." The aim of this denun- 
 ciation was not disguised. Though the language was 
 general, the specialty of the purpose was plain. Po- 
 litical agitation had become organic, and its regulated 
 action throughout society everywhere began to be 
 felt. Agrarian disturbances had almost disappeared ; 
 the King's speech recognised the fact, and ascribed it 
 to the efficacy of the late coercive statutes. The 
 Catholic Association congratulated the country on its 
 tranquillity, and boasted that it was attributable to 
 their advice and admonitions. Every week increased 
 revenues flowed spontaneously into the popular ex- 
 chequer; the revenues of his Majesty were indeed 
 augmented likewise, and the industrial progress of 
 the country contributed, no doubt, to both results. 
 But the Government viewed with jealousy and alarm 
 the growth of a power they were unable to control, 
 amid commercial prosperity and agrarian peace. It 
 was time to grapple with the danger, and to crush 
 this formidable conspiracy, as it was called, against 
 the established order of things. 
 
 Accordingly on the 10th of February, Mr. Goul- 
 burn, then Secretary for Ireland, introduced a bill, 
 
222 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 professedly for the suppression of all political societies 
 in that country united together by sectarian bonds, 
 and holding meetings by adjournment for more than 
 fourteen days. The Orange Society, as well as the 
 Catholic Association, would come, it was said, within 
 its contemplated provisions, and Ministers took credit 
 for their impartiality therein. But the whole of this 
 debate turned upon the alarm said to be entertained 
 at the power and progress of the last-named body ; 
 and, under the advice of their friends in Opposition, 
 the Catholic leaders resolved to petition that they 
 should be heard in their defence at the Bar. It was 
 likewise arranged that a bill for the removal of reli- 
 gious disabilities should be forthwith introduced, and 
 to Sir Francis Burdett was confided the charge of the 
 measure. A deputation, consisting of Mr. O'Connell, 
 Mr. Sheil, Mr. O' Gorman, and other influential per- 
 sons, was appointed by the association* to proceed to 
 London for the purpose of communicating on the 
 spot with those who espoused their cause, and supply- 
 ing them with such information as might be requisite 
 during the impending struggle. In a sketch, pub- 
 lished some months afterwards in the "New Monthly 
 Magazine," a graphic description of their journey, and 
 * Appointed 10th February, 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 223 
 
 of some of the incidents of their stay in the metropolis, 
 was given by Mr. Sheil. Their first interview was 
 with the honourable member for Westminster, who 
 strongly urged the expediency of substituting the 
 name of Mr. Plunket for his own on the back of the 
 proposed Relief Bill. The offer, however, was de- 
 clined. On the same day, 17th February, Mr. 
 Brougham presented the petition to the House, which 
 bore the signatures of the most influential persons 
 who had taken part in the agitation, and he moved, 
 in accordance with its prayer, that before the House 
 proceeded further with the Government bill, the peti- 
 tioners should be heard by counsel, or by witnesses, at 
 the Bar. The members of the deputation, who were 
 seated under the gallery, marked with anxiety the 
 fluctuating features of a debate for whose unsuccessful 
 issue they were in some degree indeed prepared, but 
 from the tone of which they believed they might 
 gather some indication of the feelings with which the 
 House was likely to approach the subsequent discus- 
 sions of their claims. They listened with satisfaction 
 to the well-sustained course of argument and expos~ 
 tulation of Mr. Brougham, and did their best to look 
 unmoved when made the subjects of no very measured 
 denunciation in the speech of Mr. Peel. Mr. O'Con- 
 
224 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 nell was the object of particular observation. u He 
 affected a perfect callousness of manner, but it was 
 easy to perceive that he was full of restlessness and 
 inquietude under an icy surface. I saw the current 
 eddying beneath."* The Home Secretary's reply was 
 an elaborate philippic against organized agitation. He 
 described with much particularity how committees of 
 finance, grievances, and education had been appointed, 
 and how their reports had been received and formally 
 considered by the association, the order of whose pro- 
 ceedings seemed carefully framed with a view to sug- 
 gest the idea of legislative powers and deliberations. 
 If this system were permitted to proceed, the interval 
 would be very short indeed between its assumption 
 of such powers as these, and its being, to all effective 
 purposes, a Parliament. 
 
 Mr. Peel introduced with great effect the name of 
 Archibald Hamilton Rowan, a gentleman who had 
 had the misfortune of being compromised in the 
 political events of 1793, and who, having been per- 
 mitted, after many years of exile, to return to his 
 native country, had recently joined the association, 
 and received the especial thanks of that body. 
 
 * The Catholic Deputation. New Monthly Magazine. Vol. 
 xiii., p. 432. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 225 
 
 Mr. Peel dwelt upon the fact that Catholic Emanci- 
 pation was one of the principal objects for which Mr. 
 Rowan had endeavoured to reorganize the Volunteers, 
 and for which the society in question had been formed : 
 the implication was obvious, and the House cheered. 
 " He became heated with victory, and cheered as he 
 was repeatedly by his partisans, he turned suddenly 
 towards that part of the House where the deputies 
 were seated, and looking triumphantly at Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, with whom he forgot for a moment that he had 
 been once involved in a personal quarrel, shook his 
 hand in scornful exultation, and asked whether the 
 House required any better evidence than the address 
 of the association to { an attainted traitor/ The 
 phrase was well uttered, and the effect, as a piece of 
 oratory, was great and powerful. But for the want of 
 moral dignity, I should say that it was very finely exe- 
 cuted. We hung down our heads for a moment," says 
 Mr. Sheil, "and quailed under the consciousness of 
 defeat. But it was only temporary. Mr. Brougham was 
 supplied with various facts of great importance on the 
 instant, and inflicted on Mr. Peel a terrible retribu- 
 tion, reproaching him with his want of nobleness in 
 opening a wound which had been so long closed, and 
 in turning the disasters of an honourable man into a 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
226 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 rhetorical resource."* It appeared that Mr. Rowan, 
 who in 1794 had been found guilty of publishing a 
 seditious libel, had in 1807 received the royal pardon 
 — a pardon which, in the words of the Duke of Bed- 
 ford, "no man better deserved, as no more honour- 
 able, more respectable, or more liberal man, existed in 
 Ireland that he had been received at court by Lord 
 Whitworth as viceroy, and re-admitted to his place as 
 grand juror in his county ; that his conduct in every 
 relation of life had been useful and exemplary, and 
 that as a resident landlord he was beloved and re- 
 spected by all who knew him. The want of gene- 
 rosity in attacking such a man for doing an act which 
 confessedly violated no existing law, as well as the 
 unconstitutional spirit implied in the revival at will 
 and without notice of an odious charge, which the 
 State had by its decree consigned to oblivion, afforded 
 Mr. Brougham a great opportunity, and greatly he 
 availed himself of it. The motion, however, was lost 
 by 222 to 89, and on the 21st of February the second 
 reading of Mr. Goulburn's bill was carried by a ma- 
 jority of 253 against 107. In the list of the minority 
 are to be found the names of Mr. Tierney, Sir Francis 
 
 * New Monthly Magazine. "Vol. xiii., p. 432. 
 f When Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland, in 1807. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 227 
 
 Burdett, Mr. Lambton, Mr. Abercrombie, Sir John 
 Newport, Mr. Spring Rice, and Lord Althorp. 
 
 In the Upper House the bill was carried by a large 
 majority, the Duke of Sussex, Lord Lansdowne, 
 Lord Grey, and Lord Holland vainly recording their 
 votes against it. 
 
 Many of those who had supported the measure for 
 the suppression of the Catholic Association, were 
 anxious to prove the sincerity of their attachment to 
 the cause of religious liberty, and the sincerity of their 
 belief that that cause had been retarded rather than 
 advanced by the invocation of popular passion. Mr. 
 Canning and Mr. Plunket, Lord Palmerston and Mr. 
 Lamb, declared that the fane of the Constitution was 
 dishonoured so long as its gates were closed against 
 millions of their fellow-subjects ; but when those who 
 were thus excluded stood without and loudly knocked, 
 they feared to yield, or to seem to yield, to impor- 
 tunity, and rebuked with severity solicitations that 
 sounded like threats. With such men, however, the 
 obligation to act up to their own principles in the 
 matter of concession was enhanced by the part they 
 had just taken in the enactment of a new repressive 
 law. When therefore Sir Francis Burdett moved for 
 a committee of the whole House, to take into con- 
 
228 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 sideration the laws affecting Roman Catholics, the 
 motion was seconded by the Secretary of the Admi- 
 ralty (Mr. Croker), and energetically supported by 
 the Attorney- General for Ireland, and the ministerial 
 leader, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs. There 
 appeared on a division 247 in its favour, against it but 
 234. The smallness of this majority, whatever hopes 
 there might be of its increase, when the bill should 
 have been actually brought in, furnished a powerful 
 argument to those who, in public as well as in private, 
 urged upon the deputies from Ireland the prudence 
 of coming to terms with their opponents. It is 
 impossible indeed to look back at the state of things 
 which then existed on both sides of the Channel, with 
 anything approaching to a spirit of fairness or candour, 
 and not to acknowledge the apparent hopelessness with 
 which the claim of unconditional emancipation seemed 
 beset. There was, however, much hesitation and 
 considerable difference of opinion on the subject. Two 
 propositions were made, each of which was to form the 
 subject of a separate bill to be carried pari passu with 
 the measure of relief, — the one making a legal pro- 
 vision for the Catholic clergy — the other abrogating 
 the 40s. freehold franchise, and substituting in its 
 stead that of 10£. To these conditions of the contem- 
 
EICHAED LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 plated compromise, Mr. (yConnell,* Mr. Blake, Mr. 
 Sheil, Archbishop Murray, and the Right Rev. Dr. 
 Doyle respectively gave their consent. In his speech 
 at the Association on the 16th March, after his 
 return from England, Mr. Sheil stated the conditions 
 which had been proposed u by some of their friends, 
 and to which some of their adversaries too had 
 expressed their willingness to accede, — namely, the 
 raising the qualification of the 40#. freeholders, and 
 enacting a provision for the Catholic clergy.'' He 
 abstained from offering any opinion on the length to 
 which it would be just and wise for them to yield in 
 the way of compromise ; but he believed that some 
 concession might not be inadmissible on their part for 
 the sake of securing religious equality, and he recom- 
 mended calmness and deliberation in their considera- 
 tion of the question. On all hands the proposal of a 
 veto in the Crown on the nomination of their bishops 
 had been, he said, abandoned- a They should enter 
 into the proposed negotiation with Government, into 
 this contract with the Legislature, for it was no other 
 than a contract proposed to be made between the 
 Legislature and the Catholics, with a disposition to 
 
 * See Mr. OTonnelFs letter, in reply to Mr. Lawless , 16th 
 March, 1S25. 
 
230 
 
 MEMOIRS OE 
 
 accommodate as far as the principle of accommodation 
 was consistent with sentiments of honour. They 
 should not betray a jealous distrust or a pitiful sus- 
 picion of injury, when he was confident that no wrong 
 was intended." He proceeded to describe at some 
 length the evidence he had given before the Select 
 Committee regarding the payment of the clergy. 
 
 Meanwhile the members of the deputation were 
 feted at many noble mansions, and were received 
 with kindness and consideration by most of the 
 leading persons who at the time took a prominent 
 part in Parliamentary opposition. In the article 
 from which more than one quotation has been 
 already made, there is an interesting account of a 
 dinner given to them by Mr. Brougham. The party 
 included the Dukes of Sussex, Norfolk, Devon- 
 shire, and Leinster. Mr. O^Connell, who was placed 
 between the two latter, seemed conscious that he was 
 observed, and said but little. There were besides many 
 others of less note. Mr. Lambton "looked like a 
 picture by Murillo, of a young Spanish Jesuit who 
 had just completed his novitiate, hardly speaking 
 himself, but seeming to watch Mr. O'Connell with 
 unremitting vigilance and Mr. Scarlet, afterwards 
 Lord Abinger, whose manner and expression seemed to 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 231 
 
 savour more of the veteran advocate than the generous 
 politician or the genial man of the world, sat next to 
 him. The conversation, as might have been expected, 
 often nagged, and even the learned host, though affable 
 and animated, seemed to make little effort to dazzle 
 or amuse. Comparing his manner in hours of relaxa- 
 tion with that of other eminent men, what seemed 
 most characteristic was the total carelessness and 
 indifference to display. At Norfolk House, a few days 
 afterwards, many of the same distinguished members 
 of the Whig party were assembled at dinner to meet 
 the deputation. " Lord Fitzwilliam was the person," 
 says Mr. Sheil, " with whom I was most disposed to 
 be pleased. It was impossible to look on this noble- 
 man, of the olden stamp, without a feeling of affec- 
 tionate admiration. His warm love of Ireland lives 
 under the ashes of age, and requires to be but stirred 
 to emit its former fire. Speak to him of Ireland, 
 and through the dimness of his eyes a sudden illumi- 
 nation sheds forth. He reverted with a Nestorian 
 pride to the period of his own government, and stated 
 that he had preserved the addresses presented to him 
 by the Catholics of Ireland, as the best memorials of 
 his life; that he would live long enough to witness 
 their emancipation seemed to be the wish nearest his 
 
232 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 heart."* Lord Grey was also there : he was silent and 
 reserved. There is something uncompromising and 
 even stern in his aspect. He has a tone of " sadness 
 which a placeman would interpret into discontent, 
 but his expression is not atrabilious or morose." 
 
 During his stay in London, he spent many of his 
 evenings in the society of men of letters, among 
 whom his vivacity and abandon of manner rendered 
 him a favourite. u Though full of humour," observes 
 one who met him frequently, "there was nothing 
 boisterous or vulgar in his mirth, and he carefully 
 abstained from those personalities in which some of 
 his countrymen were too apt to indulge. He was 
 altogether free from religious bigotry, and pursued 
 Emancipation rather as a civil right than as a religious 
 question. There was a playful archness about him 
 quite consistent with simplicity and shrewdness. He 
 was intensely social at this period, loved the pleasures 
 of the table, and enjoyed the vintages of France. The 
 impression he made on me was, that he was a 
 thoroughly amiable and good fellow ; a little peevish 
 occasionally in manner, but a man of sterling qualities 
 and excellent heart." 
 
 * His wish was granted, and lie had the pleasure of giving his 
 vote in the majority by which the Relief Bill was carried in 1829. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 233 
 
 A public meeting was held about this time at the 
 Freemasons' Hall, the Duke of Norfolk presiding, for 
 the purpose of enabling the delegates from Ireland 
 publicly to expound their views. The greater portion 
 of the meeting consisted of Catholics. Mr. Coke, of 
 Norfolk, was the only member of the Lower House 
 who was present, but many of the English Catholic 
 gentry attended ; and many persons were attracted 
 by curiosity to hear the men of whom so much had 
 recently been said. Mr. O'ConnelPs speech, which 
 occupied upwards of three hours in delivery, was 
 eminently successful, according to the account of it 
 given by Mr. Sheil. His own he admits to have 
 been a failure. By the time it had come to his 
 turn to speak, many had left the room, and others 
 were in the act of following their example. " He 
 cast that sort of look about him witnessed in an 
 actor when he surveys an empty house. The echo 
 produced by the diminution of the crowd drowned 
 his voice, which being naturally of a harsh quality 
 requires great management, and in order to produce 
 any oratorical impression must be kept under the 
 control of art. He became disheartened, and lost com- 
 mand over his throat. He grew loud and indistinct. 
 He also fell into the mistake of laying aside his 
 
234 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 habitual cast of expression and of thought, and in 
 place of endeavouring to excite the feelings of his 
 audit ory, wearied them with a laborious detail of 
 uninteresting facts."* Such was the result of his first 
 appearance in public before an English audience ; and 
 the disappointment, as he long afterwards remem- 
 bered, was severe. How speedily his elastic spirit 
 resumed its habitual gaiety and self-reliance is bespoken 
 by the fact of his thus gratuitously recording details 
 regarding himself of which the majority of those for 
 whom he was writing would otherwise have never heard. 
 
 Select committees were appointed in both Houses to 
 inquire into the state of Ireland, and the leading 
 members of the deputation were summoned to give 
 testimony before them. Part of Mr. Shed's examina- 
 tion had relation to a statement he had made some time 
 before, when addressing a public meeting in Dublin, 
 regarding the treatment of a poor man, named 
 Kuravan, who at the risk of his own life had saved 
 those of eleven persons that must otherwise have 
 perished, on a wreck upon the coast of Tramore. It 
 happened that the case of this heroic fisherman had 
 been mentioned by Mr. McDougal, a member of the 
 Leinster bar, at dinner on circuit in the hearing of 
 * New Monthly Magazine. Vol. xiii., p. 438. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 235 
 
 Mr. Sheil ; and attracted not unnaturally his atten- 
 tion. It was stated by that gentleman that when 
 presenting a memorial to Government for a pension 
 in behalf of Kuravan, the question was put to him at 
 the Castle, whether he was a Protestant ? In com- 
 menting on the circumstance, Mr. Sheil attributed 
 the tone of subordinates in administration to the 
 jealous and exclusive principles maintained by their 
 superiors in office. Ministers complained bitterly of 
 this, and when interrogated as a witness, Mr. Sheil 
 admitted that he had inferentially ascribed to the 
 heads of the department what had literally been said 
 by one of their clerks. When asked if he thought 
 this justifiable, he replied that he conceived it was 
 allowable as a "rhetorical artifice." Great odium 
 was cast upon him at the time on account of this 
 transaction, and in the public prints of the day he was 
 represented as having been driven to admit before the 
 committee that the whole story was a fable. On his 
 return to Ireland, however, he took an early occasion 
 to vindicate himself from this misrepresentation, and 
 gave as his authority for the facts he had narrated 
 the highly estimable person whose name has been 
 already mentioned.* 
 
 * Speech in the Catholic Association, 16th March, 1S25. 
 
236 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 On the 18th of March, the Association met for the 
 last time. The Hon. Colonel Butler presided, and 
 many of the most influential members took part in 
 the proceedings. £250 were received as further con- 
 tributions to the Catholic rent ; and a letter from Mr. 
 O'Connell, who was still in London, was read, in 
 which he defended the course pursued by the deputa- 
 tion, and recommended a prompt and unmurmuring 
 submission to the new law, which already decreed 
 their suppression. The letter breathed sanguine 
 hopes of the approaching realization of their desires. 
 A valedictory address to the people was then voted ; 
 and the Association adjourned sine die. 
 
 "I close my last words to the Catholic Associa- 
 tion," wrote Mr. O'Connell, "with the strong hope 
 that the spirit of conciliation which has sprung up in 
 England will be met with a corresponding glow of 
 discreet, but at the same time generous confidence; 
 and that, flinging away idle fears and old jealousies, we 
 shall evince a cordial and a lively disposition to make 
 such an arrangement as shall be satisfactory to all 
 parties, and which shall demonstrate our unaffected 
 desire to consolidate the strength and increase the 
 security of the empire."* So readily did the sanguine 
 
 * Letter read in Association, written from London, 16th March, 
 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 237 
 
 expectation thus expressed become general, that in the 
 course of a few weeks every trace of the late political 
 storm had disappeared, and there was hardly to be 
 seen a curl upon the still heaving bosom of the 
 popular wave. At one of the few public meetings 
 held during the spring, Mr. Sheil dwelt impressively 
 on " the profound tranquillity — the deep repose which 
 even the anticipation of relief had produced; if the 
 mere hope of justice had done so much, what would 
 not the realization accomplish ? The liberation of the 
 Catholic would be achieved through the liberalization 
 of the Protestant/'* and thus, to both infinite good 
 was likely to ensue. He gave upon the same occasion 
 a graphic and amusing account of the first impressions 
 created in the minds of the deputation by their visit 
 to England: — 
 
 " The recent delegation to England, of which I had the honour 
 to form a part, had the effect of presenting in a just light, the 
 comparative condition of the two countries, to the minds of those 
 who were deputed upon a species of national embassy to Great 
 Britain. The moment we entered England I could perceive a 
 diminution of our sense of political importance ; and in the sudden 
 transition from the scenes of misery and sorrow to which we are 
 habituated in Ireland, to the splendid spectacle of English wealth 
 and civilization, the humiliating contrast between the two islands 
 presses itself upon every ordinary observer. I do not know 
 whether an occasional visit to England, and especially such a one 
 as I am describing, has not a very salutary effect. It operates 
 
 * Speech at Carlow County meeting, 14th April, 1S25. 
 
238 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 as a sedative to the ardour of political passions, and should be 
 presented as a part of the antiphlogistic regimen. A man is 
 apt to be carried away by the popular feelings which he con- 
 tributes to create ; having heated the public mind into ardent 
 emotion, he himself is under the influence of its intensity. An 
 absence from the immediate scene of political agitation is not 
 without its utility in restoring the mind of the most enthusiastic 
 patriot to sedateness and soberness of thought. We became half 
 English at Shrewsbury, and were completely Saxonized as we 
 entered the murky magnificence of Warwickshire, that volcanic 
 region where a thousand Etnas throw up their continual fires. 
 The feeling which attended our progress through England was 
 not a little increased by an approach to the smoky glories of its 
 huge metropolis. We heard from afar the rolling of the 
 tide — the murmurs of that sea of wealth to which we were advanc- 
 ing. London is not the mere capital of Great Britain — it is the seat 
 of that dominion which holds the sea as its vassal, and before 
 which India bows her dusky brow. We there beheld the central 
 point of civilization — the mighty heart of that vast political 
 frame whose power is almost without a parallel in the ancient, 
 and wholly without a rival in the modern, world. In that 
 immense and almost endless city — in its countless population — in 
 its prodigious luxury — in its pomp and pride — in its glorious 
 commerce which has gathered all the products of the earth within 
 its compass, and united all that can minister to the wants, the 
 pleasures, and the caprices of man — in the splendid circumstance 
 that dazzles the mind, that delights the senses and kindles the 
 imagination, we beheld the evidence and the results of that 
 dominion which extends its influence over the earth, which, like 
 one of its circles, passes round the globe, and which not only 
 governs the present fortunes, but affects to an incalculable dis- 
 tance the remote destinies, of mankind. Why do I dwell upon 
 these circumstances, and endeavour to present to you a picture 
 of the greatness and glory of the British Empire ? In order that 
 I may impress upon you that feeling which pervades my mind, 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 239 
 
 and which is raised into strength and firmness of conviction — that 
 the happiness of our country depends upon its junction, I should 
 rather say its identity, with England."* 
 
 But it was not easy to drown in tones of national 
 amity the tumultuary echoes of recent agitation. 
 Great stress had been laid by the advocates of exclu- 
 sion on the violence of the language used in the 
 Association, and so deep was the exasperation of party 
 and polemical feeling, that on the eve of the motion 
 of which Sir Francis Burdett had given notice, many 
 of the Parliamentary friends of the Catholics doubted 
 whether it would be prudent to bring forward the 
 question during that session. On the morning of the 
 day which had been fixed on for the purpose, Sir 
 Francis, accompanied by several emiuent persons, 
 attended a meeting of the deputies from Ireland, and 
 informed them that it was considered extremely 
 hazardous to bring on the motion. The delegates 
 remonstrated, and pressed for a discussion. The 
 champions of the cause in the Commons retired, 
 promising that they would, in the course of the after- 
 noon, meet and consult with other persons of weight 
 and experience in Parliament, from whom they had 
 
 * Speech at Carlow, 14th April, 1825. Part of this Speech, 
 embodied in an article in the New Monthly Magazine. 
 
240 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 come, and then determine what was to be done. At 
 this final deliberation the arguments of Mr. Tierney 
 prevailed over the general misgivings, and discus- 
 sion was resolved upon.* 
 
 On the 21st of April, the second reading of the 
 Relief Bill, founded on Sir Francis Burdett's resolu- 
 tions, was carried by a majority of 268 to 241. The 
 hopes of the friends of emancipation beat high ; but 
 they were destined to be speedily dashed by the 
 memorable interposition of one who, though his senti- 
 ments had always been known as hostile, had for 
 some years seldom interfered prominently in political 
 affairs. The Duke of York, then heir-presumptive to 
 the throne, had been asked to present certain petitions 
 to the House of Lords against the Catholic claims; 
 and in doing so, on the 25th of April, he delivered a 
 speech, in which, after alluding to his father's insur- 
 mountable repugnance to any further concession, 
 he stated his belief, that the malady which had so 
 long caused the late king's seclusion from the world, 
 was attributable to the over anxiety he had suffered 
 regarding this question. He then proceeded to state 
 the construction which he put upon the terms of 
 the Coronation Oath, from which he held it to be 
 * Speech, 22nd September, 1825, at separate meeting. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 241 
 
 mpossible that the royal conscience could, under 
 any circumstances, be absolved ; and concluded in the 
 too memorable declaration, that in whatever situation 
 in life he might be placed he would adhere to the 
 principles he had thus expressed, — u So help him 
 God !" 
 
 The sensation which this declaration produced 
 amongst men of all classes and opinions was profound. 
 The exultation of Lord Eldon and his friends in the 
 Government was hardly less than that of the partisans 
 of ascendency throughout all parts of the kingdom. 
 George IV. commented with some chagrin on the 
 allusion in his brother's speech to the contingency of 
 his decease, but in other respects saw no cause for 
 blame * The speech was printed in letters of gold, 
 and became the Shibboleth of party and the watch- 
 word of Orangeism. On the other hand it excited, as 
 it was calculated to do, the deepest feelings of bitter- 
 ness and resentment among the Catholic body. Nor 
 were these feelings confined exclusively to them. By 
 the whole of the liberal party the language of the 
 Duke of York was regarded as alike impolitic and 
 unwarrantable. On the day after it had been uttered, 
 Mr. Brougham brought the subject under the notice of 
 
 * Lord Eldon's Life, vol. ii, p. 547. 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the House of Commons, and, though more than one 
 attempt was made to stop him, by appeals to order, 
 he persisted in stating the grounds on which he 
 deemed such a declaration to be fraught with danger 
 to the peace of society and the stability of the insti- 
 tutions of the country. After some angry alterca- 
 tion, the debate on the bill introduced by Mr. 
 Littleton, for the abolition of the 40s. franchise, 
 was then proceeded with. It was regarded solely in 
 the light of one of those collateral measures by the 
 help of which it had been supposed that a settle- 
 ment of the Catholic question might have been 
 effected : and accordingly we find amongst its oppo- 
 nents many of the highest Tories, mingled with some 
 who, though emancipationists, felt themselves bound 
 by their Reform principles to resist any curtailment of 
 the elective franchise. Mr. Peel and Mr. Lambton 
 were found, on this occasion, arrayed against Mr. 
 Plunket and Sir Francis Burdett. 
 
 On a division, the second reading was carried by 
 233, to 185 against it. But the interest which would 
 have otherwise attached to the measure soon died 
 away, and though considered in committee, the bill 
 never went to a third reading. The other auxiliary 
 measure, that for the payment of the Roman Catholic 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 243 
 
 clergy, was introduced by Lord Francis Leveson 
 Gower, on the 29th of the same month. The plan 
 which he submitted to the House was intended to 
 provide annual stipends of 1500/. a year for each of 
 the four archbishops, 1000/. a year for each of the 
 twenty-two bishops, 300/. a year for each of the three 
 hundred deans, 200/. a year for one class of parish 
 priests, 120/. for a second class, and 60/. for those 
 who performed the duties of curates. The total 
 amount of expenditure he estimated at 250,000/. per 
 annum. Mr. Peel opposed the motion as uncalled 
 for and unnecessary, but added that he would not 
 object to the principle, if the Legislature had decided 
 to remove all the civil disabilities complained of. 
 The resolution, " That it is expedient that a provision 
 should be made by law towards the maintenance of 
 the Roman Catholic clergy exercising religious 
 functions in Ireland," was carried by 205 to 162, but 
 no ulterior proceedings were afterwards taken. 
 
 On the 17th of May, the second reading of the 
 Relief Bill was lost in the House of Lords by a 
 majority of 48, the numbers being 178 against 130. 
 The Duke of Sussex was the only member of his 
 family who supported the measure, the Dukes of 
 York, Clarence, and Cumberland continuing in oppo- 
 
 r 2 
 
244 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 sition to it. The fact was well calculated to make a 
 deep impression on the minds of the Catholics, to 
 drive the sanguine to desperation, and the timid to 
 despair. On all hands it was felt that if at the gene- 
 ral election, which must of necessity occur during the 
 following year, some considerable change could not be 
 effected in the relative strength of parties in the 
 House of Commons, all expectation of any settlement 
 of the question must be indefinitely deferred. It 
 was felt by the popular leaders, and the feeling added 
 bitterness to the disappointment they had suffered, 
 that every concession made by them with a view to a 
 compromise had been made in vain. They had 
 allowed the association to be dissolved almost with- 
 out an effort of popular remonstrance, in the hope 
 that such an organization would no longer be required. 
 The hope had proved illusory, and the powerful 
 mechanism of agitation had been swept away. They 
 had consented to the disfranchisement of the 40,?. 
 freeholders, yet to these very men they must now 
 appeal, as the last constitutional resort, to efface 
 the discomfiture which had been sustained. As 
 might have been expected, there were many in 
 Ireland ready to add by their reproaches to the morti- 
 fication of the baffled chiefs of their party. Distrust 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 245 
 
 and disunion broke forth on all sides, and vague im- 
 putations of faithlessness were recklessly hurled at 
 the more prominent members of the luckless deputa- 
 tion. It needed no ordinary spirit of energy and 
 courage to look all this amount of popular disappoint- 
 ment and ill-humour in the face, and to undertake 
 the work of reconstruction and reparation on the 
 temporary ruin of the confidence hitherto reposed in 
 them. It is probable, indeed, that without the 
 signal force and versatility of Mr. O'Connell, the 
 attempt would never have been made. But the 
 influence of his example was contagious amongst all 
 who had recently shared his counsel and its defeat : 
 a common sentiment of wounded pride and tan- 
 talizing expectation animated all, and by none were 
 these emotions more keenly shared than by the sub- 
 ject of the present memoirs. 
 
246 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 1825—1826. 
 
 New Catholic Association — Revival of agitation — Speech at the 
 Boyne — Visit to Paris — L'Etoile — American sympathy — 
 Lord Wellesley — Leinster provincial meeting — Prayer for 
 Emancipation — Mr. G. R. Dawson — Mannfacturing distress 
 in England. 
 
 The tidings of the loss of the Relief Bill reached 
 Dublin at an early hour on the 20th May, and 
 created a deep and painful sensation. On the 2 3rd, a 
 preliminary meeting was held to consider what public 
 steps should be taken in consequence of the defeat of 
 the measure. Mr. Woulffe took the chair, and after 
 some time spent in conference, resolutions to be sub- 
 mitted to an aggregate meeting were prepared by 
 Mr. Sheil, Sir John Burke, Mr. Brie, and others. It 
 was felt that time must be given to render the intended 
 demonstration one of weight and influence commen- 
 surate with the occasion. But it was equally impor- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 247 
 
 tant, in the opinion of Mr. Sheil, that no unnecessary 
 delay should be permitted to occur. His counsel was 
 that they should give prompt and firm response to 
 the vote of the House of Lords. This answer could 
 only be uttered by the nation as such. Their part 
 was to advise and to direct its utterance; but the 
 country at large, and as one man, must speak. Every 
 parish ought upon the same day to petition Parlia- 
 ment and the throne. The idea was caught up 
 eagerly. It was felt to be the discovery of a new 
 electric chain, whose consequence none ventured to 
 forecast, but whose potency and applicability was 
 manifest to all. 
 
 The assembly, convened in pursuance of the resolu- 
 tions above referred to, took place on the 8th June. 
 In numbers, rank, and opulence, it was not unworthy 
 the occasion. If unabated determination, and some- 
 thing more, had not been expressed with the sobriety 
 of earnest men and the strength of intelligent and in- 
 fluential men, the faith in eventual success would have 
 died in the hearts of the multitude, and the partisans of 
 ascendency would have had cause to exult in the rejec- 
 tion of all terms of compromise. But this was not all. 
 It was felt that defiance, not in impassioned words alone, 
 but in deliberate acts, must be flung in the face of the 
 
248 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 unconstitutional interdict which the heir presumptive 
 to the throne had affected to lay on the attainment 
 by peaceful means of religious liberty. The old or- 
 ganization had been extinguished by a new restrictive 
 statute. It was to be considered how a substitute 
 might be formed without infringing the law. A 
 committee was named to consider and report how 
 this might be done. Other expedients, however, 
 might be resorted to, whose novelty would arrest 
 attention, and whose practical meaning would be 
 obvious to all. Of these, the two most notable were 
 the taking of a sectarian census, and the holding, on 
 a given day, of simultaneous meetings in every 
 parish in Ireland. The one would exhibit the num- 
 bers of the disfranchised race ; the other, their unani- 
 mity. To Mr. Sheil both are to be ascribed. In his 
 speech at the meeting of the 8th June he suggested 
 both of these measures, which he subsequently matured 
 and guided to completion : — 
 
 " We are called again together by the calamities of Ireland. 
 The sensations of deep pain, and, let me add, of profound resent- 
 ment, which pervade the whole Roman Catholic community, of 
 which this vast assembly is an image (and if we were not indignant 
 we would not be men), derive an additional bitterness from the 
 baffled hopes in which, for a moment of brief and bright illusion, 
 we had been sufficiently credulous to indulge. How differently 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 249 
 
 did we meet at the last great convocation of our body, which was 
 held while the bill for our relief was in its triumphant progress 
 through the House of Commons ! A spirit of enthusiastic hope 
 was diffused amongst us — the mere expectation of success had 
 generated results which more than anticipated many of the con- 
 sequences of its attaimnent, when upon a sudden but why 
 
 should I attempt to describe it ? You know it painfully well, 
 and thank God that not only you, but that every nation in Europe, 
 is acquainted with it ! There were emissaries of confederated 
 France and Russia in the avenues of the senate, upon the night 
 of that disastrous decision, which may be repented only when it 
 can no longer be repaired. Shall Ireland be reconciled ? was the 
 question. * Never!' said the heir to the British empire. He 
 did not say, 'not yet;' he said 'never !' — and that is a disastrous 
 word from the son and brother of a king who stands upon the steps 
 of the throne (he spoke, indeed, as if he had reached the seat of 
 royalty itself), and from that high station he pronounced a male- 
 diction — an anathema — against the Irish people; he gave as a 
 motto for Ireland that dreadful inscription which Dante has told 
 us was written upon the gates of hell, and bade us ' hope no 
 more.' .... The Catholic question has been thrown out by a 
 majority of forty-eight in the House of Lords — forty-eight non- 
 contents have produced six millions of malcontents. That we 
 are malcontents they admit — that we are six millions they deny. 
 What, then, is to be done? Let there be a census of the 
 Catholics of Ireland. * Do not dress your slaves with a peculiar 
 garb,' said a Roman statesman, ' lest they should learn their own 
 strength.' An enumeration of the Catholic people may be easily 
 effected through the instrumentality of the Catholic clergy. The 
 next project is one as simple as it is efficacious. Let petitions be 
 
 presented from every parish in Ireland Never shall we 
 
 relinquish the pursuit of that glorious object to which the whole 
 heart and soul of the country are devoted. We are willing to 
 bind ourselves to the prosecution of this great cause by the most 
 
250 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 solemn adjurations that can bind us to God or man, and if heaven 
 is to be invoked by princes for our degradation, let us offer up a 
 counter-invocation — let us bind ourselves to our country by a 
 bond as holy as a prince's word, and swear that we shall at last 
 be free by the dignity of human nature, so help us God !" 
 
 Another aggregate meeting was held on the 13th 
 of July, to receive the report of the committee. It 
 stated that while the committee were resolved " to 
 obey a statute they could not respect/' they were 
 convinced that a new association might be formed, 
 which would combine and consolidate the constitu- 
 tional resources of the Catholic body, without in any 
 degree infringing the act recently passed by the 
 Legislature for the suppression of dangerous societies. 
 That in order to avoid the possibility of its being 
 alleged, even by means of any perverse interpretation 
 of the Act of 6 George IV., cap. 4, that the new 
 association can come within the provisions thereof, it 
 was expressly declared that the New Catholic Asso- 
 ciation should not assume, or in any manner exercise, 
 the power of acting for the purpose, or under the 
 pretence of procuring, the redress of grievances in 
 Church or State, or the alteration of any matters by 
 law established, or for the purpose or under the 
 pretence of carrying on, or assisting in, the prosecu- 
 tion or defence of causes civil and criminal. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 251 
 
 That the New Catholic Association should not be 
 composed of different divisions or branches, or of 
 different parts, actio g in any manner separate or 
 distinct from each other, and that there should be no 
 separate or district secretary or delegate, or other 
 officer elected or appointed by, or authorized to act 
 for, any particular part; neither should the New 
 Catholic Association communicate or correspond with 
 any other society, committee, or body of persons ; 
 neither should it, in any respect, act in any manner 
 inconsistently with the said statute of 6 George IV., 
 cap. 4. 
 
 The New Catholic Association should be formed 
 merely for the purposes of public or private charity, 
 and such other purposes as are not prohibited by 
 the statute of 6 George IV., cap. 4. The first 
 object of the association was declared to be the pro- 
 motion of public peace and concord. The second, 
 the encouragement of an enlightened and religious 
 system of education founded on the basis of Chris- 
 tian charity and perfect fair dealing. 
 
 The third object was stated to be the distinctive 
 enumeration of the people according to their various 
 creeds; and the number of children of each sect 
 receiving education. 
 
252 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 The next purpose was the rendering aid in the 
 erection of places of Catholic worship, and interment 
 for the dead; the promotion of improvements in 
 native agriculture and manufactures, and, finally, the 
 diffusion of information calculated to advance the 
 cause of religious toleration, and the support of a 
 liberal press, were assigned as the aims of the new 
 organization. 
 
 Petitions to Parliament were to be in future 
 adopted at separate local meetings instead of ema- 
 nating, as heretofore, from a central body. 
 
 The report was subscribed by Lords Gormanstown 
 and Killeen, the Hons. G. Ffrench and T. Preston, 
 Sir James Burke, O'Connor Don, Daniel O'Connell, 
 Richard Sheil, J. J. Bagot, Nicholas Mahon, &c. 
 
 The conception and elaboration of this remarkable 
 scheme were mainly attributable to O'Connell. In 
 form and phrase nothing could be more sedulously 
 observant of the restrictions lately imposed by law ; 
 yet everybody felt and understood that the old agita- 
 tion, revivified and reanimated with more than its 
 former spirit of daring and defiance, had found a 
 way to glide through the bars within which it had 
 been sentenced to confinement by the Legislature. 
 O'Connell laughed at the law, and his laughter was 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 253 
 
 heard and answered at every Catholic fireside in the 
 land. He protested, indeed, that in its most unreason- 
 able provisions the " Algerine Act," as he called it, 
 should remain uninfringed ; but he would show its 
 authors how thoroughly they might be baffled not- 
 withstanding ; and what excellent speeches on all 
 kinds of exciting subjects might be made in suc- 
 cessive distinct associations, each of which should be 
 dissolved within fourteen days. No one could prove 
 that they formed in reality but one continuous 
 organization, that was a public secret; and with 
 stentorian voice he bade the people keep it. 
 
 "The Catholic Association," said Mr. Sheil, "is 
 dead. Can it be resuscitated? Not, perhaps, in 
 all its former life, efficacy, and vigour, but its genius 
 may be evoked, and its destroyers may be haunted by 
 its spirit. The new machinery will work the vessel 
 well. The association of the Catholics will be shown 
 to arise from their dissociation from the State. 
 
 "On a specified day, let simultaneous meetings 
 be held in every chapel in Ireland. Upon the same 
 day 2500 meetings will be held; thus an enormous 
 movement of the population will be produced. 
 Hitherto the giant has raised but a single limb — 
 henceforth the whole frame of the public mind shall 
 
254 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 be put at once into motion. Briar eus should arise 
 and lift up his hundred arms together. If this great 
 and appalling proof of the zeal, the energy, and the 
 union of the people be given, if the minister beholds 
 7,000,000 of oppressed and impassioned men starting 
 at once into the attitude of inflamed and vehement 
 supplication, will he not whisper to himself that 
 Ireland can no longer be trampled with impunity to 
 the earth ; that concession is no longer a matter of 
 election ; that while justice says you ought, necessity 
 cries out you must?"* 
 
 One cannot help being struck with the variety of 
 thought and language displayed in his numerous 
 speeches at this period, although all of them were 
 necessarily devoted to the iteration of the one great and 
 importunate cry for justice. It was O'ConnelPs boast 
 that he could repeat himself in popular assemblies 
 daily throughout the year, without ceasing to com- 
 mand attention or to create effect. Shell's fancy was 
 more fertile, and his taste more fastidious. His ear 
 was charmed with ringing phrases, and his imagina- 
 tion delighted in novelty. It was the fashion among 
 his critics to say that his metaphors were often 
 strained, and the illustrations for his argument far- 
 * Speech, 13th July, 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 255 
 
 fetched. But this gave him little concern. He 
 knew much better than they did, wherein his power 
 of fascination lay with a dream-loving and dramatic 
 people. He remembered the advice of Chesterfield to 
 a public speaker, and sought, if possible, on every 
 occasion to give his audience something that would 
 cling to their memories as they went home, like 
 snatches of a melody heard for the first time. One 
 or two instances of his versatility in this respect must 
 suffice. After describing, on one occasion, the apathy 
 in which the Catholic gentry had long been steeped, 
 he proceeded to contrast therewith their awakened 
 sense of dignity and duty in more recent days. " At 
 length," he exclaimed, u they have learned to partici- 
 pate in the popular sentiment ; the spirit by which 
 the great body of the people is actuated has risen 
 into the higher classes; and the fire which has so 
 long lain in the lower region of society, has burst out 
 at last from its frozen summits."*" 
 
 At an assemblage of the friends of emancipation in 
 his native county, on the 4th of August, which was 
 at the time remarkable as being attended by the 
 greater number of persons of property who usually 
 served upon the grand jury, a curious instance was 
 * Speech at dinner at Wexford, 20th July, 1825. 
 
256 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 afforded of his anxiety to strike the imagination of 
 those whose active sympathy he desired to enlist in 
 the cause. He thus abruptly began : — ■ 
 
 " Niphon is the largest of the islands of Japan. Mosin is of 
 inferior magnitude. If a traveller were to tell us (the case is an 
 imaginary one, but I shall be indulged in putting it) that seven 
 millions of the inhabitants of Mosin were deprived by the legisla- 
 tors of Niphon of the rights of citizens, because they believed in 
 a religion more studded with mystery than the established creed 
 of the larger island — if he told us that one-seventh of the popula- 
 tion of Mosin who professed the idolatry by law established, 
 enjoyed all the honours and emoluments of the State — that their 
 bonzes possessed one million of acres — that they dwelt in palaces 
 and rolled in gilded chariots — that they were supported with 
 one-tenth of the produce of public labour — that their empty 
 pagodas were built at the expense of those who rejected their 
 worship — that the Japanese vestries excluded the infidel many 
 from all share in the ecclesiastical taxation — that deep and 
 indignant feelings were generated by this monopoly in the seven 
 millions of Mosinites — that the heir to the empire of Japan had 
 declared an implacable hostility to these degraded millions ; — if 
 he were besides to tell us that the cabinet of China, who were 
 anxious to lower the pride of Japan, had turned their eyes to 
 Mosin, and had calculated upon their co-operation in case a war 
 should ensue — if he were to say that, notwithstanding the danger 
 arising from the disaffection of the Mosinites, the legislators of 
 Japan still obstinately persevered in their system of government, 
 for the sake of the fat and unwieldy bonzes ; — if, sir, a traveller 
 were to tell us all this, should we not say that the government of 
 Japan was exceedingly rash in offering outrage to so large a 
 portion of its subjects, and that it must be composed of fatuitous 
 and narrow-minded men ? Shall that system, then, be wise in 
 Ireland which in Mosin would be absurd ? The strange infatua- 
 tion which prevails over the councils of England will hereafter 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 257 
 
 excite astonishment, and posterity will wonder at the obdurate 
 perseverance with which the legislators of England continued so 
 long to influence the minds and administer provocation to the 
 passions of millions of men. Mr. Canning had lately said that 
 the foreign foes of Great Britain had fixed their hopes on Ireland. 
 He would ask the simple but not seditious question — if 20,000 
 Frenchmen should land upon our shores, would the population of 
 Ireland unite with the invaders? If Protestants think they 
 would, if it be barely possible, if there be a risk of an event so 
 terrible ; is it not actual frenzy to keep the national mind in 
 such a state of frightful susceptibility ? The daily prayer which 
 he would address to the minister was — lead us not into tempta- 
 tion."* 
 
 He concluded one of his most stirring efforts as a 
 demagogue thus : — 
 
 " It is said the priests ought not to interfere in politics. Why ? 
 Do not the parsons meddle in politics ? Do they not excite the 
 prejudices of the English people ? Does not Dr. Blomfield 
 meddle in politics ? He was once our friend, until finding that 
 Ins head was not like Yorick's, and that a mitre might drop upon 
 it, feeling the organ of episcopativeness in distinct and holy pro- 
 minence, he betook himself to a more profitable course than the 
 study of Greek tragedy, and set up as an orator against the Irish 
 people. If then the parsons are the most furious opponents of our 
 cause, why should not the priests approve themselves its most 
 strenuous advocates ? They will not abuse the legiti- 
 mate influence they possess, and assign it over to the rulers of 
 the land. They will not convert the temple into a profane and 
 
 sordid mart They will not sink a shaft in Calvary, in 
 
 order that they may dig for gold." 
 
 * Speech at Kilkenny, County Meeting, 4th August, 1825. 
 VOL. I. S 
 
258 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 In entering on the new campaign of agitation 
 which thus opened before them, those upon whom its 
 chief responsibilities were to fall had all the advan- 
 tages derivable from previous experience of the diffi- 
 culties and hazards it involved ; and what was equally 
 important, the practical acquaintance with each others' 
 capabilities and views which they had mutually ac- 
 quired. At no period, perhaps, were the latter com- 
 pletely identical regarding many details and objects ; 
 but, considering how essentially different were the 
 natures of the two men, and how little pains were 
 taken by either to conceal their differences of opinion 
 when they arose, it is curious and not uninstructive 
 to observe how rarely these differences were suffered 
 to mar the general unity of action, and how cordially 
 each at all times acknowledged the value of the ser- 
 vices rendered by the other. When Mr. O'ConnelPs 
 health, along with his own, was given at a dinner to 
 Lord Ebrington, Sir John Newport, and other liberal 
 magistrates of Waterford,* Mr. Sheil returned thanks 
 in a manner the most calculated to discourage ideas 
 that any rivalry existed between them. Before ac- 
 knowledging the compliment to himself, he paid the 
 warmest tribute to the claims of his absent friend. 
 
 * 26th July, 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 259 
 
 " To him in a great measure is to be attributed the 
 strong interest felt by the public in our cause. It is 
 principally through his exertions that the energies of 
 that cause have been kept alive. It is his mighty 
 breath that has inflamed to intensity the furnace of 
 public feeling. It is the great lamp that burns 
 within him that has chiefly shed upon the public 
 mind the light that now surrounds the question. In 
 doing him honour you do him but justice." 
 
 His manner of personally acknowledging com- 
 pliments of this kind was invariably the most brief. 
 No man valued appreciation or recognition more ; but 
 no public man ever spoke less of himself. In return- 
 ing thanks when his health was drank at a dinner in 
 Dublin, he said — " You have done me a great honour, 
 and I shall not depreciate it. The protestations of 
 humility are in general little else than the coquetry 
 of egotism."* He seldom in practice departed from 
 this rule. Throughout his speeches there are probably 
 fewer allusions to himself than in those of any of his 
 cotemporaries. On another occasion, when much 
 angry discussion had taken place as to the part which 
 
 * It was at this meeting Mr. Sheil returned thanks on behalf 
 of Thomas Moore, in a speech full of poetical reminiscences and 
 allusions. 
 
 S % 
 
260 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 different individuals had taken respecting "the 
 Wings/ 5 he suddenly interposed with the sweeping 
 exclamation, " I am sick — I cannot help the acknow- 
 ledgment — I am sick of hearing men eternally ex- 
 patiating upon themselves. The spirit of egotism 
 predominates in our discussions. The personal pro- 
 noun, the most odious of all, returns for ever in my 
 ear. I hear nothing but ' V — from the speakers who 
 latterly address themselves to the Irish people : our 
 luminaries, to speak the truth, have a perpetual rota- 
 tion upon themselves. Let us have done with all 
 this."* 
 
 His continuous exertions at this period to re- 
 animate the spirits of his party, entailed upon him no 
 ordinary amount of labour. His distrust of extem- 
 pore speaking had become almost insurmountable ; 
 and when within a limited space of time he under- 
 took to address in succession a number of important 
 assemblies upon the same subject, he was not content 
 to repeat himself merely, but strove, and with success 
 truly surprising, to vary not only the phrases but the 
 topics of admonition and illustration. Far from 
 affecting the power of improvisation, which he did 
 not believe himself to possess, he would constantly 
 
 * Speech in Association, 23rd November, 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 261 
 
 stipulate for time to consider what he was to say 
 before consenting to address any important meeting ; 
 and he wholly disdained the shallow coxcombry which 
 tries to conceal the pains necessary for elaborate and 
 verbal preparation. It was his habit to write before- 
 hand what he meant to say. He would also, when 
 too much excited to sleep, audibly rehearse the 
 harangue which he was about to deliver the following 
 day. During his autumnal tour of agitation a 
 gentleman, who happened on one occasion to occupy 
 a room adjoining his at a country inn, said to a 
 mutual friend next morning, that " he had overheard 
 Sheil oratorizing to the walls all night." 
 
 The new association met on the 20th August. 
 He felt strongly that something new was requisite 
 " to propel conviction through the public mind" of 
 Great Britain. In their reiterated demand for redress, 
 they must avoid monotony. The question might be 
 kept in seeming motion without much positive gain : 
 " it might be said to go round without advancing." 
 The public ear, without being physically closed, was, 
 he well knew, liable to become morally insensible to 
 impressions from their very familiarity. "They 
 must devise some measure that would make a great 
 and permanent impression. Something must be done 
 
262 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 at which men would start." The annual debate upon 
 the question in Parliament was not enough. What 
 then could be devised to arrest general attention ? He 
 proposed the formation of a register of the names and 
 addresses of all the parish priests in Ireland, with a 
 view to the census about to be begun. "Thus an 
 individual intercourse with every parish priest would 
 be established ; they would thereby obtain a series of 
 conductors, through which the feeling they were 
 solicitous to circulate might be readily conveyed. 
 From one extremity of the land to the other, a regular 
 and uniform communication would be set on foot, and 
 a great national agency would be established. This 
 being once effected, the general census might be 
 taken in a week ; and, what was still more impor- 
 tant, that population might be organized into sup- 
 plication, and disciplined in what might be called the 
 tactics of petitioning."* 
 
 His most striking effort of this busy year was 
 made a few days later at a meeting of the freeholders 
 of the county of Meath, assembled at Navan. On the 
 banks of the river Boyne, Lords Darnley, Bective, 
 and Dimsany, Sir Marcus Somerville, the Hon. Mr. 
 Bligh, and many others of the Protestant proprietary 
 * Speech at New Association, 20th August, 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 263 
 
 were present; while the Catholics were headed by 
 Lords Gormanstown and Killeen. The speech con- 
 sists of a rapid and brilliant epitome of the annals of 
 Catholic servitude and progressive emancipation. 
 
 " Upon the first day of July, in the year 1690, the waters of 
 the river on whose banks you are assembled ran red with blood. 
 Upon the banks of that river James and William met. The 
 combat was long and doubtful. There was a moment when the 
 Irish forces were upon the point of triumph. 1 Spare my English 
 subjects !' exclaimed the wretched Prince ; and well might his 
 followers cry out, ' Change kings, and we'll fight the battle over 
 again!' The Irish were defeated, but not overthrown. The 
 bloody day of Aughrim succeeded. The ball that pierced St. 
 Ruth was lodged in the breast of Ireland. Notwithstanding these 
 disasters the Irish power was not annihilated, and the walls of 
 Limerick still afforded the means of a permanent defence. A 
 large body of French and Irish troops were assembled within its 
 gates ; and William, who had been formerly driven from its walls, 
 foresaw, that, if the expected succours should arrive from France, 
 the civil war would, at all events, be protracted, and that eventu- 
 ally its fortune might be reversed. Under these circum stances, 
 he instructed his oflicers to conclude a peace with as much speed 
 as possible. Leland, who affects to discredit the ' Secret Procla- 
 mation' (as it was called), by which the Lords Justices tendered 
 much more favourable terms than were subsequently granted, 
 admits that William had directed Ginkle to terminate the war 
 upon any conditions. It appears by a letter, written by the 
 nephew of Lord Tyrconnell, that at one period William was 
 willing to secure to the Catholics one -half of the churches, one- 
 half of the offices, civil and military, and compensation for the 
 forfeited estates. It was obviously a matter of great importance 
 to that sagacious Prince to put an end to intestine divisions, at 
 a time when England was engaged in continental warfare. As 
 
264 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 long as Limerick held out it was in the power of Prance to create 
 an alarming diversion. Terms were proposed to the Irish gar- 
 rison. After some negotiation, in which Sir Theobald Butler, 
 who had been Attorney-General to James the Second, took a 
 leading part, it was stipulated that the Irish Catholics should be 
 secured in the undisturbed possession of their property, in the 
 exercise of their religion, and in the rights and privileges which 
 they had enjoyed in the reign of Charles II. In the reign of 
 that monarch Catholics sat in Parliament, and that right was 
 reserved as fully and effectually as if it had been distinctly speci- 
 fied in the contract. On the 3rd of October, in the year 169], 
 the Articles of Capitulation were signed. Immediately after, 
 and before the gates had been thrown open, intelligence arrived 
 that the sails of a foreign fleet were seen off the coast. It may 
 readily be conjectured with what an intense emotion the news 
 was received. Offer to yourselves an image of the scene which 
 the city must have presented. An amnesty is proclaimed ; a few 
 days are allowed to the Irish who preferred exile to ignominy, to 
 embark for France. They continue during that interval in 
 possession of the fortress, whose bastions remain unbattered. 
 The green flag, with the harp woven in gold, yet floated from the 
 citadel. The Irish soldiers stood upon the battlements, and 
 looked, for the last time, upon the fields of their country, upon 
 which so many of their sons, and of their brothers, were lying 
 dead. In the midst of that melancholy scene, in the heavy damp 
 that hung upon their hearts, a rumour is suddenly heard, that a 
 French fleet has been seen off the coast ; a courier arrives — 
 the flag of France has been discerned. Another messenger 
 appears, and proclaims the arrival of twenty ships of war, under 
 the command of Chatelherault, laden with ammunition, and 
 with arms and men. It would require some portion of the 
 powers of the eminent person* who has been lately among us, 
 and whose genius has found such admirable materials in the civil 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 265 
 
 wars of his own country, to describe the effect which that intel- 
 ligence must have produced among those who had but the day 
 before set their hands to the Articles of Capitulation. Would he 
 not make us thrill in the delineation of such a scene ? Would he 
 not make our hearts leap within us in painting the effects of this 
 great but unavailing event upon the chivalrous and gallant men who 
 had not abandoned their Sovereign when he had deserted himself. 
 With what a pathetic vividness woidd he paint the simultaneous 
 impulse with which the weapon that hung loosely to the ground 
 flew into the soldier's hand, as the drum beat along the ramparts, 
 and sent forth its spirit-stirring call. How would he paint the 
 rushing of men together — the earnest interrogation, the rapid ut- 
 terance, the precipitous movement, the trembling and anxious lip, 
 and vivid and flashing eye. Should we not behold the brave, the 
 noble, the devoted, the self-immolating Sarsfield kindle with the 
 intelligence, and starting into the warrior's attitude again. He 
 did. The generous and gallant Sarsfield sprung up from the 
 earth, on winch he had thrown himself in despair, when the 
 sound of France and of succour reached his ears. Every generous 
 instinct of his nature must have been roused within him — his soul 
 must have been at once in arms — his face must have been 
 kindled with revenge and glory — every nerve must have been 
 braced — every sinew must have been strung — his hand must have 
 been placed upon that sword which had unplumed so many a 
 helm. But it was glued to the scabbard. He could but grasp 
 its hilt. The recollection of the treaty must have come upon 
 him, and striking that brow which was furrowed with the casque, 
 he must have exclaimed — c France, thou art come too late, and 
 Ireland is lost for ever.' You must not chide me, my lord, for 
 presenting this picture in these strong, and there are some who 
 perhaps will deem them excessive colours. It is a theme to 
 which it is impossible for any Catholic to revert without emotion, 
 and I confess, for my own part, that I cannot contemplate the 
 event to which I have referred without sympathising in the 
 feelings of the men who were placed in a juncture so exciting, 
 
266 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and who had still power to resist the temptation which the event 
 I have attempted to describe must have held out to their hearts. 
 They did resist it. In despite of the allurement which the 
 landing of a great force had presented, the Irish Catholics, with 
 arms in their hands, with a strong city in their possession, and 
 while William was engaged in a foreign war replete with em- 
 barrassment and peril, remained faithful to their compact, and, 
 trusting to a false and perjured enemy, threw the gates open and 
 surrendered. What part did the conquerors act ? There is not 
 in the records of mankind an example of more foul and abomi- 
 nable perfidy than the almost instantaneous violation of the 
 Articles to which justice and honour had set their seals. Where 
 was the first announcement of the detestable purpose made? 
 Before the altar of Almighty God ? Dopping, the Bishop of 
 Meath (he ought to have been Archbishop of Dublin) preaching 
 before the Justices in Christ Church, the Sunday after they had 
 returned from the camp, insisted that faith ought not to be kept 
 with Papists. He proclaimed treachery and sacrilege as a part of 
 his sacerdotal ethics, and Parliament soon cried ' Amen !' The 
 atrocities of the first penal law (for the monster was mature at 
 its birth) are described by Sir Theobald Butler with the eloquence 
 of a man whose soul was wrung within him, and who drew his 
 feelings not from the sources of artificial emotion, but from the 
 deep and troubled fountains of the heart. After having conjured 
 the House of Commons in the name of every law, human and 
 divine, not to infringe a treaty which had been rendered sacred 
 by the most solemn obligations by which man can be bound on 
 earth, or should be in awe of heaven — he that was not only 
 the advocate of a whole people but his own, and was to be himself 
 the victim of a parricidal law, proceeds to describe the con- 
 sequences of allowing the Protestant son to tear his property from 
 the Catholic father. And do you not, my lord, think his face 
 must have been suffused with tears of anguish when he said, * Is 
 not this against the laws of God and man ; against the rule of 
 reason and justice, by which all men ought to be governed? Is 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 267 
 
 not this the surest way in the world to make children become 
 undutiful, and to bring the grey head of the father to the grave 
 with grief and tears ? It would be hard from any man — but from 
 a son, a child — the fruit of my body, whom I have nursed in my 
 bosom, and tended more dearly than my own life, to become my 
 plunderer, to rob me of my estate, and to take away my bread, is 
 much more grievous than from any other, and enough to make 
 the most flinty of hearts bleed to think on it. For God's sake, 
 will you consider whether this is according to the golden rule, 
 1 to do as you should be done unto,' and if not, you will not, nay, 
 surely you cannot, without the most manifest injustice, take from 
 us our birthrights, and invest them in others before our faces.' 
 In such language did Sir Theobald Butler, who was a Catholic 
 lawyer of the first eminence, and who had himself been a party to 
 the treaty of Limerick, implore the Irish House of Commons to 
 respect the law of man and of God ! But it was in vain. The 
 bill passed, and was succeeded by other enactments of the same 
 character. Nothing was omitted that could be devised by the 
 Satanic genius of penal legislation for the oppression and de- 
 gradation of the people. Session after session new chains were 
 forged until there was not a link left to which a fetter could be 
 attached, and the very power of oppression had been exhausted 
 by its accumulation." 
 
 He then enumerated the successive steps in the 
 history of relaxation, from the first intimation given 
 by the elder Pitt, in 1759, that France looked 
 to the discontent of Ireland, to the message of 
 Mr. Secretary Hobart, in 1793, which recom- 
 mended the concession of the elective franchise, on 
 the very day that war against the French Republic 
 was declared ; and, more recently, from the motion of 
 
268 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Mr. Fox, in 1805, in the Imperial Parliament, to the 
 carrying of the Bill of Plenary Relief for the first time 
 through the House of Commons in 1825. Save 
 under the pressure of foreign difficulties or domestic 
 troubles, nothing ever had been gained. There had 
 been intervals of popular torpor, and more than one 
 experiment in the efficacy of unmurmuring acqui- 
 escence ; they had always ended in disappointment 
 and humiliation. No other course was worth pur- 
 suing but that of incessant iteration of their claims, 
 and indomitable energy in enforcing them as matter 
 of right. 
 
 In the month of September he visited Paris, 
 accompanied by some friends. During his stay he 
 became acquainted with the Abbe Genoude, the pro- 
 prietor of L'Etoile, afterwards published under the 
 title of La Gazette de France. Curiosity had been 
 attracted among French politicians regarding the 
 growing agitation for the redress of Catholic griev- 
 ances in Ireland ; and the Abbe was much struck by 
 the vivid and epigrammatic way in which his new 
 acquaintance portrayed the condition of things as 
 they then existed, and prefigured the effect upon the 
 national policy to which it must lead ere long. 
 " Could French readers only be made aware of all this 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 269 
 
 through the medium of ISEtoile, they could not fail to 
 be deeply interested. Could not Mr. Sheil write in 
 the French language as fluently as he could converse 
 in it ?" His early education rendered this a matter of 
 little trouble ; and an article descriptive of the past 
 and present condition of Ireland was soon afterwards 
 transmitted to the reverend editor for publication. 
 The novelty of the subject as a topic of political dis- 
 cussion, and the striking manner in which it was 
 treated, attracted attention. The Abbe was charmed, 
 and the writer, perceiving that, through the medium 
 thus unexpectedly presented, it might be possible to 
 startle the intolerant immobility of men in high 
 places on the other side of the Channel to the neces- 
 sity of dealing betimes with the perilous question, 
 undertook to contribute, whenever he found leisure 
 from more pressing avocations, to the Paris journal. 
 The articles which appeared during the following 
 months at irregular intervals, were frequently copied 
 into the London newspapers. This soon attracted 
 the notice they were meant to provoke. The Govern- 
 ment felt the sting of reproaches when translated 
 from the French, which they had been accustomed to 
 disregard when uttered in their own tongue. These 
 articles, expressive of so much sympathy for the con- 
 
270 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 dition of Ireland, social and sectarian, were made the 
 theme of vehement attack in the Courier, at that 
 time the recognised organ of the Liverpool cabinet. 
 Their origin was imputed to the association, whose 
 funds were said to have purchased their insertion in 
 the French journal. Mr. Sheil took an opportunity 
 of refuting these insinuations.* He was ready to 
 pledge himself that the articles in question had never 
 been in any way paid for or procured by the associa- 
 tion. Satisfied with their success, he did not care to 
 claim the authorship; nor was it till more than a 
 year afterwards, when a question was raised regarding 
 them which seemed to involve some degree of respon- 
 sibility in the association, that he unwarily avowed 
 what until then had remained a secret. How well 
 founded were his reasons for such reserve, and how 
 readily it was sought to take advantage of its 
 abandonment, we shall presently see. 
 
 A new and powerful stimulus to popular hope 
 began to be afforded by the manifestation of American 
 sympathy. On the 14th October, 1825, a meeting 
 was held at New York, over which Judge S wanton 
 presided, for the purpose of expressing solicitude on 
 behalf of Irish grievances, and readiness to contribute 
 * Speech at New Association, 19th November, 1825. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 271 
 
 towards the efforts that were making to procure their 
 redress. Resolutions were adopted, giving utterance 
 to feelings of " sympathy for the oppressed, and indig- 
 nation at the conduct of their oppressors." An 
 address to the people of Ireland from the pen of the 
 well-known Doctor M'Nevin, was likewise voted. 
 Remonstrance and advice were freely mingled with 
 words of encouragement in this appeal. " It appears to 
 us, viewing the question at this distance, that a mass 
 of energy and effort is expended upon Catholic 
 emancipation disproportioned to its value to the 
 Catholic, and that a pertinacity is evinced in with- 
 holding it disproportioned to the loss of monopoly it 
 would cause to the Protestant. So great is that per- 
 tinacity, whether the result of fanaticism or of mis- 
 chievous policy, that we apprehend it will never be 
 overcome, until events shall place within your power 
 the means of enforcing more important benefits for 
 Ireland ; and then it may unfortunately happen that 
 by having so long drawn the views of the Irish 
 people exclusively to this question, their attention 
 may continue diverted, as it now is, from other 
 measures of more vital interest. It will always be in 
 the power of the Government to prolong this diversion 
 made by the Catholic question, by always refusing it ; 
 
272 
 
 MEMOIES OF 
 
 but the Catholics themselves may aid it to-morrow 
 by wisely devoting their exertions and all the energies 
 of soul and body to a more comprehensive measure 
 of liberty, in concert with all their countrymen." 
 The superior advantages of a federal system of govern- 
 ment are then elaborately described; and the expe- 
 diency is strongly urged of directing popular attention 
 to the attainment of local institutions in Ireland 
 similar to those existing in each of the United States. 
 " Consistently with the Union, a plan of government 
 might be formed for Ireland, which would exceedingly 
 promote her welfare. Whether she shall continue to 
 send members to that of Britain or not, and concur 
 in composing a general Imperial Parliament, she must 
 have a legislative body in Dublin, not only for free- 
 dom, prosperity, and good government, but even for 
 that which touches England more, a durable connexion 
 with herself." 
 
 With such a distribution of political power, all 
 other questions would speedily receive a just solu- 
 tion. This language was more expressive of the 
 sentiments and feelings of those amongst whom the 
 long-exiled author, with so many others of his country- 
 men, had been forced to seek a home, than generally 
 appreciable by those to whom it was addressed. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 273 
 
 Considerable difference of opinion arose as to the 
 terms in which it should be answered. By Mr. Sheil 
 and others it was deemed unadvisable, if not unsafe, to 
 seem to abandon the course they had hitherto pur- 
 sued, and in which they were supported by a powerful 
 party in Parliament and in the Cabinet itself, for one 
 thus publicly suggested by citizens of a foreign state. 
 Others eagerly espoused the opposite view, and words 
 ran high. O'Connell interposed, and undertook to 
 move a vote of thanks in a form which both parties 
 might approve, while it avoided compromising either. 
 This was one of those things in which his extraor- 
 dinary tact and skill conspicuously shone. He made 
 a speech to which no exception could be taken at the 
 time, and which left every man free to put his own 
 interpretation upon the reception of the address and 
 the warm acknowledgment by the association of the 
 sympathy it conveyed. None desired to check the 
 enthusiasm called forth by the tidings that an associa- 
 tion framed upon the model of that existing in Ireland 
 had been formed in New York, and that means of 
 collecting an auxiliary "rent" had been organised. 
 Cautious reservations were made in the vote of thanks 
 returned to the address, regarding topics which might 
 have been supposed to involve a preference for repub- 
 VOL. i. T 
 
274 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 lican institutions or disloyalty to the Crown. But 
 while the sagacity of the leaders point ed out the neces- 
 sity of thus warily acknowledging the aid so cordially 
 proffered, they were far from being insensible to its 
 value, or disposed to discourage the formation of a 
 popular alliance so calculated to cheer the spirit of 
 their followers, and to fill with misgivings the minds 
 of their adversaries. Speeches full of gratitude and 
 exultation were delivered on the occasion, and upon 
 the other side of the Atlantic the ardour was not 
 damped, of which the New York meeting had fur- 
 nished the first manifestation. In many of the 
 principal towns of the Union societies were formed, and 
 pecuniary contributions made. The number of emi- 
 grants from Ireland had been steadily on the increase 
 for many years, and of these a large proportion every- 
 where were Catholics. Sympathy for Ireland soon 
 became an element of popularity in America, and 
 persons occupying eminent stations both in the 
 States and Federal Government publicly joined in 
 its warm expression. 
 
 In the notes which Moore has left of one of his 
 conversations with Sheil, he mentions that he himself 
 had been of opinion that the best course the Catholics 
 could have pursued, after their defeat of the previous 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 275 
 
 session, would have been to have given vent to their 
 feelings at one great meeting, and after that to have 
 observed a moody and menacing silence, which he 
 imagined would have perplexed the Government more 
 than the systematic resumption of what he is pleased 
 to term " oratorical brawling." Sheil replied that 
 " this would not do ; there was but little public spirit 
 in Ireland ; they wanted continually lashing up ; the 
 priests were the only lever by which they could raise 
 the people, and they had now brought them folly 
 into play."* The change here alluded to had become 
 more distinctly observable during the year IS 2 5. 
 Few of the Catholic clergy had previously taken any 
 prominent part in the work of agitation. The ques- 
 tion had been discussed in 1S£3 whether or not they 
 should be entitled to vote as honorary members of the 
 association, and they seldom appear in its proceedings 
 of that or the following year as occupying a con- 
 spicuous place. Even yet a considerable diversity of 
 sentiment prevailed amongst them, regarding the 
 propriety of their active interference in politics. 
 " The older priests," says Mr. Wyse, " were averse to 
 all species of disturbance, and, with very indistinct 
 views of civil rights, thought it an indecorous de- 
 Moore's Life. ToL v., p. 32. 
 
276 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 parture from their ecclesiastical character, their 
 engaging, even remotely, in the tumult of a contested 
 election. The young were of a very different temper; 
 for the most part they had been educated at May- 
 nooth, and had carried with them a spirit of inde- 
 pendence and democracy."* It was to this spirit the 
 political leaders felt that they must appeal, as that on 
 which they must in the main rely. 
 
 At a public dinner, at Londonderry, on the 4th of 
 January, Mr. G. R. Dawson, member for that city, 
 indulged in a long and vehement attack upon Mr. 
 Sheil. Alluding to this, in conversation with Moore, 
 he said, ' ' he would take his own time to answer him, 
 and not be in a hurry, lest people should say he was 
 angry. He traced the attack to his own phrase, 
 ' plebeian arrogance/ applied to Peel ; he felt on such 
 occasions like the drummer tied to the halbert, having 
 flogged so many himself."f This illustration seems 
 to have lain in his memory, and was applied by him 
 in debate when his most distinguished Parliamentary 
 antagonist betrayed some involuntary signs of irrita- 
 tion under the application of his caustic raillery. 
 
 " Such is the interest which Mr. Dawson takes in a person 
 
 * Hist. Cath. Association. Vol. i., p. 280. 
 f Moore's Diary, 4th January, 1826. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 277 
 
 whom he affects to regard as beneath his consideration, that he 
 has made comments upon physical imperfections, and expatiated 
 upon the inharmonious intonations of my voice. It is not the 
 first time that I am under obligations of this nature to the 
 family of which Mr. Dawson is a member, and of whose passions 
 and antipathies he may be regarded as the representative. 
 Mr. Peel, although a minister of state, thought it not unworthy of 
 him to make allusions from his seat in Parliament to an indi- 
 vidual of so little significance as myself. The sarcasms of the 
 Secretary of State for the Home Department, were not, however, 
 wholly unprovoked : for I had ventured to intimate that his 
 language was bold, his reasoning disingenuous, his manner prag- 
 matical, affected, and overweening ; and that to his opinions more 
 than to his talents he was indebted for his elevation. Mr. Peel 
 retorted ; he spoke of fustian, and I talked of calico. He touched 
 on Covent Garden, and I referred to Manchester. He alluded to 
 Ecadne, and I glanced at spimiing-jenmes. He thus, as Mr. 
 Dawson has expressed it, became my antagonist ; and as if I were 
 more than a match for the minister, he has thrown himself with a 
 feeling of fraternal sympathy into the contest. I am inclined to 
 surmise that Mr. Dawson was induced to take a part in the con- 
 flict, by a phrase which has, I fear, given offence in a quarter 
 where certainly none was contemplated. I spoke of the ' plebeian 
 arrogance of Mr. Peel.' The shaft appears to have stuck with 
 a deadly tenacity. * * * * 
 
 Not satisfied with assailing the defects of my understanding, he 
 has converted my tones into grave accusations, and brought an 
 impeachment against my voice. I am free to acknowledge that 
 I cannot retort the charge. Of his voice in public assemblies, I 
 can form no judgment. I have, indeed, been occasionally present 
 at his effusions in the House of Commons, but could never hear 
 him. Whenever he spoke, the House was seized with an uni- 
 versal fit of coughing. His eloquence is down to zero, and is 
 so chilly and frozen, that his auditors immediately catch cold." 
 
 Lord Wellesley's term of vice-regal honours drew 
 
278 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to a close, and many misgivings were entertained 
 regarding the choice of his successor. His recent 
 marriage with a Catholic lady, and the indisposition 
 he was known to entertain to be made the instrument 
 of enforcing a coercive policy against the new associa- 
 tion had, to some extent, regained for him the per- 
 sonal good-will of numbers, by whom the earlier 
 years of his administration had been hailed as the 
 commencement of a new era. " They felt like cap- 
 tives, who have been long accustomed to harshness 
 and severity, towards a gentle jailer, who, if he did 
 not strike off, tried at least to lighten their chains, 
 and at all events prevented that lugubrious turnkey, 
 Mr. Goulburn, from loading them with new fetters."* 
 No man was more solicitous of popularity ; but this 
 desire was often checked by another and rival emo- 
 tion — that of sustaining his somewhat exalted con- 
 ception of his own dignity. His love of pageantry 
 is thus playfully portrayed in an account by Mr. 
 Sheil of a « Dublin Tabinet Ball," given on the 11th 
 May, 1826, under the auspices of Lady Wellesley, 
 for the relief of the silk weavers, who at that time 
 were suffering much distress. 
 
 " The victor of Tippoo Saib, and the conqueror of Captain 
 
 * Speech, 7th December, 1825 ; fourteen days' Meeting. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 279 
 
 Rock, entered the rotunda. I am not quite sure that there is not 
 a slight touch of melo-dramatic importance in liis air and manner ; 
 and with a good deal of dignity, it occurred to me that there was 
 something artificial and theatrical in his entrance upon a stage on 
 which ephemeral majesty was to be performed. It was said by 
 Voltaire of a real monarch, that no man could so well perform the 
 part of a king. Le Role de Roi is a phrase which, amounting to a 
 truism, loses its force, perhaps, when applied to a Lord-Lieutenant. 
 Lord Wellesley seemed to me to personate his sovereign with too 
 elaborate a fidelity to the part, and to forget that he was not in 
 permanent possession of the character upon a stage which was 
 under the direction of such capricious managers, and that he must 
 speedily relinquish it to some other actor upon our provincial 
 boards. He is unquestionably a man of very great abilities ; a 
 speaker of the first order ; a statesman with wide and philosophic 
 views, who does not bound his prospects by any artificial 
 horizon. With these intrinsic and substantial claims to renown, 
 it is strange that he should rely so much upon the gewgaw of a 
 spurious Court for his importance, and be in love with the raree- 
 show of vice-regal honours. A throne, surmounted with a 
 gorgeous canopy of gold and scarlet, was placed at the extremity 
 of the room for his reception; and to this seat of mock-regality 
 he advanced with his vice-queen with a measured and stately 
 step. When he had reached this place of dignity, his suite formed 
 themselves into a hollow square, and excluded from any too 
 familiar approach the crowd of spectators that thronged around. 
 A sort of boundary was formed by the lines of aide-de-camps, 
 train-bearers, and poursuivants of all kinds. I presumptuously 
 advanced to the verge of this sacred limit, when I was checked 
 by an urchin page of about ten years old, who, dressed in flaming 
 scarlet, and with his epaulets drooping in woven gold to his heels, 
 seemed to mock the consequence of his noble master, as with an 
 imperious squall he enjoined me to keep back. I obeyed this 
 Liliputian despot, and retired one or two paces, but stood at such 
 a distance as enabled me to survey the hero and heroine of the 
 
280 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 scene. The Marquis was dressed in a rich uniform, with a profu- 
 sion of orders. He wore white pantaloons, with short boots lined 
 with gold, and with tassels of the same material."* 
 
 On the form of local administration best suited to the 
 wants and feelings of Ireland, his opinions were never, 
 perhaps, thoroughly understood. In 1825, he had 
 publicly given utterance to a hope that the day might 
 not be distant when the Duke of Sussex should be 
 appointed viceroy, as his brother had been in Hanover. 
 So long as the office was to be maintained, he wished 
 to see it filled by one whose liberality of sentiment 
 and geniality of disposition would tend to win the at- 
 tachment of the people to the administration of the law. 
 But he was deeply impressed with the provincializing 
 tendency of a vice-regal court. Its mimicry of im- 
 perial state suggested irresistibly to his mind associa- 
 tions of unreality and mockery. The assumption of 
 royal formalities and royal airs, whether of condescen- 
 sion or hauteur, by the various lord-deputies whom 
 he had seen play the coxcomb or the duller fool 
 upon the Castle throne, filled him with a sense of his 
 country's humiliation. Nor was this sentiment quali- 
 fied by the perception that, in proportion as the 
 person invested with chief authority in Ireland is 
 
 * The Tabinet Ball. New Monthly Mag. Yol. xvi., p. 548. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 281 
 
 wrapped up in folds of official dignity, lie is rendered 
 inaccessible to opinion, and made liable to be uncon- 
 sciously swayed by those who surround him. 
 
 Discussion of the Catholic question was considered 
 inexpedient during the session of 1826. It was 
 feared that, on the eve of a general election, some of 
 those who had voted in the previous session might 
 be deterred, by the fear of opposition at the hustings, 
 from recording again what must be an unavailing 
 opinion. Advice, founded on these considerations, 
 had been in private offered by the leading friends of 
 the Catholics in England to their chiefs in Ireland. 
 Mr. O'Connell and others were unwilling that a whole 
 year should be suffered to elapse without bringing 
 the question under the notice of the Legislature. 
 Great distress prevailed amongst the commercial and 
 manufacturing classes in Great Britain ; serious 
 alarm had been created by disturbances in several 
 places, having their origin in the want of food and 
 employment ; it was urged, therefore, by many, that 
 a season of so much embarrassment ought not to be 
 suffered to pass by unimproved, but that they should 
 recal and act upon the maxim that England's exi- 
 gency was Ireland's opportunity. This line of argu- 
 ment was easily perverted into an expression of 
 
282 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 exaltation at the misfortunes of the more powerful 
 nation by the weaker. Mr. Sheil foresaw the evil 
 which the imputation of such views must do the 
 cause, and earnestly deprecated everything that 
 might seem to give occasion for it. He considered 
 the counsel tendered by their Parliamentary friends to 
 be sound and wise. He pointed out vividly the 
 damaging effect of an adverse division in a House of 
 Commons, which had three times affirmed the prin- 
 ciple of relief. It was better to wait for the new 
 Parliament, and meantime devote all their energies to 
 the strengthening the number of their advocates 
 therein. He repudiated the idea of taking advantage 
 of the embarrassment caused by industrial misfortune 
 in the sister kingdom. So long as the people of 
 England were prosperous, he had not shrunk from 
 remonstrating freely with them on the injustice they 
 permitted, if not approved. But he could not, in 
 the hour of undeserved and unforeseen calamity, stand 
 forth to taunt them, or even in appearance exult in 
 their affliction. They had read of the dreadful evils 
 then desolating England; they had heard of the 
 starvation and sufferings of the unfortunate artisans 
 at Manchester and Birmingham. When they perused 
 these harrowing details, surely they could not indulge 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 283 
 
 in exultation; they could not wade through, such 
 accounts, and not feel for individual woe. He (Mr. 
 Sheil) " by no means wished to be understood as if he 
 accused his friend (the chairman) * of having indulged 
 in such cold and heartless exultation ; he was aware 
 he took a distinction which might satisfy their 
 friends, but which he might be certain their foes 
 would not be candid enough to examine. Many of 
 the people now most distressed in England were the 
 very persons who in their prosperity had been the 
 most disposed to advance their claims. Who amongst 
 his hearers could forget the meeting held last summer 
 at Manchester, when the honest operatives all declared 
 in their favour ? If he (Mr. Sheil) were in low and 
 humble condition, and felt that he had been insulted 
 and ill-treated by a wealthy neighbour, while that 
 neighbour increased in prosperity and basked in the 
 sun of fortune, he (Mr. Sheil) might be inclined to 
 vent his feelings against him ; but if he saw him, by 
 a sudden reverse, bowed down to a level with himself 
 — if he saw him working the earth — if he saw him 
 covered with the shame of poverty — and the poet says 
 there is nothing so shameful — then should he forget 
 all his animosity, and forgive him his faults in com- 
 * The Hon. Gonville Ffrench. 
 
284 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 passion for his calamities. So, when England was at 
 the height of her prosperity, she might excite feelings 
 of animosity in a generous breast, but the moment 
 calamity desolated the land — and, after all, it was a 
 great and glorious land — all these feelings should 
 give place to a sympathy for her distress. Enmity 
 would yield to compassion when the proud had been 
 humbled — when the punishment had been inflicted, 
 and the once haughty nation suffered beneath the 
 shafts of adversity, — that ' tamer of the human 
 breast ' — that great instructor of nations, and best 
 monitor of the minds of men."* He dwelt with 
 emphasis on the imprudence of exposing the English 
 Liberal members to the temptation of endeavouring 
 " to save their seats by votes given in the spirit of a 
 death-bed repentance and advised that, beyond the 
 presentation of numerous petitions, no active steps 
 should be taken. 
 
 This advice prevailed. Ungenerous and impolitic 
 reproaches were no more heard, and the undivided 
 energies of agitation were directed to making prepa- 
 rations for the impending electoral struggle. 
 
 * Speech, 6th May, 1826. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 285 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 1826. 
 
 General election — Marqnis of Waterford — Return of Mr. Yilliers 
 Stewart— Contest for Louth — The forty-shilling freeholders — 
 Sir Balaam — Dinner to Lord Fitzwilliam — Case of Kieran v. 
 Callan — Chief Justice Bushe — Health of the Duke of York — 
 M. Duvergier d'Hauranne — Connaught provincial meeting. 
 
 At the general election of 1826, the seats occupied 
 by Liberals required, in many instances, to be de- 
 fended with peculiar care ; but it was resolved not to 
 stand merely on the defensive ; and in addition, there- 
 fore, to the preparations necessary for the retention of 
 these, it was proposed that an attempt should be 
 made to wrest the representation of certain counties 
 from the great landed proprietors, by whom they had 
 long been held in mute and passive subjection. Of 
 these the most notable was Waterford, for which a 
 member of the family of Beresford had always been 
 
286 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 returned, not only in consequence of their great 
 possessions there, but of the influence carefully 
 fostered from days long anterior to the Union, when 
 the head of the house of Curraghmore was hardly 
 inferior in power to the king's lieutenant. Lord 
 George Beresford had sat for the county for several 
 years, and, save by his votes on the one absorbing 
 question of the day, he had seldom incurred any 
 degree of unpopularity; but had it been otherwise, his 
 seat would have been deemed equally secure. He 
 was the brother and nominee of the Marquis of 
 Waterford, whose hereditary sway all "shrewd men 
 who knew the county n laughed contemptuously at 
 the notion of subverting; nevertheless, it had for 
 some time been determined that the attempt should 
 be made, in the person of Mr. Villiers Stewart, a 
 near relative of the Duke of Devonshire, and newly 
 come into the possession of a great landed inherit- 
 ance. To these advantages were added those of 
 youth, attainments, and prepossessing manners. 
 Still the odds were so unequal, that, after a protracted 
 canvas, and notwithstanding the existence of great 
 popular excitement, it was feared by many, including 
 O'Connell himself, that territorial terrorism would, 
 after all, prevail. Whatever might have been hoped 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 287 
 
 and prophesied in the enthusiasm of fervid appeals to 
 the multitude, few, if any, ventured, in their cooler 
 moments, to believe that a miracle would be wrought 
 for their success ; yet, without such a prodigy, success 
 seemed impossible. Unless the great mass of the 
 forty-shilling freeholders should, as one man, revolt, 
 and, forgetting the purpose for which they had been 
 created, and the abject serfhood in which they had 
 hitherto lain, should simultaneously rise in insur- 
 rection against their lords, — the cause of civil and 
 religious liberty must be once more vanquished, and 
 that of Orange ascendency be established more firmly 
 than before. It is idle to suppose, looking back upon 
 the events that were about to occur, that all men of 
 political insight and sagacity must have foreseen 
 what was going to happen. Your men of prescient 
 infallibility seldom do, on such occasions, know much 
 about the matter. In a certain sense, it may even 
 be averred that their blundering ineptitude is an 
 essential condition of the great event happening at 
 all. If party cunning could, with professional 
 plummet or illicit line, fathom the depths of a 
 people's heart in the hour previous to its convulsive 
 agony, it may well be doubted whether many of the 
 most memorable things that history records would 
 
288 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ever have more than half occurred or taken place 
 with any eventful or abiding consequences whatso- 
 ever. 
 
 The oft- told tale of the revolt of the forty -shilling 
 freeholders needs not any lengthened repetition here. 
 Its first symptoms became unmistakeably evident on 
 the eve of the Waterford election ; and before that 
 remarkable contest had proceeded for many hours, its 
 triumph was complete. Mr. Villiers Stewart was 
 returned by a large and decisive majority, and the 
 prestige of provincial power which the house of 
 Beresford had so long exercised passed away for ever. 
 The Marquis of Waterford, who had been for some 
 time in a declining state of health, never recovered 
 from the effects of this political blow. 
 
 " He was unacquainted with the moral and political condition 
 of the people. Surrounded with opulence and pomp, he knew 
 nothing of their wants, and could not enter into the feelings of 
 his dependents. The woods of Curraghmore, in which he was 
 shrouded from the public eye, formed a screen through which he 
 must have had a very faint glimmering and imperfect view of all 
 that lay beyond the boundaries of his own demesne. He could 
 not be brought to believe that the lower orders felt any interest 
 in the Catholic question, — but at last he was disabused. His 
 own domestics voted for his antagonist. He had a huntsman, 
 whose name was Manton. This ruler of the kennel had been the 
 companion of those rural and innocuous enjoyments to which the 
 Marquis had been addicted in his youth. He was famous for the 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 289 
 
 echo which he used to call up among the hills of Curraghmore ; 
 and his Lordship seemed to be almost as much under the influence 
 of Manton' s horn as the beagles that were governed by his breath. 
 The Marquis had lost the use of his limbs, and could hunt no 
 longer ; but he still liked to hear the baying of the hounds. The 
 election came on, and the heart and soul of Lord Waterford were 
 involved in the result. His whole household voted for Stewart. 
 The Marquis bore it with some sort of resignation ; but when he 
 heard that Manton was going to support his political opponent^ 
 he turned in his bed and remained for some time silent. He 
 then ordered him to be called before him. Manton entered the 
 chamber of his dying master. Lord Waterford drew the curtain 
 aside, while his hand already shook with the tremor of death. 
 He looked at the poor huntsman, who stood with the butt of his 
 whip in his mouth. Tears soon gathered upon the eyelids of the 
 old man, as he saw his benefactor stretched in pain and sorrow, 
 and thus reduced to that equality of affliction by which the 
 great and the humble are placed upon a level. ' Manton/ said 
 the dying Lord, 'have you, too, abandoned me?' 'God bless 
 your Lordship, and long life to you' ('Alas!' said the Marquis) ; 
 'but, please your Lordship, I would go to the world's end to 
 serve you, but I cannot vote against my country and my re- 
 ligion.' "* 
 
 A few days after, Lord Waterford left Curraghmore, 
 never to return. 
 
 The example of Waterford proved contagious. To 
 the surprise of all but a few energetic politicians of 
 Louth, Mr. Alexander Dawson, a gentleman of small 
 fortune, announced his intention of contesting the 
 
 * Speech of Mr. Sheil, at New Catholic Association, 19th 
 August, 1826. 
 
 VOL. I. TJ 
 
290 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 representation of that county. It was but three 
 days before the election, and the threat was treated 
 by those whom he was about to oppose with incre- 
 dulity and scorn. For many generations, the families 
 of Jocelyn and Foster had exercised an undisputed 
 ascendency in all local affairs. Mr. Fortescue was 
 the candidate put forward by the one, while Mr. 
 Leslie Foster, nephew of the former Speaker of the 
 Irish House of Commons, had long represented the 
 other. At the outset their interests were supposed 
 to be identical, for neither believed in the possibility 
 of a general revolt of the forty-shilling freeholders, 
 who, on all former occasions, had obediently polled in 
 accordance with the desire of their landlords. But 
 as the contest proceeded, and the resolution of the 
 tenantry on nearly every estate to vote for Mr. 
 Dawson became unmistakeable, a severance took place, 
 the partizans of each candidate strove for him alone. 
 At the close of the poll, Mr. Dawson was returned by 
 a majority of 300 votes. Mr. Fortescue was thrown 
 out, having 28 votes less than Mr. Foster. 
 
 Mr. Sheil acted as counsel for the popular candidate. 
 His exertions were not confined to the assessor's room, 
 but throughout the struggle, wherever advice or 
 encouragement was needed, his animated features 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 291 
 
 were to be seen, and his inspiriting accents were 
 heard. His own account of the exciting scenes does 
 not do justice to the part which he personally bore 
 throughout them. Its value, however, was not un- 
 observed or forgotten ; and the days were at hand 
 when no longer for another but for himself he should be 
 qualified by law, as he was entitled in every other 
 respect, to claim the suffrages of the constituency of 
 Louth. When the result of the contest had been 
 officially declared, Mr. Sheil addressed the assembled 
 thousands at some length. He wished to explain to the 
 astonished and still half-doubting gentry, what had 
 actually occurred. And why? It behoved them as 
 rational men to ponder well what was the origin of 
 " that most powerful and compulsive stimulant which 
 had roused and impelled the lower orders into a resist- 
 ance so utterly at variance with their individual inte- 
 rests." He stated that " two days before the election 
 began no idea of a contest was entertained ; and yet 
 the moment a friend to Catholic Emancipation was pro- 
 posed the whole tenantry of the county simultaneously 
 revolted against their landlords, and in direct opposi- 
 tion to their wishes, gave their suffrages to the 
 advocate of religious freedom." Then turning to the 
 landlords, he depicted the danger and futility of 
 
 v % 
 
292 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 wholesale eviction. "You may make them martyrs, 
 but you cannot make them slaves." 
 
 Yet upon the whole, the results of the general election 
 were not encouraging. In Scotland, no alteration took 
 place in the relative strength of parties ; and the nume- 
 rical gain achieved in Ireland was counterbalanced by 
 losses sustained in England."* In vain were ingenious 
 calculations made to show that these results were 
 caused by a concurrence of casualties, and that in 
 numerous instances mere accident had determined 
 what political or religious influence could not have 
 effected. The real causes of what it was impossible 
 not to regard as a defeat — for when a popular cause 
 fails to advance, it is fairly open to the charge of 
 receding — lay in the reanimation of religious jealousy 
 throughout Great Britain, and in the manner in 
 which the influence of a disunited cabinet was used 
 wherever Government influence prevailed. The Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, with whom on such occasions 
 the whole management of elections and the virtual 
 disposal of seats necessarily rests, is sure to belong to 
 the stronger party in a divided administration. He 
 professes, of course, to be absolutely impartial, and a 
 vague notion seems at all times to have existed, that 
 * Ann. Reg. for 1826, p. 169. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 293 
 
 as he is bound to take his instructions from the leader 
 in the House of Commons, it is impossible that he 
 should openly traverse the designs or thwart the 
 views which the individual holding that eminent 
 station may entertain. Practically, however, it is 
 far otherwise — the leader of the House, unless he 
 happens to be either the Prime Minister or the 
 Home Secretary, cannot control the leanings of his 
 active and supple subordinate. And even when these 
 functions are so combined, it is impossible that amid the 
 weighty and distracting cares of great office the minister 
 should supervise the numberless details and arrange- 
 ments, in each and all of which the chief whipper-in 
 is enabled to exercise personal and political preferences. 
 In 1826, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Lushing- 
 ton, was known to be a thoroughgoing partizan of 
 the party of resistance in the administration ; and no 
 directions from Mr. Canning availed to prevent the 
 full weight of Government influence being silently but 
 systematically thrown into the illiberal scale. The 
 fact was matter of observation to those who stood 
 close enough to see how the central mechanism of 
 party was worked, although the full effect did not 
 become generally discernible until the following year.* 
 * See Cotemporary Notes, by Sir R. Heron, p. 164, 
 
294 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 During the autumn Mr. Sheil devoted himself with 
 ceaseless energy to the task of procuring the appro- 
 priation of sufficient funds to mitigate the distress 
 incurred by the forty-shilling freeholders who had 
 voted at the late contested elections. From Water- 
 ford, Louth, Westmeath, Cavan, and Monaghan, the 
 cry of suffering came loud and prolonged. The funds 
 of the New Rent were wholly inadequate. He at once 
 proposed that the reserved funds of the Old Rent, 
 as it was called, should be made available. Some 
 doubted the prudence of this expenditure : some ques- 
 tioned the competency of the meetings then holding 
 to vote it. But his vehemence overleaped all objec- 
 tions. "Away with this political avarice," he ex- 
 claimed. u Shall it be said that we first denounced, 
 that we afterwards excited, and then abandoned that 
 class of our countrymen to whom Ireland owes such 
 incalculable obligations ? I for one fell into a mis- 
 take in their regard. I did not believe that there 
 was so much virtue under rags. But they have proved 
 that honesty and patriotism are* not incompatible, 
 and have afforded a most noble refutation of our poli- 
 tical theories. We called upon them to liberate them- 
 selves from their inglorious dependence on their 
 aristocratic masters. They have obeyed that call : 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 295 
 
 they have bidden defiance to their landlords, and shall 
 we, with the means of succour in our hands, basely 
 withhold it from them ? Forbid it truth, forbid it 
 justice, forbid it honour."* Again and again he 
 returned to the subject. 
 
 " When the cries of the forty-shilling freeholders are in my ears, I 
 cannot listen to any cold-hearted disquisitions upon the inexpe- 
 diency of meeting at this particular season, nor do I require that 
 the sun should be in any particular sign of the Zodiac, in order to 
 perform an act of common humanity and justice. It is enough for 
 me to know, that the high-minded peasants, who have bidden de- 
 fiance to the ' tyrants of their fields,' are under the actual influence 
 of calamity, to make me overlook every consideration of time and 
 place — to dismiss all legal quibbles from my mind, and, if I may 
 so say, to rush through every impediment to their relief. I cannot 
 allow common humanity to be frustrated by forensic arguments, 
 and obvious justice to be delayed by legal sophistications. I will 
 not take up an Act of Parliament, in order to determine whether 
 it is safe to be honourable, and whether humanity is made a mis- 
 demeanour by the law. I will not ask whether the application 
 of the rent to the succour of the freeholders may be tortured 
 into a violation of the statute, but I will inquire of my own heart 
 whether it would not be utterly base and abominable to have ex- 
 cited the forty-shilling freeholders into a revolt against their 
 superiors, and then leave the wretches whom we have wrought 
 into acts of desperate patriotism to the compassion of the land- 
 lords and of the winds. These are my feelings, and I think that 
 I may add, that there is not a man in the Catholic body who does 
 not participate in them. The objections of some are grounded 
 on the supposition that the persecution has ceased. This is 
 certainly not the case. ...... 
 
 * Speech, 19th August, 1826. 
 
296 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 The hand of oppression is yet uplifted in Louth. We must 
 paralyze it before it descends — we must fly to the succour of 
 the people."* 
 
 One of the persons who were said to have treated 
 with the greatest severity their contumacious tenantry, 
 was the recent purchaser of a considerable estate in 
 Cavan. He had in early life been well known as a 
 republican ; and was believed to have been one of the 
 treasurers of the United Irishmen. He continued, how- 
 ever, to escape the consequences that befel the prin- 
 cipal persons engaged in the events of 1798, and pur- 
 sued successfully the business of a wholesale woollen 
 merchant in Dublin. In his gradual uprise in the 
 world he still cherished his old leaning to popular 
 principles. But no sooner had he become a landed 
 proprietor than he betrayed peculiar anxiety for the 
 recognition of the class to which his riches, rather 
 than his manners, entitled him to belong. Mr. 
 Sheil avenged in public ridicule the private oppres- 
 sion his poorer countrymen endured. Under the 
 character of Sir Balaam, he described the once un- 
 affected trader as mortified at finding " his efforts at 
 patrician elegance ineffectual. His gestures were in 
 a state of continual rebellion against propriety, and 
 
 * Speech, 7th September, 1826. 
 
KICHAKD LALOR SHEIL. 297 
 
 his limbs were insurgents against grace. He found 
 his former political addictions a terrible obstacle to his 
 ambition." He then describes how he cunningly 
 resolved to make a compromise between his vanity 
 and his conscience, and to give his influence in Dublin 
 to the cause of the people, while in the country he 
 supported that of the aristocracy. He suggested, 
 that if any of the great ladies of his acquaintance 
 should get up a play, Sir Balaam should perform the 
 part of Yusouf in the Siege of Belgrade, " who becomes 
 Turk and Christian with a philosophic facility of 
 transition." When he had come to the determination 
 of abandoning his old principles, he exhibited all the 
 enthusiasm of apostacy. He was peculiarly " gen- 
 teel in other words, in harshness towards his miser- 
 able dependents he surpassed the more legitimate 
 Orangemen of Cavan. "Bring up the cattle," was 
 his familiar phrase at the hustings. " Pray, sir, what 
 cattle ?" said his agent. u The freeholders, to be 
 sure \" replied Sir Balaam, astonished at his not 
 knowing that he referred to the useful and indus- 
 trious class to which he himself originally belonged. 
 " The cattle," however, got restive, and Sir Balaam's 
 reputation for gentility was much injured. 
 
 Mr. Sheil was now beginning to get into considerable 
 
298 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 business at the bar. Not only upon his circuit had 
 his aptitude for the varied details of Nisi Prius cases 
 become known, but amongst the profession generally 
 his legal abilities as an advocate were fully recognised. 
 In the reports of the proceedings in the law courts of 
 Dublin, his name at this period more frequently 
 appears. He seems to have been engaged more par- 
 ticularly in cases involving charges of a personal 
 nature brought by way of criminal information be- 
 fore the King's Bench, in several of which he was 
 eminently successful. As a specimen of his manner 
 when addressing juries, the following speech for the 
 plaintiff, in Kieran v. Callan, may be given. After a 
 few words of preface, he said: — 
 
 " I shall proceed at once to state the grounds upon which the 
 present prosecution is founded. The defendant, Mr. John 
 Callan, is the son of a gentleman who left a very considerable 
 personal estate, to the enjoyment of which he was not, under his 
 father's will, to become entitled until he should have attained 
 the age of twenty-five years. Some time in the year 1824, he 
 embarked in trade in the town of Ardee, in the county of Louth. 
 He has a brother of whom you will hear a good deal in the course 
 of this trial, whose name is Thomas. John Callan entered into 
 copartnership with his brother, and their firm was known by the 
 name of John and Thomas Callan, or John Callan and brother. 
 Their speculations were not a little extensive. They were 
 brewers, maltsters, millers, corn factors, and stage-coach pro- 
 prietors. Mr. James Kieran, the prosecutor, was also engaged in 
 trade in the same county, and had his establishment in Dundalk. 
 
KICHAKD LALOR SHEIL. 299 
 
 He is an eminent merchant in that town. This gentleman had a 
 good deal of commercial intercourse with the house of John and 
 Thomas Callan, and was in the habit of discounting their paper. 
 About the month of February, 1825, Mr. John Callan, the tra- 
 verser, intimated to Mr. James Kieran, that he was anxious to 
 withdraw for a little while, from the dulness and vulgar monotony 
 of Ardee, and by visiting Paris to relieve himself of the brewery 
 and all the inglorious circumstances of fermentation. He pro- 
 ceeded to state, that in order to effectuate this object, and to 
 make a proper figure at the Palais Royal, he should require 
 some hundreds of pounds. 1 You must accommodate me, my dear 
 friend; I shall give you Chichester Fortescue's bill for 120/., and 
 you will advance me 600/. on my draft upon my brother 
 Thomas.' Mr. Kieran was anxious to oblige him, and accord- 
 ingly advanced him 720/., of which 600/. was given on his own 
 draft, which was to fall due on the 5 th of May. Mr. John 
 Callan sets off with Kieran's money in his pocket, and proceeds 
 to the French metropolis. In the interval, his brother Thomas, 
 with whom he carried on business as a copartner, passed various 
 securities to Mr. James Kieran, which, in bills and endorsements, 
 amounted to at least 1500/., independently of the draft of his 
 brother for 600/. A house with which Callan and Co. was inti- 
 mately connected failed during the absence of the traverser, and, 
 in consequence, the insolvency of Thomas Callan was anticipated. 
 He, however, returned to England in IS 25, and on the 26th of 
 that month met Mr. Anthony Marmion in Liverpool." 
 
 After graphically detailing a conversation which 
 there took place, in the course of which the first inti- 
 mation was thrown out of the previously concealed 
 intention of the defendant, and his subsequent repu- 
 diation of his liability on the ground that he was 
 still a minor, the advocate continued: — 
 
300 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " Upon what grounds he intends to-day to assert his claims to 
 reputation, I, for one, am at a loss to conceive. I have, indeed, 
 heard that he intends to prove that he made some suggestion to 
 Mr. Kieran to pay him 600/. He does not at all pretend that he 
 does not owe him the money ; on the contrary, he affects to say 
 that after the action was brought, he wished to compromise for 
 that sum. But, gentlemen of the jury, I now tell him in antici- 
 pation of such a defence, that after Mr. Kieran had been 
 defeated in his civil action, while he acknowledged that the 
 money was due to him, he boasted that he would never pay him a 
 single shilling. If any witness is produced to show any such 
 offer, carry in your mind the interrogatories which I here put in 
 open Court. Will he pay even the 600/. which conveyed him to 
 Erance ? Will he do it now ? Will he make at least this repa- 
 ration for the enormous expense to which he has already put Mr. 
 Kieran ? Will he refund even thus much of the plunder ? He 
 makes no answer, but smiles at so ridiculous a proposition. 
 Happy gentleman ! If his own delinquencies afford him amuse- 
 ment, I congratulate him on the possession of an inexhaustible 
 fund for mirth. But, gentlemen, I am glad that you should have 
 the opportunity of forming your estimate of him, not only by the 
 proofs which will be adduced, but by the actual ocular demon- 
 stration of what he is. Here he stands with 735/. of Kieran's 
 money in his pocket (and that he received it, he will not with all 
 his audacity deny), and in the presence of their lordships — in the 
 sight of a jury of his fellow-citizens, and before the immense con- 
 course by which this Court is crowded, refuses to pay a single 
 farthing back. And this is a minor — this is an infant of tender 
 years — this is the man who has scarcely passed the age of 
 puberty, and emerged from the simplicity of boyhood. This is 
 the gentleman who found so convenient a shelter in his amiable 
 adolescence. O, for shame ! for shame ! What must we think of 
 the stuff of which the heart of such a man is compounded ? What 
 are we to think of the man (for he is now a man) who would 
 shield himself from such a demand under such a plea ? What a 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 301 
 
 refutation do we find in him of the celebrated aphorism, ( Nemo 
 repente fuit turpissimus f* How well he has proved with what a 
 rapidity a man may obtain the consummation of depravity, and 
 become infectively bad. How short a period was necessary to 
 give maturity to his nature ! How speedily his propensities 
 expanded into their full growth ! In what a bloom of depravity— 
 in what a rank luxuriance and perfect ripeness of delinquency do 
 we behold him. The vices blossomed at once in the hot-bed of a 
 rotten and corrupt heart. But I have done with him ! I have 
 discharged my duty in his regard — and it is for you to prove, 
 that, although he may have escaped from the reach of the civil 
 law, yet that there is not that lameness in justice which shall pre- 
 vent her from overtaking this prosperous delinquent in her slow 
 but sure pursuit, and I feel confident that you will illustrate, by 
 your verdict, the truth of the celebrated maxim — 
 
 ' Raro antecedentem scelestum, 
 Deseruit pede psena claudo.'" 
 
 In the course of the autumn Mr. W. H. Curran 
 spent some time on a visit to Chief J ustice Bushe at 
 his family place in Kilkenny. The conversation one 
 day happening to turn on the writings of cotempo- 
 rary poets, Bushe inquired " whether Sheil had ever 
 written any poetry besides his tragedies?" and 'on 
 being told that he had not, expressed his regret. 
 " His mind/' he observed, " is one of the richest in 
 poetry and eloquence I ever knew. For the purpose 
 of producing an effect upon a popular audience in 
 Ireland, I consider him as standing in the very first 
 rank. In England it might be considered (though 
 
302 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 perhaps unjustly) that he attempted to impose upon 
 his hearers by excess of ornament. He seems to me 
 to have high powers for didactic poetry. The rich 
 poetical invectives with which his speeches abound, if 
 versified, would be fine satirical poems." 
 
 About this time a public dinner was given at 
 Waterford to the venerable Earl Fitzwilliam, to 
 whose brief vice-royalty in 1795 the popular party 
 had always looked back with that species of romantic 
 regret, that in the minds of the multitude is apt to 
 encircle tantalizing interludes of hope in the dark and 
 dreary annals of oppression. Had Lord Fitzwilliam 
 been suffered to remain long enough in Ireland to 
 execute the wise and benevolent designs with which 
 he was entrusted, the calamities which soon after 
 desolated the country would in all probability have 
 been either wholly averted or greatly lessened in 
 their extent and duration. We know how anxiously 
 Mr. Burke lent all the force of his matured intellect 
 to the considerations connected with this memorable 
 though abortive mission of peace ; and how san- 
 guinely he looked forward to the good that was to 
 ensue therefrom. But the colonial aristocracy, which 
 from the time of the Revolution had farmed the 
 royal prerogative in all its branches, was not to be 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 303 
 
 dispossessed of so profitable and princely a holding, 
 by any mere act of resumption on the part of the 
 Crown. The King's Lieutenant found himself treated 
 as an intruder by the hereditary occupiers of every 
 post of power; and before he had been many weeks 
 in Ireland a cabal, headed by the house of Beresford, 
 was busily at work for his overthrow. Its emissaries 
 beset the King with political warnings and religious 
 scruples ; and ere Lord Fitzwilliam had time to de- 
 velop the plans of amelioration of which the hand of 
 Mr. Burke had traced the outline, and of which the 
 sagacity of Mr. Pitt was engaged to fill up the de- 
 tails, George III. suddenly insisted that the Whig 
 Viceroy should be recalled. Thirty years had since 
 elapsed of national hopes deferred and national wrongs 
 unredressed. Yet there seemed to be something of 
 peculiar fitness, if not something of poetic justice, in 
 the coincidence of Lord Fitzwillianr's visit in 1826 
 to the south of Ireland, while yet the shouts of 
 popular triumph over the broken thraldom of the 
 Beresfords had hardly died away. 
 
 It was during the same month that Mr. Sheil was 
 invited to visit the county of Westmeath for the pur- 
 pose of directing by his advice, and stimulating by 
 his eloquence, the political organization of that county. 
 
304 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Wherever he went his presence was hailed with enthu- 
 siasm, and his exertions were generally successful. 
 Unfortunately for himself he was betrayed into ex- 
 pressions on one occasion regarding the then heir- 
 presumptive to the throne, which becoming the sub- 
 ject of party comment, were soon distorted and ex- 
 aggerated, until they seemed to justify the most 
 unqualified sentence of public reprobation. At a 
 dinner at Mullingar, on the 14th of September, the 
 chairman, Sir Richard Nagle, a young Catholic 
 baronet, to the surprise of those assembled, gave, 
 with complimentary preface, the health of u the 
 Duke of York, and may he soon learn to entertain 
 more favourable sentiments towards the Catholics of 
 Ireland." Other toasts followed, Mr. SheiPs health 
 was given, and amid considerable excitement he rose 
 to return thanks. His words, as reported at the 
 time, are as follows : — 
 
 " I thank you, gentlemen, for the manner in which yon have 
 drank my health, and will say no more respecting myself. I can- 
 not, however, allow this opportunity to pass without making a 
 few observations upon an incident which has taken place to-night, 
 and which calls for some comment. The chairman has given the 
 health of the Duke of York. He has so far deviated from the 
 course which, since the memorable anathema of his Royal High- 
 ness, has been adopted at all liberal dinners in this country, the 
 health of the Duke is drank in Cavan with ' nine times nine. 5 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 305 
 
 A bishop has improved upon Horace's receipt for drinking — a 
 poet in the paroxysm of convivial excitation is directed to take 
 nine cups: 
 
 'Ternos ter cyathos attonitus petet.' 
 
 But anointed Beresford is indulged in still deeper potations, and 
 episcopal loyalty is henceforth to be estimated by multiplying 
 nine into itself; — I must be pardoned for observing, that it is 
 better that we should altogether omit a toast which has become 
 the signal of faction, and with which so many exasperating asso- 
 ciations are connected. Yet I do not blame the chairman. He 
 thought he was going through a mere unmeaning formula. 
 Once, indeed, the health of the Duke of York passed like any 
 other routine enunciation of an attachment to the reigning 
 family; but his Royal Highness has recently contrived to attach 
 recollections to his name which make the gorge of every genuine 
 Irishman rise at its utterance. The chairman, however, has an- 
 nexed to his health an amiable expression of his hopes that his 
 Royal Highness may live to cherish more favourable sentiments 
 towards one-third of the population of the British empire. Con- 
 sidering the character of his royal mind, it would require more time 
 than is in all likelihood reserved to him to alter his opinions. Ob- 
 stinacy is not unfrequently allied with faculties of that order 
 which belongs to his Royal Highness. It would, at all events, 
 take a year or so to produce this revolution in the heart and under- 
 standing of the Hero of Dunkirk ; and, judging from the attendance 
 of Sir Henry Halford upon his Royal Highness to Brighton in the 
 same carriage, and other incidents of the like consolatory nature, 
 it is to be apprehended that the effect of Digitalis will not prove so 
 sovereign as to give his Royal Highness sufficient time to correct his 
 antipathy to Ireland. In case, at any assembly of Roman Catholics, 
 his Royal Highness' health shall be hereafter proposed, instead of 
 intimating a desire that his Royal Highness should change his 
 opinions, I should beg leave, with profound submission, to suggest 
 that the means should be substituted for the end, and in order that 
 he may have an opportunity of modifying his opinions, that the 
 VOL. I. X 
 
306 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 chairman should propose ' Success to Foxglove.' But one word 
 more. In the course of the evening, 'tis not improbable that we 
 shall have got into a more pathetic mood; memories may be given, 
 and if we should fall into any train of melancholy reminiscences, 
 to preserve some kind of consistence in our loyal effusions, I 
 shall venture to propose the memory of Mrs. Clarke." 
 
 Great indignation was expressed in various quarters 
 when the report of this speech appeared, and by his 
 best friends it was condemned most strongly, as cal- 
 culated to injure not only himself but the popular 
 cause. In private he confessed that it had been 
 " spoken under the influence of some wine/' and he 
 could not easily be persuaded that it had provoked in 
 high quarters sentiments of serious resentment. When 
 forced to alter this opinion, he endeavoured in an 
 elaborate public statement, to qualify the terms ori- 
 ginally used, and to vindicate himself from the 
 imputation of wantonness or malignity. But it must 
 be owned that this did not serve to mend matters. 
 The levity with which he tried to invest the subject 
 was censured as ill-timed, considering the Duke of 
 York's declining state ; and as he neither retracted 
 nor repudiated the offensive phrases originally used, 
 what was meant as an extenuation was received and 
 resented as an aggravation of the first offence. 
 
 But if he feared not to jest at the expense of the 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 307 
 
 highest personages in the realm when ranged in 
 antagonism to the rights of his creed, as little did 
 he hesitate to visit with the lash of bitter irony 
 those, whether lay or clerical, whom he believed to 
 be swayed by unworthy motives in deserting the 
 path of public duty. Within a few days of the 
 attack upon the Duke of York, he held up to un- 
 sparing ridicule in the Association two priests of 
 Westmeath, whom he had found, during his late 
 sojourn in that county, arrayed in hostility to their 
 brethren and their flocks, owing, it was supposed, 
 to the influence which favours conferred by certain 
 of the landed proprietary exercised over their minds. 
 Alluding; to the refusal of one of these to vote for 
 the popular candidate at the recent election, when a 
 single vote might have turned the scale, he said " This 
 gentleman was formerly a candidate for a bishopric, 
 and whenever our clergy shall be paid by the Crown, 
 and the mitre is to be fastened with a golden band, 
 there is no person whose forehead it will better become. 
 Far be it from me to insinuate that this disinterested 
 functionary of religion is swayed by any base or sordid 
 motive. I will not charge him with a grovelling 
 solicitude to hold a place at the side table of Sir 
 Thomas Chapman. I am, on the contrary, disposed 
 
 x 2 
 
308 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to think that his eyes are so intently fixed upon objects 
 before which this world vanishes into insignificance, 
 that if he did not interfere in the election, it arose 
 from a truly Christian insensibility to all sublunary 
 concerns. It so happens, however, that from the 
 heights of spirituality which he has ascended, if he 
 should chance occasionally to look down upon the 
 earth, he beholds in that part of it which is called the 
 county of Westmeath a couple of hundred acres of 
 good fat land, of which he holds a lease under Sir 
 Thomas Chapman. Alas ! for him, he is encum- 
 bered with many of those impediments to salvation 
 which, we are told in the Scriptures, impede the 
 progress of a rich man to heaven. He is one of 
 those pastors who has made good use of his shears. 
 For my part, if I were one of his parishioners, I 
 should endeavour to diminish his temptations, and 
 avoid any increase of those burthens which may 
 prevent ' the camel from passing through the needle's 
 eye/ »* 
 
 About this time, the Due de Montebello, accom- 
 panied by MM. Duvergier d'Hauranne and Thayer, 
 visited Ireland ; and in a work subsequently published 
 an interesting account was given of the impressions 
 
 * Speech, 23d September, 1826. 
 
KICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 309 
 
 made upon their minds by the strange and anomalous 
 condition of things they had beheld. They were 
 present at the provincial meeting for Connaught, held 
 at Ballinasloe, the account of which, as given by M. 
 Duvergier, is eminently piquant and picturesque. 
 While one of the speakers was inveighing against the 
 bad faith of the Government in past times towards 
 the Catholics, and the infatuation of driving them 
 to look to the revolt of America as an example, a 
 loud and prolonged cheer burst forth suddenly from 
 every quarter, which shook the edifice to its roof. 
 It was the unlooked-for appearance of Mr. Sheil 
 on the platform that had produced this startling 
 effect. 
 
 " Were I commissioned," writes M. Duvergier, " to 
 take down the sign ale ment of Mr. Sheil, this would be 
 very nearly the result : five feet four ; eyes quick 
 and piercing ; complexion pale ; chin pointed ; hair 
 dark; and in adding, mouth middle-sized, I flatter 
 myself I should have given a description not to be 
 excelled in exactness at the bureau des passejoorts. 
 But this is the portrait of the gentleman ; that of 
 the orator is widely diverse. When you behold that 
 little Gascon figure in repose, it is impossible to 
 suspect to what changes passion is capable of con- 
 
310 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 verting it. There is in Sheil something of Juvenal, 
 of Pindar, and of Mirabeau. His satire is shrewd 
 and biting; his poetry dazzles; his enthusiasm 
 carries you away. When he flings forth his sar- 
 casm, a bitter smile contracts his lips; when he 
 threatens, his eyes dart forth lightnings; when he 
 is under the dominion of powerful inspiration, they 
 take an expression altogether sublime. His voice 
 is meagre, harsh, and shrill; but a profound emo- 
 tion seems to regulate its vibrations. His gesture 
 is quick, abrupt, and rather disorderly; but it is 
 always in perfect accord with such sentiments as he 
 has to express. Sheil possesses in an eminent degree 
 the surprising faculty of exciting himself to the very 
 verge of delirium without once losing his complete 
 self-possession. I was at his side whilst speaking ; 
 and more than once I saw all his limbs tremble ; 
 a moment after he resumed the discussion with not 
 less composure than ingenuity. Like the English, 
 whom in other particulars he so little resembles, 
 Sheil is too fond of quotations. Certain passages 
 in bad taste, it may also be observed, occasionally 
 disfigure the best of his speeches ; and in general 
 it has been remarked, that in both elocution and 
 diction, there is something too much of the theatre 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 311 
 
 about him. These reproaches have some appearance 
 of being well-founded, as more than once indeed I 
 imagined I had the figure of Kean actually before 
 me, but then I must also add, that Kean is a very 
 admirable actor. In a word, I was seduced, I was 
 dazzled, and together with me, the whole assembly. 
 During an entire hour one single soul, that of the 
 orator, seemed to animate this living mass ; and from 
 time to time you would have said that an electric 
 shock completely convulsed them. I never before 
 assisted at so absolute a triumph."* After giving 
 some striking instances of the great disparity of num- 
 bers between the conflicting creeds in different parts 
 of the kingdom, Mr. Sheil proceeded : — 
 
 "In what tight must any impartial Englishman, or any 
 foreigner by whom this country may chance to be visited, regard 
 a constitution which excludes the enormous majority of tts citizens 
 from a participation in its privileges ? If — but I should not put 
 it in by way of hypothesis, for a French nobleman of the highest 
 rank is present in this assembly; he is accompanied by three of 
 his countrymen, of whom two informed me, at the moment I was 
 about to rise, that they are French Protestants, and that tbey 
 consider the exclusion of the Catholics of Ireland from the full 
 advantage of British citizenship, a reproach to the religion of the 
 State. They told me that the whole body of French Protestants 
 
 * Lettres sur les Elections Anglaises, et sur la Situation 
 de l'Irlande, pp. 157-9. Paris, 1827. 
 
312 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 sympathize with us, and are astonished that the professors of 
 reformed Christianity should deny to Catholics that perfect free- 
 dom of opinion on which their own system of belief is founded. 
 They further mentioned to me, that Monsieur de Jaucourt and 
 Monsieur de Portale, two members of the Trench government, 
 who fill important situations in the ministry, are Protestants — 
 and Protestants are not only legally admissible, but are actually 
 admitted to influential offices in the State. What, then, must be 
 the astonishment of Frenchmen, on visiting this country, to find 
 seven millions of its inhabitants cast beyond the pale of the con- 
 stitution on account of their conscientious adherence to the 
 national faith ? The Due de Montebello will return in a little 
 time to Prance, and I have pictured to myself what he will say, 
 when his compatriots shall inquire of him what he has seen, and 
 heard, and felt amongst us. 'I visited,' he will, or might at 
 least say, ' that most important portion of the British dominions 
 for which in Prance much interest is felt, but of which all is not 
 known. I arrived in a country endowed by nature with its best 
 gifts, and crowded with a population of vigorous, healthy, intelli- 
 gent, and generously -minded men. Yet, with all these advantages, 
 I found an utter counteraction of the apparent designs of Provi- 
 dence ; and where I expected a scene of national prosperity, I be- 
 held a most miserable and degrading spectacle. The law had 
 established an aristocracy different from that which exists in any 
 other country, and which is not derived from rank, or birth, or 
 public virtue, but consists in the profession of a peculiar form of 
 religion. The fiercest dissensions are thus nurtured by the law, 
 and two factions are marshalled, which are halloed on by the 
 Government, and infuriated into a detestation of each other.' 
 And when he shall have said this, and much more than this, and 
 shall have gone into all the details of contumely to which every 
 man of us is subject — when he shall have exhibited all the multi- 
 farious varieties of degradation, and of injury, which result from 
 this abominable system, will not some Frenchman exclaim : 
 ' And how do these seven millions bear with all this ? — are they 
 contented with their political infamy ? — do they bend in meekness 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 313 
 
 to the yoke ? — do they prostrate themselves before their masters ? 
 — are they satisfied with this state of things ? — are they so 
 utterly base as to hug their shame, and to be fond of their degra- 
 dation ?" Oh, my countrymen, what answer should be given to 
 these questions ? Shall Frenchmen be told that our hearts are 
 compounded of such base stuff? Shall it be said, by our illus- 
 trious friend, that we have reached such a meanness of spirit, and 
 have attained such an utter corruption and helotism of feeling, as 
 to be contented with such a lot ? Thank God, he will not say so ; 
 he will speak far differently about us. He will say, that seven 
 millions of oppressed and degraded men feel all that burning 
 indignation that befits the complication of insult and of injury 
 which they endure ; and that they are animated by as resolved 
 and enthusiastic a spirit as ever actuated a people in the cause of 
 freedom. He will say that they are bound together by a single, 
 an undivided, and inseparable sentiment ; that they are as firm 
 and as determined as they are ardent and inflamed ; that every 
 thought and feeling is fixed and concentrated in an impassioned 
 aspiration for the liberty of their country. Let him say this, and 
 more than this ; let him add, that if ever it shall come to pass 
 that, to the financial embarrassments of England there should be 
 superadded the enormous expenditure of war, and if — with her 
 machinery and manufactures at a stand — with her enormous debt, 
 hanging like an avalanche above her head — with famine within 
 and danger abroad — the fleets of France and of America shall 
 unfurl their flags upon the seas, then — in that hour of tremendous 
 peril, with an enormous population, whose bare physical power 
 would be terrific if put into a simultaneous and gigantic action, 
 and would be doubly terrible if there were art and skill to give 
 
 it direction, order, system, and effect — then I have 
 
 made a pause, and I feel, from the silence with which you await 
 my words, that there is something of awe in your anticipa- 
 tion — then But I shall proceed no further. This is a 
 
 subject on which much may be said, and more ought to be 
 thought, and I shall only add — may God Almighty give that 
 wisdom to those who are appointed by His providence to sway 
 
314 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the destinies of empires, which shall avert those dreadful events 
 whose bare possibility is sufficient to appal, and from whose like- 
 lihood every good man must recoil in horror. And yet, why 
 throw a veil upon futurity — why shut out from contemplation 
 what may arrive hereafter, because I may be calumniously 
 reproached with desiring what I do but apprehend, and of endea- 
 vouring to realize what it is even dreadful to imagine ? I do, in 
 the face of heaven, solemnly protest, that I not only deprecate the 
 political calamities to which I have adverted, but I look upon 
 them with horror. Not only my duty as a subject, but my 
 feelings as a man, and those instincts of humanity of which, I 
 trust, that I am not destitute, teach me to regard any political 
 convulsion which may take place in this country with a senti- 
 ment still stronger than dismay. If it should unfortunately 
 happen that such events should take place in the course of a few 
 years, the men who, like myself, take the most active share in public 
 affairs, would be the first to perish. They would be swept away 
 in the torrent of blood by which the country would be deluged. 
 But is it wise, because the contemplation of an event is attended 
 with terrible anticipations, to clasp our hands to our eyes, and 
 shut it out ! Are dangers to be averted by being disguised ? — or 
 does he who cries 'breakers a-head' drive the vessel on the 
 rock ? I hear the roaring of the billows, and see in the distance 
 the surf breaking over the reef, and shall I not exclaim, ' helm a 
 lee !' It is to prevent, and not to hurry destruction on, that I point 
 out the peril on which we are advancing, and drive to ruin before the 
 wind. I shall, then, fearlessly state what I apprehend may be the 
 consequence of withholding their rights from seven millions of the 
 Irish people. It will be observed, that I am not speaking of 
 events which may take place in one, two, three, or perhaps 
 twenty years — but any man who is not actuated by sentiments of 
 the basest selfishness, will be as solicitous to protect his children 
 from the evils incidental to national calamity, as to shelter himself 
 against them — should those claims, which are prosecuted with 
 such an ardent pertinacity, be constantly rejected, it is to be 
 apprehended that the sense of their political duty may be ulti- 
 
KICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 315 
 
 mately so far weakened and impaired, that their state of exaspe- 
 ration, to use the language of Mr. Canning, may afford to the 
 enemies of England an opportunity of assailing the empire in a 
 very vulnerable point. The Secretary for Foreign Affairs has 
 intimated this probability, and stated that the attention of the 
 Continental powers was fixed upon this country. I, therefore, do 
 no more than amplify and expand the sentiment of the minister — 
 no more than he considered it consistent with official delicacy to 
 do. Should the anticipation of Mr. Canning come to pass, what 
 sort of spectacle would this country present ? I do verily believe 
 that every man, who had any sort of stake in the country — every 
 respectable Roman Catholic, would be induced to sacrifice his 
 wrongs and his antipathies to his sense of moral and religious 
 duty, and would adhere to his vow of allegiance. But the great 
 body of the people would, I fear, be under the influence of very 
 powerful temptation, and adventurers and men of desperate for- 
 tunes and aspiring minds (and they are to be found in every 
 country) might yield to the suggestions of a wild and criminal 
 ambition, and give a loose to their passions. In my judgment, 
 such an enterprise would ultimately fail, because the power of 
 England, unless she sustained very great reverses, would prevent 
 rebellion from being ever sanctified by its result. But supposing 
 that the event would be what every good subject and good 
 Christian should legally and piously desire, still through what 
 dreadful scenes the country would have to pass before that salu- 
 tary consummation could be attained. I do not deny that many 
 would derive, from the confiscation of Catholic property, some 
 consolatory compensations for the national misfortunes. But 
 must not every man of ordinary feeling and humanity, no matter 
 to what party he may belong, shudder at the thought of all the 
 misery, both public and domestic, with which such a state of 
 things would be attended ?" 
 
 A complimentary vote having been passed to the 
 distinguished strangers who were present, 
 
316 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 The Duke de Montebello, in returning thanks,, 
 expressed the sympathy which the liberal party in 
 France entertained for the political disinheritance of 
 the majority of the Irish people. "They had not 
 enjoyed liberty long enough in France to have for- 
 gotten the time when they were struggling for it, 
 but they had struggled and they had gained it at last. 
 Civil and religious liberty had been there achieved 
 by that glorious revolution which had been so little 
 understood and so much abused by those who had 
 only looked at its excesses ; and those rights were so 
 deeply impressed on their hearts, that if the Protestant 
 faith were injured, they would rise with as much 
 indignation at a Catholic as his hearers did at a Pro- 
 testant ascendency." 
 
 Nor were these professions groundless. After 
 the Restoration, many attempts were made by the 
 Ultra- Royalist party to re-introduce in legislation 
 the exclusive and intolerant spirit which, under the 
 Republic and the Empire, was believed to have been 
 extinguished for ever. The wise and just disposition 
 of Louis XVIII. led him to resist every suggestion of 
 the kind ; but his resistance would have availed but 
 little had it not been for the courage and constancy 
 wherewith the liberal minority in the Chambers op- 
 posed the partisans of retrogression. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 317 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1827. 
 
 Speech on the death of the Duke of York — Theobald Wolfe 
 Tone — Articles in VEtoile — Prosecution of Mr. Sheil — Mr. 
 Staunton — Defiance of the Government — The Times — Attempt 
 to obtain evidence — Conduct of Mr. Hughes — True bills 
 found. 
 
 Mr. Sheii/s position as a public man was daily 
 becoming more recognised and defined. The ambi- 
 tion of his life had gradually come to be realized. 
 His earliest dreams in boyhood had been of oratoric 
 fame. While at Stoney hurst, the hours of relaxation 
 which his companions spent in active sports, had been 
 by him frequently devoted to supernumerary studies 
 in the art of rhetoric. The sense of great natural 
 deficiencies had early been forced upon him by his 
 failure in the recitations that formed part of the ordi- 
 nary school exercises. He could neither restrain his 
 voluble impetuosity nor modulate the harsh intona- 
 
318 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tions of his voice. When appointed on one occasion 
 to read aloud the letter of Pliny describing his uncle's 
 fate, "Sheilas exhibition," says one of his class-fellows, 
 " I can never forget. His pronunciation of the Latin 
 was French; his voice was pitched at the highest 
 treble, and sustained there throughout ; and excited 
 probably by the subject of the letter, he rushed 
 through it with the fervour and energy of one actually 
 engaged in the scene described, and without a particle 
 of modulation or inflection of voice from beginning to 
 end ; so that when he delivered the last word of the 
 letter — ' vale V his voice, instead of being lowered, 
 as at the end of a sentence, was still at its highest 
 pitch, as if in the middle of one, and the word was 
 accented broadly on the final syllable. As might be 
 expected from such an audience, the reading of the 
 letter was accompanied by continual laughter, which 
 did not appear to have the slightest effect upon the 
 reader, who was so thoroughly possessed by his subject 
 as to be insensible to all disturbing influences. But 
 when he delivered the final word, the burst of laughter 
 was unbounded; and the effect of the performance 
 was to obtain for Sheil the sobriquet of 1 Vale/ 
 which he bore long afterwards. Incidents like these 
 forced upon him the consciousness of his defects, and 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 319 
 
 made him feel the humiliation of inferiority occasioned 
 thereby. It was not in his nature to acquiesce in the 
 continuance of such a condition ; and he had a still 
 stronger motive to exertion operating in the same 
 direction. He had always, as long as I can recollect, 
 been in the habit of speaking of eloquence as beyond 
 all other objects of admiration ; and to become a 
 great public speaker was, from the outset, the professed 
 object of his ambition. Aware as he soon became of 
 the obstacles to its attainment in his striking defects 
 of voice, utterance, personal appearance, and manner, 
 he went to work to correct them all with an un- 
 doubting faith in his success, and a determination to 
 spare no toil or effort to accomplish it. The course 
 he pursued was to practise declamation, accompanied 
 by gesture and reading aloud. He would often apply 
 to me and others to criticise his performance, and 
 bespeak our candid opinion of its merits or defects ; 
 and the earnestness with which he courted and 
 entreated the most unmitigated exposure of his faults, 
 and the thankful spirit in which he welcomed it, were 
 not the least remarkable or least interesting traits of 
 his character. The fact was, he was throughout sus- 
 tained by the thorough conviction that he was destined 
 to become one day a great orator ; and I am satisfied 
 
320 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 that never for a single day, even while he was at school, 
 was that impression absent from his mind."* Sub- 
 sequent care and practice had perfected the training 
 thus begun in schoolboyhood, with such results as we 
 have seen. 
 
 When the fate of the Duke of York became known, 
 Mr. Sheil availed himself of the opportunity afforded 
 by the first Catholic assembly held in the new year, 
 to give utterance to a graceful tribute to the many 
 personal virtues of the prince. He dwelt at con- 
 siderable length on the proofs he had given of his 
 care, while commander-in-chief, for the wants and 
 comforts of the private soldier. He recalled the 
 faults of his education, and the numerous beguile- 
 ments wherewith his youth had been beset. At the 
 approach of death, all enmity and resentment ought 
 to be laid aside, and no feeling inconsistent with the 
 respect that the wise and thoughtful ever own in the 
 presence of the dread leveller, should find utterance 
 amongst them. The obsequies of departed greatness 
 were all that then remained to be performed. 
 
 "The pomp of death will, for a few nights, fill the gilded 
 apartments in which his body will lie in state. The artist will 
 endeavour to avert that decay to which even princes are doomed, 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Justice Ball to the author. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 321 
 
 and embalm him with odours which may resist the cadaverous 
 scent for a while. He will be laid in a winding-sheet fringed 
 with silver and with gold — he will be enclosed in rich and spicy 
 wood, and his illustrious descent and withered hopes will be in- 
 scribed upon his glittering coffin. The bell of St. Paul will toll ; 
 London, rich, luxurious, Baby Ionic London, will start at the recol- 
 lection that even kings must die. The day of his solemn obse- 
 quies will arrive — the gorgeous procession will go forth in its 
 funereal glory — the ancient chapel of Windsor Castle will be 
 thrown open, and its gothic aisle will be thronged with the array 
 of royalty — the emblazoned windows will be illuminated — the 
 notes of holy melody will arise — the beautiful service of the dead 
 will be repeated by the heads of the church, of which he will be 
 the cold and senseless champion — the vaults of the dead will be 
 unclosed — the nobles, and the ladies, and the high priests of the 
 land, will look down into those deep depositories of the pride, and 
 the vanity, and the ambition of the world. They will behold 
 the heir to the greatest empire of the world taking possession, 
 not of the palace, which was raised at such an enormous and 
 unavailing cost, but of that ' house which lasts till doomsday/ 
 The coffin will go sadly and slowly down ; they will hear it as its 
 ponderous mass strikes on the remains of its royal kindred ; the 
 chant will be resumed, a moment's awful pause will take place — 
 the marble vault, of which none but the Archangel shall disturb 
 the slumbers, will be closed — the songs of death will cease — the 
 procession will wind through the aisles again, and restore them 
 to their loneliness. The torches will fade in the open daylight — 
 the multitude of the great, who will have attended the ceremony, 
 will gradually disperse; they will roll again in their gilded 
 chariots into the din and tumult of the great metropolis ; the 
 business, and the pursuits, and all the frivolities of life will be 
 resumed, and the heir to three kingdoms will be in a week for- 
 gotten. We, too, shall forget, but, before we forget, let us for- 
 give him."* 
 
 * Speech delivered 3rd January, 1S27. 
 vol. i. y 
 
322 
 
 MEMOIKS OF 
 
 But no peace-offering could efface the feelings of 
 resentment which his former allusions to the Duke of 
 York had caused. The extent to which these feelings 
 were carried by more than one member of the royal 
 family was not, indeed,, fully known by him who had 
 occasioned them until many years afterwards. But 
 it was not long before he had abundant reason to feel 
 that he had rendered himself the especial object of 
 ministerial surveillance, and that vindictive purposes 
 were entertained regarding him. The freedom where- 
 with he incessantly assailed the whole system of 
 intolerance and misrule, and the pitiless irony in 
 which he held up to ridicule the inconsistencies and 
 errors of those in power, rendered him pre-eminently 
 obnoxious, if not peculiarly vulnerable, to the weapons 
 of official enmity. " At this time, and up to the 
 termination of the great struggle in J 829" (writes one 
 who himself shared in many of the hazards of the 
 period) , ( ' Sheil was in the most exposed position of 
 any man in Ireland, for he went further than all 
 others to provoke the attacks of the Crown, and was 
 known to have written, or corrected for publication, 
 all his speeches."* 
 
 An incident occurred about this time which led to 
 * Letter from M. Staunton, Esq., 2nd January, 1854. 
 
EICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 323 
 
 the delivery of one of his most remarkable harangues, 
 and subsequently to consequences of a very serious 
 nature. A friend who had obtained one of the few 
 copies which had reached Dublin of the " Memoirs 
 of Wolfe Tone/' then recently published, lent him 
 the first volume, which opens with the diary of 1796. 
 He was at once struck by the startling facts contained 
 in it, and resolved to be the first to introduce them to 
 the public through the medium of a speech at the 
 Association, with an elaborate commentary from him- 
 self. But, before the commentary was prepared, the 
 same friend called upon him with the intelligence 
 that another copy had been obtained by the editor of 
 one of the Dublin weekly newspapers, with the view 
 of giving extracts from it in the next publication. 
 This was upon the morning of the day upon which 
 the Association was to meet ; and, although Sheil 
 had to go to the Four Courts, and attend to his 
 business there, which was then considerable, he was 
 determined not to be forestalled ; so, when the usual 
 hour of meeting came, he repaired to the Association, 
 and uttered the speech as we now have it. 
 
 Holding in his hand the second volume of the 
 Memoirs, he introduced, with no unartistic abrupt- 
 ness, the strange narrative of the French expedition 
 
 y2 
 
324 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to Ireland, under the command of General Hoche, 
 in the year 1796, of which Carnot had matured the 
 plan at the suggestion, and with the counsel, of 
 Wolfe Tone. From the narration of which he was 
 about to give a summary, he wished to deduce 
 warning and admonition to three very different 
 classes : — To the Catholics, whose untimely depend- 
 ance on the private promise of a minister had led 
 them only to disappointment in 1800, when, had 
 they been more self-reliant, they might have exacted 
 terms ; to the statesmen, who still paltered with a 
 danger that accident had enabled their predecessors 
 to quench in 1796, but whose re-kindled embers 
 again smouldered beneath their feet; and lastly, to 
 the proprietors of the soil, whose sectarian ascendency 
 was not worth the perilous price they were, year 
 after year, continuing to pay for it, in the hatred 
 and resentment of a vast population. Omitting the 
 earlier portions of Tone's personal history, in which 
 he had been occupied with various schemes for 
 creating an effectual organization in favour of Eman- 
 cipation and Reform, and failing that, to effect the 
 separation of the two kingdoms, Mr. Sheil at once 
 directed the attention of his hearers to the period of 
 his exile. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 325 
 
 " In 1795, Theobald Wolfe Tone was compelled to retire from 
 Ireland to the United States, where he had at first an intention 
 of settling. . . . But ambition, or perverted patriotism, was 
 among many passions paramount to every other ; he was pursued 
 by the recollections of Ireland ; the memory of his country be- 
 came a malady of his heart ; and in the idealism of exile the 
 scenes of oppression which he had witnessed, and at which his 
 blood had boiled, rose with all the distinctness of unimpaired 
 reality before him. The phantasms with which men condemned 
 to leave their country are disastrously haunted, are, to men like 
 Tone, prompters of great enterprise. There gradually grew up 
 in his mind a design as adventurous as any of which the romance 
 of history has left us an example. He formed the determination 
 to strike a blow at England where he knew that she was most 
 vulnerable, and to invite the French Republic to become his 
 auxiliary in an enterprise which should put the British empire 
 to hazard. Full of a purpose, which at first view appeared to be 
 as extravagant as it was criminal, he set sail from America, and 
 arrived at Havre on the first of February, 1796. Having reached 
 Paris, he found himself in a state which men less ardent, and 
 with less fixedness of intent, would have looked upon as despe- 
 rate ; he failed for a considerable time in obtaining access to any 
 man in authority, and the little money in his possession was 
 almost expended. He was without friends, without resources of 
 any kind, and could scarcely express himself in the language of 
 the country. It is, indeed, difficult to conjecture a state more 
 utterly hopeless than that to which he was reduced. Yet, in the 
 desolation of a great metropolis, he was upheld by that unalter- 
 able purpose from which the aliment of his soul was derived. At 
 last he obtained an interview with the minister of war. His 
 chief credentials, the documents on which he grounded his claim 
 to the confidence of Charles Lecroix, were two votes of thanks 
 which he had received as their Secretary from the Catholics of 
 Ireland. . . . Although Lecroix had never heard of him before, 
 he was struck by his project, and sent him to General Clarke, 
 
326 
 
 MEMOIES OF 
 
 whose family was connected with Ireland ; bnt Clarke entertained 
 such strange notions about the country from which his father had 
 emigrated, that he inquired from him whether Lord Clare was 
 likely to co-operate with the Trench, and whether the Duke of 
 York would accept the sovereignty of Ireland in the event of its 
 conquest by the Trench Republic. .... 
 Tone perceived that little could be effected with Clarke, and 
 determined to go directly to the President of the Directory, who 
 was no other than the celebrated Carnot, to whose genius the 
 marvellous successes of Trance were in a great measure to be 
 ascribed. An interview was obtained, in which the victorious 
 mathematician listened to the enthusiastic Irishman, with a not 
 very unnatural distrust in the feasibility of his project. He 
 slowly acceded to it, and it was proposed by the Trench Govern- 
 ment to send two thousand men to Ireland. This suggestion 
 Tone treated as an absurdity. His reasoning was so cogent, that 
 he prevailed upon the Directory to resolve upon an expedition of 
 eight thousand men, with fifty thousand stands of arms ; but 
 Hoche, who enjoyed the highest military reputation, having been 
 named to the chief command of the invading army, insisted on 
 its being increased from eight to fifteen thousand men, with a 
 large park of artillery, and arms sufficient to supply the insurgent 
 population. The Trench Directory acceded to this requisition, 
 and that large force, conveyed by seventeen ships of the line, 
 sailed from Brest. . . . How must his heart have beaten when 
 he beheld that great armament, with its vast sails dilated in some 
 sort by his own aspiring spirit, steering its course to the island 
 where his cradle was rocked, where the bones of his fathers were 
 deposited, on whose green hills his eyes had first rested, and on 
 whose lofty peaks, against which the Atlantic breaks in thunder, 
 he felt assured that his triumphant standard would be unfurled ! 
 Happily for England, these visions of victory, when almost em- 
 bodied in a fatal realization, were dispelled by the winds, called so 
 justly ' the only unsubsidized' allies of England. . . . The Trench 
 fleet was dispersed by a storm. Hoche was blown out of his course 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 327 
 
 with seven ships of the line ; bnt ten sail of the line, with six 
 thousand troops, reached the Irish coast. Wolfe Tone says, that 
 they were so near that he could have pitched a biscuit on shore. 
 A landing might have been at once effected, but the Directory 
 had given orders that the fleet should proceed to Bantry Bay. 
 Ten ships of the line did proceed there, with a force which might 
 have marched to Dublin, and lay for five days in a harbour on the 
 Irish coast. It is a most remarkable circumstance that, in the 
 absence of Hoche, the command of the army should have de- 
 volved upon Grouchy, in reference to whom these words are set 
 down in the diary kept by Wolfe Tone: 'All now depends upon 
 Grouchy.' . . . That Grouchy was an instrument of Providence 
 it may not be irrational to think; but that such implements of 
 safety will always be provided is not an article of faith to believe. 
 Grouchy did not land ; and Ireland was preserved. I have done 
 with the incidents in the Memoirs of Wolfe Tone. . . . My 
 purpose is different from that which may, perhaps, be imputed to 
 me. But what I deeply deprecate, I may be permitted honestly 
 to apprehend, and I own that the perusal of this book has excited 
 in my mind alarms to which I think myself justified in giving ex- 
 pression. The voice of admonition is grating to the ear, but the 
 reflections suggested by this volume ought not to be suppressed, 
 however disinclined a minister may be to listen to them. I believe 
 this country to be exposed to the most serious risks, in conse- 
 quence of the fatal policy which the Government are pursuing. 
 I consider their security to be false, and believe them to be tread- 
 ing on the edge of a fearful peril. Who that sees the sleep- 
 walker advancing to the precipice would heed how rudely he 
 might awaken him, if by boldly grasping him he might drag 
 
 him from the gulf? In the year 1796, the 
 
 Catholic population of this country did not exceed three mil- 
 lions ; it now exceeds double that number. In 1796, the 
 French Republic had not recanted its profession of infidelity, 
 and was deeply stained with the blood of martyred priests and 
 pontiffs. The throne of France is now occupied by a sovereign 
 
328 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 anointed with legitimacy; the altar has been rebuilt, and the 
 ancient Catholic Church lifts np its mitred and apostolic head. 
 Attractive relations have arisen where an intercept had previously 
 been created by many repulsive circumstances. The application 
 of steam in naval warfare deserves to be taken into account, and 
 more especially by Mr. Canning, who recently told us that modern 
 science had c taken from the winds their proverbial fickleness/ 
 To that eminent man I would more peculiarly commend the 
 ' Memoirs of Wolfe Tone.' He cannot fail to recollect, that not 
 very long ago, when he made it his boast that from the recesses 
 in which they were immured, he could let loose the popular pas- 
 sions, and sweep the French monarchy in a hurricane away, Mon- 
 sieur de Chateaubriand, and Monsieur Hyde de Neuville, and 
 Monsieur de Beaumont, indignant at this presumptuous intima- 
 tion, pointed to Ireland with a fierce and retaliatory menace, and 
 warned him and his colleagues to beware, lest France should be 
 provoked to do what it was so obvious that it was in her power 
 to accomplish. Mr. Canning must have been stung to the soul 
 by this formidable retort : he acted wisely in not having noticed 
 it in Parliament ; but I do think it is his duty to tell his asso- 
 ciates, to whose fatal obstinacy the perils of this country are to 
 be referred, that from the foes of England this disastrous advan- 
 tage ought to be taken away, and' by an act of wise and timely 
 justice, a country exposed to imminent peril should be impreg- 
 nably secured. He ought to go with this book in his hand into 
 the cabinet, and plead for the emancipation of Ireland, with the 
 ' Memoirs of Wolfe Tone/ . . . The likelihood is that, no matter 
 how strongly seconded, France would be ultimately vanquished ; 
 but to what a condition would Ireland be reduced, when the domi- 
 nation of England had been restored in its despotic plenitude, and 
 the penal code in all its baneful vigour had been renewed ? . . . 
 In the Cromwellian spoliation, the misfortunes of Ireland were 
 turned by the soldiers of the slaughterer of Drogheda, to account. 
 Conquest was followed by confiscation; but Protestantism is 
 now seised in fee of the island, and of the national calamity 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 329 
 
 nothing substantial could be made. The Protestant proprietors 
 of Ireland are as much interested in the pacification of the 
 country (which can only be effected by the redress of the national 
 grievances) as we are. There is, indeed, a class of political 
 sectaries whose livelihood is derived from their religion. The 
 fouler as well as the smaller birds of prey, croak and flutter in the 
 fear that the receptacles of ascendency, in which their loathsome 
 nests are built, should be disturbed. But a Protestant gentleman 
 of rank and fortune, who cannot be swayed by the same sordid 
 considerations, should consider the permanent establishment of 
 order, the reconciliation of the people to the Government, the 
 abandonment of all revolutionary purpose, the security of the 
 country from all foreign danger and from all intestine commotion, 
 as objects which, at the sacrifice of his bad predominance, would 
 be cheaply purchased. A Cromwellian proprietor views the tract 
 of woods and lawns with which the piety of his puritanical fore- 
 father was rewarded, with all the pride with which the conscious- 
 ness of long transmitted property is attended. The hope of 
 transmitting his estate to his descendants is one of the most plea- 
 surable of his emotions. He devises his property in a strict set- 
 tlement, and, by complicated limitations, endeavours to impart a 
 feudal perpetuity to his possessions; and yet, an admonition, 
 solemn as the warning of Lochiel, might, perhaps, be appropri- 
 ately given him, that the time might come when, amidst the 
 shouts of insurgent onslaught, his mansion should be given to the 
 flames ; those dearer than his life-blood should lie slaughtered or 
 dishonored in that home in which they could no longer find a 
 sanctuary, and horrors should be enacted at the contemplation 
 of which religion trembles and humanity recoils. That the 
 daring intimations to which I have been sufficiently venturesome 
 to give this impassioned utterance, will be read by those to whom 
 they are intended to be addressed, with feelings of resentment, I 
 do not doubt ; but by the insensibility of Protestant Ireland to 
 the perils which attend upon us all, a fearless adjuration is 
 required. If I thought that by a reference to such topics no 
 
330 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 useful purpose could be accomplished, I should uot warn men of 
 a peril which it is not in their power to avert. In the city of 
 lava, with a burning mountain above, and with Herculaneum 
 buried beneath, what would it avail to bid men listen to the roll 
 of the subterranean thunder ? Wherefore speak of an eruption 
 to those by whom Vesuvius cannot be extinguished? but it is in 
 the power of those to whom I have addressed this intrepid invo- 
 cation to save themselves from the peril that overhangs them, and 
 to put the volcano out." 
 
 A report of this speech appeared in the Morning 
 Register of the ^2nd January. It was of more than 
 ordinary length, and bore the evident marks of careful 
 and minute correction. Few if any of those by whom 
 it was read with just and impartial eyes, even thought 
 of ascribing to its author unconstitutional designs. 
 But the Dionysian vigilance of the Home Office dis- 
 cerned insidious treason in the delineation of events 
 which had occurred thirty years before, and the 
 earnest deprecation wherewith their recital had been 
 accompanied. Beneath the luxuriant verbiage of 
 the orator, deadly sedition, it was said, lay coiled. 
 Government resolved that a prosecution should be 
 forthwith instituted against the publisher, and, if 
 possible, against the speaker. Some days, however, 
 elapsed, during which no step was taken ; and it was 
 subsequently believed that great hesitation was felt 
 by Mr. Plunket with regard to the proceedings. But 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 331 
 
 while lie doubted, new materials were unconsciously 
 supplied by the object of the meditated prosecution, 
 and by the artful use of these, the Attorney-General 
 suffered himself to be persuaded that a conviction 
 might be secured. 
 
 At the meeting of the Association which took place 
 on the 29th of January, a motion was made by a gen- 
 tleman named Coppinger, that certain resolutions and 
 documents should be inserted in some of the Paris 
 newspapers, which had shown a disposition to advo- 
 cate their cause. Mr. Sheil objected to this proceeding, 
 as furnishing a handle to the Government to impute 
 to the body correspondence with foreign states. There 
 could be no objection to any one who pleased writing 
 in a French journal. "In his own individual capacity 
 he had availed himself of such knowledge as he 
 possessed of the French language, to write several 
 articles in one of the French newspapers, with no 
 other view than to apprise the French people of 
 their exact condition, and to make the Government 
 of these countries aware of the perils to which they 
 were exposed. But this was his own act, in which his 
 fellow-citizens were not involved. As far as he was 
 himself concerned, he did not care a jot what might 
 be said upon the subject ; but at the same time he 
 
332 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 would be exceedingly sorry to see a national corre- 
 spondence established between the organs of the 
 French Government and the Catholic Association. 
 Nor was it necessary. France already knew much, 
 and if Catholic Emancipation did not pass, France 
 should know more, of Ireland. But let not that 
 knowledge be conveyed through the medium of 
 resolutions, on which strong imputations might be 
 founded. There was a substantial difference between 
 individual and public acts. He would always support 
 measures of a temperate character, while he would not 
 cease to deliver strong sentiments in a strong way. 
 It was not his object to excite the Catholics ; his 
 purpose was to awaken in the Irish Protestants a just 
 sense of their condition. It was for the latter his 
 speeches were intended. His purpose was to awaken 
 them from their lethargy, to arouse them from the 
 slumbers of an insane security, to show them that 
 they stood on the brink of a gulf, and bid them sound 
 its depths. With this end he would not cease to 
 utter the same lugubrious admonitions, — he would 
 not pause in the raven cry."* These considerations 
 prevailed, and Mr. Coppinger's motion was with- 
 drawn. But upon the frank avowal of Mr. Sheil, 
 
 * Speech at Fourteen Days' Meeting, 29th January, 1827. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 333 
 
 that he was indeed the oft-suspected writer of the 
 articles which had from time to time appeared in 
 Z'ffioile, those who had long lurched by his unguarded 
 path believed that their opportunity at length was 
 come. On the 2nd February, the Crown solicitor 
 wrote to Mr. Staunton, the proprietor of the 
 Morning Register, that unless he gave up the 
 author of the speech on Wolfe Tone, he should be 
 prosecuted for its publication as a libel. When this 
 letter was placed in the hands of Mr. Sheil, he at 
 once authorized the admission that the report had 
 been furnished by him. 
 
 Application was then made to Mr. Sheil himself, 
 who confirmed the admission of his having spoken, 
 and subsequently written and transmitted for pub- 
 lication, the speech regarding Wolfe Tone. He was 
 required in consequence to enter into recognizances to 
 appear before the next commission. On the 5th 
 February he attended for the purpose before the 
 magistrates of the head police-office, accompanied 
 by Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Woulffe"* as his sureties, 
 and by several other gentlemen of his acquaintance. 
 Thus far, no allusion whatever had been made to the 
 statement respecting the articles in the French papers. 
 * Afterwards Chief Baron of the Exchequer. 
 
334 MEMOIES OF 
 
 But during the evening of the day on which Mr. 
 Sheil had entered into recognizances, a second com- 
 munication was received by Mr. Staunton, in which 
 ne was required to give up the author of the avowal 
 above mentioned. It happened that by some accident 
 the second speech had not been published in the 
 Morning Register until the day after it had 
 appeared in other daily papers. The report had not 
 in point of fact been furnished in manuscript by Mr. 
 Sheil or by any other person, but it had been copied 
 literally, and even with some slight typographical 
 errors, from another journal. Nor was there any 
 longer a disposition to meet the demands made on 
 the part of the Government in the spirit of unreserve 
 hitherto shown. 
 
 The attempt to extract " evidence drop by drop, 
 to win out of a newspaper office piecemeal acknow- 
 ledgments, to get these drippings of admission, was, 
 to say the least of it, an exceedingly shabby pro- 
 ceeding."* Nor was this all. This second demand 
 betrayed a design of arraigning the speaker and pub- 
 lisher of the matter in question, on the ground of 
 constructive sedition to be sustained by cumulative 
 
 * Statement of Mr. Sheil, on the 7th February, 1827. See 
 also statement of the facts in Morning Register. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 335 
 
 proof. Acting by the advice of eminent counsel, Mr. 
 Sheil resolved to refuse peremptorily to aid the 
 Attorney- General by any further admission, and it 
 was not in the power of Mr. Staunton, had he been 
 so disposed, to supply the Crown solicitor with the 
 proof required. Nevertheless, on the following day 
 (the 6th February) notice was formally given to him 
 that he was to be included in the prosecution, and on 
 the 10th of February he was made aware that informa- 
 tions had been sworn against him for a seditious libel, 
 and he was required to enter into recognizances to 
 appear at the ensuing commission. 
 
 The conduct of the Government in this proceeding 
 created surprise rather than apprehension in the 
 persons who were more immediately involved. Upon 
 the buoyant temper of him who was its principal 
 object, the effect produced was that of indignation 
 alone. He felt convinced that, as against the proprietor 
 of the journal assailed, the prosecution must fail; 
 and that, even if successful against himself, it would 
 greatly tend to enhance his influence and popularity. 
 " The case, as far as you are concerned," he said to 
 Mr. Staunton, "must end in mere vapour. Their 
 object is manifestly to get hold of me. Your paper 
 must be immensely served by this proceeding. It 
 
336 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 will be equivalent to a fortune. You are married, 
 and fortune is an object to you. I am without 
 circumspection or empire, and therefore I attend less 
 to money, or the loss of it, which a fine may impose 
 on me. I own I consider the whole of this matter 
 rather a piece of good luck to you and me than 
 otherwise; for I think we shall escape their toils; 
 and if we do, we both materially gain." 
 
 In public his language, though more grave, was 
 not less expressive of fearlessness and scorn. The 
 question raised was one between the misdirected 
 authority of the Crown and the right of the public at 
 large to free discussion. To the public, therefore, he 
 boldly appealed in his own vindication; and well 
 knowing the prejudices that rapidly accumulate 
 around the accused in the interval between accusation 
 and trial, where silence is observed, he did not 
 hesitate to lay bare, with all the unreserve of truth, 
 the facts of the case, and by anticipation to invite 
 the verdict of opinion regarding them. Of his 
 prosecutors he spoke in terms of natural resentment, 
 not unmingled with derision. But he took care to 
 distinguish between what he justly considered the 
 reluctant compliance of Mr. Plunket, and the eager 
 bigotry and partisanship of the other advisers of the 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 337 
 
 Crown. Yet, far from deprecating the personal 
 exertions of the Attorney- General against him, he 
 specially invited arid provoked them. A paragraph 
 had appeared in the Government newspapers, stating 
 that Mr. Plunket would be obliged in a few days 
 to leave for London, to attend his parliamentary 
 duties. Alluding to this rumour, Mr. Sheil said that 
 he asked but one favour of Mr. Plunket, namely, that 
 of his presence at the trial. He wished to confront 
 him, that he might remind him how much more 
 vehement he had himself once been, — how far he had 
 exceeded the limits observed by him. " He would 
 cut down Goliath with his own sword. He would 
 remind him of the time when he uttered a sentiment 
 in which he did not participate, and spoke of flinging 
 British connexion to the winds. He wanted his 
 presence for these purposes, for he knew he must 
 quail in this appeal to himself."* Nothing could be 
 more defiant than the tone of the entire address, and 
 the enthusiasm it evoked was proportionate. 
 
 Some days afterwards, on his health being given at 
 a public dinner, he again adverted to the subject. 
 
 t€ If I have spoken of future events of a disastrous 
 nature, I have only said that which others have 
 
 * Speech, 7 th February. 
 VOL. L Z 
 
338 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 repeatedly spoken. I have only looked through the 
 
 political telescope, and declared that I saw a distant 
 
 contingency which it was the duty of statesmen to 
 
 avert. I may he, I sincerely wish that I may be, 
 
 mistaken in saying that what has already happened 
 
 may again take place. But whether I am right or 
 
 wrong in these alarming anticipations, my only object 
 
 has been to give a timely admonition, and to make 
 
 the men who are entrusted with the government and 
 
 the future destinies of Ireland — 
 
 ' Privy to their country's fate, 
 Which, happily foreknowing, may prevent.' " 
 
 He pointed out the absurdity of supposing that he 
 and his associates could desire civil commotion in the 
 very outset of which they must inevitably be the 
 first victims. He likewise dwelt upon the circum- 
 stance that many of the most opulent merchants and 
 proprietors of ancient estate were among his hearers 
 on the occasion, and that by none of them was 
 his language construed in the sense ascribed to it 
 by the law advisers of the Crown. But if there 
 were danger to the public peace in the recital of 
 historical events so pregnant with admonition, why 
 did not those who were its official guardians warn 
 them that they were going too far? Why had 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 339 
 
 they not stopped the wheels before they had taken 
 fire ?"* 
 
 In England, opinion seemed much divided regard- 
 ing the prosecution. Few had read the speech on 
 Wolfe Tone's Memoirs ; fewer still had read the work 
 itself. All that was generally known was, that Tone 
 had been taken prisoner, after the defeat of the 
 French expedition to Ireland in 1798; that, when 
 condemned to death by a court-martial, he had asked 
 to be allowed to die as a soldier of the republic, whose 
 commission he bore, and that, on being refused, he 
 had avoided the ignominy that awaited him by com- 
 mitting suicide. That the personal history of such a 
 man should have been selected as the theme for 
 popular declamation in Ireland, naturally created 
 strong feelings of disapproval in the minds of all who 
 had not taken the trouble to understand the real nature 
 of the question legally raised, or the true meaning 
 and tenor of the speeches impugned. In the Morning 
 Chronicle and the Examiner, the just distinction be- 
 tween practical warnings derived from history, and 
 reckless incentives to treason, was indeed dispassion- 
 ately argued. In the Times, however, a different 
 
 * Speech at Dinner of the Friends of Purity of Election, 12th 
 February, 1827. 
 
 z % 
 
340 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 course had at first been taken ; this was of the more 
 importance because that journal had uniformly and 
 ably supported the claims of the Catholics. 
 
 In an article on the 6th February, the speech of 19th 
 J anuary was described as one in which " hints were 
 thrown out conducive to the success of the next invasion 
 by the French or any other government within steam- 
 boat range of Ireland." Mr. Sheil is then represented 
 as being " one of the least discreet and most dangerous 
 counsellors by whom a people or a party could be 
 directed. . . . Whether it was worth while to 
 prosecute Mr. Sheil for the manifest mischief of his 
 intentions was quite a different question from the 
 wisdom or folly of his words. As the grant of eman- 
 cipation would be death to the notoriety of those who 
 subsisted upon the clamour for it, so they were never 
 more thoroughly disappointed than when Government 
 seemed to forget that such men were buzzing about 
 its ears. It was not impossible, however doubtful, 
 that in the present session this national measure 
 might assume a more promising aspect than before ; 
 but if Mr. Sheil were sentenced and effectually silenced, 
 the act would be more characteristic of a Government 
 which had the real welfare of the Catholics at heart, 
 than of one which opposed their emancipation." From 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 341 
 
 an entry in Moore's diary, it appears that Sheil had 
 written to him to use his influence with the editor to 
 prevent the repetition of articles such as the foregoing, 
 which was calculated to prejudge his case, and thus 
 to do material injury.* 
 
 Meanwhile no means were left unemployed to 
 obtain the evidence which had been vainlv sought 
 from Mr. Staunton. A Government reporter usually 
 attended the meetings of the Association, avowedly 
 for the purpose of informing his employers of all that 
 took place there, and of being able to verify his 
 account by a reference to his notes when required. 
 Through some accident or inadvertence, the report of 
 the proceedings on the 29th January failed to supply 
 any adequate version of the words to which a seditious 
 import had been ascribed. Upon careful inquiry, it 
 was found that the report containing the inculpated 
 words had first appeared in the Dublin Horning Post 
 the day after they were spoken : and that from its 
 columns they had been copied into other newspapers. 
 The proprietor, Mr. Carrick, was called upon to give up 
 the manuscript. This was peremptorily refused. 
 The name of the reporter was then demanded, but to 
 this also a negative reply was given. Foiled in this 
 * 12th February, 1827. 
 
342 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 attempt, those who conducted the prosecution resolved 
 to have recourse to another and yet stranger expe- 
 dient. Mr. C. Hughes, by whom it was ascertained 
 that the much-coveted report had been furnished, 
 while occupied professionally in one of the courts 
 was taken into custody, under a warrant from the 
 magistrates, and informed that he must forthwith 
 attend before their worships. No cause was assigned 
 nor any explanation given for this proceeding; but 
 his suspicions as to the true object being excited, he 
 made up his mind, if possible, not to be made an 
 instrument in hands that he regarded as busied in the 
 work of oppression. Obeying the directions of the 
 officers who had been sent to arrest him, he expos- 
 tulated with them as to the misinterpretation that 
 might be put upon his appearance along with them 
 in the public streets, and adroitly induced them to 
 allow him to proceed by a different and somewhat 
 circuitous route to the police-office. On his way, he 
 was thus enabled to obtain the assistance of two legal 
 friends, who accompanied him before the magistrates. 
 The investigation was conducted with closed doors, 
 and lasted several hours. The varied interrogatories 
 of the bench were objected to by Mr. Hughes' counsel, 
 on the ground that his answers might possibly tend 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 343 
 
 to criminate himself; upon which an offer was made 
 on behalf of the Crown that he should be guaranteed 
 against all consequences. Without reference to his 
 notes, he declared his inability to answer the questions 
 which were put to him, regarding the speech of Mr. 
 Sheil. It was proposed that they should forthwith 
 be sent for to his residence ; but with this obliging 
 offer Mr. Hughes refused to comply. The case was 
 then adjourned, and strong injunctions were given 
 to the inflexible reporter not only to consult his notes, 
 but to be careful to bring the whole of them with 
 him when his attendance should be next required. 
 He was, moreover, compelled to enter into recogni- 
 zances, himself in 1000/. and two sureties of 500/. 
 each, to appear whenever called upon. His first act 
 on reaching home was to commit the entire of 
 his notes to the flames. The fact was, that upon 
 the evening of the day on which the avowal of the con- 
 tributions to the French journal had been made in the 
 Association, he had met Mr. Sheil at his own house, 
 by appointment, and had there re- written, under his 
 dictation, the speech as it appeared in the DuWiil 
 Morning Post. Surmise pointed to some circumstance 
 of the kind, but its actual occurrence was at the time 
 unknown; and the demeanour of this upright and 
 
344 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 high-spirited man in the presence of the magistrates, 
 left nothing to be hoped for from threats and intimida- 
 tion . As a last resource, other motives were tried. Mr. 
 Hughes was a second time summoned by an officer 
 of police, not as previously to appear before a regularly 
 constituted tribunal, but to attend in private one of the 
 law advisers of the Crown. The interview took place 
 in one of the apartments of the court, where the com- 
 mission usually sat. Every argument was exhausted 
 by the learned functionary in question to induce the 
 reporter to become a witness for the prosecution, but 
 without avail. The conduct of Mr. Hughes through- 
 out was grounded upon a high sense of what was due 
 to himself, and the service in which he was engaged. 
 That service is pre-eminently one which implies the 
 strict observance of private confidence and public 
 honour ; and instead of being, as it now is, a recog- 
 nised and respected profession, the practice of reporting 
 must rapidly degenerate into the basest and most 
 pestilent system of espionage, if its members could be 
 browbeaten by those in power into subserviency to 
 their political needs, or beguiled into becoming the 
 instruments of party vengeance or misrule. 
 
 The commission of Oyer and Terminer was opened 
 on the 1 7th February, Mr. Justice Johnson and Mr. 
 Justice Jebb presiding. Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Holmes 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 345 
 
 and Mr. Paine were retained for the defendants. 
 On the 19th of February, 1827, a bill of indictment 
 was laid before the grand jury of the city of Dublin, 
 charging Mr. Sheil with having uttered, and the 
 proprietor and printer of the Morning Register with 
 having published, a seditious libel. Some hours 
 elapsed before they could agree, and while awaiting 
 their decision, Mr. Sheil amused his counsel by an 
 incessant flow of anecdote and humour, affording a 
 singular contrast to the gravity of demeanour which 
 others have manifested under similar circumstances. 
 " We passed a remarkably pleasant day," writes one 
 of those gentlemen ; " it was a curious occasion for 
 such pleasantry; but Sheil kept us in a continuous 
 state of excitation and enjoyment by his most 
 agreeable, lively, and engaging talk." He discussed 
 without affectation the consequences which might 
 ensue from an unfavourable result of the impending 
 trial, and said that, although " some months' im- 
 prisonment might be a very serious infliction on the 
 father of a large family, or a man in great business at 
 the bar, in his comparative youth he thought he 
 should be able to laugh away the hours with friends 
 and visitors."* 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Justice Perrin to the author, Gth December, 
 1853. 
 
346 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 At half-past two o'clock, Sir William Smith, fore- 
 man of the grand jury, appeared in court, and handed 
 in the bill, which had been found to be " true." In 
 about half-an-hour the Attorney- General entered the 
 court, and called for the appearance of Richard Sheil. 
 It was intimated that he was in attendance, and in a 
 few minutes he appeared, accompanied by Mr. W. H. 
 Cur ran. 
 
 The look and manner of Mr. Plunket indicated to 
 those who knew him that he was not insensible to 
 the personal and political reproaches which, in Eng- 
 land as well as in Ireland, the prosecution had 
 drawn down upon him. His old and attached friend, 
 Mr. Peter Burrowes, sat beside him. The real 
 sentiments of both were far more in unison with 
 those of the accused than with any which could be 
 supposed to animate the Government they profession- 
 ally represented ; but Mr. Plunket was committed to 
 the proceeding, and knew not how to draw back. 
 
 Mr.- Holmes applied for a copy of the indictment. 
 This was objected to upon technical grounds by the 
 counsel for the Crown; but the objection being 
 over-ruled, a copy was handed to counsel for the 
 traverser. It occupied forty folio sheets of parchment. 
 On the following morning, the Solicitor-General 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 347 
 
 (Mr. Joy), addressing the court, intimated that, if the 
 defendant desired to traverse in prox. — in other 
 words, to avail himself of his right to defer entering 
 his plea to the indictment until the next commission, 
 the Crown would not object, provided its consent 
 were asked, but they must contest the right, if as- 
 serted, as setting a dangerous precedent. Mr. Holmes 
 and Mr. Perrin agreed that the right was, in point of 
 law, incontestable under various statutes. Mr. O'Con- 
 nell cited many authorities, and referred to the case of 
 the Seven Bishops, who had been refused permission 
 in 1688 to traverse in prox. — a decision solemnly 
 declared unjust and illegal. "It is our undoubted 
 right here, and we will not accept it as a favour." 
 The court pronounced their unhesitating opinion that 
 the right existed; and intimated that Mr. Sheil 
 might stand out upon his own recognizance until the 
 ensuing commission. On the evening of the same 
 day the Attorney- General sailed for England. 
 
348 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 1827. 
 
 Mr. Canning premier — Suspension of agitation — Nolle prosequi 
 — King's counsel — Accident to Mr. Sheil while riding — 
 Death of Mr. Canning — Lord Manners — Renewal of agita- 
 tion — Lord Anglesea Viceroy — Agrarian disturbances — 
 Wealth of the Established Church. 
 
 On the 27th February, six weeks after the death of 
 the Duke of York, Lord Liverpool, who for fifteen 
 years had held the office of Prime Minister, was 
 struck with fatal illness. The bond which so long 
 had held together the coalition of friends and oppo- 
 nents of religious liberty, was suddenly dissolved, and 
 all parties awaited the result with breathless anxiety. 
 The pause was long, and as day after day rolled by 
 without any announcement of a solution, the public 
 began to have a sense, though a dim and imperfect 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 349 
 
 one, of the difficulties that encompassed the situation. 
 We now read the events of that singular interlude 
 between the great acts of ostensible history, with the 
 help of many lights that were then borne in the dark 
 lanthorns of " private and confidential " communica- 
 tion. The King, engrossed, as usual, with selfish 
 solicitude for his own ease and enjoyment, was full of 
 fair and false words, alternately for Canning and 
 for Eldon. He asked the advice of each apart, and 
 affected to be swayed by both in turn. At first he 
 was full of the idea that the leader of the Commons 
 might easily be flattered into retaining the secondary 
 post he had hitherto filled, by being allowed to choose 
 his new superior. George IV. tried every means to 
 persuade him that an anti-Catholic peer would alone 
 be able to command a majority in the Lords, and 
 that consequently there was no choice but to seek, if 
 possible, another premier like Lord Liverpool. But 
 Canning had grown weary of subserviency, and had 
 taken his resolve. Instead of opposing his Majesty's 
 proposal, he at once acquiesced in it so far as to 
 declare that he would throw no difficulty in the way, 
 and that he should cheerfully retire in order that the 
 experiment might be fairly made of forming a cabinet 
 united in resistance to all concession. But was this 
 
350 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 possible ? Canning declared that he did not think it 
 impracticable, although it might be difficult. His 
 Majesty professed to be sensible of his magnanimity, 
 and forthwith set about the generous task.*" 
 
 The veteran Chancellor was ready to make the 
 attempt ; but Mr. Peel declined to join, feeling that 
 in the balanced state of parties in the House of 
 Commons, and remembering that " he differed from 
 every one of his colleagues in that House on the 
 Catholic question,"! such an attempt would be vain. 
 Mr. Canning was again summoned, and told by the 
 Sovereign that he was regarded by him as indis- 
 pensable to the public service, but that, as in a new 
 coalition he must necessarily possess the greatest 
 share of practical influence, more especially after the 
 confession of the high Tory section that they feared 
 to alienate him, he ought to be content with ap- 
 pointing one of them to be the nominal head of the 
 administration, leaving all questions and measures to 
 be freely discussed and dealt with as they arose. 
 Canning, however, saw his position clearly, and told 
 his disingenuous sovereign that he could not submit 
 to be excluded for life, avowedly on account of his 
 
 * Speech of Mr. Canning, 1st May, 1827. 
 
 t Letter of Mr. Peel to Lord Eldon, 9th April, 1827. Life 
 of Lord Eldon, vol. ii., p. 589. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 351 
 
 opinions, from an office which otherwise he was 
 deemed qualified to fill, and that to accept a subor- 
 dinate office under a person confessedly selected for 
 his want of equal fitness, would be the most palpable 
 and humiliating recognition of such a rule.* He did 
 not pretend to have higher claims to the premiership 
 than other men; but as he had consented to serve 
 under one of those from whom he differed on the 
 Catholic question, they could not reasonably object to 
 serve under him with whom, on that single point, 
 they did not agree. Personal fitness for the exalted 
 trust was the only ground of choice he could under- 
 stand; any other would be irreconcilable with that 
 entire equality respecting opinions which had hereto- 
 fore been acknowledged as the only honourable basis 
 of a coalition. 
 
 The King was unable to overcome these spirited 
 resolutions, but, unwilling to forego all hope of extri- 
 cation from the conflicting doubts to which his mind 
 was a prey, he continued still to waver. Intimations, 
 couched in the form of deprecation, but which sounded 
 in the royal ear not very unlike menace, were made 
 on the 31st March by eight noble borough-owners, 
 that, in the event of Mr. Canning's appointment as 
 * Speech of Mr. Canning, 1st May, ] 527. 
 
352 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 premier, their support would be withdrawn from the 
 Government. On the other hand, the country began 
 to show manifest symptoms of impatience, and more 
 than one motion on the subject had been made in the 
 House of Commons. At last, upon the 10th April, 
 Mr. Canning received directions to form a Ministry. 
 The Duke of Wellington, Lord Eldon, Mr. Peel, 
 Lord Bathurst, Lord Melville, and Lord Westmore- 
 land withdrew, and their places were filled up by the 
 Marquis of Anglesea, Lord Lyndhurst, Mr. St urges 
 Bourne, Lord Goderich, the Duke of Clarence, and 
 the Duke of Portland; Lord Dudley and Ward 
 became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and 
 Mr. Goulburn was succeeded by Mr. Lamb as Secre- 
 tary for Ireland. Lord Lansdowne entered the 
 Cabinet without office ; and of the twelve persons by 
 whom it was constituted, three only were opponents 
 of Emancipation. It was still understood that the 
 subject was to be regarded as an open question ; but 
 Mr. Peel, in stating the ground of his secession, de- 
 clared that the impulse which must be necessarily 
 imparted to its future progress, by the transfer of 
 influence and patronage from an anti-Catholic Pre- 
 mier to one of opposite opinions, appeared to him in 
 itself sufficient to justify his withdrawal. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 353 
 
 On the other hand, no present expectations could 
 be held out to the Catholics of the definite or complete 
 settlement of the question. Mr. Canning himself had 
 formerly introduced a Bill, enabling Catholic peers to 
 sit in the House of Lords ; and there were many of the 
 most offensive instances of exclusion from civil trusts 
 and distinctions, which it was in the power of a 
 tolerant and impartial minister practically to bring to 
 an end. There was nothing, for example, more odious 
 or unjust than the systematic refusal of silk gowns 
 to the Catholic bar ; and there were many valuable 
 offices, to the acceptance of which the oath of supre- 
 macy was not by statute rendered a bar. The 
 Catholics were ready to place reliance on the inten- 
 tions of the new Government, and to make large 
 allowance for the difficulties wherewith it was beset. 
 They did not deceive themselves regarding immediate 
 legislation, nor did Mr. Canning leave himself open to 
 be afterwards told that by him they had been deceived. 
 " When asked what he would do with this great but 
 unfortunate question, he would speak very plainly. 
 It was only to the good sense and good feeling of the 
 people of both countries that he looked for its pro- 
 gress ; and that progress would be retarded by any 
 attempt to provoke opinion among one class, or to 
 
 VOL. I. A A 
 
354 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 stifle it with the opposite, at the risk of a convulsion 
 in one or the other part of the United Kingdom. . . 
 Much as he valued carrying Emancipation for the 
 tranquillity of Ireland (and he estimated it at a very 
 high rate), he would not provoke, even for that pur- 
 pose, the sort of passive resistance which might, he 
 feared, be aroused in Great Britain. ... If the 
 parties comported themselves calmly, and refrained 
 from factious conduct which was likely to provoke 
 an active resistance, he was persuaded that the mind 
 of the people of England, or of such portion of them 
 as were hostile to the question, would be gradually 
 brought to take a more rational view of the sub- 
 ject. "With these sentiments, he was prepared to 
 say that he would not prematurely stir up the 
 feelings of the people of England for a theoretic 
 though essential good." Conciliating and forbearing 
 as was the tone of this announcement, it indicated 
 too plainly the tendency and intentions of his new 
 ministers to find cordial acceptance with the King. 
 A few days afterwards, the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 and the Bishop of London informed the prelates 
 assembled at Lambeth, that they were authorized to 
 declare that the King's resolution to oppose all fur- 
 ther concession of the Catholic claims remained 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 355 
 
 unshaken, and that his opinions on the subject were 
 the same as thoseof his father were known to have been. 
 
 When the news of Mr. Canning's appointment to 
 the premiership became known in Ireland, feelings of 
 exultation at the fall of his rivals were strangely 
 mingled with misgivings as to the terms on which 
 he might have been induced to take office. It was 
 the 14th April, and the Association had been sum- 
 moned to meet in the afternoon of the same day. 
 There was no time for preconcert, and each indi- 
 vidual spoke as he felt impressed by the tidings that 
 had been received. Mr. O'Connell gave vent to "his 
 delight, at the respite which Lord Eldon's removal 
 would afford. If a liberal and impartial Govern- 
 ment lasted but for a month, it would go far to destroy 
 the faith of the time-serving in that affected bigotry 
 which they used as a hand-rope to climb the ladder of 
 preferment." The speech of Mr. Sheil, who had just 
 returned from a sanguinary assize at Clonmel, was 
 full of gloom and sadness. The spectral forms he 
 had lately gazed upon, haggard with grief and guilt, 
 still haunted him. Rumours already prevailed that 
 the new Prime Minister had agreed not to make 
 Emancipation a Cabinet question. With fearless and 
 almost fierce reproaches he denounced as morally re- 
 a a % 
 
356 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 sponsible for the perpetuation of agrarian barbarism 
 and bloodshed, the politicians who persisted in uphold- 
 ing a system that perverted all forms of justice, and 
 poisoned the very spirit of social civilization. All con- 
 fessed the frightful condition of things, but when 
 asked for a remedy, many were dumb. They refused to 
 try religious liberty as a specific ; yet they owned that 
 they had no other. " When Mr. Portman, not long 
 ago, inquired of Mr. Peel what measure he would sub- 
 stitute for Emancipation, he honestly stated that he 
 knew of none. Others were willing enough to pre- 
 scribe, but they all differed as to the mode of cure. 
 They reminded one of the doctors in Hogarth's picture 
 who have each other by the throat while the patient 
 is at the last gasp."* 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, much that was calcu- 
 lated to sow distrust and disheartenment in the 
 popular mind, a general disposition was manifested in 
 Ireland to receive the speech of the minister as the 
 proclamation of an armistice, which might lead ere 
 long to the establishment of permanent peace. On 
 the 5th May, Mr. Sheil proposed in the Association, 
 that its ordinary meetings should for the present 
 be discontinued. 
 
 * Speech in Association, 14th April, 1827. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 357 
 
 "The time had arrived when proof should be given to 
 England, that what the full stretch of legislative power could not 
 effect — what an act of parliament, framed upon principles the 
 most despotic, and constructed with all the perverse skill and 
 malevolent nicety of legal art, could not achieve — a single mea- 
 sure of conciliation, or he should rather say, the mere intimation 
 of a more just and kindly feeling in the future Government of the 
 
 country, could at once and instantaneously accomplish 
 
 Justice and kindness could do what severity and rigour were inca- 
 pable of effecting, and the time had come, if not for the complete 
 dissolution, for at least the temporary suspension, of that 
 assembly. In his opinion they ought to give earnest to the 
 Government of their disposition to assist its beneficent intentions 
 towards the country ; of their solicitude to accommodate them- 
 selves in any particular to its views, when they had once been con- 
 vinced (as they were convinced) that a sincere disposition existed 
 in the leading members of the Administration, to carry that mea- 
 sure upon which the happiness of Ireland mainly depended. He 
 had not risen for the purpose of making a specific motion, 
 because, from the peculiar circumstances in which he stood, he 
 did not wish that a measure of adjournment should originate with 
 him. But he should not be deterred by any consideration from 
 stating what he believed to be not only the most generous and the 
 most graceful, but also the wisest course which, under existing 
 circumstances, they could adopt. 
 
 "A man had been placed at the head of affairs who was devoted 
 to their cause, and whose devotion to it was the ground upon 
 which he had been deserted by his former colleagues. 
 In the triumph of that philosophical statesman, the cause not 
 only of liberty but of intellect had obtained a victory. The great 
 struggle which had recently taken place was a contest between 
 mind and power ; the grand cabal which lay defeated and shat- 
 tered at the feet of that celebrated man may be said to have been 
 vanquished by the ascendency of genius over all the might which 
 the confederated oligarchy, by which the empire had been so 
 long governed, could bring against him. 
 
358 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 It was an additional circumstance of honour to Mr. Canning, 
 
 that, as he himself recently stated, he was a poor man. 
 Independently of the other advantages which must flow from the 
 proceeding, he advised they would show to the people of 
 England and the King of England, that the true way to tranquil- 
 lize Ireland was to treat her with kindness, and to win her affec- 
 tions and her gratitude. Eor his own part, violent and intempe- 
 rate as he had been deemed, there was nothing which he more 
 sincerely and devoutly wished, than to see his country at peace, 
 to behold a reconciliation between all parties in that country, and 
 England and Ireland inseparably bound together by mutual 
 interests, and a community of rights and privileges. He had 
 always been convinced that the real happiness of Ireland could 
 never be achieved except by an identity with England, and a com- 
 plete consolidation with her empire, which could never be 
 effected while differences of religion were made the standard of 
 political distinction. He considered the diffusion of English 
 habits, principles, and opinions as the greatest blessing that 
 could befal his country."* 
 
 Mr. O'Connell eulogized the tone and tenor of 
 this speech, in which he entirely agreed, and moved 
 that the Association should adjourn for six weeks. 
 Mr. Wyse followed in the same strain, and concluded 
 by seconding the motion, which was unanimously 
 adopted. 
 
 Public dinners were given to Mr. Sheil, while he 
 w r as the subject of prosecution, at Wexford on the 
 22nd March, at Waterford on the 28th, and at Clon- 
 mel on the 12th April. He accepted likewise an 
 * 5th May, 1827. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 359 
 
 invitation to a public dinner in Louth on the 17 th 
 April. On his way, his journey was suddenly 
 arrested, near the town of Dogheda, by thousands 
 who had waylaid him for the purpose of conducting 
 him in triumph into their city. Remonstrances were 
 unavailing, and he was forced to comply. From every 
 portion of the country, testimonies were offered to the 
 indefatigable zeal he had so long manifested in the 
 public cause, and warm professions of sympathy for 
 him, as the object of attack on the part of the 
 Government. 
 
 A sincere desire was manifested on the part of the 
 new administration to appease angry passions, and to 
 neutralize, as far as possible, every cause of resentment 
 and irritation. The case of Mr. Sheil had stood over, 
 as we have seen, from the 20th February; the period 
 for the sittings of the next commission now 
 approached, and it became necessary therefore to 
 consider what was to be done. The course taken 
 by Mr. Canning was one highly characteristic of 
 him. At a meeting of the Cabinet, he proposed to 
 read the portion of the speech which had been made 
 the subject of indictment, desiring that he might be 
 stopped at any sentence or expression for which a 
 member might be called to order, if it were spoken 
 
360 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 in the House of Commons. Having concluded the 
 citations without any of his colleagues attempting 
 the application of this test, the Premier declared 
 that he would not authorize the prosecution of any 
 man for a speech which was not unparliamentary. 
 Instructions were accordingly sent to Ireland ; 
 and a rule of nolle prosequi was in consequence 
 entered by the Attorney- General. These circum- 
 stances, many years afterwards, were mentioned to 
 Mr. Sheil by Lord Melbourne. 
 
 Moderate as were the anticipations which had been 
 formed from a change of ministers, they were doomed 
 speedily to fade. The weakness of the new Govern- 
 ment grew every day more palpable, and in their 
 inability to comply with the prejudices of the King, 
 or to overcome them, they were destined to incur in 
 too many instances the reproach of disappointing the 
 expectations they had raised. In both England and 
 Ireland great injustice had been done to several of 
 the most eminent practitioners of the law, by exclud- 
 ing them from the rank of King's counsel. Mr. 
 Brougham and Mr. Denman were among the most 
 conspicuous on one side of the Channel, while 
 Mr. O'Connell, Mr. O'Loughlen, and Mr. Sheil 
 felt as deeply aggrieved on the other. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 361 
 
 Lord Eldon had more than once remonstrated 
 against the injustice done to suitors as well as to the 
 bar, by the exclusion of Mr. Brougham ; but George 
 IV. could not resist the temptation of revenging 
 himself upon that great advocate for the truths he 
 had eloquently spoken against him on the Queen's 
 trial, and told the Chancellor " that he should take it 
 as an affront to himself if such an appointment were 
 proposed to him."* One of the first acts, however, of 
 Mr. Canning's administration, was to grant a patent 
 of precedency to Mr. Brougham. Mr. O'Connell 
 had been led to expect that the professional wrong 
 of seeing his juniors and inferiors put over his head, 
 at which he had likewise so long chafed, would 
 also be done away. But the tardy reparation came 
 not. Easter and Trinity Terms, and then the Summer 
 Circuit, passed without his receiving any intimation 
 on the subject. He believed that he had been duped, 
 and wrote in angry terms to Mr. Spring Bice upon 
 the subject. That gentleman, who then filled the 
 office of Under-Secretary for the Home Department, 
 was able to satisfy him that there had been no breach 
 of faith upon his part, or on that of other members of 
 the Government, and that they were still desirous that 
 * Life of Lord Eldon, vol. iii. 3 p. 2. 
 
362 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 justice should be done. Mr. O'Connell wrote apolo- 
 getically for the warmth of the language he had used, 
 and did not again complain of what he felt it was not 
 in the power of ministers to remedy. His Majesty 
 continued obstinately resolved to perpetuate to the 
 last this miserable injustice; and while he lived, Mr. 
 O'Connell was never suffered to take his rightful 
 place. Among the members of the outer bar, Mr. 
 Sheil was, if possible, still more obnoxious, and was 
 of course included in the same ban. 
 
 On the 28th June, while riding near Merrion, in 
 the neighbourhood of Dublin, he was thrown from 
 his horse, and received a severe fracture in the leg. 
 Unable to rise from the ground, he called for assist- 
 ance to some persons who were passing at the time. 
 One of them on hearing his name, undertook to con- 
 vey him home, and having placed him on the car 
 on which he himself was travelling, supported him 
 with considerate care, until they reached his residence 
 in Holies Street. On arriving there, his unknown 
 friend refused to leave him until he had aided in car- 
 rying him to his room. The sufferer more than once, 
 amid expressions of thanks, asked to whom he was 
 indebted for so much kindness ; and it was only upon 
 surrendering him into the hands of his physician, who 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 363 
 
 was almost immediately in attendance, that the 
 stranger gave his name, which Mr. Sheil recognised 
 as that of one of the most active Orangemen of 
 Dublin. The fractured limb was, without difficulty, 
 set by Mr. Francis White, by whom he was attended 
 during the period of confinement which followed. On 
 the following morning he sent to Mr. Curran, request- 
 ing to see him, and begged him to take charge of 
 several briefs which required immediate attention ; 
 others he said Mr. Woulffe had promised to hold for 
 him. He was suffering considerable pain, and had 
 passed a sleepless night; but as he lay awake, the 
 thought that most frequently occurred to him was 
 the consolatory one that, with the exception of his 
 only child, none were dependent upon him. 
 
 " I have never met any one," writes his medical 
 friend, "suffering under pain and all the uncomfortable- 
 ness attendant upon a long confinement, who bore up 
 so well against such casualties, in severe attacks of gout 
 and other illness. He had always great resources 
 within himself; his mind was ever at work. He 
 wrote a great deal during these periods, particularly 
 while under the fracture. I remember him writing 
 the sketch of one of our most eminent legal cha- 
 racters of the present day, for the New Monthly 
 
364 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Magazine, during the above confinement."* The 
 sketch here alluded to was that of Mr. Blackburne,f 
 published in the August number of the New Monthly- 
 Magazine of the same year. While still confined to 
 his sofa, Mr. Doherty's promotion to the Solicitor- 
 Generalship (which had for some time been in sus- 
 pense, owing to the opposition of Lord- Chancellor 
 Manners) was officially announced. This left a new 
 opening in the Leinster circuit, and rendered Sheil 
 more than usually anxious to be freed from his 
 bandages, in order that he might appear at the more 
 important assize towns. He had been engaged in 
 two or three important cases at Waterford; and as 
 the time drew near he became very restless, "and 
 threatened to go with the splints on, and run all 
 risks." J His progress to recovery, however, was 
 not sufficiently rapid to enable him to make such an 
 exertion with safety, and he was obliged reluctantly 
 to forego his intention of doing so. 
 
 Before he had sufficiently recovered to leave his 
 house, on the 10th August the tidings reached him 
 of the unexpected death of Mr. Canning. No event 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Francis White, 24th March, 1854. 
 f Late Lord-Chancellor of Ireland. 
 % Letter from Mr. F. White, 4th April, 1854. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 365 
 
 which had occurred for many years produced so 
 general and profound a sensation in the public mind 
 in Ireland, as the untimely end of this highly-gifted 
 man. By family ties, and still more by congeniality 
 of temperament, he was closely identified with the 
 people of that country. They regarded him as one 
 whose fame was a legitimate matter of national boast, 
 and whose attainment of power was an augury, if 
 not an assurance, of national good. He had been, 
 from his first entrance upon public life, the unde- 
 viating advocate of religious toleration ; and, though 
 long associated in office with men who were its oppo- 
 nents, a wide-spread conviction prevailed that, like 
 his friend and colleague Lord Wellesley, his presence 
 in the Government was the means of mitigating 
 much that was hurtful, and preparing the way for 
 better things to come. On his part, the conduct of 
 Mr. Canning, on many important occasions, served to 
 verify the sincerity of his exclamation — " After all, I 
 cannot forget that I am an Irishman." His speeches, 
 so full of wit and imagination, had become a source of 
 habitual enjoyment to the educated classes of the 
 community ; and how instinctively the popular mind 
 regarded with exultation and confidence his recent 
 elevation to the prime post of power, could not be better 
 
366 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 indicated than in the readiness with which an acqui- 
 escence was shown in the suspension of agitation. 
 There did not exist any other man of his class on 
 account of whom such a cessation would have been 
 dreamed of, or could have been obtained for an hour. 
 Nor did the comparative weakness of his administra- 
 tion shake the popular faith in him. The cause was 
 too obvious. He did not try to conceal it, and far 
 from resenting his avowal, that beset with difficulties 
 as he was on all sides, he dare not promise to attempt 
 the immediate carrying of Emancipation, its most 
 earnest claimants tacitly recognised the exigencies of 
 his position, and seemed content to wait until he should 
 be able to strengthen and to use it. Deep and 
 genuine was the grief which the intelligence of his 
 premature decease occasioned. Every popular journal 
 in Ireland appeared in mourning. An universal feeling 
 spread everywhere that, for a policy of conciliation, 
 the best hope was fled. He had been saluted by 
 liberal France, on his recent advent to power, as 
 " The Minister of representative Europe." His death 
 was felt to be a heavy blow to the pacific and pro- 
 gressive cause of Constitutionalism ; and men, hitherto 
 averse to the thought of violent courses, when they 
 beheld the Government of England soon afterwards 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 367 
 
 fall into the hands of the friends and flatterers of 
 despotism, gradually learned to contemplate as un- 
 avoidable the resource of revolution. In domestic 
 policy, analogous convictions tended to produce not 
 wholly dissimilar results. The opening perspective of 
 concession seemed suddenly about to close. The 
 voice on which the wisdom of persuasion hung was 
 hushed for ever ; and nothing seemed to remain but 
 a resort once more to the arduous and hazardous ex- 
 pedient of menacing agitation. Such were the feel- 
 ings that influenced both O'Connell and Sheil; and 
 upon the first occasion, when the latter re-appeared in 
 public, he took occasion to review the entire course of 
 policy which had been pursued by Government, and 
 by Opposition, in and out of doors, for many years ; 
 and in a speech of unusual length, and more than 
 ordinary comprehensiveness and precision, he demon- 
 strated the necessity of re-animating all the religious 
 and democratic influences which had heretofore been 
 called into play. He gave credit to the more liberal 
 portion of Lord Goderich's Cabinet for honest inten- 
 tions, and disclaimed any wish to embarrass them. 
 The Marquis of Anglesea, recently nominated to the 
 office of Viceroy, had indeed spoken warmly in debate 
 not long before, respecting the intemperance of the 
 
368 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Association. But he was not, therefore, to be looked 
 upon as one insusceptible of conviction, when the 
 means of judging, by personal observation, was 
 afforded him. The speech thus concluded — 
 
 " With respect to the present ministry, they remain to be tried. 
 As yet nothing has been done to induce ns to look upon them 
 with distrust ; and although at first view the appointment of Lord 
 Anglesea, who drew an unhappily figurative phrase from his pro- 
 fession, seems ill-omened, yet there is reason to think that his 
 Lordship, whose friends said that he spoke in a ' civil sense,' has 
 no notion of dragooning us into violence, or cutting us down 
 into submission. His Lordship only used the rhetorical sabre — 
 the telum or at oris, as it is called ; and in justice we ought to 
 weigh all his former votes against the ebullition of English pride, 
 into which what he called our violence had betrayed him. Lord 
 Anglesea is said to be an intelligent and an ambitious man, and 
 his good sense should teach him, that an honourable ambition 
 would be best gratified by his being the means of effectually tran- 
 quillizing, by appeasing the discontents of Ireland. Nor can I 
 think that Lord Lansdowne would retain the Home Department, 
 if an Orange Lord-Lieutenant were to succeed a nobleman whose 
 power to serve us did not correspond with his inclination. Sur- 
 veying the whole frame and constitution of the ministry, I own 
 that I am disposed to place confidence in them ; and although 
 I recollect the difference between men in and out of office — 
 between 
 
 ' Patriots, busting with heroic rage, 
 And placemen all tranquillity and smiles 
 
 still I cannot bring myself to think that the Whigs, who were so 
 long our true and faithful advocates, will yield to the temptations 
 of * tickling commodity,' and ever substantially desert us. Sus- 
 picion is a bad and mean passion, and until I see strong reason 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 369 
 
 to distrust them, I shall put a reliauce in the majority of the 
 Cabinet, who profess themselves to be our supporters. But let 
 me tell you, in whom I place a far deeper and stronger trust. I 
 trust, it is true, in Lord Lansdowne, I trust in Mr. Tierney, I 
 trust in Lord Goderich, and more than in Lord Goderich, aud 
 more than in Mr. Tieruey, and more than in even Lord Laus- 
 downe, and more than in the whole array of ancient Whigs and 
 new-fangled Tories, I put my trust in the firmness, the union, 
 the consolidation, the unconquerable energy, the unquenchable 
 spirit, and the indomitable determination of seven millions of the 
 Irish people." 
 
 How curiously was the sagacity of this political 
 forecast justified by events. Within a year Lord 
 Anglesea had become a convert to Emancipation; 
 within two years he was recalled from his post for 
 encouraging agitation ; and little more than three 
 had elapsed when the author of this speech was offered 
 a seat by him in the House of Commons. 
 
 Another and equally important change had taken 
 place in the Irish administration. Lord Manners, 
 who for twenty years had presided in the Court of 
 Chancery, was removed, and the seals transferred to 
 the custody of Sir Anthony Hart. A greater con- 
 trast could hardly be conceived than that which 
 existed between the learned, impartial, and discerning 
 judge selected by Mr. Canning to fill the highest 
 judicial office in Ireland, and his incapable prede- 
 cessor. Sir Anthony Hart had won his way to eminence 
 
 VOL. I. B B 
 
370 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 in his profession by his ability, perseverance, and 
 integrity alone ; Lord Manners had never been emi- 
 nent at the bar, and would have never been heard of 
 anywhere else had he not had the good fortune to 
 belong to the noble family whose name he bore. After 
 an unusually brief period of nominal practice, he was 
 created a Baron of the Exchequer in England, where, 
 sitting beside experienced judges, his deficiencies 
 were less observable ; but when alone on circuit they 
 could not be hidden. The blunders of the new baron 
 became a jest in Westminster Hall. His presence 
 was felt by his party to be a continual cause of re- 
 proach. It was therefore resolved, on their return to 
 power in 1807, to let him down on the Irish wool- 
 sack, his banishment being consoled with a peerage and 
 10,000/. a-year. He was by nature gifted with most 
 of the negative qualities which, in persons who occupy 
 great place, and who have great patronage to dis- 
 pense, commonly pass for virtues. He was not 
 ungracious to those about him, or wanting in 
 courtesy to the practitioners in his court. He was 
 not without a certain sense of the dignity of speech 
 and look that befitted his office ; and in the discharge 
 of its functions he was neither capricious nor cor- 
 rupt. Nobody ever heard him give vent to a sple- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 371 
 
 netic expression, or heard him perpetrate an unseemly 
 jest. AVhen asked what he thought of Lord Man- 
 ners, Cm-ran is said to have replied, " politically he 
 is ready for any mischief, in private he is a pleasant 
 dull man." 
 
 A valedictory address from the bar was presented 
 by the new Attorney-General, Mr. Joy, whose love 
 of irony Mr. Sheil affected to recognise as deriving 
 exquisite gratification from the esoteric meaning 
 of the extravagant praise he had undertaken to 
 utter : — 
 
 " It would have been a great misfortune for the lovers of ridi- 
 cule if any man except Mr. Joy had pronounced the address 
 which was delivered to the departing Chancellor. He is a great 
 master of mockery. So strong is his addiction to that species of 
 satire which is contained in exaggerated praise, that he scarcely 
 ever resorts to any other species of vituperation. Nature has 
 been singularly favourable to him. His short and upturned nose 
 is admirably calculated to toss his sarcasms off. His piercing 
 and peering eyes gleam and flash in the voluptuousness of malice, 
 and exhibit the keen delight with which he revels in ridicule 
 and luxuriates in derision. His chin is protruded, like that of 
 the Cynic listening to St. Paul, in Raphael's cartoon ; his muscles 
 are full of flexibility, and are capable of adapting themselves to 
 every modification of irony. They have the advantage, too, of 
 being covered with a skin that dimples into sneers with a plastic 
 facility, and looks like a manuscript of Juvenal found in the ashy 
 libraries of Herculaueum. His face was an admirable commen- 
 tary on the enormity of the encomium which he was deputed 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to offer. ' We,' said Mr. Joy, c cannot but admire that distin- 
 guished ability, that strict impartiality, and that unremitting 
 assiduity with which you have discharged the various duties of 
 your office.' ... At the word 'ability' it 
 
 was easy to perceive that he could with difficulty restrain his 
 sense of extravagance from breaking into laughter. 
 It was impossible to look at him without remembering the 
 exhibitions which for twenty years had made the adminis- 
 tration of justice in the Irish Court of Chancery the sub- 
 ject of Lord Redesdale's laughter, and of John Lord Eldon's 
 tears."* 
 
 But of those who contributed to form the re- 
 modelled Irish Government, the person who was 
 destined subsequently to bear the most distin- 
 guished part in public affairs,, was the new Chief 
 Secretary. Mr. Lamb had previously been known 
 chiefly as a man of pleasure, whose occasional appear- 
 ance in Parliament made the more ambitious mem- 
 bers of his party regret that he took apparently so 
 little concern in the business of political life. His 
 naturally fine understanding had been alike matured 
 by varied reading and early knowledge of the world ; 
 but up to the period in question he had never been 
 placed in a position fitted to call forth the exercise of 
 its higher powers. He was generally supposed to be 
 
 * Farewell of Lord Manners. New Monthly Magazine. Vol. 
 xxii., p. 99. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 373 
 
 incapable of practical attention to details, such as that 
 which his new office required, and his speedy failure 
 was confidently reckoned upon by the old masters of 
 routine, whose system and whose principles his pre- 
 sence tended to disturb. Nor were these anticipa- 
 tions left altogether unaided to work out their own 
 fulfilment. On arriving at Dublin Castle, he found 
 neither an Under-Secretary nor a Solicitor- General ; 
 Mr. Gregory, who for many years had filled the 
 former post, having selected that particular occasion 
 for leave of absence; and Lord Manners having 
 refused to ratify the nomination of Mr. Doherty to 
 the latter office. But Mr. Lamb was not a man to 
 be disconcerted by such acts of petty treason among 
 his colleagues or subordinates. A few weeks of sedu- 
 lous application rendered him tolerably familiar with 
 the business of his office, and by his combined firm- 
 ness and good humour the affected scruples of the 
 Chancellor were at length overcome. Mr. Gregory 
 came back in due time, without having been sent for, 
 and the Chief Secretary having given the tone to the 
 manner in which the correspondence of his depart- 
 ment should in future be conducted, allowed the 
 veteran official to resume his task with a somewhat 
 mended pen. 
 
374 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 He was desirous of showing in other ways also that 
 a change of spirit and temper was about to be infused 
 into the conduct of public affairs. It is hardly pos- 
 sible now to realize the repulsive features which 
 marked, in social life, the long-established policy of 
 religious exclusion. Not only did all the occupants of 
 official station belong to the favoured creed, but their 
 very hospitalities were almost invariably bounded by 
 regard to the same rule of privilege ; and when the 
 Catholic appeared as a guest at the Viceroy's table, he 
 was stared at as an apparition, and the circumstance 
 became the subject of vituperative articles in the 
 journals of the day. Mr. Lamb was perhaps the 
 first in his position who determined to break down 
 this odious and miserable distinction. He took care 
 that his invitations should include persons of all 
 opinions and persuasions. To the more prominent 
 members of the Association, he probably felt that it 
 would be an indiscretion to appear to proffer cour- 
 tesies that, upon both sides of the Channel, were likely 
 to be set down for more than they were worth. But 
 he had no mind to leave himself without the oppor- 
 tunity of making the popular leaders personally aware 
 of his real sentiments and dispositions, or, upon the 
 other hand, of forming his own estimate of them. 
 Having expressed a peculiar wish to meet Mr. Sheil 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 375 
 
 under circumstances that could compromise neither, a 
 small dinner party was made for the purpose by Mr. 
 (now Sir Philip) Crampton. It was the first occasion 
 on which they had ever met. There was little reserve 
 on either side, and each confessed afterwards that the 
 impression left by the other was higher and better 
 than he had anticipated. 
 
 During the summer and autumn, agrarian violence 
 once more burst forth with all its fearful accompani- 
 ments. Xoontide witnessed deeds generally done under 
 cover of night. " There is a kind of instinct by which 
 men are restrained from the committal of atrocities in 
 the light of day, as if the sun were the eye of God, and 
 murder did not dare to encounter its contemplation."* 
 But after dwelling with great force upon the horrors 
 of what Lord Bacon has called "the wild justice of 
 revenge," Mr. Sheil urged the duty of searching out 
 the source of this desolating stream of iniquity. That 
 source Mr. Sheil believed to be social and sectarian 
 misrule ; and while he never shrunk from denouncing 
 blood-guiltiness and violence in every form, he con- 
 stantly inveighed against what he deemed its legal 
 provocations.f A report from the Emigration Com- 
 missioners had recommended the allocation of no less 
 
 * Speech in Association, 6th October, IS 27. 
 \ Speech at Clonmel, Sth April, 1S27. 
 
376 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 a sum than 11,000,000^. for the removal to the colonies 
 of the unemployed labouring classes. Others humanely- 
 urged the establishment of a Poor Law; but the 
 Legislature, while it refused to do either, passed an 
 act which compelled the dispossession of multitudes 
 of helpless beings for whom no provision whatever had 
 been made. To this, as was natural, the bitterest 
 reproaches and remonstrances were directed. The 
 sub-letting act was the object of loud invective from 
 the manner in which it was passed ; and many devoted 
 friends of popular right, while admitting that the 
 system of land tenancy heretofore existing, was 
 fraught with economic evils that demanded a remedy, 
 argued that it was alike inhuman and unwise suddenly 
 to deprive whole classes of the community, by enact- 
 ments of a prohibitory character, of the only means of 
 subsistence they had ever known. Mr. Sheil enter- 
 tained this view, and enforced it on various occasions 
 with his usual energy and vigour.* 
 
 Among other projects for the sustainment of 
 renewed agitation in 1825, was one for "a direct 
 attack upon the Established Church in Ireland, and 
 giving it no quarter."! The idea, however, does not 
 
 * See speech 27th December, 1827, &c. 
 f Moore's Diary, 4tk January, 1826. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 377 
 
 seem to have found general acceptance amongst those 
 of most weight in the councils of agitation, and was 
 not revived until a later period. But the hostility 
 of the established clergy continually provoked bitter 
 reproaches and taunts regarding the excessive wealth 
 which, as a body, they enjoyed. 
 
 At the period in question, the annual revenues of 
 the see of Dublin were estimated at no less a sum than 
 14,000/. a year, and to many of the other bishoprics 
 were annexed stipends equally disproportioned to the 
 duties to be performed. The Primacy was said to 
 amount to 16,000/. a year. Had the Protestant 
 prelates been less active and constant in their support 
 of political intolerance, the ostentation of their luxu- 
 rious mode of living would probably have escaped the 
 severity of public criticism. Had they even been 
 divided amongst themselves in their partisanship, the 
 fear of alienating friends might have prevented attacks 
 upon foes. But on the Catholic question, the Irish 
 bishops were unanimous. Upon every division in the 
 House of Lords, their votes were uniformly recorded 
 for the maintenance of sectarian ascendency. The 
 name of Bathurst, the venerable Bishop of Norwich, 
 was indeed often pronounced with gratitude during 
 the period in question in public assemblages, and his 
 
378 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 health was often drunk at public banquets as the 
 mitred friend of religious liberty. But of the twenty- 
 two most reverend and right reverend dignitaries 
 whose dioceses lay in Ireland, not one for many years 
 was found to vote either for the repeal of the Test 
 Act or for Catholic Emancipation. The internal 
 abuses of the Establishment had not then been pub- 
 licly inquired into, or in their full extent exposed ; 
 but the glaring disparity of incomes, and the flagrant 
 frequency of pluralities and sinecures, presented oppor- 
 tunities for sarcasm and rebuke too tempting to be 
 overlooked. 
 
 On the 1st December, 1827, a speech was made 
 by Mr. Sheil, wherein he professed to explain his 
 reasons for moving an address to the prelates and 
 dignitaries of the Established Church, praying that 
 they would, for the sake of their souls' health, retrench 
 somewhat of their unapostolic luxury, and that they 
 would be induced to administer some gentle physic to 
 their pomp. As though he were recounting passages in 
 a dream, he proceeds to contrast the haughty splendour 
 of the episcopate, with the meek frugality of those 
 whom it professed to look back to as its founders. 
 
 " I thought that I was living at the period when, some years 
 after the death of Tiberius, Christianity was, in the midst of per- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 
 
 379 
 
 secution, making rapid way. I saw the inspired and lofty-minded 
 men, to whom the great object of illuminating mankind had been 
 committed, go forth from Palestine, and proclaim in the metro- 
 polis of the world, as the heralds of heaven, the eternal truths, of 
 which they were the repositories. I saw them, in the calm and 
 unostentatious courage derived from the assurance of immor- 
 tality, look upon death and the torments which preceded it 
 without dismay. But what struck me far more than the meek 
 heroism of endurance, was their exemplification of the Divine 
 philosophy, of which they were the professors, in the simplicity of 
 their deportment, in the humility of their mild demeanour, in 
 their spirit of benevolence and of mercy, in their abstinence and 
 self-denial, in their utter contempt of riches, and in the fixedness 
 of their regards upon those objects of everlasting interest to 
 which their eyes and hearts were unremittingly exalted. They 
 did not reside in gorgeous palaces, while they instructed their 
 followers in the wisdom of poverty and the usefulness of sorrow. 
 Their lessons of humility were not announced from the porticos 
 of princes — it was not from the banquet hall that they issued 
 their ordinances of abstinence ; nor did they, from the primrose 
 path of luxury, point to the steep and thorny road to heaven. I 
 saw no train of pampered minions in their retinue. I beheld no 
 mitres upon the chariots in which they had journeyed from Jeru- 
 salem to Rome. I saw no bench of bishops in the senate. 
 
 Neither did I hear anything of 
 running a bishop's life against a lease, nor of a bishop executing a 
 renewal, and touching ten thousand pounds on his death-bed, 
 when he was about to render an account of his ministry, and to 
 stand in the dreadful sight of the living God. I heard nothing 
 of tithes, and vestries, and cesses. I saw no ecclesiastical 
 courts, no metropolitans, no surrogates, no ministers, no civil 
 bills, no proctors, no distraimngs, no executions, no sales of 
 blankets, no auctions of beds of straw, ' in the name of Him who 
 died no trial before one priest of the corporate interests of an- 
 other. There was, indeed, one individual who suggested a sin- 
 
380 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 gular project. His name was Simon Magus. This fellow pro- 
 posed to establish a mining company, declaring that he had dis- 
 covered a rich vein of gold under the barren rocks of Mount 
 Calvary. But the proposition was indignantly rejected. You 
 are aware that dreams are proverbially capricious — 
 ' The children of an idle brain, 
 Begot of nothing but vain phantasy.' 
 
 It was under this strong influence that I was suddenly trans- 
 ferred to a very different period. Queen Mab shifted the scene 
 of the puppet-show which is played in a dreamer's head. I 
 thought that all at once I posted from Rome to London, and 
 leaped over whole tracts of centuries in a single bound. It was, 
 perhaps, owing to my reading of Southey's 'Book of the 
 Church,' together with Paley's ' Evidences,' that this immense 
 transition was instantaneously effected, and I stood at the outside 
 of Saint Stephen's Chapel. Here a new spectacle presented 
 itself. There came rattling down Palace Yard a series of splendid 
 carriages, with mitres upon their panels, which were drawn by 
 horses superbly caparisoned, and conducted by portly charioteers, 
 placed upon lofty seats, with laced cocked hats upon their heads, 
 overtopping tremendous periwigs, while a profusion of golden 
 epaulettes depended from the shoulders of these pampered slaves. 
 When I saw them at a distance, I took these vehicles for the 
 carriages of the great, the noble, and princely of the land. 
 Judge, then, of my astonishment when, as they approached, and 
 drew up with an awful clatter at the portico of the House of 
 Lords, I beheld the twelve apostles dressed in lawn sleeves, toge- 
 ther with the early fathers of the church, with St. Paul at their 
 head. ' In sooth, gentlemen,' I exclaimed, ' you are amazingly 
 changed since I saw you last.' "* 
 
 Notwithstanding the facility he was supposed to 
 have attained, by practice, in the art of addressing 
 
 * Speech in Association, 1st December, 1827. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 381 
 
 popular assemblies, his unabated sense of the value of 
 careful preparation rendered him still very unwilling 
 to speak without it on any important occasion. When 
 he had not time fully to arrange beforehand his 
 thoughts and even his words, he preferred remaining 
 altogether silent ; and when he had elaborately pre- 
 pared what he meant to say, it was not easy to dis- 
 suade him from giving it utterance. A friend who 
 was about to accompany him on one occasion to a 
 meeting at Wexford, heard him, with some surprise 
 and apprehension, say, that he had selected for the 
 theme of his intended discourse, certain incidents in 
 the history of 1798. In vain he was reminded that 
 in that part of the country (where in point of fact the 
 struggle had been waged more fiercely and con- 
 tinuously than in any other), fearful recollections were 
 still fresh in many hearts; and that of the ruins 
 caused by that outburst of popular despair, the ashes 
 were not yet cold. In reply to some suggestion 
 that other topics might easily furnish appropriate 
 matter for a speech, he said it was all very well to 
 talk of extempore eloquence, but that he had not the 
 gift ; and that as he had not time to compose another 
 speech, he must use what he had prepared. But on 
 being at length reminded that an individual was cer- 
 
382 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tain to be at the meeting whose feelings were likely 
 to be deeply hurt by the course of observation he 
 designed to employ, he at once gave in ; and when 
 called upon, delivered a most effective harangue full 
 of argument and imagery, topics of the day, and 
 illustrations from history, but not a word of ; 98. 
 
 During the years 1826 and 1827, his contributions 
 to the New Monthly were, in addition to those 
 already noticed incidentally, — Calamities of the Bar, 
 Diary of a Barrister during the last Wexford 
 Assizes, and Sketches of Mr. Bellew and Lord Nor- 
 bury. The last of these is perhaps the best specimen 
 of his powers of humour ; but the subject was a 
 tempting one. No levity of ridicule, or intensity of 
 scorn, could be inappropriately applied to the man 
 who, for twenty years, profaned the judgment-seat 
 by the alternate exhibition of his qualities of butcher 
 and buffoon. Lord Norbury was not a man to be 
 caricatured ; for nothing could be half so grotesque 
 or undignified as a perfect portrait of him. Here is 
 a peep into his study : — 
 
 " In the centre of the room lies a heap of old papers, covered 
 with dnst, mingled with political pamphlets, written some forty 
 years ago, together with an odd volume of 1 The Irish Parliamen- 
 tary Debates,' recording the speeches of Mr. Sergeant Toler. 
 On the shelves, which are half empty, and exhibit a most ' beg- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHELL. 
 
 383 
 
 garly account/ there are some forty moth-eaten law books, and 
 by their side appear odd volumes of 'Peregrine Pickle/ and 
 ' Roderick Random/ with the ' Newgate Calendar' complete. A 
 couple of worn-out saddles, with rusty stirrups, hang from the 
 top of one of the bookcases, which are enveloped with cobwebs ; 
 and a long line of veteran boots, of mouldy leather, are arrayed 
 on the opposite side of the room. King William's picture stands 
 over the chimney-piece, with prints of Eclipse and other cele- 
 brated racers, from which his Lordship's politics and other pre- 
 dilections may be collected." 
 
 A scene in the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, 
 when presided over by his Lordship, is thus given : — 
 
 " His performances at Nisi Prius were greatly preferable, in 
 the decline of the Dublin stage, to any theatrical exhibition ; and 
 as he drew exceedingly full houses, Mr. Jones began to look 
 at him with some jealousy, and is said to have been advised by 
 Mr. Sergeant Goold, who had a share of 3565/. 5s. 9f <:«?. in 
 Crow-street theatre, to file a bill for an injunction against the 
 Chief Justice, for an infringement of his patent. Lord Norbury 
 was at the head of an excellent company. The spirit of the 
 judge extended itself naturally enough to the counsel ; and men 
 who were grave and considerate everywhere else, threw off all 
 soberness and propriety, and became infected with the habits of 
 the venerable manager of the court, the moment they entered the 
 Common Pleas. His principal performers were Messrs. Grady, 
 Wallace, O'Connell, and Goold, who instituted a sort of rivalry 
 in uproar, and played against each other. With such a judge, 
 and such auxiliaries to co-operate with him, some idea may be 
 formed of the attractions which were held out to that numerous 
 class in Dublin who have no fixed occupation, and by whom, in 
 the hope of laughing hurger away, the Pour Courts are frequented. 
 Long before Lord Norbury took his seat, the galleries were 
 densely filled with faces strangely expressive of idleness, hag- 
 
384 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 gardness, and humour. At about eleven his Lordship's registrar, 
 Mr. Peter Jackson, used to slide in, with an official leer ; and a 
 little after, Lord Norbury entered, with a grotesque waddle, and 
 having bowed to the Bar, cast his eyes round the court. . . 
 While the jury were swearing, he nodded familiarly to most of 
 them, occasionally observing, 'A most respectable man/ . . 
 The junior counsel having opened the pleadings, Lord Norbury 
 generally exclaimed, C A very promising young man! Jackson, 
 
 what is that young gentleman's name ?' ' Mr. , my Lord/ 
 
 * What ! of the County Cork ? I knew it by his air, sir. You 
 are a gentleman of very high pretensions, and I protest I have 
 never heard the many counts stated in a more dignified manner 
 in all my life. I hope I shall find you, like the paper before me, 
 a Daily Freeman in my court.' Having despatched the junior, 
 whom he was sure to make the luckless but not inappropriate 
 victim of his encomiums, he suffered the leading counsel to pro- 
 ceed. As he was considered to have a strong bias towards the 
 plaintiff, experimental attorneys brought in the Common Pleas 
 the very worst and most discreditable adventures in litigation. 
 The statement of the case, therefore, generally disclosed some 
 paltry ground of action, which, however, did not prevent his 
 Lordship exclaiming in the outset, 'A very important action, 
 indeed! If you make out your facts in evidence, Mr. Wal- 
 lace, there will be serious matter for the jury.' The evi- 
 dence was then produced; and the witnesses often consisted 
 of wretches whose emaciated and discoloured countenances 
 showed their want and depravity; while their watchful and 
 working eyes intimated that mixture of sagacity and humour by 
 which the lower orders of Irish attestators are distinguished. 
 They generally appeared in coats and breeches, the external de- 
 cency of which, as they were hired for the occasion, was 
 ludicrously contrasted with the ragged and filthy shirts, which 
 Mr. Henry Dean Grady, who was well acquainted with ' the inner 
 man' of an Irish witness, though not without repeated injunc- 
 tions to unbutton, at last compelled them to disclose. The cross- 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 385 
 
 examinations of this gentleman were admirable pieces of the most 
 serviceable and dexterous extravagance. He was the Scarron of 
 the bar ; and few of the most practised and skilful of the horde 
 of perjurers whom he was employed to encounter, could success- 
 fully withstand the exceedingly droll and comical scrutiny through 
 which he forced them to pass. He had a sort of • Hail fellow, 
 well met !' manner with every varlet, which enabled him to get 
 into his heart and core, until he had completely turned him inside 
 out, and excited such a spirit of mirth, that the knave whom he 
 was uncovering could not help joining in the merriment which 
 the detection of his villany had produced. Lord Norbury, how- 
 ever, when he saw Mr. Grady pushing the plaintiff to extremities, 
 used to come to his aid, and rally the broken recollections of the 
 witness. This interposition called the defendant's counsel into 
 stronger action, and they were as vigorously encountered by the 
 counsel on the other side. Interruption created remonstrance ; 
 remonstrance called forth retort ; retort generated sarcasm ; and 
 at length voices were raised so loud, and the blood of the 
 forensic combatants was so warmed, that a general scene of con- 
 fusion, to which Lord Norbury most amply contributed, took 
 place. The uproar gradually increased till it became tremendous ; 
 and to add to the tumult, a question of law, which threw Lord 
 Norbury's faculties into a complete chaos, was thrown into the 
 conflict. Mr. Grady and Mr. O'Connell shouted upon one side, 
 Mr. Wallace and Mr. Goold upon the other ; and at last, Lord 
 Norbury, the witnesses, the counsel, the parties, and the audience, 
 were engaged in one universal riot, in which it was difficult to 
 determine whether the laughter of the audience, the exclamations 
 of the parties, the protestations of the witnesses, the cries of 
 the counsel, or the bellowing of Lord Norbury, predominated. 
 At length, however, his lordship's superiority of lungs prevailed ; 
 and, like ^Eolus in his cavern (of whom, with his puffed cheeks 
 and inflamed visage, he would furnish a painter with a model,) he 
 shouted his stormy subjects into peace. These scenes re- 
 peatedly occurred during the trial, until at last both parties had 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
386 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 closed, and a new exhibition took place. This was Lord 
 Norbury's monologue, commonly called a charge. He usually 
 began by pronouncing the loftiest encomiums upon the party in 
 the action against whom he intended to advise the jury to give 
 their verdict. For this the audience were well prepared ; and 
 accordingly, after he had stated that the defendant ^was one of the 
 most honorable men alive, and that he knew his father, and loved 
 him, he suddenly came with a most singular emphasis, which he 
 accompanied with a strange shake of his wig, to the fatal 1 but,' 
 which made the audience, who were in expectation of it, burst 
 into a fit of laughter, while he proceeded to charge, as he almost 
 uniformly did, in the plaintiff's favour. He then entered more 
 deeply, as he said, into the case, and, flinging his judicial robe 
 half aside, and sometimes casting off his wig, started from his 
 seat, and threw off a wild harangue, in which neither law, method, 
 nor argument could be discovered. It generally consisted of 
 narratives connected with the history of his early life, which it 
 was impossible to associate with the subject — of jests from Joe 
 Miller, mixed with jokes of his own manufacture, and of sarcastic 
 allusions to any of the counsel who had endeavoured to check 
 him during the trial. He was exceedingly fond of quotations 
 from Milton and Shakspeare, which, however out of place, were 
 exceedingly well delivered, and evinced an excellent enunciation. 
 At the conclusion of his charge, he made some efforts to call the 
 attention of the jury to any leading incident which particularly 
 struck him, but what he meant it was not very easy to conjec- 
 ture ; and when he sat down, the whole performance exhibited a 
 mind which resembled a whirlpool of mud, in which law, facts, 
 arguments, and evidence were lost in unfathomable confusion." 
 
 The darker shades of Lord Norbury's character are 
 touched with a forbearing hand in the sketch before 
 us. The old man had been, with difficulty, induced 
 by the grant of an earldom, to quit the bench a short 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. 387 
 
 time before, and the good feeling of the writer doubt- 
 less shrunk from the task of calling up the ghastly 
 memories of his career as a judicial partisan, as he 
 tottered to the edge of the grave. This sentiment is 
 obvious in the concluding passage : — 
 
 "Not many days ago, on my return to town from a short 
 excursion in the country, as the evening drew on, I saw him 
 riding near a cemetery, while the chill breezes of October were 
 beginning to grow bitter, and the leaves were falling rapidly 
 from the old and withered trees in the adjoining churchyard. 
 The wind had an additional bleakness, and blew over the resi- 
 dences of the dead ; and although it imparted to his red and 
 manly cheeks a stronger flush, still, as it stirred his grey locks, it 
 seemed, with its wintry murmurs, to whisper to the old man a 
 funereal admonition. He appeared, as he urged on his horse and 
 tried to hurry from so dismal a scene, to shrink and huddle him- 
 self from the blast. In anticipation of an event which cannot be 
 remote (while I forgot all his political errors, and only remem- 
 bered how he had beguiled a tedious hour, and set the Four Courts 
 in a roar), I could not help muttering, as I passed him, with some 
 feeling of regret, 1 Alas, poor Yorick V " 
 
 END OF VOL I. 
 
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