Thomas Leland (1722-85)

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Bibliographical details
All the Orations of Demosthenes, pronounced to excite the Athenians against Philip King of Macedon. Translated into English, digested and connected, so as to form a regular history of the progress of the Macedonian power: with notes historical and critical. By Thomas Leland (Dublin: printed by William Sleater 1756), xxiii, 172pp.., pl., map., 4o.; and Do. [2nd edn., corr.] (London: W. Johnston 1757), xlviii, 324pp., 8o. [Vol I: Olynthiacs i-iii, Philippics i-iv and the speeches “De pace”, “De Chersoneso”, and “In Philippi epistolam”. Vol. 2: The Orations of Demosthenes, on occasions of public deliberation ... to which is added, the oration of Dinarchus against Demosthenes - “De classibus”, “Pro Megalopolitis”, “De Rhodiorum libertate”, “De republica ordinanda”, “De Halonneso” and “De foedere Alexandreo”. Vol. 3: The Orations of Æschines and Demosthenes on the Crown].

Further editions: All the Orations of Demosthenes [ ...; &c.] [2nd edn., corr.] (London: W. Johnston 1770, 1777, 1802, 1804, 1806, 1814, 1819, 1829, 1830); and Do., as The Orations of Demosthenes. Pronounced to excite the Athenians against Philip, King of Macedon; and on occasions of public deliberation. Translated by Thomas Leland [... &c.] (London: Henry G. Bohn 1851), vi, 189pp., 8o. NOTE publication history: Orations of Demostenes, first issued: Vol. 1 (Dublin & London 1756); Vol. 2 (London 1760). both in 4o.; Vol. 3 (London 1770), 8o. [see J. W. Moss, Manual of classical bibliography, 1837, Vol. I, p388; cited in COPAC).

A Dissertation on the Principles of Human Eloquence. With particular regard to the style and composition of the New Testament. In which the observations on this subject by the ... Bishop of Gloucester [W. Warburton] in his discourse on the doctrine of Grace, are ... considered. Being the substance of several letters, &c. L.P. [2nd edn., corr. by author] to which is added a Letter to ... T[homas] L[eland], in which the dissertation is criticised; also, an answer to the above letter, &c. (Dublin 1765), 12o.

The History of the life and reign of Philip King of Macedon ; the father of Alexander [2nd edn.], 2 vols. in 1 (London: Printed by Thomas Harrison for W. Johnston [...] MDCCLXI [1761]), ill., map, port., 4o.

The History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II : with a preliminary discourse on the antient state of that Kingdom ( London: J. Nourse; T. Longman & G. Robinson; J. Johnson MDCCLXXIII [1773]), 3 vols. 4o., and Do. [another edn.], 3 vols. (Dublin: R. Marchbank, for R. Moncrieffe in Capel-Street 1773, rep. 1774), 4o.; and Do. [another edn.] (Cork: printed by D. Donnoghue 1775-76). [Copy in Marsh’s Library.] Also, French trans. 1779.

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Criticism
There is a notice on Leland in James Wills, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen [1839-1847; rep. edn.] (Wiltshire: Thoemmes Press 1997), 2,880pp. [also available in Internet Library online; accessed 15.11.2009.]

Note: The Annual Register, or a view of the History, Politicks, and literature for the year 1773 (London: J Dodsey / Pall Mall 1773), contains a contemporary review of 3 volume Leland’s History of Ireland. (Edmund Burke edited the Journal single-handedly up to 1765.)

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Commentary
Charles O’Conor [q.v.]: O’Conor thanks George Faulkner for his introduction to Leland, with complimentary phrases on Leland as being one who ‘does honour to this country by their ability as well as their rank’ and one who has ‘thrown away the weeds of spiritual hatred’. (25 Sept. 1766; Letters of Charles O’Conor, ed. Ward & Ward, 1988, p.186.)

Dr [Samuel] Parr: ‘Of Leland, my opinion is not founded upon hearsay evidence, nor is it determined solely by the great authority of Dr Johnson [in Boswell’s Life], who always mentioned Leland with cordial regard and marked respect. It might, perhaps, be invidious for me to hazard a favourable decision upon the History of Ireland, because the merits of that work have been disputed by critics. But I may with confidence appeal to writings which have long contributed to public amusement, and have often been honoured by public approbation; to the life of Philip, and to the translation of Demosthenes; to the judicious dissertation upon eloquence, and to the spirited defence of that dissertation.’ (Quoted in James Wills, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen [1839-1847; rep. edn.], Wiltshire: Thoemmes Press 1997, Internet Library online; accessed 15.11.2009.)

James Wills, The Irish Nation, Its History and Biography [orig. 1839-1847]: ‘[…] Such advice [presumably referring to Charles O’Conor and others who sought to moderate his views on Gaelic Ireland], however urged, he steadily rejected; and the consequence is, that his work does not meet the wants of any section of the public. But it may be safely recommended to the sober-minded student of history as the History of Ireland, which may be studied with advantage. We should not here say so much, even though deeply indebted to Dr Leland, were it not for the flippancy with which his work is commonly noticed by the collectors of biographical notices. The comparatively scanty notice which he has taken of the more ancient history of Ireland has been charged as a fault. We cannot concur in such a charge. The antiquarian had not cleared the ground for the historian; and the collection of myths which, in Dr Leland’s time, would have been the only early history possible, would be valueless to the modern student.’ [Here Wills quotes Dr. Parr, as supra.]

James Wills (The Irish Nation, Its History and Biography [1839-1847] - cont.: ‘These works had been before the public, and the reputation of Dr Leland, both as a writer and as a very highly admired preacher in Dublin, had been fully established when Lord Townsend came over as Lord-Lieutenant. As he was fully informed as to the merits and public character of Leland, there was as usual a very considerable though not very well-founded expectation of his immediate preferment. This was of course owing to the public ignorance of the political principle then adopted in the disposal of preferment. The promotion of the interests of the existing Government by the disposal of its patron- age, to a certain extent essential to the existence of a government, is carried to an extreme when made the ground of ecclesiastical promotion. It necessarily led to the evil of promoting Englishmen to the government of the Irish Church a great injustice for which there was no excusable motive. Not that the actual selections were in themselves objectionable, but that the not inferior talent, wisdom, learning, and piety of Ireland were passed over with neglect. The expectations of Leland’s admirers expectations in which he was probably too wise to share were disappointed. He could not without discredit be wholly neglected, and thus he obtained some small preferments which could be held with his fellowship. The prebend of Rathmichael, with the vicarage of Bray, was conferred upon him in 1768.’ (See Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen [rep. edn.], Wiltshire: Thoemmes Press 1997, online; also cited under Wills, q.v..)

Thomas Russell: Russell took notes from Leland’s History in his Journal: ‘Note the people of Wicklow troublesome from their vicinity to the capital and strength of their country’ (Leland, History, 1773., Vol. 2, p.16); He also noted details in Leland about the balance of Catholics and Protestants in the Irish parliament during the viceroyalty of Strafford, remarking: ‘Strafford balances the parties and by introducing officers, &c., could make [57] either party preponderate. It does not appear that the Catholicks made any attempt to change the establish’d religion.’ (See in C. J. Woods, ed., Journals and Memoirs of Thomas Russell (Dublin: IAP 1992, pp.57-58.)

Daniel O’Connell, Memoir on Ireland Native and Saxon (Dublin: James Duffy 1844), quotes extensively from Leland’s seemingly inadvertent revelation of the cruelty of the English in Ireland - citing, instance, the refusal of Phelim O’Neill to save his life by perjury: ‘“Yet,” says Leland, “in the northern province which had been the great scene of barbarity, not one was brought to justice but Sir Phelim O’Nial” (Leland, vol. III, p.394)’. O’Connell argues: ‘The remark which Leland makes upon there being but one case in the northern province, would have assumed quite a different shape if he had been fair or candid. He should have said that when this active, energetic, and ambulatory tribunal of blood could find but one case in all Ulster, and when that one was the case of Sir Phelim O’Neill; and as Ulster was the province the most deeply and extensively charged with inhumanity and murder, it followed inevitably that the charges were enormously exaggerated even against the people of Ulster; as we have in fact seen they were.’ (O’Connell, op. cit., 1844, p.323.)

Thomas Mooney, History of Ireland [3rd Edn.] (Boston 1853), Vol.I: ‘Dr. Thomas Leland was born in Dublin, 1722. He was educated in the school of Dr. Sheridan, so famous for giving brilliant scholars to the world. He became a fellow of Trinity College, and a clergyman of the established church. On the lieutenancy of Lord Townsend, in Ireland, 1768, he was made castle chaplain to that nobleman. Having gathered some materials for a history of Ireland, he ventured to give them to the world. From the slanders of Cambrensis, Cox, Temple, and other defamers of his country, he drew his supplies. To vilify the creed of his fathers seemed to be his chief object, for he was a parson of that “Establishment” which had possessed itself of the property of the believers in the old creed; and he was the pampered tool of that Orange faction which so often steeped his country in its bravest blood. His history covers the period from the reign of Henry the Second, 1172, to that of William the Third, 1691. Dr. Johnson said of him that “he began his history of Ireland too late,” for he despatched two thousand years of ancient Irish history in a few pages of “introduction.” Plowden says of him, “The late Dr. Ireland is well known to have written his history of Ireland for a bishopric, which he never attained.” He died in 1785.' (p.121; available online; accessed 06.05.2024.)

Father Paul Walsh, Irish Men of Learning, ed., Colm Ó Lochlainn (Fleet St. Dublin: Three Candles 1947). p. 21, On the same page [of H. I.19, TCD; Gwynn Cat. No. 1293] occurs the name of Dáibhidh Ó Duibhgennáin, ‘David Duiginan’ [sic], ho counted the leaves of the manuscript as above stated. The note made by him would go to show that the volume was in his custody, perhaps during the period 1652-66. It may have been through David that Roderick O’Flaherty got possession of it. O’Flaherty, author of Ogygia and A Chorographical description of West Connacht, made numerous entries in it. Ó Duigenan was in the O’Flaherty country in 1651, and would have been acquainted with Roderick, who survived until about 1717. O’Flaherty was obliged to sell his manuscripts through poverty. Thomas Molyneux was ‘his ill fortune has stripped him of these as well as his other goods.’ Rev. John Conry is recorded as the next possessor of the book. In the year 1766 certain volumes which had been the property of Dr John Fergus (died 1761) were purchased by Dr Thomas Leland for TCD, among then that with which we are here concerned, that containing the Annals of Ulster, H.I.9, and an autograph of portion of the Annals of the Four Masters, H.2.II.

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W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), In an effort to improve the standard of scholarship the Board of the College placed two Junior Fellows, Thomas Leland and John Stokes, in charge of the press in 1747 to publish a series of classical authors which would reflect credit on the university. Their two volume edition of Demosthenes’ speeches against Philip of Macedon (1754) and the first vol. of Leland’s translation of [Speeches of] Demosthenes (1756) were respectable works of scholarship. But for some reason Leland published his other classical works in London, and the standard of the press relapsed into mediocrity [54] Further: Thomas Leland’s speeches of Demosthenes and Aeschines (1756-1760), reprinted ten times in the following 95 years [?165]; Leland’s edition of Demosthenes’ Philippics and Olynthiacs (1754), with John Stokes, internationally well received. [166] On eighteen-century interest in Demosthenes, see U Schindel, Demosthenes im 18. Jahrundert (Munich 1963). [179; cont.].

W. B. Stanford (Ireland and the Classical Tradition, IAP 1976; 1984) - cont.: His nephew John Walker edited 7 vols. edition of Livy (1797-1813) [166]; Further: Both Leland and Francis, in editing Demosthenes, emphasised the note of liberty. Francis wrote of the Athenians as believing that ‘Liberty is their sole Good, and the Preservation of it is the sole Object of their Attention’. In the first sentence of his translation of Demosthenes orations against Philip (Philippics, 1754), Leland established the note of oratory to be found in Grattan and Curran, ‘To animate a people renowned for justice, humanity, and valour, yet in many instances, degenerate and corrupted; to warn them, of the dangers of luxury, treachery and bribery; of the ambition and perfidy of a powerful foreign enemy; to recall the glory of their ancestors to their thoughts; and to inspire them with resolution, vigour, and unanimity; to correct abuses, to restore discipline, to revive and enforce the generous sentiments of patriotism and public spirit, — These were the great purposes for which the Orations were originally pronounced.’ (Introduction) Leland went on to publish another popular book, his History of the Life and Reign of Philip, King of Macedon (1758), which remained the standard work as being a judicious study of a complex subject. A summary sentence reads, ‘If he was unjust, he was like Caesar, unjust for the sake of Empire.’ [210; cont.]

W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984) - cont. Stanford later argues again that Leland and Lawson deserve credit in the history of Irish politics for their effective eulogies of freedom. [214]. See also under Lawson, q.v. Further, Leland succeeded Lawson as professor of Oratory in 1759, and published his lectures — as Lawson had — in 1765. He was primarily concerned with refuting a recent attack on rhetoric, as shown by the title, A dissertation on the Principles of Human Eloquence, with Particular Regard to the Style and composition of the New Testament, in which the Observations by the Lord Bishop of Gloucester, in his Discourses on the Doctrine of Grace, are Distinctly Considered. It includes an eloquent passage on civil liberty, ‘An Asiatic is born in a country of despotism. He has from his infancy been taught that the sum of his duty is to pay unlimited obedience to his Master … let him be a witness to the noble effects of civil liberty; and his sentiments and language shall be totally changed … he shall regard LEONIDAS at the head of his little band of Spartans, as [a su]bject more truly admirable, grand and magnificent[..]’ [211] Stanford lists as students exposes to Lawson and Leland Burke (entered 1714), Flood (1747), Grattan (1763), and Curran (1767) [and Walter Hussey Burgh].

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Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor-Ghael: Studies in The Idea of Irish Nationality, its Development and Literary Expression prior to the Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins 1986): Thomas Leland joined in the general attack on Macpherson in his An Examination of the Arguments contained in a late Introduction to the History of the Antient Irish and Scots (Dublin 1772) [402]. Further, Thomas Leland, successful author of a life of Philip of Macedonia; in him O’Conor supposed he found another vehicle. Exhorted by O’Conor and by Burke, and supplied with MSS by these as well as Lord Charlemont, he began preparing in 1769. O’Conor called on Curry to suspend his work on an answer to Warner, but Leland’s book, appearing in 1771 [sic], shattered his hopes when it came down firmly on the side of Temple’s account of 1641 with all the gory details ultimately based on the questionable depositions at TCD. In The History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II with a preliminary discourse on the ancient state of that kingdom, 3 vols. (Dublin 1772) [?sic], Leland did pretend [Leerssen remarks] to some impartiality, and begged off with an apologetic assertion that it was difficult or impossible to write of the events ‘without offending some, or all, of those discordant parties. Curry rushed into print with a pamphlet, followed by his Historical and critical review of the civil wars in Ireland (rep. Dublin 1793), and Burke added his condemnation; but Hume, who had mitigated his treatment of the 1641 rebellion in the 1770 ed. of his History of England, became harsher in his 1778 revision.

Bibl. [Leerssen, 1986], See Walter D. Love, ‘Edmund Burke and an Irish historiographical controversy’, in History and Theory, 2 (1962), 180-198; Love, ‘Charles O’Conor of Belanagare and Thomas Leland’s “philosophical” history of Ireland’, in Irish historical studies 13 (1962-3), p.1-25; and David Berman, ‘David Hume on the 1641 rebellion in Ireland’, Studies 65 (1976), pp.101-112. Note that Leerssen, ftn.406, suggests that it was Leland’s History, not a generalised suspicion that O’Conor and Curry were ‘overstating their claim’, as Berman puts it, that caused the revision in his attitude] Leerssen calls Leland’s superficial ‘impartiality’ an uncomfortable vacillating between conflicting claims rather than a transcendence of their conflict, quoting as a typical passage, ‘In a word, it appears from all their legal institutions yet discovered, that the Irish, in their state of greatest composure, were indeed by no means barbarous, but far from that civility which their enthusiastic admirers describe as their peculiar characteristic’ (vol. 1, xxxviii) [390].

Joseph Th. Leerssen (Mere Irish & Fíor-Ghael: Studies in The Idea of Irish Nationality, its Development and Literary Expression prior to the Nineteenth Century, 1986) - further: Sylvester O’Halloran reacted to Leland’s History with his Ierne Defended, subtitled ‘A candid refutation, &c.’ [404; see O’Halloran, q.v.]. [Page refs. to Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael, 1986.] FURTHER, Dr. Johnson next encouraged O’Conor to take up a history of Ireland dealing with the period before Thomas Leland’s. Johnson wrote, ‘Leland begins his history too late, the ages which demand an exact enquiry are those times (for such there were) when Ireland was the school of the west, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature. If you could give a history, however imperfect, of the Irish nation, from its conversion to Christianity to the invasion from England, you would amplify knowledge with new views and new objects. Set about it, therefore, if you can, do what you can easily do without anxious exactness. Lay the foundation and leave the superstructure to others.’ (Johnson to O’Conor, 19 May 1777; also in Boswell.) [Leerssen, op. cit.]

Seamus Deane [regarding the Irish historical novel]: ‘Thomas Leland, with his curious “first” historical novel Longsword, which many regarded then as no less fictional than his History of Ireland, certainly has a claim to priority in chronological terms, although that is not at all the same as being ‘first’ in the production of the genre. For instance, the “philosophical history” of Ireland which many hoped Leland would write, would have ben the first of its kind in Ireland, already pioneered elsewhere by Voltaire and Hume.The disappointment that followed on the publication of Leland’s work was marked, because the writing of history in Ireland, especially by those who wrote to defend the policies of extermination and dispossession, was so clearly an exercise in propaganda, that some more impartial and serene survey was much hoped for. History and, even more particularly, antiquarianism remained a battleground; but the most common accusation among historians was that their predecessors or colleagues in the profession had produced fiction. The line of division between history and fiction is often invisible; [...]’ (Foreword, Rolf Loeber & Magda Loeber, A Guide to Irish Fiction, 1650-1900, Dublin: Four Courts Press 2006, p.xx.)

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References

Dictionary of National Biography, calls him an intimate of the Caulfeild family at Marino; resided at 18 Clare St., Dublin; a friend of Burke; portrait by Reynolds; his History too impartial to be accepted by either of the parties. SEE also Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), vol. II, p.372-74.

Charles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols., 1876-78), selects ‘the Battle of Aughrim’ (from History); ‘Education of Alexander’; ‘On the Sublimity of Composition’ [‘It can scarcely be controverted, I presume that some subjects are in themselves intrinsically and essentially greater and more elevated than others, and that whenever they are proposed to the mind they must be received with superior emotion, reverence, awe, or terror, naturally or instinctively, or at least independent of any casual association of ideas. We call the ocean a grander subject than a rivulet, because it strikes the sense and imagination more forcibly. the serious actions and engagements of human life are really greater objects than its amusements. A battle is still a more awful subject than any of the calmer occupations of social life. And the works and dispensations of the Deity still more august and awful than the most striking actions of the creature … There is no grander an more awful subject on which a writer can be employed than that of the Deity executing his justice publicly and sensibly on his offending creatures.’ Leland here cites the Alcoran’s account of the destruction of the Ethiopians by birds and stones, and claims the treatment is ‘not sufficiently exalted’.]

Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), contains no excerpt, but remarks in a note to Charles Gavan Duffy’s ballad-poem about the Rebellion of 1641, annotating the lines from “The Muster of the North” (‘Pity! no, no, you dare not priest ... preach to us now that godless creed - the murderer’s blood to spare’). He continues: ‘Leland, the Protestant historian, states that the Catholic priests labored zealously to moderate the excesses of war’ and frequently protected the English by concealing them in their places of worship and even under their altars.’ He proceeds to annotate the place-name “Gobbin” thus: ‘the scene of the massacre of the unoffending inhabitants of Island Magee by the garrison of Carrickfergus.’

Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput 1985), calls him the prob. son of non-conformist minister who had written View of the Principal Deistic Writers (1754-56); ed. TCD, ordained 1748; Professor of Oratory, 1763, and vicar of Bray, 1768; The Principles of Human Eloquence (1764), followed by his History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II, 3 vols. (Dublin and London 1773); found by all sides to suffer from gross impartiality and much attacked, but now a recognised Irish historical classic. [No extracts in JMC.]

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Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day Co. 1991), Vol. 1, notes at 687 [In Longsword, Earl of Salisbury (1765), Thomas Leland wrote what has been claimed as the first historical novel in English [...] quaintly accoutred present [...] such novels merge easily into sentimental or gothic fiction, Ian Campbell Ross, ed.]; 944 [bibl. note to Daniel O’Connell’s Speech in defence of William Magee of Evening Post, ‘let me read for you two passages from Doctor Leland’s History of Ireland (Dublin: Marchbank 1773): ‘Anno 1574 — A solemn peace and concord was made between the Earl of Essex and Felim O’Nial. However, at a feast, wherein the Earl entertained that chieftain, and at the end of their good cheer, O’Nial, with his wife, were seized; their friends, who attended, were put to the sword before their faces. Felim, together with his wife and brother, were conveyed to Dublin, where they were CUT UP IN QUARTERS’ [n.p.]. O’Connell continues: ‘How would you this fact described? In what ladylike terms is the future historians to mention this savage and brutal massacre’]; 945n. [further from Leland on Smerick, ‘garrison was butchered in cold blood; nor is it without pain, that we find a service so horrid and detestable committed to Sir Walter Raleigh, Vol. 2, p.283; quotation essentially accurate]; 1291 [Quoting Dr. Johnson writing to Charles O’Conor: ‘Dr Leland began his history too late, &c.’].

Blackwell’s Rare Books (Cat. B119): Among other translations of Demosthenes, Several Orations ... to Encourage the Greeks to oppose the exorbitant power of Philip of Macedon. English’d from the Greek by several hands. To which is prefixed the Historical Preface of Monsieur Tourreil. (Jacob Tonsin 1702), ed. by John Somers, Baron Somers, who translated the prefac of Jacques de Torreil; contribs. by Earl of Peterborough, Lord Lansdowne, Earl Stanhope, et al.

De Burca Books (Cat. 18) lists The History of Ireland, From the Invasion of Henry II, 3 vols. (1773; [Dublin: Marchbank 1774]). Belfast Linenhall Library holds History of Ireland (1773).

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Notes
Longsworth (1762): In 1762, three years before Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, Thomas Leland published Longsword, a medieval romance filled with mystery, dark dungeons, shipwrecks, abducted damsels, evil monks, and heartless villains. Longsword has long deserved its rightful place at the beginning of any study of Gothic literature, but until now it has been available only in expensive hardcover and facsimile editions. The Whitlock Publishing edition features an accurate first-edition text as well as an introduction, notes, bibliography and contemporary reviews that situate the work within its historical, literary, and critical contexts. [See Whitlock Publ. website online.]

Maurice Craig, Irish Bookbindings (1976), takes a bound copy of Thomas Leland’s All the Orations of Demostenes (Dublin University Press 1756), for in a Plate 11 (p.14). The volume, taken from the collection of Lady Celia Milnes-Coates, formerly belonging to the famous collector Richard Monckton Milies. Another copy known to be have been ded. to Earl of Charlemont, has disappeared along with most of Charlemont’s books.

Bibliography variants: The Principles of Human Eloquence (1764) [?DIW]; History of Ireland (1772) [?Leerssen].

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