Richard Lalor Sheil (1791-1851)
Life
[Richard Sheil - becoming Richard Lalor Sheil on marrying a widow née Lalor, 1830] b. 17 Aug. 1791, Bellevue House, Drumdowney, Co. Kilkenny [nr. Waterford]; eldest son of Edward Sheil and Catherine MacCarthy [of Spring Hse., Tipperary], his father being a successful wine merchant who purchased Bellevue; br. Sir Justin Sheil; ed. in Kensington (London) under tutelage of an émigre, M. de Broglie; he afterwards at Stoneyhurst, 1804-07; entered TCD 1807; incommoded by his fathers bankruptcy in 1807, but funded by a relative of his mother; spoke for Catholic Emancipation at the Historical Society, 1809; grad. BA 1811; entered Lincolns Inn, Nov. 1811 [1811-17 DIH; vars. 1813, and 1814 ODNB]; while studying for the bar, Sheil lived in London with his uncle Richard Sheil; he returned to Ireland, 1813; and became a founding mbr. of the Catholic Board, 1813; he addressed the Board opposing a motion to reprobate securities as a condition of emancipation, on 3 Dec. 1813; attracted praise of Daniel OConnell but protested at OConnells refusal of concessions to Protestant supporters (i.e., conditional emancipation), though later joining him whole-heartedly in the Catholic Emancipation movement; opposed OConnell on the Veto question, 1813-15; Sheil turned to writing for the stage to alleviate draught of family finances; earned £2,000 from his dramatic writings commencing with Adelaide, or the Emigrants (Theatre Royal, Dublin, 1814), a five-act tragedy in verse concerning French nobility fleeing the Revolution, and purportedly written for Miss ONeil in the title role; played successfully at Crow Street, Theatre Royal (Dublin 19 Fen. 1814); afterwards, less successfully, at Covent Garden, 23 May 1816; bar. 1814 |
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m. Miss OHaloran [OHalloran], niece of Master of the Rolls, 1814; travelled with her to London for the premier of his next play, The Apostate (Covent Garden, 3 May 1817), concerning the fate of the Moors in Spain, also in verse; with Macready, Young, Kemble, and Miss ONeil; received £300 from John Murray for the copyright; followed its success with Bellamira, or the Fall of Tunis (Covent Gdn., 1818), and Evadne, or the Statue (Covent-Garden, London [Theatre Royal] 10 Feb. 1819), adapted James Shirleys The Traitor [Traitor], again successfully staged; Sheil visited Paris, Sept. 1821, and met the actor Talma, about whom he would write in the New Monthly Magazine (July 1822); a new play The Huguenot was postponed due to the marriage of Miss ONeill, and later staged without success in 1822; a play, Montoni (3 May 1820), failed and was withdrawn after three nights; he assisted John Banim with Damon and Pythias (Covent Garden, 1821), drawing £100 from the proceeds, and making extensive claims to authorship in the published version - alway disputed on Banims part and leading to a breach; his critical sketch of OConnell drew an unflattering retort (iambic rhapsodist); commencing his celebrated Sketches of the Celebrities of the Irish Bar in the New Monthly Magazine (ed. Thomas Campbell, on advice of his associate W. H. Curran [son of J. P. Curran], from 1822; joined with OConnell in congratulating Lord Wellesley on his appt. to Lord Lieutenancy (Viceroy) of Ireland, 1 Jan. 1822; suffered the death of his wife (former Miss OHallaran), 1822; disappointed by the Wellesley administration, he joined with OConnell in founding fnd. Catholic Association with Daniel, 12 May 1823; wrote a petition to both houses setting forth abuses of the Irish administration which was presented by Brougham, and aspersed by Peel as being more in the declamatory style of a condemned tragedy than of a grave representation to the Legislature - to which Sheil retorted with an allusion to Peels plebeian arrogance; |
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travelled from county to county in Ireland making Emancipation speeches and promulgating the idea of the Catholic rent to support the movement; adapted Massingers Fatal Dowry for the modern stage (Drury Lane, 1824), and suffered its withdrawal through the illness of Macready; protested in London with OConnell and the OGorman Mahon, against a Bill to suppress the Catholic Association; Catholice Relief Bill passed by Commons, 10 May 1825, but defeated in the Lords through the influence of the Duke of York; criticised for making rhetorical and unproven representations against the Irish administration before committees of both Houses; following the suppression of the Catholic Association, he was complicit with OConnell in establishing multiple meetings throughout the country in lieu of the former weekly meetings in Dublin; travelled extensively in Ireland in support of the new policy and practice; again visited France, Sept. 1826 and recruited Abbé Genoude, editor of LÉtoile for the Catholic cause in Ireland and contributed anonymously to the paper; an indictment for libel against him and Michael Staunton, proprietor of the Morning Register, was not proceeded with by George Canning, PM, who had succeeded Lord Liverpool in the interim, 1827; Sheil differed with OConnells in the latters determination to oppose each representative of the adminstration, feeling due gratitude to Wellington for his agreement to repeal the Test Act; strenuously opposed Vesey Fitzgeralds candidacy in the Clare election which was won by OConnell - unforeseeably at the time; Sheil purchased a small freehold in Kent in order to address a hostile Protestant audience at Penenden Heath, 24 Oct. 1829; admired for his courage in face of opposition and made the recipient of dinner in his honour, at the London Tavern, 3 Nov.; moved the dissolution of the Catholic Association when a speech from the throne held out promise of Catholic Emancipation; |
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accepted brief from Lord George Beresford in effort to recover his seat in Co. Waterford, and aspersed by Catholics as a decoy duck; admitted to the Inner Bar, Aug. 1830 - thus taking silk, 1830; he adopted the name of Lalor on marrying a widow whose father, Lalor of Crenagh, Co. Tipperary, bequeathed her a property, 1830; independent of means, he now accepted an invitation to contest the Louth seat, and was ignominiously defeated at the ballot, 1830; accepted the seat of Melbourne [err. Milborne] Port in Dorset from Marquis of Angelsey; delivered maiden speech on Second Reading of the Reform Bill, 21 March 1831; in parliament he held to his practice of avoiding ex tempore speaking; secured the seats of Melbourne and Louth seat, and chose to sit for Louth, 1831; recommended the implementation of the Poor Law system in Ireland; reluctantly supported the Repeal Association established by OConnell; served on the Select Committee on Dramatic Literature, 1831-32, chaired by [Lord] Edward Bulwer Lytton, resulting in the Act of 1832 which abolished the theatrical monopoly associated with the Royal Charter; he was returned unopposed as the Repeal MP Tipperary in the Reformed Parliament, Jan. 1833, and retained the seat 1833-41 [var. 1832 CAB]; was rumoured to have advised the Govt. not to abate any part of the Suppression of Disturbances Act of 1833, though publicly voting against it - Lord Althorp admitting the matter under questioning in Parliament from OConnell; considered the Irish question solved with appt. of Thomas Drummond as Irish Secretary of State, and turned his attention to foreign policy, speaking on the Eastern question, 17 March 1834 - seeing himself as a gentleman of the empire at large (in Grattans phrase), but nevertheless assisted OConnell at Lichfield House Compact with Whigs against Conservative ministry of Robert Peel, 1835; a committee of the House of Commons acquitted him of the of double dealing arising from the Disturbances Bill and Act [1835]; he opposed the Irish Corporation Bill, speaking in reply to Lord Stanley, 1836; also opposed the appt. of Lord Londonderry to ambassadorship to Russia, 1839; he was returned for Tipperary at general election on death of William IV; |
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appt. Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital and later accepted office of Vice-President Board of Trade in the ministerial revisions of 1839 [var. 1838-41 ODNB]; supported Lord Russells motion of confidence in the Irish adminstration, April 1839, and won OConnells grudging praise for a speech that was admirable, argumentative and brilliant; opposed Repeal of the Union, 1840, since he though the House of Commons would not concede it; Judge Advocate[-General], 1841; defended John OConnell in his state trial - the so-called Monster Trials - of 1844, exposing the system of the packed jury, and bringing forward as an example the trial of Charles Gavan Duffy for article in Belfast Vindicator; did not trust Louth to re-elect him, and accepted seat for Dungarvan, Co. Wicklow instead, 1841; made important speeches on the Corn Laws, 1842; the Repeal of the Union, 1843, and the Orange Lodges and Church of Ireland, 1839; also Turkish Treaties, 1843, and Vote by Ballot, 1843; appt. Chairman of Royal Commission [Income Tax], 1845; gave qualified support to the Irish provincial Colleges Bill - the so-called ‘Godless colleges - of 1845; stated his regret that Trinity College, Dublin, failed to take advantage of the opportunity to establish chairs and fellowships for Catholics as well as Protestants; travelled to Madeira in the hope of finding health for his son, and and could not be induced to leave the island at his death, returning to England only in 1846 to address the Irish Arms Bill; appt. Master of the Mint on accession of Lord John Russell, 1846-50, giving rise to controversy when he omitted to have the florin coin of 1849 stamped with Fidei Defensatrix Dei Gratia (viz., the godless florin) - and disclaimed sectarian motivation; his dismay and inaction at the events of the Irish famine attracted the epithet splendid phantom; re-elected with a small majority by Dungarvin, 1849 - opposed by the Conservatives and the Repeal Movement alike; |
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[...] To Florence, therefore, he proceeded, full of hope that the fine climate would renew his failing health, and looking on his appointment as a dignified close to his public career. The suicide of Mr. Power, son of Mr. Shells second wife (his first had been Miss OHallaran, niece of Sir William MMahon, Master of the Rolls in Ireland), gave him such a shock as to induce an attack of gout in the stomach, of which he died. His remains were conveyed to Ireland in a British ship-ofwar, and were interred at Long Orchard, four miles from Templemore, in the County of Tipperary. (R. Shelton MacKenzie, Memoir of Mr. Sheil, prefixed to Sketches of the Irish Bar, NY: Kenedy 1854, p.11.) |
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appt. ambassador to the court of Tuscany, Florance, 1850; made last visit to Ireland, Nov. 1850; reached Florence, Jan. 1850; d. 25 May, 1851, following an acute attack of gout; bur. Long Orchard, Tipperary, having been conveyed to Ireland by a British warship; his Sketches Legal and Political [otherwise, Sketches of the Irish Bar], orig. contributed to New Monthly with W. H. Curran, were collected posthumously, and issue with notes by M. W. Savage in 1855; his Speeches were ed. with memoir by T. MacNevin in 1847; also Memoir and Speeches of Richard Lalor Sheil, ed. by William Torrens McCullagh, 2 vols. (1855). CAB ODNB JMC PI NCBE DIB RAF DIW DIH FDA OCIL |
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Works
Plays |
- Adelaide; or, The Emigrants (Dublin: Coyne 1814), 8°; Do., as. Adelaide: A Tragedy, in five acts, performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent Garden [2nd edn.] (London: London: Printed for Henry Colburn, 1816), 72pp., 8°.
- The Apostate: A Tragedy, in five acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden (London: J. Murray 1817), x, 83, [2]pp.; 21cm. [Copies at Cambridge UL, Edinburgh UL, V&A Libraries, et al.]; Do. [3rd edn.] (1817), and Do. [5th edn.] (London 1818), 8°.
- Bellamira; or, The Fall of Tunis. A Tragedy, in five acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden (London: J. Murray 1818), xii, 76pp.;, and Do. [2nd & 3rd edns.] (London: John Murray 1818), pp. xii, 76 [78], 8°. [ 21cm.].
- Evadne; or, The Statue: A Tragedy in five acts (London: John Murray 1819), iii, 62, 8°/21cm. [The plot of this piece is borrowed ... from The Traytor, a tragedy by Shirley]; Do. [2nd & 3rd edns.] (London: John Murray [printed by W. Clowes 1819), vi, 86pp.; [The author has employed a part of the fable of Shirleys Traytor in the construction of his plot, Pref.] [see note]; Do., as. Evadne, or, The Statue: a tragedy, by R. Sheil; with prefatory remarks [Oxberrys Edition] (London: Published for the Proprietors by W. Simpkin, and R. Marshall, 1821), iii, 62, iipp., ill. [port.], 18cm. [see note]; Do. [5th edn.] (London 1819), 21cm.; Do. [another edn.] The British drama (London: John Dicks 1870).
- with John Banim, Damon and Pythias (London: John Warren, Old Bond-street 1821), viii, 70pp., [verse]; 8°/22cm. [This tragedy underwent a most considerable change in Mr. Sheils hands, after having been originally written. - prelim. page.; but see Carletons remarks, infra].
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- Bellamira; or, The Fall of Tunis (London: John Murray, 1817), [vi], 82, 74, [vi], 78, [2], viii, 56, xii, 76, [2], vi, [4], 78, vi, 67, [iv], 69pp. [22cm.] - printed with R. C. Maturins Bertram, or, The Castle of St. Aldobrand and other works by C. E. Walker [Wallace], Horace Twiss, John Howard Payne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Hart Milman, Henry Summersett.
- Three Tragedies (London: [John Murray] 1818), 82, xii, 76, x, 83pp. [23cm.] [Bertram by R. C. Maturin; Bellamira & The Apostate by Sheil - each with separate, original, title page].
- Bellamira; or, The Fall of Tunis (London: Printed for J. Dodsley [1781]), vi, 88, 67, [iv], 72, xii, 76, viii, [1], 84, [2]pp. [21cm.], with works by Thomas Morton, Philip Massinger, Charles Robert Maturin [Bertram ,, &c.], and Horace Walpole [The Mysterious Mother].
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Note: Evadne [4th edition] (1819), vi, 86pp. - the copy in Nat. Lib. of Scotland with Covent Garden prompters notes was used as basis of Microfilm edition (Newberry Library, Chicago).
Note: The Oxberry edition is the only edition faithfully marked with stage business, William Oxberry being the manager at Theatre Royal. |
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Verse |
- An Irregular Ode for the Drawing-Room ... Written at the command of his Ex[cellenc]y, by Richard Sh[ei]l, Esq. ... (s.n.; n.d.); 3pp.3., 4°.
- Henry Rowley Bishop, The vocal music sung in the new tragedy calld The apostate: at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, composed & arranged for the organ or piano forte by Henry R Bishop; the poetry by Rich[ar]d Sheil (London: Printed by Goulding, DAlmaine Potter & Co ... & to be had at ... Dublin, [1817]), 1 vocal score, 7, [1]pp. [34cm.]
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Collected Works |
Speeches |
- Thomas Mac Nevin, ed., The Speeches of the Rt. Hon. R. L. Sheil M.P (Dublin: Duffy 1845); Do. [2nd Edn.] (Dublin: James Duffy 1867), xliv, 471pp. [19cm.]. Do. [another edn.] The Speeches of the Right Honorable Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P: with a Memoir, &c., ed. by Thomas MacNevin (London: H. G. Bohn 1847), 2pp. l., [ix]-lxli, 378pp [23cm.];
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Sketches (orig. in New Monthly Magazine, 1822- ) |
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English Edition (M. W. Marmion) |
- Sketches, Legal and Political, by the late Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil, ed. with notes by Marmion W. Savage, 2 vols. (London: Published for Henry Colburn by his successors, Hurst & Blackett, 1855), Vol. I: viii, 411pp. [available at Internet Archive - online; see details].
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American edition (R. S. Mackenzie) |
- Sketches of the Irish Bar, by the Right Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P., with memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie, 2 vols. (NY: J. S. Redfield, 110 and 112 Nassau St. 1854), Vol. I: 388pp.; Vol. II: 380pp.; ill. [1 port. facs. of pen-sketched by S. Catterson Smith of Dublin; 20cm. [available at Internet Archive - online].
- Sketches of the Irish Bar, by R. L. Sheil, [w]ith memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie, 2 vols. (NY: W. J. Widdleton 1854), 8º [COPAC; BL].
- Sketches of the Irish Bar, by the Right Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P., with memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie, 2 vols. in 1 (NY: P. J. Kenedy, Excelsior Catholic Publ. House, 5 Barclay Street DCCCLXXXII [sic, i.e., 1882]), 380pp. [Memoir of Sheil, pp [5]-16; Authors Introduction pp [17]-18; Sketches of the Bar, p 19ff., Index pp 367-80; 4pp publ list; manufacturer [i e , printed] by Donogue & Henneberry, Chicago]. Contents: Memoir of Mr Sheil [5]; Authors Introduction [17] (Available at Internet Archive online.)
- Sketches of the Irish Bar, by the Rt. Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P., with a memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie [2 vols. in 1] (Chicago St. Louis: Belford, Clarke & Co. 1882), 380pp.; index, 367ff.; printed and bound by Donohue & Henneberry, Chicago (t.p. verso) [COPAC; East Anglia UL; copy at Boston College available at Hathi Trust - online].
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Miscellaneous |
- A Full Account of the Proceedings: with a correct report of the speeches delivered by Mr. OConnell, Mr. Sheil, &c. at the general meetings of His Majestys Catholic subjects, held at the Free Masons Tavern, Great Queen Street, on Saturday the 26th February, 1825. [2nd edn.](London: Ambrose Cuddon [1825]) [23cm.].
- Report of the Proceedings of Three Public Meetings, which were held in the City of Cork; containing, the speeches of Mr. OConnell, Mr. Sheil, and Mr. Bric, and of the Rev. Mr. Falvey, and Mr. England, in opposition to the general use of the Scriptures; together with arguments which were advanced in defence of the same ... Published, with notes, by order of the Cork Discussion Committee (Dublin: Richard Moore Tims 1825), vi, 136pp.
- The Speech of Mr. Sheil, as it was intended to have been delivered at the County of Kent Meeting ... 24th of October, 1828 (London [1828]), 8pp. [8°].
- A Collection of Speeches spoken by Daniel OConnell, Esq. and Richard Sheil, Esq. on subjects connected with the Catholic question (Dublin: John Cumming, 1828), iv, 508pp. [20cm].
- Mr. Sheils speech upon the Irish Church in the House of Commons, on the 23d July, 1835 (London: Henry Hooper 1835), 20pp.
- The Speech of Richard L. Sheil: delivered on behalf of John OConnell in the court of Queens bench, Dublin on saturday January 27th 1844. (London: Chapman & Elcoate [1844]), 15pp. [27cm.; available at JSTOR - 19th c. British Pamphlets, 2009.
- Reports from Commissioners and others on the constitution and management of the Royal Mint and on international weights measures and coinage, 1845-64 [British parliamentary papers - 2. Monetary policy Currency] (ondon: HMSO 1845-64), 3-438pp., ill. [fold. pl., 1 plan; 35cm.], and Do. [facs. rep. (Shannon: IUP 1969), [orig. pag.; quarter leather].
- Marriage Law Amendment Bill. The speeches of the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Justice Campbell [25 Feb. 1851] and of the Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil ... Reprinted from Hansards Parliamentary Debates for the year 1851 (London: Vacher & Sons 1858), 16pp. [8°]
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See also Report of the Select Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Laws Affecting Dramatic Literature 1832 [rep. edn.] (Shannon: IUP 1968) |
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Modern reps. (prose) |
- Sketches, Legal and Political [1855], ed., with notes by M. W. Savage, rep. in Political and cultural analyses of Ireland, ed. & intro. by Michael Hurst [Ireland observed, 6 vols. (Bristol: Thoemmes 2002), [2700pp.] - with others, as listed under Select Annal Bibliography, infra.
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Bibliographical details
Sketches of the Irish Bar, by the Right Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P., with a memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie [ed.], 2 vols. in 1 (NY: P. J. Kenedy, Excelsior Catholic Publ. House, 5 Barclay Street DCCCLXXXII [sic, i.e., 1882]), Chicago. 380pp. [Memoir of Sheil, pp [5]-16; Authors Introduction pp [17]-18; Sketches of the Bar, p.19ff., Index pp.367-80; 4pp. publ list; manufacturer [i e , printed] by Donogue & Henneberry, Chicago]. (Available at Internet Archive online.) |
Chapters |
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AN IRISH CIRCUIT: Going Circuit — The South of Ireland — Rules of Legal Travelling — An Approver — Lord Avonmore — An Irish Assize Town — Larry Cronans Trial — OConnells Success with Juries — Trial of John Scanlan for Murder — Was he executed? |
[19] |
HALL OF THE FOUR COURTS, DUBLIN: OConnell, Bushe, Lord Plunket, and H D Grady — Curran — Lord Clare — Serving Writs in Connaught |
[58] |
DANIEL OCONNELL: In his Study, in the Four Courts, at a Popular Meeting, at a Public Dinner — His Personal Appearance — Merits as a Nisi-Prius, and Crown Lawyer — Influence with Juries — As Catholic Leader — Duel with DEsterre — On Circuit — In Parliament |
[73] |
LORD PLUNKET: His Origin — Conviction of the Sheareses — Trial of Robert Emmett — Hi<? Intellectual Supremacy — Style of his Oratory — Personal Appearance — In Parliament — His Catholic Politics — Grattan — Raised to the Bench — Appointed Lord-Chancellor — His Enforced Resignation |
[98] |
CHIEF-JUSTICE BUSHE Descent — The Historical Society — An Anti-Unionist — Solicitor-General — Catholic Board — Aspect, Voice and Gesture, ag an Orator — His Conversation, Wit, and Eloquence — Is made Chief-Justice |
[121] |
ATTORNEY-GENERAL SAURIN: Huguenot Descent — Lord Clonmel — Business Habits — Opposes the Union — As Attorney-General —- Anti-Catholic Politics — Loss of Office — Deportment and Aspect — Skill as an Advocate —Distaste for Letters |
[150] |
CHIEF-BARON JOY: His Tory Politics — Sympathy with Saurin — Bar Advancement — Is made Solicitor-General — His Legal and Scientific Attainments — Skill at Cross-Examination — Character as a Judge |
[170] |
CALAMITIES OF THE BAR: An Unfortunate Lawyer — Tragic Scene — Lord Manners — The French Bar — Trippier, the Parisian avocat — The Lawyers Progress — MacDougall of the Roar — Pomposo, a Sketch from Life — Monks of the Screw — Jerry Keller — Norcott, the Renegade, and his Fate |
[186] |
CHIEF-JUSTICE LEFROY: A Saintly Lawyer — OConnell on Catholic Education — Lefroy in the Chancery Court — Captain Rock in Limerick — Raised to the Bench |
[216] |
MR SERGEANT GOOLD: An Admirable Crichton — Sows his Wild Oats — Edmund Burke — Goolds Nisi-Prius Practice — His Vanity — Opposes the Union — Sir Jonah Harrington — Goolds Election Evidence — Is Made Master in Chancery |
[232] |
MR NORTH, JUDGE OF THE ADMIRALTY COURT: Brilliant University Career — At the Bar — Irish Eloquence — Comparative Failure in Parliament — Neutrality in Politics — The Bottle Riot |
[252] |
MR WALLACE: Professional Progress — High Repute in Jury Cases — License of the Bar — Catholic Meeting — Grattans last Public Appearance |
[269] |
WEXFORD ASSIZES: The Leinster Circuit — Archbishop Magee — Bishop Elringtons Anti-Necromantic Movement — Irish Peasant-Girls — A Pic-Nic Excursion — Massacre on the Old Bridge of Wexford — OConnells Triumphal Entry — Chief-Justice Bushe and Judge Johnson — Trial of Father Carroll: Monomania |
[287] |
CHIEF-JUSTICE DOHERTY: As an Advocate, and Crown-Lawyer — Judges Perrin and Crampton — Lord-Chancellor Manners Inefficiency — George Cannings Career — Doherty versus OConnell — Raised to the Bench — Declines a Peerage |
[311] |
THE DUBLIN TABINET BALL: The Liberty of Dublin — An American Marchioness — Lord Wellesley as Bridegroom and Viceroy — Sir Harcourt Lees — Irelands only Duke — Lord Edward Fitzgerald — Lady Morgan — The Younger Grattan — Curran — The Tenth — An Irish Hebe |
[328] |
CATHOLIC LEADERS AND ASSOCIATIONS: Confederates of 1642 — Enactment of the Penal Laws — Catholic Committees — Wolfe Tone and John Keogh — OConnells first Appearance — Denis Scully, and Æneas MDonnell — Lords French, Fingal, and Killeen — Doctor Drumgoole — George IV in Ireland — Catholic Association founded — Bishop Doyle and the Sorbonne Doctors — Archbishops Troy, Curtis, and Murray — Bishop Kelly |
[359] |
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See Memoir of Mr. Sheil and Authors Introduction [by Sheil] and longer extracts - as attached. |
Sketches, Legal and Political, by the late Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil, ed. with notes by Marmion W. Savage [ed.], 2 vols. (London: Published for Henry Colburn by his successors, Hurst & Blackett, 1855), Vol. I: viii, 411pp. [12pp. publishers list]. CONTENTS: The First Volume: Legal Sketches [sect.]: Mr. Bushe [3]; Mr. Saurin [41]; Mr. Joy [65]; Lord Norbury [85]; The Catholic Bar [1[19]; Mr. Bellew [143]; Mr. OLoghlen [157]; Mr. Leslie Foster and the Louth Election of 1826 [167]; Mr. Leslie Foster, as a Barrister, Scholar, and Commissioner of Education [183]; Calamities of the Bar [197]; Diary of a Barrister [229]; Burning of the Sheas [253]; Farewell of Lord Manners [275]; The Murder of Holycross [287]; Observations on Agrarian Crime [317]; Notes upon Circuit. [329]; Political Sketches.]; State of Parties in Dublin [365]; State of Parties in Dublin [393]. (Available at Internet Archive - online.) |
Preface by the Editor: These volumes consist of the principal contributions of the late Mr. SHEIL to the New Monthly Magazine at a period when that periodical, edited by THOMAS CAMPBELL, was particularly distinguished by the interest and brilliancy of its articles. The Sketches of the Celebrities of the Irish Bar attracted much attention at the time, and were admired, wherever they were read, as well for their fidelity as portraitures, as for the spirit and elegance with which they were written. / The intrinsic merit of the Papers would have been sufficient of itself to justify the republication of a careful selection from them; but the press of New York having recently issued a promiscuous collection of them, the proprietor of the copyright felt that it was a matter of duty not only to himself, but to the Authors of the Papers, to present them to the public in a correct and authentic form. [...] |
(See full-text copy of Preface - as attached.) |
REMARKS: The first edition of R. L. Sheils Sketches of the Irish Bar was issued in 1854 by J. S. Redfield (publisher) in New York with prefatory and editorial material by R. S. Mackenzie. (Another copy of the same impression appeared in the same year from a New York publisher called W. J. Widdleton but its ranking is difficult to establish [see listings - supra] The Redfield edition was reprinted several times in America up to 1882, after which some modern facsimile editions have appeared in reprint presses. The first English edition was published by Marmion Savage in the following year (1855), laying prefatory claim to greater fidelity to the original articles as they appeared in the New Monthly Magazine edited by Thomas Campbell, beginning in 1822. On comparison, it seems like that Savage merely tidied up the American text according to his own ideas of literary decorum - especially as regards literary allusions and quotations as he sardonically remarks in his own preface. It is clear that Savage recurred to the magazine series - the dates of each sketch is cited at the head - but for the most part his edition seems like an abbreviated version of the other, with a greatly simplified contents table which uses only the name of the person portrayed where Mackenzie insert those names in longer chapter-sections incorporating a wide variety of matter which is reflected in the header of each page. Savage doubtless considered that Sheils writings properly belong to an English editor and probably had access to the copyright holder of the original series. Mackenzie mentions that Sheil expressly permitted him to publish everything that did not belong to the publisher Henry Colburn - with whom, of course, Savage is publishing his edition under a slightly altered version of the American title - one which does not employ the word Irish on the title page. Close comparison of chapters is difficult with digital internet copies but it is far from impossible and the quest goes on. [BS 25.04.2024.] |
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Criticism
Older studies |
W. T .McCullagh, Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. R. L Sheil, 2 vols. (London: H. Colburn 1855); also memoirs by T. MacNevin, R. S. MacKenzie and M[armion] W. Savage, in editions of his works and speeches; Irish Book Lover vols. 3, 13.
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Recent criticism |
Claire Connolly, Theatre and Nation in Irish Romanticism: the tragic dramas of Charles Robert Maturin and Richard Lalor Sheil, in Éire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies, 41, 3 (Fall/Winter 2006), pp.185-214. |
See also Connolly, Irish Romanticism, 1800-1839, in Cambridge History of Irish Literature (Cambridge UP 2006), Vol. I [Chap. 10:] Irish Drama on the London Stage [see extract].
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[ There is a biographical account of R. L. Sheil by Marjorie Bloy at WebHistory - online; accessed 11.09.2011. ]
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Commentary
The Select Speeches of Daniel OConnell, edited by his son, 2 vols. (Dublin: James Duffy 1876 Edn.), Vol. I, including OConnells Reply to Mr Richard L. Sheil on the question of the Ecclesiastical Veto which OConnell opposed and which Sheil apparently supported in a brilliant speech, admired by all but held to be contrary to the majority feeling. The original speech is not recorded here and only OConnells answer:
My lord, whilst the meeting is yet dazzled and warmed with the brilliant and glowing language — the thoughts that breathe, and words that burn — of my young friend, I rashly offer myself to your consideration.
I rashly interpose the cold, dull jargon of the courts — the unanimated and rough dialect of the pleader; but the cause of freedom and of my country will enable me, even me, to unravel the flimsy web of sophistry which is hid beneath the tinsel glare of meretricious ornament. Unsound reasoning may be so adorned by the flowers of the imagination, and the corruscation of fancy, as to dazzle for a moment and mislead, but it requires only the sober voice of plain sense — it asks only the sacred name of liberty and our native land, to break the spell, to dissolve the enchantment, and to expose the genuine deformity of the unpatriotic advocacy.
Let me not be misunderstood; I admire, no man can more admire, the splendid talents of my young friend. I appreciate them at their full value — I hold them higher than he does himself. They were bestowed on him for the highest purposes — they are suited to the greatest and best purposes — to relieve and adorn his country. He does not do justice to his own genius when he confines it to the advocacy of a sect or party Let it never be reproach that -
Born for the universe, he narrowed his mind,
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.
Oh, no! Let him raise his soul to the elevation of his talents, and not take the puny and pigmy ground of party or division. Lot him devote himself to his country! 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. See how mistaken he must be, when I can exhibit myself his superior. I own I am his inferior in talent, but the cause I advocate sustains me, and my eloquent young friend sinks beneath the cause which he has espoused.
I must regret that he has given utterance to sentiments which every sense of duty commands me to condemn. The doctrine of slavery, which he has preached, I must censure. He has told us that the Catholics have nothing to do with questions of freedom or the constitution — that their object should be to place themselves on a level with the Protestants, and he is indifferent whether this equality be obtained by pulling down tha Protestant or elevating the Catholic. In direct terms he has preferred the dead level of despotism to our present situation of compararive inferiority.
My lord, I object to those assertions, I protest against those principles of action. Many of the topics which have bami urged by the eloquent gentleman do not bear on the present subject of debate. It is unnecessary to reply to them. To much more of his discourse it is needless to reply, because he did himself give the most powerful and the best answer to the arguments that might be used against the motion of Dr. Dromgoole. But it is incumbent on every friend to freedom, and to the constitution, to confute the slavish doctrine we have just heard. I am ready to meet him on this topic pithily, directly, and unequivocally.
The proposed resolution goes to declare that either as Irishmen, or as Catholics, we never will consent to allow to thj crown, or the servants of the crown, any interference in the appointment of cur bishops! I support this motion upon both grounds: — First, as an Irishman, that tlus interference would be injurious to public liberty. Secondly, as a Catholic, that it woidd be destructive of the Catholic religion. The manners of society — the state of the public press, fettered and in cliams though it be — the decency and ducurum of modern habits, the progress of the numan mind, and many other causes, render the constitution secure from open and direct attack. Absolute power is not likely to be obtained, nor even sought after by direct force and plan: violence. But who is thorc so blind as not to see the inroads that have been made upon our rights and liberties by the effect of corroding influence? Who is so sunk in apathy — who is so degraded in stupidity, as not to perceive how unconditional aud unlimited the power is that may be obtained indirectly and by corruption? In truth, the only danger that menaces the constitution, the only chance of rendering that constitution a mere name, arises from the spread of influence and corruption, which, like a cancer on a fair face, disfigures and destroys the beautiful fabric of public freedom!
He is no friend to liberty — Le knows uot how to appreciate freedom — he is fitted for slavery, who can behold unmoved the progress of this terrific disease in the state — influence! I support the present motion because I dread and detect that influence, aud should deem myself unworthy to seek for any liberty, could I consent to increase the influence of the servants of the [351] crown. The young gentleman has argued, that this influence is already so great, that the appointment of our bishops would not add to the evil, and he has underrated much the value, ever, in a pecuniary point of view, of the office of Catholic bishops. Let the servants of the crown then be content with the patronage they have. It is sufficient for their purpose, and if thi§ addition be but small, let them leave us this small independence, for this little is our all — and great it is in fact.
The state is secure already of the allegiance of the Catholic bishop, he is bound to the state by his repeated and solemn oaths; but, not content with this, the ministers want to have him become their political agent — they want to have him in the subservient management of electioneering politics: if they succeed in obtaining the power to appoint a Catholic bishop, they will, without doubt, take good care to stipulate with him for the selection of priests devoted to their patrons; and at the ensuing elections we shall see the courtly sheriff become insignificant — the castle bishop will canvass the diocese, the parish priest will ransack the different districts of the county, and you will have a Vereker, or a Bagwell borne on the shoulders of a duped people, in the room of a Glentworth or a Matthew.
I do, therefore, meet the eloquent young gentleman upon this ground first, and insist that we should be unworthy of emancipation should we adopt his doctrines. Emancipation! My lord, the word would cease to have its appropriate meaning — the thing would cease to have any value. By emancipation I mean a participation in the free constitution of this country — not a chance of sharing in the public plunder. By emancipation I understand a right as a freeman to constitutional liberty, not a participation in the servitude of slaves — not a share in the authority of a despot.
Besides, I beg to bring your minds to the second motive for adopting this resolution: — The injury your religion must sustain if the minister of the day appoint our prelates. The minister is and will continue a Protestant as far as a minister of state may be said to have any religion. If he be sincere, as a Protestant his choice of a bishop will bte governed by his sincerity, and he will appoint as Catholic bishop the man least likely to serve the Catholic religion — most likely to injure and degrade that religion,
But suppose him insincere, as a Protestant, there will be D^ doubt of his attachment to power as a statesman. As a statesman, then, who will he appoint as bishop? The man who can purchase the mtuation — perhaps for money — certainly for service. [352] And does any man imagine that the Catholic religion will prosper in Ireland, if our prelates, instead of being what they are at present, shall become the servile tools of her administration. They would then lose all respect for themselves; all respectability in the eyes of others; they would be degraded to the station of excisemen and gangers; and the people, disgusted and dissatisfied, would be likely to join the first enthusiastic preacher of some new form of Methodism, that might conciliate their ancient prejudices, and court their still living passions.
The ministerial bishops of Ireland would become like the constitutional bishops of France, one of the means of uncatholicising the land. [...; (p.352).]
[...]
Those who agree with me, that we are entitled to emancipation, without compromise, will support this resolution; all who agree with my eloquent friend, that our emancipation should be purchased by some undefined concessions of doctrine, or, at least, of discipline, to absurd prejudice — for so he proved it; all those who think they can bargain with absurd prejudice, upon the capital of their faith, will reject the present resolution with Mr. Sheil.
He has, indeed, been unfortunate in the side he has selected; he has not been lucky in his allusion. It was not the Catholic barons of the reign of John that crouched beneath Papal usurpation. It was a profligate, faithless, unprincipled prince, who used the Popes then authority to enable him to enslave a Catholic people.
I am of the faith of the Catholic barons, who with their swords extorted the great charter of liberty; I am of the religion of the Catholic parliament that passed the statute of provisors; firm in my attachment to her ancient faith, ardent in the pursuit of liberty. Let my young friend join this standard, and soon shall he become a leader. To the superiority of his talent we shall easily cheerfully yield, and give him that station in his countrys cause to which his high genius entitles him. Let him devote himself, to the uncompromising advocacy of Ireland — glory will await him, and the sweeter satisfaction of serving his country! Let him reject party and adopt Ireland, who, in her widowhood, wants him; and in her service let his motto be — God, and our native land. (p.359; available online; accessed 22.05.2024.)
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[ See also Answer to Mr. OConnells Address by Mr. Sheil in Select Speeches [2nd series; i.e., Vol. II] (Duffy 1855), pp.98-131; available online. ] |
William Carleton, The Late John Banim [National Gallery, No. V], The Nation, 23 September, 1843), writes of Banims Damon and Pythias (1821): It is generally understood that this play was a joint performance between Mr. [Richard Lalor] Sheil and Banim; but this, we have been assured on good authority, Banim always strenuously denied, affirming that Mr. Sheil only made some slight alterations in the mansucript. Conecte with the representation of this play, there has been a further statement made to us - not resting, however, so far as we know, on the authority of Banim himself - which, if true, would go to prove that Mr. Sheils share in the literary partnership was one more profitable to himself than honorable or laborious. We trust, for the credit of our country and th hour [sic] of our distinguished countryman, that the actual circumstances attendant on the employment of his influence for its production on the stage vary from the circumstantial detail which we have heard. We strongly incline to think so; and whilst in candour we cannot forbear from alluding to a rumour current in literary circules, we feel boundot intimate, at the same time, our disbelief of a story which reflects on the generosity and the sense of justice of our gifted orator and dramatist. [Col. 3a; see further under John Banim, q.v.].
The North British Review, Vol. XXIV [24] Nov.-Feb. 1855-56. Edinburgh W. P. Kennedy, D. St. Andrew St. London Hamilton Adam & Co. MDCCCLVI [1856] - Books from Ireland pp.117-40. Works noticed: The Life, Times and Contemporaries of Lord Cloncurry, by W. J. Fitzpatrick, 1855; Personal Recollections of Lord Cloncurry by Himself, 1855; A History of the City of Dublin, by J. T. Gilbert, Hon Sec. of the Irish Archaelogical Soc., 1854;
Memoirs of Richard Lalor Sheil, by W. Torrens McCullagh, 1855; Sketches, Legal and Political, by R. L. Sheil, edited by Marmion Savage, 1855; Sketches of the Irish Bar, with Essays, Literary and Political, by W. H. Curran, 1855. |
[...] Sheil was asked, soon after being called to the Bar, to prepare a petition for the Catholic of Ireland. [The petition makes the statement, that the constitutionally favoured form of government is not Protestantism, as opposed the Roman Catholic Religion, but the Episcopalian Church of England, as contradistinguished to every other religious description. This surely will be felt by every one who knows Knox and Sheil to belong most probably to the former. As a fact, the proposition has not the shadow of evidence to support it. [135]
But Sheil was not alone an active member of those political meetings at this time, but a successful writer for the stge. Before being called to the Bar he completed the paly of Adelaide, the fable of which is founded on the distresses of the French who fled from the storms of the Revolution, and embodies much of what he witnessed in Kensington school. What leads a young poet to write it would be in vain to enquire: what leads him to select a particular form of composition is a question of easier solution. Sheil wanted money for all his purposes, for he could not live without it. it was not given reluctantly or churlishly by his relations, but to any one except his father Sheil had no wish to be indebted, and his fatehr could not now supply him. A large sum wa required for his call to the Bar, and a successful draa would give him the best chance of getting it. Miss ONeil was in the height of her Dublin popularity. She had not yet appeared on the English stage. She acted as the principal character, and the success of his play was at once decided. Sheil soon after married. His wife had not fortune, but was connected with the Irish Master of the Rolls, through whose interest the young barrister formed some expectation of professional advantages. These expectations were disappointed.
There was little doubt that with anything of diligent attendance at the four courts Sheil would have succeeded at the Bar; but the theatrical passion was strong, and he preferred the brilliant but temporary triumphs of the stage. he wrote sone half-dozen dramas with various success, got a good deal of money from the theatres, and sold the copyright to booksellers. Mr M'Cullagh quores some pleasing pasages from them, but for dead plays there is no second life. During this period were also written Sketches Legal and Political, - as contributions of his to the New Monthly Magazine, when under Campbells management, have been called in Mr. Savages late reprint of them. These are, we think, far superior in every way to the dramas, and are papers, many of them, of very great interest. They have a fault and the merit of being party sketches of Irish politics by a very violent partisan. They are more amusing, and not quite so true, as a novel, for novels affect probability; and Sheil in his sketches exaggerates everything, till it no longer resembles real life. His Catholic bishops are not actual saints; the exaggeration is not on the side of ascribing to any men unusual excellence; but the Protestant divines are very devils. His mind is absolutely poisoned by the exclusion of the Catholics from equal civil rights with the rest of the community. To remove evils of this kind, and give fair play to such minds as Sheils, is not the least, perhaps is the greatest, benefit of the repeal of the old penal laws. (pp.134-35.)
[...] After the general election of 1826, the Duke of Yorks health was proposed at some public dinner. Sheil had to speak in the course of the evening, and he declaimed vehemently against the Duke, ascribing his declaration, or rather oath, against the Catholics to insanity. Sheils speech could scarcely be accounted for on any other supposition than that of having been delivered under some strange influence - probably of wine - so little meaning was there in any part of it. This speech, however, and his statement at some meeting of the Association that he had written articles in the French journals, no doubted aided in determining the Government to prosecute him for an address in the Association in which he gave from Wolfe Tones memoirs an account of Tones negotiating with France for the invasion of Ireland. Reading the speech now, we do not think a conviction could have been possible. The prosecution, however, was fortunately interrupted, for before a trial was had Mr. Canning became Premier. At a meeting of the Cabinet, Canbning read the speech aloud, desiring to be stopped at any passage for which, if delivered by a member of the House of Commons, he could be called to order. There was no such passage in the speech, and the prosecution was discontinued.
Emancipation is at last passed, and we are at the third period of Sheils life. It presents nothing which is not creditable to him, but the interest in the story flags. In Mr. M'Cullaghs book will be found be found most of his parliamentary speeches. If we have any fault to find with this book, it is that it gives us too little of his private life. Sheil himself we would like better is he was less of an advocate. Mere advocacy does well enough when the measures are originated or even adopted in thorough earnest by the person affirming or defending them. Sheil once attached to a party, seemed as if he ceased to think for himself at all. Keep in the Whigs - keep out the Tories - that is politics, was his whole political creed. ]
Of Mr. Sheils Sketches of Irish barristers, the best is an account of Bushe, Chief-Justice of Ireland. A more interesting account of Bushe is, however, given in the last and best book upon our list - Currans Sketches of the Irish Bar. These, like Sheils, were originally printed in the New Monthly Magazine, and are not reprinted with some additional matter not hitherto published, of which that likely to give most pleasure in ireland, is a very beautifully written memoir of the late Chief baron Woulfe [whom Curran visited in Kilkenny in 1836]. (p.137.)
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Tom Garvin, OConnell and Irish Political Culture, in Daniel OConnell, Political Pioneer, ed. Maurice R OConnell (Inst. Publ. Relations 1991), pp.pp.7-12, Richard Lalor Sheil wrote of OConnells organisational policy, Various schemes of popular organisation had been revolved from time to time in the fertile brain of OConnell; but that which eventually commended itself above all others to his judgement was one which, while it reserved to persons of better education a controlling power, provided for the involvement of the masses of the people as associate members of the body, the former, on payment of one guinea, and the latter on the payment of a shilling a year. ... The ... United Irishmen ... afforded an example only to be avoided. [The Volunteer Movement of 1782] ... was the improvisation of a national militia by the propertied and privileged classes - [the United Irishmen] the conspiracy of the disenfranchised many. (McCullagh, Memoirs of Sheil, vil. 1 (1865), pp.184-5). The new organisation would have to invite and secure the cooperation 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 infuriated 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. (ibid., p.187). [10] Further, Richard Lalor Sheil, the Catholic playwright and politician, warned OConnell ... that his actions in mobilising mass opinion against Grattans bill were postponing Emancipation ... Although [he] was later to become one of OConnells close allies they disagreed fundamentally on the veto. ... Sheil may have been optimistic [about support in parliament for Grattans bill]. [30]
Claire Connolly, Irish Romanticism, 1800-1839, in Cambridge History of Irish Literature (Cambridge UP 2006), Vol. I [Chap. 10:] Irish Drama on the London Stage: The most significant Irish contribution to the legitimate drama came from Richard Lalor Sheil (1791-1851). It is possible to connect Sheil to a wider European impulse to reinvent the resources of tragic drama for a range of national cultures: writers form Germany, Italy, France, Poland and of course England all sought, as Jeffrey N. Cox puts it, to redefine the tragic and renew the stage. Following an early success in Dublin with Adelaide; or The Emigants (1814), Sheil moved to London to pursue a career that involved politics and the law as well as the stage. His plays are built around powerful dramatic monologues that give expression to sexual jealousy, violence, black hatred, revenge, madness, intrigue and conspiracy. The surviving stage directions given (especially in the plays that followed Adalide) asggest the extent to which Sheil made full use of the resources of the London stage: wing-and-backdrop scenery gives [431] depth and colour, characters move to the front of the stage to deliver powerful speeches and there is a strong overall sense of pictorial symmetry, as when twin pillars are placed at either side of the stage to frame the closing scenes of Bellarima. Like Maturin, Sheil was criticism for an excessive dramaturgical vigour and an undue violence of effect. [For full text - giving an account of his involvement with the Select Committe on Dramatic Literature, and his connection Gerald Griffin and ith C. R. Maturin - go to RICORSO Library, Irish Critical Classics, via index or direct.)
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Quotations
—from Sketches of the Irish Bar, by the Right Hon. R. L. Sheils (NY: P. J. Kenedy 1854) |
Occupants of the Dock [page-header sect. in Chap.1: An Irish Circuit, pp.19-57]. |
The dock of an Irish county-court is quite a study. From the character of the crimes to be tried, as appearing on the calendar, I expected to find there a collection of the most villanous faces in the community: it was the very reverse. I would even say that, as a general rule, the weightier the charge, the better the physiognomy, and more prepossessing the appearance of the accused. An ignoble misdemeanant, or sneaking petty-larcenist, may look his offence pretty accurately ; but let the charge amount to a good transportable or capital felony, and ten to one but the prisoner will exhibit a set of features from which a committee of craniologists would never infer a propensity to crime. In fact, an Irish dock, especially after a brisk insurrectionary winter, affords some of the choicest samples of the peasantry of the country — fine, hardy, healthy, muscular looking beings, with rather a dash of riot about the eye, perhaps, but with honest, open, manly countenances, and sustaining themselves with native courage amid the dangers that beset them; and many of them are in fact either as guiltless as they appear, or their crimes have been committed under circumstances of excitation, which, in their eves at least, excuse the enormity. As regards the [32] former, there are one or two national peculiarities, and not of a very creditable kind, which account for their numbers.
The lower orders of the Irish, when their passions are once up on the right side, are proverbially brave, disinterested, and faithful ; but reverse the object, give them a personal enemy to circumvent, or an animosity of their faction to gratify, and all the romantic generosity of their character vanishes As partisans, they have no more idea of fair play, than a belligerent Indian of North America. In the prosecution of their interminable feuds, if they undertake to redress themselves, armed members will beset a single defenceless foe, and crush him without remorse; and in the same spirit of reckless vengeance, when they appeal to the law, they do not hesitate to include in one sweeping accusation, every friend or relative of the alleged offender, whose evidence might be of any avail upon his defence ; and hence, for the real or imputed crime of one, whole families, men and women, and sometimes even children, are committed to prison, and made to pass through the ordeal of a public trial. [...]
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—Sketches of the Irish Bar, ed. Mackenzie (NY: P. J. Kenedy 1855), pp.31-32. |
Irish Peasant Girls [header-sect. in Chap.: Wexford Assizes, pp.287-310. |
I am disposed to think the young women of the lower class in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, even more graceful and feminine than the most lively of the English peasantry, whom I have ever had occasion to notice. Their eyes are of deep and tender blue, their foreheads are high and smooth, their cheeks have a clear transparent color, and a sweetness of [293] expression sits on thieir full fresh lips, wliich is united with perfect modesty, and renders them objects of pure and respectful interest. They take a special care of their persons, and exhibit that tidiness and neatness in their attire, for which their English kindred are remarkable. I have often stopped to observe a girl from the barony of Forth, in the market of Wexford, with her basket of eggs or chickens for sale, and wished that I we're an artist, in order that I might preserve her face and figure. Her bonnet of bright and well-plaited straw just permitted a few bright ringlets to escape upon hei oval cheek: over her head was thrown a kerchief of muslin tc protect her complexion from the sun. Her cloak of blue cloth, trimmed with gray silk, hung gracefully from her shoulders. Her boddice was tightly laced round a graceful and symmetrical person. Her feet were compressed in smart and wellpolished shoes; and as she held out her basket to allure you into a purchase of her commodities, her smile, with all its winningness, was still so pure, that you did not dare to wish that she should herself be thrown into the bargain.
It is clear that the peasantry of these districts are a superior and better-ordered tribe. Industry and morality prevail among them. Crime is almost unknown in the baronies of Forth and Bargy. The English reader will probably imagine that they must be Protestants. On the contrary, the Roman Catholic religion is their only creed, and all efforts at proselytism have wholly failed. It has often been considered as singular that the Irish rebellion should have raged with such fierceness among this moral and pacific peasantry. Some are disposed to refer the intensity of their political feelings to their attachment to the Catholic religion; but I believe that the main cause of the temporary ferocity into which they were excited, and in the indulgence of which they for a while threw off all their former habits, had its origin from the excesses of wliich a licentious soldiery were guilty, and that the dishonor of their wives and daughters impelled them to revenge and blood.
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—Sketches of the Irish Bar, ed. Mackenzie (NY: P. J. Kenedy 1855), pp.292-93. |
[Cf. the similar observations about the inhabitants of the same district in of Walks Through Ireland (London: Sir Richard Phillips 1819) by John Bernard Trotter [q.v.]; especially Letter XIII concerning the baronies of Bargie and Forth: The Catholic religion prevails universally through Forth, These descendants of the English, who have never changed, their ancient faith, [135] retain their honest simplicity, and manly characters. They are an excellent people in Forth ... (pp.134-35) - as attached. |
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Sheil gives the following account of the failure of his own speech as a delegate for the Catholic Committee to the British Parliament: Mr. Sheil rose under similar disadvantages [i.e., a tired auditory]. He cast that sort of look about him which I have 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. Mr. Sheil became disheartened, and lost his command over his throat. He grew loud and indistinct. He also fell into the mistake of laying aside his habitual cast of expression and of thought, and, in place of endeavoring to excite the feelings of his auditory, wearied them with a laborious detail of uninteresting facts. He failed to produce any considerable impression excepting at the close of his speech, in which, after dwelling upon the great actions which were achieved by the Catholic ancestors of some of the eminent men around him, he introduced [224] Jean of Arc prophesying to Talbot the observation of his illustrious name, and the exclusion of his posterity from the councils of his country. (pp.223-24.) |
See also Sheil on .... |
- The murder of Ellen Scanlan [née Hanley] by John Scanlan in Co. Limerick during 1819 which served as the plot of Gerald Griffins 1829 novel The Collegians - as attached.
- James Patrick Mahon, alias The OGorman Mahon, in Sketches of the Irish Bar (1854), ii. 274-75 - as quoted by Stephen Farrell in History of Parliamentary - extract attached.
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References Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904); extracts of speeches, Irelands Part in English Achievement, commons 1837 [Wherever we turn our eyes ... never did a liberated nation spring on in the career that freedom throws open towards improvement with such a bound as we have; in wealth, in intelligence, in high feeling, in all the great constituents of a state, we have made in a few years an astonishing progress. The character of the country is completely changed; we are free, and we feel as if we never had been slaves. Ireland stands erect as if she had never stooped; although she once bowed her forehead to the earth, every trace of her prostration has been effaced ... &c; lists offices filled by Roman Catholics]; Pen and Ink Sketch of Daniel OConnell [from Sketches of the Irish Bar].
H. Hovelaque [professeur au lycée Saint-Louis], Anthologie de la Littérature irlandaise des Origines au XXe siècle (Paris Libraire Delagrave 1924), extracts: Evadné etle roi, pp.275ff.
Charles A. Read, The Cabinet of Irish Literature (London, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast & Edinburgh: Blackie & Son [1876-78]), notes that he assisted W. H. Curran with Sketches of the Irish Bar; Sheil was born at his fathers house, Bellevue, near Waterford. 1791-1851; abandoned idea of priesthood [vide The Apostate] and ed. TCD; Bar in 1814; MP in 1831; Master of the Mint, and Ambassador to Florence.
Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (1946), Richard Lalor Sheil 1791-1851; Adelaide, or The Emigrants, trag. (Crow St., 19 Feb 1814) 1814; The Apostate,trag. (Covent Garden, 3 may 1817) 1817; Bellamira or the Fall of Tunis, trag. (CG 22 Apr 1818) 1818; Evadne or the Statue, trag. (CG 10 Feb 1819) 1819; Montoni or The Phantom (CG 3 May 1820); The Hugenots (CG 11 Dec 1822), and an adpt. of Massingers Fatal Dowry (Dryury Lane 1824). Hazlitt thought of Adelaide that the language of this tragedy is made up nonsense and indecency, but it ran 30 nights; sentimentality and horror (Kavanagh).
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. I; notes that the Preface to Richard Sheils The Emigrants (1814) deplores literary absentees: While Irish genius soars through every clime, / and gains new laurels from the hand of time, / Why should her sons to foreign nations roam, / Nor trust the native patronage of home? .. / Long time indeed our sage has been supplied / With stale productions, first in Britain tried .. / . (Prologue by J. H.H., Esq., p.vi.); Vol. 2, lists Adelaide, or the Emigrants, trag. (Dublin 1814), performed Dublin 1814; also other works [as above].
R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland (London; Allen Lane 1988), p.307, bio-note: ed. Stonyhurst and TCD; Bar, 1814; wrote with some success for Dublin and London stage, 1814-20; OConnells chief opponent on veto question, attempted to conciliate liberal Protestant opinion; distanced from OConnell after 1829; MP for Irish constituencies, 1831-51; Vice Pres. Board of Trade, 1839; defended John OConnnell, 1844; Master of Mint, 1846, Brit. Minister at Tuscay, 1851.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1: selects A Speech made in Cork (1825), pp.906; 949-50; notes at pp.1138n, 1170, 1205, 1254; Vol 2, p.990.
De Burca (Catalogue 18), lists The Speeches of the Rt. Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil with memoir by Thomas MacNevin (Duffy 1845).
Library of Herbert Bell, Belfast, holds Thomas McNevin, The Speeches of Rt. Hon. Richard Lalor (Dublin 1853); another edn. (Dublin 1868).
Belfast Public Library holds R. Sheil, The Apostate (1817); R. L. Sheil, Sketches, legal and political, 2 vols. (1855); Speeches, with a memoir, ed. Thomas MacNevin (1867).
University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection, holds Speeches (Duffy 187-).
Notes
General election (Aug. 1830): Responding to a letter in The Times accusing the Catholics of ingratitude towards the Donoughmore family, another commentator blamed Hely Hutchinsons lukewarmness and want of attention and ability for his defeat. His imprudence cost him the county, Sheil later wrote. [45] Wyse comes in ... without spending a shilling and what is more without being supported by a single soul who has a shilling to spend, James Abercromby* advised Brougham, 1 Sept., adding, an attorney [Lanigan] seems to have been aware of the feeling that existed and contrived some how or other to bring people to the poll. [46] The glorious victory over the last of the fallen Hutchinsons has ... demonstrated the force of public sentiment in Ireland, declared OConnell. [47] On 5 Sept. 1830 Wyse was informed of a proposal by Otway Cave for a county registration club to be established to ensure the permanence of his victory and concentrate the friends of independence, which he agreed to chair. [48]. (The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820-1832, ed. D.R. Fisher, Cambridge UP 2009 - available online.)
See other allusions, incl.: Following a series of outrages and fatal affrays that summer and rumours that Daniel OConnell’s ‘brave Tipperary boys’ were about to mobilize, Richard Sheil of Long Orchard, one of the leaders of the Association, met with representatives of Lord Anglesey, the viceroy, and agreed to ‘use his influence’ to stop a large Tipperary meeting in support of emancipation. [30]
... and: Ministers anticipated a severe contest between Otway Cave, Sheil, Cornelius OCallaghan and J. L. Pennefather, an imprisoned tithe agitator, at the 1832 general election, but in the event Otway Cave joined Wyse in retiring rather than take the repeal pledge, and Sheil and O’Callaghan were returned unopposed as Repealers. [86]
Notes: 30: Wyse, i. 415; O’Ferrall, 227; Anglesey mss 32A/2/124. 45: The Times, 31 Aug. 1830; Sheil, Sketches, Legal and Political, ed. M. W. Savage, ii. 341; 46: Brougham mss, Abercromby to Brougham. 47: OConnell Corresp. iv. 1713. 48. Wyse mss (7), Lanigan to Wyse, 5 Sept.; (10), same to same, 15 Sept. 1830. 86: Ibid. 125/4; OConnell Corresp. iv. 1929; Donoughmore mss G/6/25; The Times, 8 Dec. 1832. (History of Parliament, ed. Fisher, 2009 - online; accessed 30.04.2024.)
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