mons tacitly acquiesced in the opinion thus pronounced, Lord Palmerston must have retired.

the motion of Mr. Roebuck, however, a vote of confidence and approval was carried, after four nights' debate, by a majority of forty-six. Mr. Sheil did not speak on this occasion. A few days afterwards he wrote to Mr. Galway, "At length all our dangers are past, and clouds full of thunder are dispersed. There was a moment when cur antagonists considered our doom to be sealed.

The majority of Friday The death of Sir Robert

has disposed of the session. Peel! I little anticipated it when I dined with him about a month ago, with the most distinguished literary men in England. His party will not, in my opinion, form a confederacy with Disraeli. I think that Sir J. Graham, notwithstanding his assault on Palmerston, will still be ours."* The allusion here is to one of the last dinners given by Sir Robert Peel, at which M. Scribe and other foreign celebrities were present.

The Upper House having, on the motion of Lord St. Germans, raised the county qualification of voters from 87. to 127., several of the Irish Liberal members were reluctant to acquiesce in so great a change; and

* Letter to James Galway, Esq., 6th July, 1850.

when the bill came back to the Commons, a good deal of discussion arose upon the motion that the Lords' amendments be agreed to. Mr. Sheil spoke briefly but forcibly, recommending the adoption of the measure even as it stood, rather than allow the Irish counties to remain any longer in the scandalous condition of being virtually without constituencies. The bill, if it passed, would be no waiver of the right to a larger measure of enfranchisement whenever it could be obtained. It was the mere acceptance of an instalment, but a very valuable one, upon account. This was the last occasion upon which he spoke in the House of Commons.

He was not a little gratified at the desire expressed by Mr. Labouchere that he would sit for his bust to Mr. C. Moore. The portrait in marble, from which the drawing prefixed to these Memoirs has been taken, derives additional value from the circumstance that it is the only likeness which exists of him in his maturer years.

CHAPTER XXII.

1850-1851.

Appointed Minister at Florence-Motives for leaving Parliament -Anticipations of ease and health-First impressions of Italy-The corps diplomatique-Views regarding Italian politics-Case of Count Guicciardini-Society at FlorenceSudden illness and death-Removal of his remains to Ireland.

WITH the session of 1850 Mr. Sheil's Parliamentary career reached its close. For twenty years he had occupied a prominent place in the varied controversies of the Senate. He had seen most of the great principles for which he had contended finally adopted, and engrafted into the policy of the State; and the suffrages of the many and the few had concurred in ascribing to his advocacy no humble share in the accomplishment of these results. As an orator his success had equalled, if not exceeded, his most sanguine

expectations; and even the judgment of friendship will hardly be deemed erroneous in awarding him ås many and as varied triumphs in debate, as any of his most gifted contemporaries. Sir Robert Peel is said to have declared, after listening to Lord Brougham's speech in 1836, in favour of the immediate abolition of negro apprenticeship, that " he never knew before of what the English language was capable." A critic no less eminent, Lord Plunket, when speaking of the comparative merits of celebrated speakers, said that "he had thought Curran had a greater choice of words than any man he had ever listened to until he had heard Sheil."* No brilliancy or variety of diction, however, would probably have won such a tribute of praise from so severe a judge, had it been unsupported by a vigorous power of reasoning-the quality which, in its most transcendent degree, he himself possessed. Many were apt to think that the musical cadences and many-coloured forms of imagery, which at the instant gave so much delight, were incompatible with sober purpose and close argumentation. But those who analyze his best speeches will hardly fail to discern in them the marks of careful thought, and the presence of a well-considered aim. Beneath the

*Letter from Lord Oranmore, 8th December, 1853.

profuse decorations, glittering side-lights, and rapidly shifting scenes presented to the dazzled throng, there was always a firm and substantial scaffolding, fabricated for no temporary purpose, and fashioned with no ordinary skill.

The exuberance of his fancy sometimes tended, no doubt, to distract attention, where a less prodigal use of images and witticisms would have served rather to its concentration and direction. He was apt to be fascinated by a phrase, and he thought he might occasionally take so much of liberty with his reputation as to indulge in the utterance of a thought intrinsically just and fine, although not strictly capable of concatenation with the arguments preceding and following it. His appreciation of rhetoric rhythm was minute and intense almost to a fault. The happy expressions of others once heard by him were never forgotten; and when he had collected and arranged the materials of a speech, he would often spend hours ruminating over the forms of expressions, and changing and altering the position of the words in particular sentences before he had settled them to his liking. The day after he had delivered one of his most successful speeches in the House of Commons, he happened to