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defiance of all the solemn protests of dowagerhood and dulness, by his own indomitable will. At the anger of the born-statesmen, that a great party should be led by a man without connexions or landed title to bear rule over a landed Parliament, Sheil laughed heartily. But with those few fellow-plebeians who, like himself, were not ashamed of their order, the triumph of Mr. Disraeli was felt to be the triumph of unfriended, unaided, untolerated genius over the most relentless of all monopolies-that of political caste. "It is wonderful," he would exclaim, in audible soliloquy; "I have had some experience of what he has undergone and overcome, and I think it wonderful." But when, like other men, Mr. Disraeli failed upon some uninteresting subject, to avoid the imputation of being tedious, Sheil did not affect to feel interested or amused. One evening, when he had consumed more time than usual in discussing some commercial question without his accustomed brilliancy or success, the Master of the Mint, who was standing behind the Speaker's chair, was asked by a friend how it happened that the witty member for Bucks no longer made them laugh as he used to do in 1846? "You forget that times are changed," said Sheil: "Peel is no longer in office, and there is no one else worth dis

secting. The fault is not in the operator. He is an anatomist without a corpse."

Towards the end of March, 1848, considerable apprehensions were entertained regarding the effect of certain writings and speeches addressed to the working classes, then suffering severely from want of employment, by Mr. Feargus O'Connor. Meeting him one day in the lobby of the House of Commons, Mr. Sheil drew him aside, and expostulated with him in a friendly but warning tone on the mischief he might heedlessly do to others as well as to himself. Remonstrance appearing to prove ineffectual, he said at length, in low but monitory accents, "Well, you will take your own course; but remember, I tell you as a friend the Home Office has its eye upon you, and you may regret when it is too late your unwillingness to take prudent advice."

"Oh!" exclaimed O'Connor, raising his voice, "this comes well from the Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil, whom I once heard upon the hustings when he was only like myself-a plain honourable gentleman-tell the people what their rights were, and that if after due demand they could not get them by peaceful and constitutional means, he would not be found to shrink from leading them when other efforts must be tried."

"But did you never hear," said Mr. Sheil, "what the people said to me afterwards? They told me they knew very well that I had no more notion of taking up arms, or leading them to the field, than Feargus O'Connor."

A resolution, condemnatory of the policy of Ministers towards the West Indian Colonies, was moved on the 13th of June, by Sir John Pakington, who argued that the produce of free cultivation could not fairly be exposed to competition with that of slave labour. He was supported upon various grounds by members differing from each other widely in their general views and opinions. Mr. Hume and Mr. Goulburn, Mr. Gladstone and Lord George Bentinck, for once were found voting together; and after many nights' debate Ministers had only a majority of 260 to 245. Writing on the following day to a friend in Ireland, Mr. Sheil thus alludes to the circumstance— "Last night the Government had a majority of fifteen only. Seven Irishmen deserted us, and indeed there was such a combination against the Government that I am astonished that we were not in a minority -only four of Peel's followers voted with us, the rest joined Lord George Bentinck. But I believe that we are safe for the session. I do not think that any measure will be propounded by which such a coalition of appa

rently adverse and repugnant elements will take place. Not a single Irish Tory voted with us; so much for all their professions to Lord Clarendon."*

A Select Committee having been appointed to inquire into the operation of the laws respecting Ministers' Money in Ireland, with a view to their amendment, and whether any other and what fund might be rendered available for the purposes to which that tax had hitherto been applied, they proceeded on the 23rd of May to elect a chairman. The Conservative members present supported the nomination of Sir John Young, while the Liberals, who were in a majority of one, voted for the Master of the Mint. The proceedings of the Committee were continued by adjournment until the end of July. Their report, which was drawn up by the Chairman, gave in a succinct form the substance of the evidence taken on the subject, and presented with clearness and precision the reasons why an alteration in the existing law seemed to be needful. By the 17th and 18th Charles II., chap. 7, a tax of five per cent. upon the valuation of all houses situated in the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Kilkenny, and the towns of Clonmel, Drogheda, and Kinsale, was im

* Extract of a letter to James Galway, Esq., 30th June, 1848.

posed for the payment of the clergy of the Established Church therein. None of the towns north of the Boyne were included in the provisions of the statute; "the Protestant Dissenters of the North of Ireland, a powerful and influential body, being thus wholly exempted from an ecclesiastical charge, which the Roman Catholics of Ireland had always considered to be a grievance." Several of the parochial clergy examined by the Committee had expressed their strong desire that some means might be found other than Ministers' Money for the payment of their incomes, as they felt that it was calculated to place them continually in an invidious position among those of the community who did not attend their ministration, and thereby to impair their power of general usefulness. Various suggestions for the commutation of the charge, or for its redemption either optional or compulsory, had been made, as well as a proposal for placing the amount (about 15,000l. a-year) upon the Consolidated Fund, all of which the Report negatived as inadmissible. The only alternative that remained was, to render the annual amount in question a primary charge upon the funds vested in the Irish Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Some conflict of testimony prevailed as to the

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