Repeal are these words: "The landed proprietors of Ireland are reduced to this dilemma-they must have either a Repeal of the Union or Poor-Laws.

or the other of these they must come.'

To one

Meanwhile the Government remained passive and inert. They rejected the advice of Mr. Sheil and Dr. Doyle, and affected to regard O'Connell's threat to resuscitate agitation with contempt. With strange infatuation they preferred to look on and do nothing.

Early in February, 1830, Mr. Villiers Stuart having relinquished the representation of Waterford, Lord George Beresford sought to regain the position he had lost in 1826 as member for the county. Through the intervention of Mr. Pierce Mahony it was proposed to Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Sheil that they should act as counsel for him at the coming election; and retainers were sent to both of them accordingly. It was urged on behalf of the Waterford family (who had voted with Ministers for the Relief Bill), that by consenting to act in this capacity they would furnish a proof that old enmities were forgotten, and that the long existing cause of quarrel between creeds having been removed, there was no disposition to

First letter on the Repeal of the Union to the people of Ireland, 24th September, 1830.

keep alive the distinctions that had unhappily perverted all the relations of professional and social life. Mr. O'Connell was at first understood to have yielded to these suggestions, and to have left Mr. Mahony under the impression that he accepted the retainer. Subsequently he was induced however to decline it, upon the ground that his acting for Lord George Beresford might be regarded as inconsistent with the course of his political conduct at the time. Mr. Sheil was embarrassed by no such considerations. From the day on which the Association had been dissolved, he had abstained altogether from taking any part in public affairs, and had devoted himself exclusively to the duties of his profession, which were daily becoming more considerable. Having once consented to act as counsel for Lord George, he disdained to shrink from the performance of his professional obligations, because in the newspapers and elsewhere obloquy and abuse might be directed against him for not doing so. Mr. Barron, a Catholic gentleman of property in the county, had entered the field as a rival candidate ; and a strong feeling of preference naturally existed in his favour among the community, a vast majority of whom were attached to the same creed; but no consideration of this kind appeared to Mr. Sheil sufficient

to justify the attempt openly made to dictate to him in a matter strictly professional. He determined to set it at defiance, and proceeded to Waterford on the eve of the election, prepared to render to his client any services which he could with propriety be called on to perform; and this he did so effectually that, to use his own expression in describing the affair to a friend, "the Barron party said that his interference as counsel had ruined them; while he was assailed with gross vituperation by the mob, who charged him with being the 'decoy duck' for the Catholic voters." Lord G. Beresford was returned by a majority of 129.

Before the death of George IV. a disposition was manifested by Ministers to make some minor concessions to public opinion, which had hitherto been withheld. At the instance of Lord Francis L. Gower, several members of the Catholic bar received the distinction of silk gowns. Mr. O'Connell was still unwisely and unjustly excluded; but at the close of Trinity term, 1830, Mr. Sheil, Mr. O'Loghlen, Mr. Ball, and Mr. Cruise were called to the inner bar.

On the 20th of July he contracted a second marriage, with Anastasia widow of Mr. Power of Gurteen in the county of Waterford, with whom he *The present Earl of Ellesmere.

had been for some time acquainted, and with whom he lived in uninterrupted happiness during the remainder of his life. This amiable and accomplished lady was the daughter of John Lalor Esq. of Crenagh in the county of Tipperary, from whom, as co-heiress with her sister, who married Richard M. Bellew Esq., she inherited considerable fortune. By this marriage Mr. Sheil became independent of the resources of his profession, and he thus felt more than ever drawn towards the pursuit of a Parliamentary career. He readily acceded therefore to the wishes of many of his friends in Louth to become a candidate for that county at the general election caused by the death of the King. The struggle was a severe one. Mr. A. Dawson, who retained all the popularity acquired at his previous election in 1826, had no disposition to retire; and it was on all hands felt that he was entitled to the support of the whole of the Liberal party; but for the second seat three claimants appeared in the field-Mr. M'Clintock, who stood upon the Tory interest, Mr. Richard M. Bellew, and Mr. Sheil. The effect of the division thus caused in the popular ranks was, as was soon foreseen, the defeat of both the last-named candidates, and the return of the former. Had any one during the protracted struggle

for Emancipation ventured to foretell that upon the first opportunity that should occur, he that had done so much towards its accomplishment would be left without a seat in Parliament-the only recompence he ever sought at the hands of his fellow-countrymen -the prognostic would have been treated as a calumny, or as the ebullition of envy and of spleen; and yet it so fell out, and the matter seemed to cause little astonishment or concern. On his way from the scene of his defeat, Mr. Sheil visited the neighbouring county of Meath, where a sharp contest was likewise anticipated. At the last moment Mr. Lawless unexpectedly withdrew. In their disappointment sinister rumours were credited by the populace regarding his motives; and in the midst of the angry excitement that ensued Mr. Sheil arrived. From some cause which has never been explained, the ill humour of the multitude, far from being controlled by his presence, seemed rather to be exasperated thereby. He would willingly have taken the position vacated by Mr. Lawless, had he been permitted to do so; but blind suspicion and resentment prevailed, and he was actually advised by those who were solicitous on his account, not to provoke insult by appearing in the court-house or the street. Such were the first-fruits