dressing the Catholics, the brilliant orator Richard Lalor Sheil thus spoke : CHAP. LXVIII. 'Good God! what motive could have suggested this Sheil's extravagant proceeding? When Mr. Plunket read the speech on words attributed to Mr. O'Connell, did he ask himself, "What is the provocation given to this man? Who is he, and what am I? Who is his Majesty's AttorneyGeneral, the Right Hon. William Conyngham Plunket?" I know not whether he administered that personal interrogatory to himself; but if he did, this should have been his answer: "I raised myself from a comparatively humble position, by the force of my own talents, to the first eminence in the state. In my profession I am without an equal. In Parliament, I once had no superior. When out of office, I kindled the popular passions-I was fierce, and virulent, and vituperative. At last I have won the object of my life: I am Attorney-General for Ireland. I possess great wealth, great powers, great dignity, and great patronage. If I had been a Roman Catholic, instead of being an enfranchised Presbyterian, what should I have been? I can tell him. He would have carried up and down a discontented and repining spirit; he would have felt like a man with large limbs who could not stand erect-his vast faculties would have been cribbed and cabined. And how would he have borne his political degradation? Look at him, and say how would that lofty forehead have borne the brand of Popery? How would that high demeanour have worn the stoop of the slave? How would he have been tame, and abject, and servile, and sycophantic? No! he would have been the chief demagogue the most angry, tumultuous, and virulent tribune of the people. He would have superadded the honest gall of his own nature to the bitterness of political resentment. He would have give utterance to ardent feelings in burning words, and in all the forms of passion. He would have gnawed the chain from which he could not break. And is this the man who prosecutes for words? If (to use a vulgar phrase) the tables were turned-if Mr. O'Connell دو CHAP. LXVIII. Plunket's Parliamentary life. An old almanack. were Attorney-General and Mr. Plunket the leader of the people-if Anthony were Brutus, and Brutus, Anthonyhow would the public mind have been inflamed; what exciting matter would have been flung among the people. What lava would have been poured out! The very stones would rise in mutiny. Would to Heaven that not only Mr. Plunket, but every other Protestant who deplores our imprudence in the spirit of a fastidious patronage, would adopt the simple test of nature and make our case his own; he would confess that, if similarly situated, he would give vent to his emotions in phrases as exasperated, and participate in the feelings which agitate the great and disfranchised community to which it was his misfortune to belong. There is no man of ordinary candour who will not rather intimate his wonder at the moderation than his surprise at the imputed violence of O'Connell. With fortune, rank, and abilities of the first class, enjoying pre-eminence in his profession and the confidence of his country, he is shut out from honours accessible to persons whom nature intended to place infinitely behind, and whom their religion has advanced before him.' During the years 1823, 1824, and 1825 Plunket's time was much occupied by his Parliamentary duties, and his political career has been so fully traced and published by his able and eminent biographer,' that I have no excuse for adverting to it here at any length. His speeches on the Irish Church question, May 6, 1824; on the Catholic Association, February 11, 1825; and on Sir Francis Burdett's Bill, February 28, 1825, are such as only Plunket could have delivered. The way in which Plunket likened history to an old almanack, which might almost serve as a counterpoise to Macaulay's celebrated artistic New Zealander, was thus: During the debate on Sir Francis Burdett's motion for a Committee on Catholic Claims, February 28, 1825,2 he said, Time, as has been said by one of the clearest Vide Life by his grandson, vol. ii. chapters ii. iii. iv. v. 2 Hansard's Parl. Deb. vol. xii. N.S. p. 808. observers of it, was the greatest innovator of all. While man would sleep or stop in his career, the course of time was rapidly changing the aspect of human affairs. All that a wise Government could do was to keep as close as possible to the wings of time, to watch its progress, and to accommodate its motion to their flight. Arrest its course they could not; but they might vary the forms and aspects of their institutions, so as to reflect its varying aspects and forms. If this were not the spirit which animated them, philosophy would be impertinent, and history no better than an old almanack.' The riches of knowledge would serve them no better than the false money of a swindler, put upon them at a value which once circulated, but had long since ceased.' Mr. Peel in reply said, 'My right honourable friend says, he would not convert the philosophy of history into a miserable almanack, or represent experience as a swindler passing base money upon mankind. I agree with him, and I look back to history for the instructive lesson it affords, and consult experience upon the abuses of power in all ages.' It was in July, 1825, Sir Walter Scott visited inland Ireland. From Dublin, he tells us in his Diary, he made an excursion of some days into the County Wicklow, and was greatly charmed with the scenery, as well as the hospitality he received. He spent a night with Sir Philip Crampton at his charming villa, and Sir Walter says the Surgeon-General (Crampton) struck him as being more like Sir Humphrey Davy than any man he ever met, not in person only, but in the liveliness and range of his talk. The phrase, 'History is no better than an almanack,' is not original. In Boswell's Johnson, vol. iii. p. 41, Croker's edition, 1831, we read : : JOHNSON.-We must consider how very little history there is; I mean real authentic history. That certain kings reigned, and certain battles were fought, we can depend upon as true; but all the colouring, all the philosophy of history, is conjecture. BOSWELL.-Then, sir, you would reduce all history to be no better than an almanack-a mere chronological series of remarkable events.' Mercer, in his Nouveau Tableau de Paris, observes also that Malet de Paco's and such-like Histories of the Revolution are no better than an old almanack. СНАР. LXVIII. Sir Walter visit in Scott's 1825. LXVIII CHAP. Having explored Loch Bray and the Dargle, the Wizard of the North went to Plunket's seat, where a large and brilliant party, comprising the élite of Dublin literary society, was assembled. Sir Walter Scott's Plunket. While staying at Old Connaught Plunket brought the great novelist to see the wonders of Glendalough, and having conducted him. By the lake whose gloomy shore Scott insisted on visiting St. Kevin's Bed, and, undeterred by the rough rocks and dangerous pathway, climbed into the narrow cell. Lockhart, who was of the party, writing to his wife, daughter of Scott, says: It is a hole in the sheer surface of the rock in which two or three people might sit. The difficulty of getting into this place has been exaggerated, as also the danger, for it would only be falling thirty or forty feet into very deep water. Yet I was never more pained than when your papa, despite my remonstrances, would make his way into it, crawling along the precipices. He succeeded and got in; the first lame man that ever tried it.'1 When Sir Walter had left the cave, Mr. Plunket told Kathleen, the guide, that the lame gentleman was a poet.' Kathleen's notion of the title was not very exalted. Poet,' she repeated indignantly, the devil a bit of it, faith; he's a fine daycint gintleman; he gave me half-a-crown.'' Sir Walter Plunket stood very high in Scott's estimation. Lockhart estimate of says: The acute logic and brilliant eloquence of Plunket he ever afterwards talked of with high admiration; nor had he, he said, encountered in society any combination of qualities more remarkable than the deep sagacity and broad, rich humour of Mr. Blake. In Plunket, Blake, and Crampton he considered himself as having gained three real friends by this expedition; and I think I may venture to say, that the feeling on their side was warmly reciprocal.' Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. vi. p. 57. 2 Ibid. p. 58. CHAPTER LXIX. LIFE OF LORD PLUNKET, LORD CHANCELLOR, FROM HIS APPOINTMENT AS CHAP. IN March 1827, the Tory Ministry being unable to hold together, Lord Liverpool resigned and Mr. Canning was sent for. The King commanded him to form a Cabinet, Mr. Canand he was not slow in obeying the Royal mandate. Mr. Minister. ning Prime Plunket then naturally expected to be appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland, but the prejudices of King George IV. were George IV. too strong against the great champion of the Catholics, refuses to and he would not sanction the appointment. The King Plunket commanded the Archbishop of Canterbury to write to Lord Chancellor Manners, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in the King's of Ireland. name, and to signify his Majesty's desire that Lord Manners would continue to hold the Great Seal of Ireland for another year in order to afford time to his Majesty to make an arrangement for placing it in proper hands.1 Lord English Bar resist Plunket's appointment as Master of the Lord Manners, who intended to resign, signified his obedience to his Majesty's command. This at once was a The great disappointment to Plunket, but not the only one; for when Mr. Canning then appointed him Master of the Rolls in England, the English Bar signified their determination not to allow any one who was not called to the English Bar to hold a judicial appointment in England, and Rolls. I have already given the letter which Plunket wrote to his friend John Lloyd, stating that he was not in office. Mr. Canning, thus twice baffled, was under too deep obligations to Plunket not to provide for him. Accordingly he resolved to induce Lord Norbury to leave the Bench, to Life of Lord Plunket by his grandson, vol. ii. p. 245. 2 Ante, p. 377. |