their advocates; yet his own party distrusted' his sincerity, and his opponents left their ranks open to him, and seldom replied to him with any acrimony, when he abused them, believing that he was not in earnest, and being willing to leave him a "locus penitentia" on the opposition benches.

The United Irishmen were influenced in their conduct towards him, by the same opinions of the weakness of his attachment to his party, and their expectation of detaching him from it. Hence the intercourse which existed between them; and, at last, it proved fatal to the Sheares.

CHAPTER VI.

THE account of "The Northern Star," "The Press," and "The Union Star," was intended to give some idea of the real as well of the avowed object of those who conducted or contributed to those papers. Among the latter, the Sheares were not the least active; John especially, in connection with the organs of the United Irishmen, both in Cork and Dublin.

The qualities of the two brothers differed widely. Henry was naturally fonder of the pleasures of society than of political excitement; he was luxurious in his tastes, shewy in his dress, expensive in his habits, naturally facile in his disposition, easily irritated, and quickly appeased. He shrunk at the approach of sudden or unexpected danger, and was unfitted to encounter it, though not from a deficiency in that kind of bravery which is exhibited in "affairs of honour." If it be a criterion of resolution, on any occasion of personal insult, to be ready to shoot the offender, or stand to be shot at, he wanted not courage; but if mental fortitude is to be distinguished from physical courage, the former cannot be attri

buted to Henry Sheares. But while this admission is made, it may be said with equal truth, that a more strictly honourable man, in all his private relations and professional pursuits, did not exist.

He was, indeed, ill-adapted for the strife of political life. The influence of a beloved brother, possessed of superior mental powers, whose political opinions were firmly established and boldly asserted, drew him away from the social and family circle, in which his enjoyments chiefly centred.

John Sheares, by many years his junior, was of a character that required to be known intimately, and by those private friends in whom he thoroughly confided, to enable any estimate to be formed of his merits or defects. Hitherto, we have only been made acquainted with the latter.

For the information I have received with regard to him, I am principally indebted to a lady, who had been most intimately acquainted with him, on whom he had placed his affections, and by whom his name was never mentioned to her latest hour, but with tenderness and sorrow.

The qualities of this lady, indeed, were calculated to win the esteem of all who knew her; they were of an order to be prized by one who was, of all men, most capable of appreciating a noble nature and a cultivated mind-the late Sir Walter Scott.

The amiable and highly-gifted lady, I refer to, in communicating to me a written account of her knowledge of the family, and especially of that member of it, whose every secret was known to her, was pleased to leave the matter to my decision, whether her name

should be given in the correspondence which she placed in my hands, and in relation to that attachment which is the subject of it.

"In publishing their lives," she says, " as it is likely mention must be made of me, at first I thought of your using the initials of my name, or of being designated Maria Se; but, on consideration, I withdraw the scruple, and leave all to your own good judgment."

Exercising that judgment to the best of my ability, and with all the consideration that would be due to the feelings of that most estimable lady, were she living, and that I owe to her memory, now that she is no more-I give her name without reserve; because I feel, in all sincerity, without injury to it, that the name of Maria Steele will be associated with that of John Sheares, as that of Amelia Curran is with Robert Emmett's; and those names will be remembered with tenderness and pity, when those which they subsequently received, may be less remembered.

The following memorandum of Maria Steele's recollection of both the brothers, but more particularly of John, was presented to me by that lady in 1835, in reply to some queries of mine, respecting the subjects of this memoir :

"Both the brothers had been United Irishmen more than a year, when I first knew them in 1794: and they attended the meetings of that society as others then did. A speech that was made at one of those meetings, gave Lord Clare an opportunity of speaking disrespectfully of them in the

many

House of Lords, the consequence of which was a demand for an explanation from the eldest. They had become United Irishmen at the same time; but there was nothing legally criminal in their proceedings till 1798.

"In the year 1797, about Christmas, John was intensely desirous of going to America. He was indeed very anxious to leave Ireland, and would have gone wherever those he was attached to pleased, but he would not go without one particular companion. He sometimes talked of going to France in a diplomatic character, but I don't believe he ever made an effort to get appointed. He was prompt to acknowledge the danger of French assistance; and latterly America was the country he was always wishing to go to. They had been to France together, to see the three children of Henry, who were with the parents of his late wife in one of the provinces. The revolution was then going on, and it drew them to Paris. Of the other brothers, one had been drowned before my acquaintance with them, in trying to save his brother John; another brother, Christopher, was in the army, and died in the West Indies.

"John used to say, with great emotion, that he had caused the death of two of his brothers, one who was drowned in saving him, the other who was reluctant to go to the West Indies till persuaded by him to go there. Their sister Julia was never married, she died not long ago. My sister thinks she remembers their married sister, Mrs. Westrop, at a ball given by Henry, but never saw her before, or after; and never heard either brother speak of their