laurels. The occasion was one to put in too soon in this department of his art. Sport-
motion all his loftiest powers. The great
accused had fought side-by-side with Mr.
Sheil in the "perilous and well-foughten
field" of Catholic freedom, and now that the
pupil was to lift up his appealing voice to
protect his teacher from a dungeon, all ex-
pected such an effort as might be worthy the
advocate and the client. The bar was all
compact of wigs-rank and fashion, to use
the stereotyped vocabulary of the newspapers,
crowded the galleries. Like the ladies of an
harem peeping from their lattices, bright
eyes gleamed out from every nook and corner.
Even the seat of justice was not free from
the anxious intruders. The steps on both
sides, leading to the judicial arm-chairs, were
thronged with a solid column, while some,
not having the fear of the law before their
eyes, thrust themselves fair in front of their
lordships. We knew by one patient judge
that his gallantry was sadly on the ebb, and
that he had rather the gentle intruders re-
mained at home over their pianos or knitting
frames. There was a rumor in court-the
circulation of a wag, who sought a comfort-
able seat on Dean Swift's manoeuvre of or-
dering oysters for his horse-that Mr. Sheil
was too unwell to speak that day. The dis-
appointment soon cleared off, for he came
into court at the appointed hour. He looked,
in truth, very ill. His face was pale, and
traced with suffering. The tender motion
beneath showed that the proverbial curse of
aldermen had laid his toes under contribution.
But that was not the time to sink under in-
firmities. He did not, like Appius, enter the
senate in a litter, or, like Lord Chatham, on
crutches-he moved suis pedibus, but not
without pain. He is before us, and now let
him proceed on his eloquent way. When he
rose, the universal hum subsided into a dead
stillness. Leaning forward on the table, he
opened his oration in a few faint and fluttered
periods. He told the jury of the magnitude
of his duty, and he appeared to feel it. He
was deeply agitated, and his lips quivered
with convulsive emotion. For a few minutes,
he jerked out his sentences with a drooping
though distinct voice. He implored the jury
to pardon or bear with his defects, compared
with the intellectual powers and forensic ex-
pertness of the eminent lawyers with whom
he was associated. His modest appeal was
quite touching, but underneath that simpli-
city there lay consummate art. Passing
rapidly from the solemnity of powerful and
well-digested exordium, he floated along for
nearly one hour in a current of mingled wit,
playfulness, and banter.

iveness is, on occasions, more effective than
the gravest logic or most pompous eloquence;
but for all things there is a time. We are
not professors of rhetoric, or expounders of
critical rules. Genius, like the wind, blow-
eth where it listeth. Mr. Sheil's instinctive
skill and practised habits are a surer guide
than our sayings or opinions. But we shape
our remarks by a judgment less fallible than
our own-the countenance of Mr. O'Connell
bearing "the mind's impress
on its saga-
cious front. He pressed his lips-knit his
brows-shifted his spectacles-looked into a
paper lying before him, and, as if to inter-
rupt the strain, handed the speaker a volume
of Carrington and Payne's reports, which
drew him off to more sober considerations and
loftier eloquence. He stirred the court with
alternate admiration and laughter. The Attor-
ney-General alone was an immobility. It has
been his hard fate to undergo the assaults of
many tongues. Honorable, and fearless, and
manly, it pained us to see him exposed to the
effects of his position. Mr. Sheil hit him
hard, but there was no serious bitterness in
his sarcasm-it was light-jocular-some-
times penetrating, but never for a moment
insulting or malicious. It was easy to dis-
criminate between delicate and playful irony
and cold and vindictive severity. The tram-
net and the miraculous catch of agitators,
editors, and priests, was in the happiest style
of conception, and the very perfection of de-
livery: and when he looked laughingly at
the Attorney-General, and then shot forward
with pointed finger, and asked, "why did
you not catch a Bishop?" Judge Burton
passed his hands over his face, and even the
Chief Justice smiled. This may be said to
be the personal part of his address. A wider
and more interesting picture was now before
him. The past supplied the materials out of
which were moulded the most beautiful and
eloquent passages of his speech, and at the
same time the most influential on the minds
of the Jury, if the kindling power of an im-
passioned oratory could awake in them a re-
membrance of duty to their country, rising
high and far above the charge of the chief,
and the cruel strictness of the law. If Mr.
Sheil left no permanent effects in his glori-
ous track, it was not because he did not sink
deep. That was perceptible to all, but it was
soon effaced by other causes.

He seemed to us to have broken ground

His historical sketch of the state of Ireland, and the changes in her condition and constitution, was singularly clear and graphic. If Mr. O'Connell spoke with freedom of the injustice of England, was he alone in his indignant denouncement? There was the

name.

famous "Case of Ireland"-there were the the child of her that watches over him from heaDrapier's letters-there was the burning ven, and shall look out for some high place far grandeur of Grattan, and the logical invective and wide into the island, whose greatness and of Flood-there was the free-speaking oppowhose glory shall be for ever associated with his sition in the Irish Parliament, and the volun- Ireland-in your love of honesty and fair play— In your love of justice-in your love of teers in their conventions and congresses! I place my confidence. I ask you for an acquitNo Attorney-General dared to prosecute tal, not only for the sake of your country, but for them for sedition and conspiracy. If he did, your own. Upon the day when this trial shall would a jury of '82 convict them? Would have been brought to a termination, when amidst they immolate their patriots and their own the burst of public expectancy, in answer to the liberties on the same altar? This was the by the officer of the court, you shall answer 'not solemn interrogatory which shall be put to you train of his argument and eloquence. One guilty,' with what a transport will that glorious passage from the very brilliant conclusion of negative be welcomed! How will you be blest, his speech drew down a universal burst of adored; and when retiring from this scene of exapplause. The spirit that informs it is in citement and of passion, you shall return to your the best vein of pathetic eloquence. It was tranquil homes, how pleasurably will you look the closing appeal. As we shall hereafter upon your children, in the consciousness that you take up ine speeches of Mr. Sheil, Mr. White-will have left them a patrimony of peace, by impressing upon the British cabinet, that some other side, and others in a separate paper, we ab- measure besides a state prosecution is necessary stain from extracts at present; but the beauty for the pacification of your country." of this peroration will lose in no repetition :

It is unnecessary to pass in review all the "There is not a great city in Europe in which, topics on which Mr. Sheil dilated. All were upon the day upon which the great intelligence well conceived and apposite, forming the conshall be expected to arrive, men will not stop stituent parts of a complete and elaborate each other in the public way, to inquire whether whole. The various elements, and they are twelve men upon their oaths have doomed to in- multitudinous, which could be brought to bear carceration the man who gave liberty to Ireland. on a jury of Irishmen, and above all of DubWhatever may be your adjudication, he is pre- lin citizens and Protestants, were skilfully pared to meet it. He knows that the eyes of the mixed up-the glories of '82 with its Protestworld are upon him, and that posterity, whether in a gaol or out of it, will look back to him with ant volunteers-the gloom of the Union, with admiration. He is almost indifferent to what may the consequent decay of trade-the petitions befall him, and is far more solicitous for others of the Orange Corporation to restore the Parat this moment than for himself. But I-at the liament-"the guilty desire" that Ireland commencement of what I have said to you, I told had been a nation of Protestants-all were exyou that I was not unmoved, and that many in-pounded for the palate of the jury with the cidents of my political life, the strange alterna- most refined artistic skill. As a display of tions of fortune through which I have passed, forensic eloquence, however, it is no demerit came back upon me. But now the bare possibility at which I have glanced has, I acknow- to its excellence to state, that it fell short of ledge, almost unmanned me. Shall I, who those models of magnificence which fill the stretch out my hand to you in behalf of the son highest places in the temple of oratory, and -the hand whose fetters the father had struck which we are accustomed to regard as the off-live to cast my eyes upon that domicile of masterpieces of sublime art. We have heard gorrow, in the vicinity of this great metropolis, it foolishly remarked, that it rivalled or surand say 'Tis there they have immured the Liberator of Ireland, with his fondest and best be- passed the immortalities of ancient or modern loved child? No! it shall never be! You will times. The most that may be said in the not consign him to the spot to which the Attor- panegyrical fashion is, that it was worthy the ney-General invites you to surrender him. No. reputation of Mr. Sheil-and this is proceedWhen the spring shall have come again, and the ing far in the direction of real praise. When winter shall have passed-when the winter shall we reflect on the grave character of the issue have come again, it is not through the windows when we consider that he was on that occaof this mansion that the father of such a son, and the son of such a father, shall look upon those sion the advocate not of one, but of millions green hills on which the eyes of many a captive that the most sacred privileges of the peohas gazed so wistfully in vain; but in their own mountain home they shall listen to the murmurs of the great Atlantic; they shall go forth and inhale the freshness of the morning air together; they shall be free of mountain solitudes; they will be encompassed with the loftiest images of liberty upon every side; and if time shall have stolen its suppleness from the father's knee, or impaired the firmness of his tread, he shall lean on

ple were in his keeping-that the first and loftiest principles of the constitution, and the venerable common law of the realm, were in danger-that he was the advocate of a nation against a government-that the history of centuries was at his command, to extract the finest materials that ever quickened, elevated, and inspired human eloquence-when we weigh all

these, and read the speech, grand as it is, we persuasive. If he was not first in oratory, he must say, that Mr.Sheil might have soared into was foremost in effect. There was little proan "ampler ether." Pictures might be drawn fessional argument, not because he was incaof triumphs and defeats-of sufferings and of pable of application to that department, but struggles-more comprehensive in design, because his duties lay in an opposite direcand richer or more sombre in coloring, than tion. He was not to convince the court, but the most eloquent of painters ever completed. to move the jury,-to shame the ministerExcept the cause of his country in the hands to soften the parliament, and absorb the atof Demosthenes, there was nothing compara- tention of the people of England in painting ble to the occasion of Mr. Sheil; principally the wrongs and sufferings of their oppressed to him, because in the allotment and distri- brethren in Ireland. Why, men said, did not bution of the parts, that of history was as- Sheil explain the law? He had a higher dusigned to his picturesque eloquence, the more ty-to lay the basis of future laws. If he was weighty consideration of constitutional law not profound in legal exposition, it was beand particular facts being appropriated to cause five were to follow who would exhaust others. He alone had "verge enough" to the subject, through all its magnitude and vatrace in imperishable characters the past, riety. He had art, tact, and passion-the present, and future fortunes of his country. whole set off by the most exquisite acting, We proudly acknowledge the splendid mani- very curious, though very impressive. Every festations of intellectual power in many parts gesture and tone and cadence and position, of his speech-there were streams of spark- was a study for the actor and elocution-masling beauty and subduing pathos alternating ter. It was perhaps too violent in some rewith high and ennobling oratory-but we missed those imperishable flashes which are treasured up and remembered-the emanations of mind, which, like the bursting of the fountains of the great deep, fling out their living waters, to refresh and gladden for ever -the enduring power which for ever is incorporated with the history of the human mind, and which, like the conqueror of the Python, leaves the image of the orator to all future time in ever-living and unrivalled beauty and grandeur, when the orator and the epoch are passed away, and both are only known or remembered by the embalming powers of immortal eloquence.

spects, and subversive of personal dignity, for you might feel that the orator was tricking you into an acknowledgment of his ability, by putting you off with empty dexterity of body instead of inspirations of mind. But in Mr. Sheil's case the orator accompanied the actor, and the mind and the eye were alike satisfied. In style it was the chastest of his we ever read. There was none of the redundancy and straining after expression which is perceptible in most of his earlier and some of his later efforts. No such conceits as calling "tears" the " steam of burning hearts". and patriotism "the sunflower of the soul." Such frigidities had yielded to a more graceIn these remarks we set up the standard of ful and accomplished diction. The portraits an ideal excellence which very few have, but of Saurin and Bushe, though brief, were charwhich has been reached. Mr. Whiteside, acteristic and beautiful-the royal procession whose overpowering effort we shall notice in to College Green, and the delineation of the due order, has closely approximated to it in sovereign-the wife and the mother-the some passages-Mr. Sheil hovered near the very gems of pictorial eloquence. The most confines, but, attracted by more inviting and faultless and touching of perorations drew transitory elements, he dropped into mid air. forth some tears-O'Connell himself wept. To derogate, however, from the extreme fin- Some idea of its subduing effect may be formish and beauty and effect of his oration, we ed from one miraculous circumstance—the are utterly indisposed. If we were to judge unexampled phenomenon of Mr. William of its splendor by the response of universal Ford pouring out his feelings in hysterical admiration and applause, its merit stands con- sobs,-Pluto's iron tears! The effect professed. One learned Judge declared it to be duced by Mr. Sheil somewhat resembled that the most eloquent speech he had ever heard, produced by Sheridan's speech, for Mr. and he had heard the defence of the Catholic Moore, following the example of Mr. Pitt, Delegates the prosecution and defence of obtained from the court an adjournment. No the Bottle Conspirators-Mr. O'Connell's ladies fainted, though sensitive town clerks speeches in defence of Magee and Barrett, shed tears-something still more strange than with many other of the most consummate the accounts we read of the impressions prodisplays of the Irish bar. Such was his duced on the Athenian audience by the Euestimate of Mr. Sheil. To roll up this menides of Eschylus. A grey attorney in long distended thread of gentle criticism, hysterics! Mr. Sheil was witty, brilliant, polished, and

On the following day Mr. Moore commenc

say,

ed his address for the Rev. Mr. Tierney. effect quite appalling. His parliamentary His task was comparatively easy, as, of all career, and we ourselves acknowledge a guilthe accused, the meek pastor of Clontibret ty participation, has exposed Mr. Smith to was the least involved in the conspiracy. But much unprovoked bitterness. To gall a genMr. Moore did not limit himself to the mere erous steed by a continual pricking of his ulexculpation of his client. He stood on high-cerated wounds, is unkind and cruel. Had er ground, and, while he prominently kept he done deeds of dishonor and disrepute, let his peculiar cause in front of the argument, him pay the penalty of a criminal rememand extracted ample proofs of his client's in-brance-otherwise let him be spared. In the nocence from the indictment and the evi- case of Mr. Moore, it was only the old law of dence, he did battle at the same time for all Talio. Mr. Smith pierced, and was punishthe traversers. He had not Mr. Sheil's wited in return. That Mr. Moore so smote, let to vivify-or his eloquence to inspire-or his the Attorney-General accuse the quickness of vigorous action to rivet attention: but he his own temper, which is for ever rising up in had pure and unembarrassed reasoning-con- judgment against him—a weakness, however, stitutional principles to lay down-sound and which is more than balanced by many virtues. just conclusions to draw-rational conjectures To pass to more pleasing contemplations from complicated and contradictory testimo- than the quarrels of honorable men, which, ny to infer-and all impressed with that au- after all, amount to nothing more than that thority and weight which the highest profes- artificial enmity engendered by the temporasional character can bestow. If he had none ry conflict of heated minds, and which soon of the impassioned bursts, or that overwhelm- fades before the returning light of cool and ing vehemence which constitute the more ex- deliberate reflection-Mr. Moore cleared up alted style of advocacy, he had that unpre- what Mr. Sheil left for the most part untending but not the less convincing plainness touched in all its purity-the law of conand simple force of expression which spring spiracy, and its application to the case of all from sterling sense and clear and calm reason. the traversers. He was very clear and powYou could cull no particular passage, and erful in untying the hard knots with which "this is eloquence"-but you would say the Crown had drawn in and fastened the acthat the entire was characteristic of a power-cused. Every sentence contained a princiful mind. It was remarkable for two quali-ple. Without identifying himself with the reties-a condensed exposition of the law, and peal question, from which he kept sedulously cutting, we might almost say savage, sarcasm. He is a modest and good-natured man, to whom the utterance of a harsh expression is quite a novelty. An understanding so sound, and judgment so well balanced, rarely yield to the impulses which sway less sober and re-stated by the Attorney-General was not held flective minds. Irony and invective are alien by Mr. O'Connell, "from a conviction of its to such natures; they are found in the way- illegality." This afforded Mr. Moore a fine ward, the sensitive, the strong of passion and opportunity of assailing the conduct of the intemperate of tongue; but who would have government in their tardy issue of that memsought them in Richard Moore? His sever- orable proclamation, and at the same time, of ity to the Attorney-General broke on us with explaining the views and extolling the husurprise. Keen as was the satire, and poig-manity of Mr. O'Connell, in saving the unnant and wicked the wit of Mr. Sheil, he was armed multitudes from the chances of a surpassed by Mr. Moore in the intensity and collision with the soldiery. Whether the unsparing weight of his blows. And yet there was nothing which fell without the circle of professional duty. This is the difficulty to guard against, and for transgressing which, in the esteem of the Attorney-General, Mr. Fitzgibbon was honored with his cartel. We can account for the unloosing of Mr. Moore's generally inoffensive tongue. A deep deposite had been accumulating in his mind since the day he was charged with "gross ignorance." The long fast since then had sharpened his appetite. He gathered up and nursed his just indignation for a future day, when it suddenly burst on the Attorney-General's ear with an

distant, he rested the right of the Irish people to pursue it on the true, intelligible, and constitutional grounds. From an abstract view of the law, he descended to particulars, and alit on the Clontarf meeting, which it was

projected march to Conquer-Hill, with Mr. Morgan's "turms of horse and wings," and the sable denizens of the Coal Quay in divisions and sections-was legal or not, we shall not inquire after the verdict, but that the motives of the leader originated in purer and better feelings than those attributed by the Attorney-General, we cannot for a moment doubt. Mr. Moore, with simple eloquence, depicted the disastrous consequences which might ensue from a rash or sudden act or word of offence-and with the possible horrors of a butchery before the eyes of Mr. O'Connell, he left the Jury to choose between

the convictions of humanity and illegality. pondence of the Society-ordering the publi The speech occupied two hours in the de- cations of the Society-and discharging the livery, and within that time it would be diffi- bills of the Society. It was monstrous, cult to compress more solid reasoning-more "Gentlemen," preposterously monstrous! comprehensive, and at the same time minute Mr. Hatchell's language was distinguished and particular exposition-more successful for abstinence from all personality or attribudevelopment of principles, and more skill tion of unfair or uncandid motives. He in their application. He aimed at no splen- spoke without offence, and his efficiency was did display-he forgot himself in the interests not less. The doses administered by his preof his clients, and was content with the more decessors were strong enough, and perhaps humble duty of keeping close to his subject. the policy of moderation in that juncture After the high flavor of Mr. Sheil's oratory, was the best that could have been adopted. the homeliness of Mr. Moore was a great relief-one had the cream of champagne, the other of humble but more nutritious milk. Each, however, is good in its season.

Mr. Fitzgibbon had from the commencement thrown himself into the lead, and maintained it with an inflexibility which often savored of undue hardship to his opponents; Mr. Hatchell's defence for the Secretary of but the cause lay deeper-in the peculiarity the Association surpassed in effect the cus- of his temperament. It was his constitution, tomary run of his jury addresses. Circum- the character of his mind, and not the respect and cunning, he threw deep into shad-sult of an obtrusive or vindictive disposition: ow, or passed over with the slightest glance for though a bold and courageous man, he is of his cautious mind, those points of the ac- in many respects gentle and retiring. Procusation which bore most heavily on Mr. fessionally he strikes forward, and stays withRay. He pressed the Crown with well-af- in no limits which he conceives it his duty to fected indignation on the solemn mockery of surpass. In all this there is no "criminal inpunishing a man for a conspiracy who was tent." He was counsel for Dr. Gray, of the merely the paid servant of the conspiring Freeman's Journal, and unlike Mr. Moore, body. This was the very danger in which who contented himself with a rapid and his client was involved, and he pushed it forcible sketch, there remained for him the aside with a "Really, gentlemen of the jury, boundless variety of the law and evidence. this is too bad. Was there ever any thing so This was the ponderous task which Mr. monstrous, as to punish my client for speak- Fitzgibbon incurred, and he accomplished it ing no seditious speech-moving no criminal in a speech of immense length. He pitted resolution-attending no monster-meeting? himself against the eleven hours of the AtFor I will show you that the excursion to torney-General, and in truth assumed the part Tara was an innocent pic nic ?"-and sic to of Attorney-General for the accused. He the end. The light materials of his defence was able, searching, and logical; but had he were worked together with much adroitness, been more compressed, he would have been and put forth with vigor and effect. One more convincing. His fault lay in his propoint he turned to the greatest advantage. lixity. Condensed into five or six hours, his In the cases of Horne Tooke and Hardy, argument would have proved the masterthe law officers of the day, influenced by piece of the trials: but being long of arguBritish feelings, and dealing with British ju- ment, and strict of conscience, he gave the ries, produced for examination the secretary accused the full benefit of both. The foreto the Corresponding Society-a reluctant taste of his severity in the past discussions witness for the Crown: but an English Attor- influenced all the law officers to erect their ney-General gave accused Englishmen the united ears, and watch every word of Mr. benefit of his cross-examination. That wit- Fitzgibbon. It was believed that he, with ness established the innocent character of his usual fearlessness, would take advantage the Society. Here the "Secretary" was of the occasion, and "speak the truth that distorted into a conspirator, and struck mute was in him." Feeling, perhaps, that in the for self and fellows. Mr. Hatchell was over- stern discharge of his duty, his language flowing with "monstrosities"-this was mon- might give offence, he opened with a high strous-that was monstrous-every thing eulogy on the professional merits of the Atdone by the Crown, in fact, was to him in- torney-General-he rounded off his character explicably monstrous. Now was it to be be- as a gentleman and a lawyer most panegyrlieved that in a free country-governed by a ically, but then he took care to discriminate free constitution and laws-that the Crown between what was due to him as a private inshould bear down on so innocent a man as dividual and state prosecutor. In the latter Mr. Ray-for doing what?-receiving the capacity he felt bound to speak as his client, moneys of the Society-directing the corres-standing at the bar, would have spoken.