Page images
PDF
EPUB

his mother, gratified and delighted at the discovery of his father, and Thompson pleased by the reconciliation which his own humiliation had been instrumental in producing. Thus events had after all proceeded favourably, and the junior clerk became a branch of the firm, which again contained a Barton under better auspices, and with greater credit than before-while Jonathan Lumley resumed his own name, and Chester, where he afterwards resided, draws little distinction between the virtues of the widow Wilton and her husband.

[blocks in formation]

CHARACTER OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE STEPHEN WOULFE.

66

Thy reasons were too strong,

"And driv'n too near the head to be but artifice,
"And after all, I know thou wert a statesman
"Where truth is rarely found."

DRYDEN'S DON SEBASTIAN.

THE late Right Honourable STEPHEN WOULFE, who successively filled the offices of Attorney-General and Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, in Ireland, was one of the most gifted men our country has produced; but unlike most of his remarkable predecessors and contemporaries, he has never received the appreciation justly due to his distinctive and peculiar talents, or to his character so strikingly original. It is very true that his obvious qualities were discerned and eagerly commended by "the great vulgar and the small," his facility in speaking, his courage, and his energy were held in due respect. His political integrity was also cordially acknowledged, for calumny never sullied his fair fame; but the finest parts of his character escaped the notice of the lounging quidnuncs of the clubs, and the common herd of vulgar politicians.

What in his character was untold, was never even suspected by many who thought they knew him well. And undoubtedly the outer man of Mr. Woulfe was well known throughout Ireland. The zealous adherent of Lord Plunket, and eloquent opponent of O'Connell in the Catholic Committees; the ingenious nisi prius lawyer, making a subtle intellect and rapid perception atone for the want of profound knowledge of his profession; the charming social companion-the warm friend-the accomplished gentleman, - these phases of his character were notorious to all who knew him but slightly. But the inner mind of Stephen Woulfe was appreciated but by a few. His fondness for philosophical speculation, -his proneness to reflection on the mighty problem of human destiny,his love of reverie, and his yearning soul, were unknown to the many, and received sympathy from very few of his political or professional acquaintances. His passions were preternaturally strong, and the morbid energy of his physical system lamentably fettered the aspirations of his heart :

"Oft when his spirit did spread its golden wings,
"In mind to mount up to the pure sky,

"It was weighed down with thought of earthly things,
"And clogged. with burden of mortality."

To his frailties we thus passingly allude, in order that we may not be supposed to be his mere encomiasts.

We will state one fact which will show how ignorant the public were of the capacity for affairs which so eminently distinguished him. The

celebrated letter to Lord Donoughmore and the magistrates of Tipperary, [Dublin Castle, May 22nd, 1838.—Parliamentary papers, Aug. 1838, moved for by Mr. Hume,] in which is the memorable aphorism, "Property has its duties as well as its rights," was from the pen of Mr. Woulfe. Of the effects produced by that letter it is needless for us to speak. It never can be forgotten in Ireland. Seldom was a public document conceived in a happier spirit. Equal to the occasion which called it forth, its moral power can be best estimated by the stricken spirits of those whose arrogance and injustice were rebuked therein with stern dignity.

The lamented Thomas Drummond, whose name is signed to that document, has hitherto enjoyed the credit of having been the author of that justly celebrated letter. With the spirit in which that document was dictated he was completely identified. During his honourable career of office, too short for his adopted country, though quite long enough to made his memory revered, Thomas Drummond unflinchingly sought to carry out those ideas of government, of which the letter to Lord Donoughmore is the tersest and most suggestive exposition. We are therefore not detracting by any means from the justly-earned fame of the lamented Under-Secretary, when we transfer to Mr. Woulfe the honour of having been the writer of that letter. We would not lightly make the asssertion, if we had not ample reason for knowing the fact to be, that the whole letter was written by him; and further, as proof of the remarkable promptitude which he possessed, we can state that it was written at a few hours' notice.

In announcing this fact, we are only making public what has been known already amongst well-informed circles of politicians. Those who were acquainted with Woulfe, cannot be surprised at his having been the writer of the Donoughmore Despatch. The faculty of saying the right thing at the right time belonged to him in a very eminent degree. He hardly ever could be taken unawares, where a demand was suddenly made upon his mind. He was always equal to the occasion. What he said was pregnant with meaning, instinct with argument. Beyond any man that has come under our notice, he possessed the power of impromptu analysis. In this direction lay the genius of his mind. He was an intrepid thinker, and was always eager to grapple with the difficulties in an argument or a system,-whether of law or philosophy. His mind was accustomed to think broadly, hence his logic was not that of the schoolman, but of the statesman,-comprehensive in its grasp, crushing in its application. For example, what can be more clenching than his reply to those crafty and canting Tories, who proposed to do away altogether with corporations in Ireland, and who argued that the Irish Catholic could not complain, inasmuch as they would be placed on a level with Protestants? "You gave them equality of rights in 1829, but when did you confer upon them equality of privation ?" Nor should his reply to Peel ever be forgotten, when the wily Tory leader

raised the question," Cui bono Corporations ?--What good will they do in Ireland-a poor country, with little trade?" "I will tell the Right Honourable Baronet," answered Woulfe; "they will go far to CREATE AND TO FOSTER PUBLIC OPINION IN IRELAND, AND TO MAKE IT RACY OF THE SOIL,"-words which embody with inimitable terseness the objects of an Irish patriot-statesman.

Perhaps the most perfect monument of Woulfe's mind, and the one most likely to carry his name to posterity, is his famous dissertation on the Catholic Question. It was published in the year 1819, and dedicated to H. Brougham, under the title of a Letter to a Protestant on the Balance of Evils. It was republished in 1825. It is a splendid specimen of philosophical politics, and is pregnant with the profoundest observation. A friend, on whose judgment we place some reliance, has written of this work in a private letter to us :

"I had never before seen Woulfe's argument on the Catholic Question, and I have been perfectly amazed at the ability of some portions of it. The permanent value and universal applicability of the arguments chiefly rested on, and the intimate familiarity with ancient and modern history displayed throughout, struck me very much. It is plain that he had been a deep student of history. But it is absurd to look upon the work as a pamphlet. It is a grand oration, undelivered for want of a fit arena to speak it in, like Cicero's famous Second Philippic. You may, if you like, class it as a piece of political reasoning, with Mackintosh's disquisition on the Reform Bill, or any other essay of that description. That is ware with which I do not meddle. I would rather compare it to Burke's great speech on conciliation with America. It evinces the same power of surveying the question from an exalted height, and looking down upon the contending principles of both sides. Woulfe's subject is not less grand than Burke's, and his treatment of it hardly less comprehensive and dignified; it is a plea for national integrity, universal tolerance, and the supremacy of law, unstained by even the pretence of partizanship."

Of all species of composition, political writing is soonest apt to grow stale, a fact which should always be borne in mind when judging a public writer. The following passage from Woulfe's dissertation has not lost its significance in these days, when the No Popery cry has been revived :—

FEARS FOR THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

"The temporal establishment of the Church of England is one of the bulwarks of the present form of government; though dedicated to religion, it serves the temporal exigencies of the State; like the temple of the Jews, it is a fortress and a temple. It is one of the great lines of circumvallation that encompass the throne; an order of hereditary nobility is the other. No, no; they are not the Catholics or the sectaries who will destroy the church: if doomed to fall, it will be assailed by a different class of men, who will overthrow the throne and its appendages together; it need not fear the disciplined strength of the Papal Hierarchy, the impetuosity of the Methodists, the steady hatred of the Calvinists, or, what a learned doctor was wont to call the "irregular and Cossack warfare which is waged against it, by newer sects, from old walls and

ditches." All these attacks it may defy; but let it tremble when it is assailed by what men, according to the diversity of their temperament, sagacity, or circumstances, call the spirit of philosophy, or of innovation. It is not from the men who teach the real presence, or justification by mere faith, or the doctrine of election, that the solid fabric of the national church will be shaken: these disputes have lost their interest; they have become, in the estimation of mankind, stale and unprofitable; it is not from these people it has to fear, but from the men who would persuade us that every monarchy is founded upon principles essentially inimical to the welfare of mankind; who argue that in the monarchical form of government the interest of the ruler is frequently adverse to the interest of the subject—and that another form is practicable, which shall avoid all that is noxious in a monarchy, and preserve all that is good; which shall combine the stability, the vigour, the tranquillity, the capability of extension and duration, which have been hitherto thought to belong exclusively to monarchy, with establishments that shall render impossible a diversity between the interests of the ruling power and the nation; which shall establish an identity of interests between them, more complete than was ever attained in any republic of antiquity; it is from the men who teach these thiugs, and point to the wealth and the freedom of America, as the proof that they do not rave, that anything is to be feared. If ever they succeed in convincing the people of England that they have reached the period of sober and discreet manhood, when it is no longer fit that their persons and properties should be given in ward to kings and aristocracies; that they can manage their own concerns without the expensive and wasteful guardianship to which they have been so long committed, the throne of England will be pulled down, and the church will tumble with it: when the throne shall be cut down into an armed chair for a president of a house of congress; when, as Paine expresses it, it shall be found that all the functions of a king can be performed by a respectable gentleman for eight hundred pounds a year, the bishops and archbishops will not be left in possession of their honours and their pomp: at such a period of close investigation and minute economy, the tenth part not only of the land, but of human industry exercised upon it, may be thought too much for the established clergy. It may be considered wise in that moment of innovation, to leave them, like us of the temporal professions, to adjust the terms of their remuneration with the persons who think proper to employ them. The Spenceans will be disappointed in their expectation of an equal partition of the soil. But the division of the property of the clergy, by giving to every man the tithes of his own land, is most invitingly practicable, and may seem very desirable to the owners of that land. If it ever come to pass that by the diffusion of useful knowledge, by the increased facility of communication, by the freedom of discussion, by the multiplication of that class of the human race who can live without labour, and have leisure to examine, to think, to write, and by the consequent increase of informed talent that will start up in all directions for the service of the State-if by the operation of those causes, and the greater efficacy they will impart to public opinion as a moral restraint, moderation and public justice shall become so powerful amongst us, that the cumbrcus and expensive establishment of a royal government shall be no longer necessary to sustain order in these countries, the throne and the church will fall together. Until this change in the moral condition of the country happen, they will stand. Before such an amelioration of the public mind, no good man would wish to see either shaken, and no wise man will expect it."-Letter to a Protestant, 2nd Edition, pp. 55 to 58.

We will at once present our readers with a few paragraphs from this pamphlet, now not easily procured, which will sufficiently convince them that we do not exaggerate the grandeur of Woulfe's genius. We agree with our respected friend in thinking that this "unspoken speech will always be apropos to Irish politics, while”- -but we have not his permission to quote him in extenso.

« PreviousContinue »