the buzz around me turned upon a matter of a still more immediate interest; an active canvass was going forward. The Dublin election was fixed for the following day; and the popular party, in perfect accordance upon this occasion with the wishes of the Government, had determined upon attempting a decisive blow. Committees had been sitting; subscription-lists opened; Mr. William Murphy sent for; an earnest but amicable conflict of opinion had ensued: Mr. Murphy, with the caution of long experience, was strenuous in his advice that they should run no risks, but, by concentrating their forces, secure the return of one member. "Delenda est Carthago," was the cry of Sergeant O'Loghlin and Mr. Blake, and the bolder counsel had prevailed: two reform candidates had been started against the corporation of Dublin.

The competitors upon this stirring occasion were the late members, Messrs. Moore and Shaw, who rested their pretensions on their love of corporations, and their hatred of reform; Mr. (now Sir Robert) Harty,* the Lord-Mayor of Dublin, and Mr. Louis Perrin, an eminent member of the Irish bar. The two latter announced themselves as sturdy reformers.

Of Mr. George Moore I can not tell you much, for I only know of him what the public knows.† He is, I should suppose, between fifty and sixty years of age. There is nothing remarkable in his face or person. He is a man of mild manners and violent opinions; can make a long speech on most subjects, either in or out of Parliament; is the proprietor of an ample sinecure in one of our courts; and much regarded by his personal acquaintances. The only singular events in the history of his life that I have heard recorded were, his first return for the city of Dublin, and an incident connected with it. The day preceding that fixed for the election had closed, and the corporation, still in search of a fit and proper nominee,

* Sir Robert Harty, who was made a Baronet in September, 1831, was a liberal in politics. He was an Alderman of the old Dublin Corporation, and was Lord-Mayor in 1830-'1. Though he and Mr. Perrin were elected, as stated by Mr. Sheil, their triumph was short-lived, for they were unseated on petition.-M.

† Mr. George Ogle Moore, who was M. P. for Dublin, for a short time, was one of the most undistinguished men in Parliament.-M.

continued their deliberations through the night. Mr. Moore, as yet unthought of, retired at his accustomed hour to repose. At midnight, as the story goes, he was suddenly awakened, and saw at his bedside the portly form of Master Ellis, deputed from the still-sitting committee, to know if he would consent to be returned to Parliament from his native city. Mr. Moore rubbed his eyes, pressed the Master's hand more closely, to ascertain that it was a hand of flesh and blood; saw visions of Parliamentary renown start up before him, and thinking that now he surely could not be dreaming, gave his assent. The next day he was the member for Dublin: the "Mirror of Parliament" tells the rest.

Mr. Frederick Shaw is a much younger man than Mr. Moore. He was called to the bar in the year 1822, and for the first five years gave no signs of his subsequent prosperity. He was assiduous, but in no way distinguished. The first occasion upon which the courts became familiar with his name was in 1827, upon the arrival of Sir Anthony Hart as the LordChancellor of Ireland. Sir William M'Mahon, the Master of the Rolls, conceived that in him was vested the power of appointing a particular officer of his own court. Former Chancellors, however, had claimed and exercised the right of appointment, and Sir Anthony Hart announced that he would follow their example. The Master of the Rolls, desirous that the question should undergo a solemn discussion and adjudication, nominated his relative, Mr. Shaw, to the office in dispute. Mr. Shaw presented a petition to the Lord-Chancellor, praying to be admitted to the performance of the duties, and the perception of the profits, and Mr. Saurin appeared as the leading counsel in support of the claim.

The matter, in itself, was one of no sort of public interest: it was a mere question of patronage between two judicial dig

Frederick Shaw, whose early appointment to the Recordership of Dublin excited much discussion at the time, probably owed his preferment to the fact that his aunt was wife of the late Sir William M'Mahon, then Master of the Rolls in Ireland. Mr. Shaw, where politics did not bias him, gave satisfaction as a judge. He was a Privy Councillor and represented the University of Dublin in several Parliaments.-M.

nitaries; yet wondrous was the interest, or at least the curiosity, with which the proceedings were watched, and the result conjectured. It had the novelty of being the first case in any way peculiar, and that one relating to himself individually, upon which the newly-imported Chancellor was to be called upon to decide. It was expected by sundry shrewd solicitors that litigation, even between two such high contending parties, would produce the usual feelings of personal estrangement, and, as a profitable result, that appeals from the Rolls to the Chancellor would not fail to be multiplied; while others, who had

been often made to smart under Sir William's inexorable rules and orders, were delighted to find that his Honor for once had a prospect of feeling in his own purse what it was to have the prayer of a petition refused with costs.

These were the effusions of the mere idle gossip of the Hall, and excited nothing but amusement; but pending the discussion, an incident occurred which sent a profounder feeling through the courts and the country. In the course of his ar gument, Mr. Saurin, for the moment oblivious of the recent change of Chancellors, implored of the Court to recollect the seditious spirit that was abroad, and the factious disposition daily manifested to bring even the highest public functionaries into contempt-a disposition which "the continuance of the present litigation would not fail to foster and gratify." This was a topic to which Lord Manners would have listened with all the nervous attention of a weak mind overawed by the horrors of a phantom-story. The healthier intellect of Sir Anthony saw in it nothing but its inappropriateness. He interposed, saying: "If there be any spirit abroad which would lead persons to degrade the higher authorities of the country, my opinion is, that that spirit can only be met and counteracted by those who hold such high situations having their motives and their actions exposed to the fullest public scrutiny. When these motives and that conduct are properly placed before the world, they may be satisfied that both will be rightly appreciated by the public: and so much, Mr. Saurin, for that topic." The effect of these few simple words in the Irish Court of Chancery was electrical. Mr. Saurin was disconcerted; his Bruns

wick friends beside him panic-struck; Sergeant Lefroy looked first up to heaven, and then full in the face of his valued friend Mr. Henchy; Mr. Henchy responded with a look at once his torical and prophetic; a buzz of perturbation passed along the benches of the outer bar; while Mr. Eccles Cuthbert (almost the sole surviving Whig of the olden time) rushed forth from the Court toward the Hall, and, standing at the top of the Chancery-steps, proclaimed to a group that he beckoned round him the joyful tidings that "if he" (Mr. Cuthbert) “could interpret the signs of the times-and he thought he could-the influence of Saurin and his party was gone for ever."

But, to return to Mr. Shaw-the decision of the Chancellor was against him, but he was quickly consoled for the disappointment. The Recordership of Dublin becoming vacant, he had the good fortune to be elected to the office. The public were at first dissatisfied with the selection-chiefly, however, because it had fallen upon so juvenile a person; but it is only justice to Mr. Shaw to state that he has proved himself perfectly competent to the discharge of the judicial functions tha: were thus rather prematurely cast upon him. As the Recorde of Dublin, he is an assiduous and excellent public officer. I would further say that this is the very office for which he is peculiarly adapted. He performs the substantial duties efficiently, and wants not the leading ornamental requisites for those matters of municipal ceremony in which he is called upon, virtute offici, to bear a prominent part. His aspect may still be over-youthful; in fact, when he appears at a civic festival attired in his legal costume, his smooth and pallid face and rather feminine features present a strong similitude to Portia in the scene where she holds a brief against Shylock; but ample compensation for this deficiency (if it be one) is made in the proportions of his frame, which possess all the necessary corporate massiveness and rotundity for the scenic business of a Lord Mayor's day. I have seen him perform on such occasions with much effect, and with the bearing of an actor that liked his part. As the Recorder of an ancient and loyal corporation, Mr. Frederick Shaw is just where he ought to be. He has no unseemly contempt for pageantry; and, for

city purposes, is a most discreet and emphatic orator. He can descant, with suitable amplitude of phrase, upon the sanctity of chartered rights, and can deliver the prescriptive lecture to an incoming Lord-Mayor, upon his civic responsibilities, in terms. of the most stately and appropriate commonplace. To such duties he is equal, and not above them.-I pass on to the other candidates.

Sir Robert Harty is a citizen of Dublin, who has risen by his industry to considerable affluence. In the corporation, of which he has long been one of the most influential members, he has been noted for his attachment to liberal principles. He is the brother-in-law of Alderman M'Kenny, who in his year of mayoralty (1819) had the courage to convene a general meeting of the Protestants of Dublin, to petition in favor of Catholic Emancipation. Sir Robert Harty's civic career has been marked by an official act-less conspicuous, it is true, but of similar boldness. When the Roman Catholic delegates were prosecuted by the Government in 1812, he was one of the Sheriffs of Dublin, and empanelled an impartial jury for their trial. This gave great offence, and both in and out of the corporation the honest Sheriff had much to endure for having done his duty; but he has fortunately lived to find that sentence of condemnation in those times now forms one of his most valid titles to public confidence. So great was the imagined strength of the corporation of Dublin, that for some days Sir Robert Harty was the solitary candidate upon reform principles. More than one of the commercial body of Dublin, though strongly urged by the popular party to become his colleague, had declined. The bar was then resorted to. A union of the most important qualifications was found in Mr. Perrin, who, after repeated solicitations, consented to give the public the use of his name and character for the advancement of the great imperial measure.

Mr. Perrin was called to the bar in 1806. There was nothing sudden or brilliant in his ascent to professional distinction. He was patient and persevering; and in his deportment, whether in or out of court, simple and unobtrusive. Even after the extension of his character for learning and ability had VOL. II.-16