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“will for a few nights fill the gilded apartments in which his "body will lie in state. The artist will endeavour to avert that decay to which even princes are doomed, and embalm him with "odours, which may resist the cadaverous scent for a while. He "will be laid in a winding sheet fringed with silver and with gold "—he will be enclosed in spicy wood, and his illustrious descent "and withered hopes will be inscribed upon his glittering coffin "The bell of St. Paul's will toll, and London-rich, luxurious, "Babylonic London-will start at the recollection that ever 'kings must die. The day of his solemn obsequies will arrive→ "the gorgeous procession will go forth in its funereal glory-the "ancient chapel of Windsor Castle will be thrown open, and its "aisle will be thronged with the array of kindred Royalty—the "emblazoned windows will be illuminated-the notes of holy "melody will arise-the beautiful service of the dead will be re"peated by the heads of the Church, of which he will be the "cold and senseless champion-the vaults of the dead will be unclosed-the nobles, and the ladies, and the High Priests of "the land, will look down into those deep depositories of the "ambition and the vanities of the world. They will behold the “heir to a great empire taking possession, not of the palace, "which was raised at such an enormous and unavailing cost, "but of that house which lasts till doomsday.' The coffin will ። go sadly and slowly down; its ponderous mass will strike on "the remains of its regal kindred; the chant will be resumed, a "moment's awful pause will take place-the marble vault, of "which none but the Archangel shall disturb the slumbers, will "be closed-the songs of death will cease-the procession will "wind through the aisles again, and restore them to their lone"liness. The torches will fade again in the open daylight-the "multitude of the great will gradually disperse; they will roll "back in their gilded chariots, into the din and tumult of the "great metropolis; the business, and the pursuits, and the frivo"lities of life will be resumed, and the heir to the three kingdoms "will be in a week forgotten. We, too, shall forget; but let us, "before we forget, forgive him !"

Mr. Sheil proceeded to expatiate upon the circumstances to extenuation, which ought ever, in the mind of an Irish Catholic, to be taken into account in extenuating the extent of the great fault committed by the Duke of York, in calling God to witness that he would never assent to the enfranchisement of the Irish people. The apology however, if apology it could be called, did not abate the feeling of deep resentment which had been

created among those in high quarters against Mr. Sheil, and it was decided by the government that the Attorney-General should avail himself of the first opportunity which Mr. Sheil should furnish to institute a prosecution against him. A series of vehement harangues were delivered by Mr. Sheil, which were considered to be of a very exciting nature, but it was not until he selected the memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone, as the subject of a speech, which the government considered to be fully as minacious as it was admonitory, that it was deemed judicious to institute proceedings against Mr. Sheil in a criminal court. There can be no doubt that the Attorney-General (the present Lord Plunket,) prepared an indictment against Mr. Sheil with great reluctance. It was understood that he took this step by the express directions of the English government :-But in the cabinet itself there were doubts entertained regarding the justice if this proceeding, and Lord Melbourne many years afterwards told Mr. Sheil, at the table of the late Lord Sydenham that Mr. Canning had declared that there was not a sentence of the speech, which would have produced a call of "order" in the House of Commons. Informations having been sworn, Mr Sheil gave bail:-his bail were Mr. O'Connell, and the late Chief Baron Wolfe, between whom and Mr. Sheil there existed a strict friendship from the period in which they first met in Trinity College, to the day on which the country was deprived of that eminent man, in whom a great understanding and a most tender nature were united :-in the interval between the taking of informations, and sending up the indictment, Mr. Sheil made the course pursued by Mr. Plunket the subject of animadversion, and instead of shrinking, declared that he would meet Mr. Plunket face to face in court, and prove that there was nothing in his speech on Wolfe Tone, (of whom Mr. Plunket had been an intimate friend,) so seditious as several speeches delivered by Mr. Plunket himself. It was felt by the law-officers that Mr. Sheil might perhaps make a great impression on the jury by pressing topics of this kind, and in order to ensure a conviction, it was of great moment to give in evidence another speech of Mr. Sheil, delivered before that on Wolfe Tone's memoirs, and published in Carrick's Morning Post, by Mr. Sheil himself. Mr. Sheil when in Paris, in the year 1826, had become acquainted with the Abbé de Genoude, the proprietor of the Etoile, which is now published under the name of the "Gazette de France." Mr. Sheil's facility in writing French struck the Abb', and at his suggestion Mr. Sheil wrote several articles on

Ireland, which were read with a great deal of interest in Paris and attracted the notice of the English government. Mr. Sher had referred to these publications in a speech at the Catholic Association, and although it could not separately afford ground for a prosecution, it was considered by the Crown Counsel, that it would, if given in evidence, have a great effect in ensuring a conviction. Mr. Lonergan, the proprietor of Carrick's Morning Post, was called on by the Crown Solicitor for Mr. Sheil's manuscript, but that gentleman peremptorily declared that he would not produce it at the trial. The Crown Counsel then recommended that proof should be given of the words spoken by Mr. Sheil, and accordingly, Mr. Christopher Hughes, who reported at the Association, was applied to by the Crown, but that gentleman, although wholly unknown to Mr. Sheil, and notwithstanding that intimations were given by the Crown that his services would be remembered, gave it to be understood in a manner most honourable to himself, that from him no co-operation in effecting Mr. Sheil's conviction was to be expected. The Crown was thus baffled, and the success of the prosecution became problematical. Bills of indictment were sent up to the Sessions' grand jury. Mr. Plunket attended the court in Greenstreet, and was accompanied by his friend, Mr. Peter Burrowes. That gentleman seemed anxious to sustain the Attorney-General, whose spirits appeared to droop, or rather to shrink from the performance of a most distasteful office-the prosecution of a man whose language was at most indiscreet, and had been uttered in a cause in which Mr. Plunket himself had spoken so often, with much glowing eloquence, and much indignant elocution. He looked at Mr. Sheil with a countenance expressive of mournfulness, in which sympathy for Mr. Sheil was not unassociated with self-reproach, and when the bills were found, turned his eyes towards Mr. Sheil's counsel with an earnest anxiety to learn what they would do. Mr. Sheil was not himself anxious for postponement, but thought it better that his fate should be at once determined :—but his counsel, Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Holmes, and the present Judge Perrin, suggested on legal grounds that the trial ought to be postponed. The Attorney-General instead cf objecting, which he might have done, at once acceded to the proposition, and appeared as if a great weight had been taken of his heart. The event proved the wisdom of procrastination; it was not conjectured at the time that the trial was deferred that it could be postponed beyond a few weeks; but in the interval between the finding of the bills, and the law term to which

the trial had been delayed, Lord Liverpool was strick with apo plexy. Mr. Canning became Prime Minister, and the prosecution was abandoned.

Mr. Canning's administration having within a few months terminated with a life, which sunk under the great aristocratic combination which was leagued against him, and the Goderich cabinet having been found incapable, the Duke of Wellington was placed at the head of affairs, under circumstances most inauspicious to Ireland. The energies of Mr. O'Connell were only augmented by the impediments thrown in his progress, and Mr. Sheil continued to assist him with all the resources of excitement at his command. The public mind was prepared by the Catholic Association and its great leader for a tremendous struggle, and at the Clare election, the whole prowess of Catholic Ireland was put forth. Mr. Sheil attended that election: his speech at the close is inserted in this volume, with an account written by him of the remarkable incidents of which he was a witness when that great victory was won, which led to the immediate settlement of the Catholic Question.

After Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, a cabinet minister, the attached friend of Mr. Peel, had been defeated, it was known in the political circles, that some great measure connected with the Catholics of Ireland was in discussion in the cabinet. Alarm was

taken by the popular fanaticism, of which the county of Kent offers perhaps a more remarkable example than any other district in England, and a great meeting was announced to be held at Penenden Heath on the 24th of October, 1828. This meeting Mr. Sheil determined to attend. He proceeded to London, purchased a freehold, in order to entitle him to speak, and went to the meeting. An account of that remarkable assembly was published at the time, from which the following extract is taken :

At twelve o'clock the chair was taken by the High Sheriff, and at this moment we turned our eyes to contemplate this amazing assembly, and we do not exaggerate when we say that, with much experience, we have never witnessed a spectacle at all comparable to it. Upwards of 20,000 men stood gathered together in profound silence, but in that momentary hush it was easy to perceive the deep solicitude and the anxious passions by which the two great parties, thus marshalled against each other were equally agitated. Round the Sheriff were assembled what we con jectured to be a class of persons that affected to occupy a neutral station between the two parties, and, indeed, we observed from this small knot, that scarcely any expression, either of approbation or dissent, during the whole course of the day proceeded. The whole mass upon the left, deep and dense, presented at once the evidence of the strength

of the Protestant party, and of their inflexible determination. On the right hand, the opposers of the objects of the meeting were assembled in an immense body, in which, unquestionably, much of the wealth and rank of the country were collected. In the waggon next to the Sheriff, on the right, which was that of the Earl of Radnor, stood his lordship with a number of his friends. We remarked that Lord Camden had no waggon. That venerable, mild, and dignified individual, occupied a place on the hustings next the Sheriff, and we thought that the selection of that peculiar locality was intended by him as an indication, that however opposed to the objects of the meeting, he did not enter into it with the feelings of a partizan. Adjoining the waggon of Lord Radnor was that of the Earl of Darnley; next came that of Lord Sondes.

In an adjoining waggon two gentlemen took their station, who, notwithstanding the mourning ordinances of the Gazette, were habited in an attire very little suited to the melancholy mood. The first of these gentlemen, tall, strong, healthy, and agricultural, with an aspect and demeanour in which rusticity and intellect were happily blended, though his head was grey, had a cheek fresh and ruddy. His blue eye seemed to glitter with flashes of strong thinking, whilst a latent expression of severity and derision was perceivable, by an attentive observer, under the aspect of jocularity which was spread over his features. This was Mr. Cobbett. Immediately near him was Mr. Hunt. Under these two champions there was gathered a large assemblage of their friends, who gazed with admiration upon them. A succession of other wag gons closed the right wing, which were occupied by a numerous body of the Kentish yeomanry. Between the two wings was a large cavalcade of farmers drawn up like troops of horse. Behind them was ar immense quantity of vehicles, consisting of private and public carriages, with clusters of freeholders hanging about them. Within the circle which was formed by the waggons, stood upon the ground a dense body of the peasantry, who arranged themselves on the left or the right wing according to their respective political predilections. The whole scene presented a most extraordinary and impressive exhibition. beginning the description of the proceedings, it may be necessary to notice a little preliminary address by Mr. Cobbett to the people shortly after his arrival on the ground. He was accompanied thither by Mr. Hunt, with banners; both were greeted with applause as soon as they presented themselves in front of the waggons.

Before

Mr. COBBETT.-My friends, you will hear a great deal of talk here to-day-no doubt you will-about the Pope and the devil. (A laugh). Do you take care to have nothing to do with either-take care of yourselves-pay attention to the things that belong to you, and you will do that if you attend to me.

After Mr. Plumtree, the member for the county; Lord Camden Lord Darnley, Lord Winchilsea, Mr. Shee, and Lord Teynham had spoken, Mr. Sheil addressed the meeting in a speech that was repeatedly interrupted.*

• See page 244

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