or his reason given in a keen-edged glittering sentence. Hence the speciousness of the argument and the withering power of the invective. In the most efficient of his appeals to reason, or his most keen inflictions of severity, it may be found on critical examination, that there is far more in the manner than the matter. And such, indeed, is one of the chief causes of the pithy sententiousness of style in which there seem as many reasons as sentences.

To the same class of difficulties may be assigned the exceeding industry with which he made himself master of the most laborious details, when contrasted with the incompleteness of a research so anxious and scrupulous. But his keen sagacity, guided by no breadth of view, was exerted within a prescribed compass: he set out with preconceptions of his result and a predetermined plan, and found the information only which it required. But among these sources of error there was no sordid bias: just, benevolent and patriotic, his failings were not vices, but the imperfections of great virtues and great powers. Fortunately perhaps for his glory, the first stages of his public life were engaged in efforts precisely suited to his nature: the wrongs with which he had to cope, demanded no philosophy to define or destroy; they demanded untiring energy-unflinching courageincorruptible honour, and overwhelming eloquence. They also demanded judgment, temperance, and the influence with all parties which such qualities can acquire and preserve. And these belonged in a pre-eminent sense to Mr Grattan.

It has been observed by various persons, in various tones of praise or censure, that Mr Grattan's character was mellowed and matured in the British parliament. His native good sense, his shrewdness of tact and habitual observation, together with the critical discernment which in cultivated minds is the probable result of such qualities, were doubtless not exercised in vain. Other concurring influences might be pointed out, as well as incidental circumstances tending to the same effect. But we are compelled to be brief.

For the estimate of the moral conformation of Mr Grattan, the reader of his life will be forcibly struck by indications of the same character which we have ascribed to his intellect. And what is more curious, the same combination of opposite characters will be traced very legibly on the features of his face. The writer of his memoir in the Dublin University Magazine, gives a pleasing and true description of the peculiar, bland, playful, gentle and cordial manner and temper, which gave a charm to his whole address and conversation in private life: the representation is borne out with even unusual uniformity by those who have been among his intimates. In his own house he was utterly free from the consciousness of his own claim, and earnest alone in imparting hospitality and good-will, and communicating selfconfidence to those who required it. To draw forth intelligence in others, was his habitual gift-and we have heard a young person of considerable intelligence who had on the same day been his guest, observe; that he felt his own mind brightened by the contact with that of his host. Yet with all this overflow of the most kindly sympathies, it seems equally apparent, that there was in his temper a strong and

abundant vein of the most concentrated gall. The same writer above referred to has well pointed out this contrast, and his description of this latter incident is too forcible and true, to be offered in any language but his own. Having given equally true sketches of what Chatham and Burke would have done under the same circumstances, this writer goes on:-"But when Grattan's rage was provoked, the destruction of his victim was as inevitable, as if he came within the spring of a tiger. There were no compunctious relentings about him, by which his consuming wrath might be assuaged or mitigated. He seemed to put off all humanity, and to concentre every power of his mind, and every faculty of his soul, upon the utter annihilation of that obnoxious being who had been so unfortunate as to provoke his indignation. This gave him at all times a character of ruthless asperity, which was strangely contrasted with the amenity and gentleness by which, in his general intercourse with society, he was so benignly distinguished."*

The contrast is not unusual in human character: and most persons may find illustrations on a lesser scale. Love and hatred combine often in their deepest excess in the same temperament, and seem to have a fearful affinity for each other, the origin of many tragedies. They are divorced by the religion of the gospel alone.

It would, nevertheless, be unfair not to make one more observation. Every one must at once feel, and admit, that the vehemence of the orator, swelling in the triumph of his art and power, is perhaps too strong and violent an index for the feelings of the man.

Edmond Sexton Perry-Lord Perry.

BORN A. D. 1719.

EDMOND SEXTON PERRY was the eldest son of the Rev. Stackpole Perry; and his family are mentioned as having been respectable in the city of Limerick. He.was bred to the law; and, like most eminent lawyers of his day, presently came into parliament. He first obtained a seat in 1751, and soon became distinguished for eloquence, and still more for knowledge, judgment, and sagacity, of a high order.

In 1771, Mr Ponsonby resigned the chair of the House, to avoid delivering a complimentary address to the lord lieutenant, which under the circumstances he deemed inconsistent with the dignity of the House. In his room Mr Perry was elected, and continued from this date till 1785, to fill that station.

Most of the great measures in favour of the trade and people of Ireland during the interval, were either suggested by his advice, or materially aided by his influence. The following is Mr Grattan's description of him:-" He was more or less a party in all those measures which the pamphlett condemns; and, indeed, in every great statute and measure that took place in Ireland for the last fifty years. A man of the most legislative capacity I ever knew, and the most

* University Magazine, No. 39.

† Lord Clare's pamphlet.

comprehensive reach of understanding; with a deep engraven impression of public care, accompanied by a temper which was adamant. In his train is every private virtue which can adorn human nature."

In 1785, on his resignation of the chair of the Commons, he was created viscount Perry of Perry, near Limerick. His lordship having left no male heir, the title became extinct at his death.

Theobald Wolfe Tone.

BORN A. D. 1763.-DIED A. D. 1798.

A MEMOIR of Theobald Wolfe Tone must be the appropriate preface to the more important part of the history of Ireland which yet remains to be told. It will afford the point of view from which alone many of its events can be fairly judged of. We may, therefore, we trust, stand excused for entering on the incidents of Tone's unfortunate and headlong life at more length than may be thought due. Yet they who have read the ample biography, written by himself and his son, will recollect, that there are not many instances in which the lessons of an awful experience are communicated with the same effect and reality, or in which more true light is cast upon the events of an eventful time.

As such is the object for which Mr Tone is to be here introduced, we must premise somewhat to obviate the great injustice which it is difficult to avoid, in presenting the history of his life in reference to a course of conduct in which he is to be placed in a disadvantageous light. Were he a man of a vicious temper, and debased views, like Sir Phelim O'Neile, a murderer and a brutal despot, urged exclusively by ambitious interests and sordid passions, we should drag him into the witness-box without scruple or delicacy. But Tone was a scholar-a man of the warmest affections and kindliest nature-overflowing with goodness, gaiety, and all the most companionable qualities in their highest perfection. Even his misguided patriotism was not without sincerity, it was simply perverted by the errors of his nature. a temper of mind alive to influences-full of passion, pride, restlessness love of adventure, impatience of the sober and trite pursuits of life, ingenious, quick, and speculative, yet superficial-composed of those elements, which, according to the direction of a man's walk, constitute the projector, the visionary, or the plain scamp: he had the misfortune to be early associated with persons, scenes, and actions, and to live in days in which these characters were by a curious infelicity combined. Nearly his first entrance into life, with the avowed taste and temper of an adventurer, brought him into a circle deeply tainted with republicanism in its least sober form.

With

We premise these remarks emphatically, because we must confine our present sketch to the task of tracing him through much that is to be condemned-much imprudence and want of principle-a dishonesty of purpose-and, indeed, a perversion so entire of that portion of the moral sense which is supposed to intimate the practical differences between right and wrong, that there appears a proud un

consciousness in his avowals of the most flagitious views. It is necessary, to understand this, not to form a meaner opinion of Tone than he deserves: he is in all things guided according to a standard of his own, formed by degrees in the course of an unregulated and adventurous mode of life, in which his natural predilection for a kind of vagrant and scheming activity which is the marked feature of his eccentric disposition, leads him into habits, associations, and rules of conduct, such as might best belong to such a life. This is a slight outline of a picture to be filled up from the life given of himself by Mr Tone and his son, with a degree of frankness and candour of which they, neither of them, seem to be fully aware. Seeing all things in a light of their own, and having their own modes of right and wrong, with the help of a good deal of the revolutionary philosophy which then infected Europe, he and his friends erred with the pride and dignity of Roman virtue, and looked with towering scorn on men who were better and wiser than themselves. They were ready to be the martyrs of their own sense of honour-to die and shed blood for the vindication of the rights they believed in. Their honour covered, indeed, a multitude of sins, ina sense different from the concealments of charity; and their sense of right involved treachery, plunder, and wholesale butchery.

Tone's early life, could we relate it here at length, has all the interest of romantic fiction. His father inherited a small leasehold property near Naas, in the county of Kildare; he was a coachmaker in good business in Dublin, when it fell into his hands, and he set it to a younger brother, which gave rise to litigation, and ended in his ruin. He had several children all remarkable for the same restless temper which we have described. Their history also is quite conformable to such a characteristic nature, and is related by their brother. A few touches may be selected here for the reflex light they cast on the character of the relater. Speaking of one of his brothers, Mr Tone writes:—“ He is more temperate in all respects than my brother William or myself, for we both have a strong attachment to pleasure and amusements, and a dash of coxcombry, from which he is totally free." Of William, he says" He wished, himself, having the true vagrant turn of the family, to go to sea.' And, again" My father and mother were pretty much like other people; but from this short sketch, with what I have to add concerning myself, I think it will appear that their children were not at all like other people, but have had every one of them a wild spirit of adventure," &c.

Having been sent to school to a Mr Darling, though he was exceedingly idle, yet by strong desultory efforts, excited by very considerable love of distinction, he carried away the prizes in every branch of learning; so that Mr Darling pressed on his father to have him prepared for college as a boy of very uncommon talents, who would be sure to obtain a fellowship. This view, he informs us, was also sustained by the parson of the parish, who was sometimes his examiner, and was struck by his progress in Euclid. It having been thus determined that he was to be a fellow, he was transferred to the school of the Rev. William Craig. At this time his father became so completely ruined in his commercial affairs, that he was necessitated to quit business and retire to the country. Still bent on making every sacrifice for a son

whom he had been taught to hope so much for, he determined, out of his own stinted means, to afford him every advantage. Accordingly, not being able to place him as a boarder, he settled for his board with a friend near the school; and even stretched matters so far as to allow him some "trifling sum" for his pocket. Having thus far premised, the only further incident of this part of his life which we shall relate, must be given in his own words "The superintendence of my father being removed, I began to calculate, that, according to the slow rate chalked out for me by Craig, I could very well do the business of the week in three days, or even two if necessary, and that, consequently, the other two were lawful prizes; I therefore resolved to appropriate three days in the week at least to my amusements, and the others to school, always keeping in the latter three the day of repetition, which included the business of the whole week, by which arrangement I kept my rank with the other boys of my class. I found no difficulty in convincing half a dozen of my schoolfellows, of the justice of this distribution of our time, and by this means we established a regular system of what is called mitching, and we continued-being some of the smartest boys at school-to get an ascendancy over the spirit of the master, so that when we entered the school in a body, after one of our days of relaxation, he did not choose to burn his fingers with any one of us," &c. In this little story of schoolboy plotting, and utter insensibility to considerations of duty or honour, is a brief epitome of the writer's life. The opportunity from which this juvenile anticipation of United Irishmen arose, was the ruin of that loving father who had resolved to spare no expense upon a son of such fair promise. The time thus obtained was, indeed, not devoted to any of those vices by which youth is sometimes led astray-as there was a little more than the usual method, so there was more than ordinary discretion in the scamping of this young conspiracy: among other amusements the favourite was a regular attendance upon all field days and reviews in the Phenix Park. To this Tone traces the "untameable desire which I ever since have had to become a soldier." A consequence was, that, as the time for his entrance into the university drew nigh, his aversion to a college life increased, and he began to display upon the subject an obstinacy equal to the cunning he had previously employed. A violent quarrel with his poor father was the consequence, and his record of this is itself highly characteristic::- My father was as obstinate as I, as he utterly refused to give me any assistance to follow my scheme." When this shameless sentence was written, the writer knew that his father had made a heavy sacrifice in his own distress to do justice to the promising abilities of his son-and had just been afflicted and incensed by the history of his profligate use of so much kindness, and how wasted it had been. The father was 66 obstinate," and the son, who had thus outparalleled the prodigal in the parable, was compelled to sit down to his studies "with a bad grace," and with some exertion entered the university in his eighteenth year under the Rev. Dr Matthew Young. This event gave a new impulse to his excitable temper, and he prepared with industry for his first examination. In this, too, his evil star prevailed-"I happened," he says, "to fall into the hands of an egregious dunce, one- who, instead of

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