The Press.
London, England, 1855-02-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

FEBAVARY 17, 1855.

Sooner had the Papists got judges and juries that would be-
lieve thew, but they began a trade of swearing, and ripping
tip what they pretended their Protestant neighbours had
paid of Xing James whilst Duke of York," and proceeds to
Charge them with gross corruption in the administration
of justice. The doctor was Archbishop of Dublin. He
had originally been a sisar in the University, and, having
afterwards obtained a fellowship, gradually raised himself,
by dint of sychuphancy and intrigue, to one of the richest
sees in the richest establishment in the world. Whether
he exhibited all the arrogande of a pontifical parvenu ;
whether he was at once a haughty priest and a consecrated
jackanapes; whether he was a sophist in his creed, an
equivocator in his statements, and a cobweb-weather in his
theology; whether ho had a vain head, a niggard hand, and
a false and servile heart, and betrayed the men who raised
him, I have not been able to determine. He appears to
have been an apostate in his politics. His representation
of the Catholic judges of his time is not without some epis-
copal characteristics, and justifies what Leslie said of him,
" Though many things the archbishop says are true, yet
he had hardly spoken a true word without a warp."

The " Calamities of the Bar" and the
" Diary of a Barrister " were no doubt well
enough as filling up space in the New Monthly,
but melodramatic tales in penny numbers have
since that time deluged the town, and Mr.
Sheil's speeches—of which a great part of his
" Diary of a Barrister " consists—have since
appeared in a goodly octavo for the delight of
those who admire such pictures as that at
page 343, vol i., of a daughter at the strange
task of "chafing (sic) the burning temples of
" her expiring father." It is only right, how-
ever, to say that in the account of the
" Murder of Holy Cross," and the trial of the
Keoghs, with its attendant atrocities, will be
found a daguereotype of the peasant morality
and society of Tipperary, and an admission,
on the best authority, of the character of the
class of persons with whom the Irish nobility
and gentry had to deal, and whose woes have
been the theme of so much of Mr. Sheil's own
declamation, and are just now about to be
brought before Parliament again.
Magazine articles, when we are challenged
to review them, have little claim to clement
consideration ; and those who act as their re-
surrectionists ought to be careful that
time has not taken away the tinsel that
originally passed them as value for the
money. The scene of the subjoined extract
is the election for Clare, and the person is Mr.
Patrick Mahon (as he described himself seven
or eight years ago in the Four Courts, Dublin),
but called " The O'Gorman Mahon "
On the right hand of the sheriff stood Mr. O'Connell,
with scarcely a single gentleman [this is true] by his aids ;
for most even of the Catholic proprietors had abandoned
him and joined the Ministerial candidate. But the body
of the court presented the power of Mr. O'Connell in a
mass of determined peasants, amongst whom black coats
and sacerdotal visages were seen felicitously intermixed
outside the balustrade of the gallery, on the left hand of
the sheriff. Before the business began, a gentleman was
observed on whom every eye was turned. He had indeed
chosen a most singular position ; for, instead of sitting,
like the other auditors, on one of the seats in the gallery,
he leaped over it, and, suspendinghimself above the crowd,
afforded what was an object of wonder to the great body of
the spectators and of indignation to the high•sheritf.

The attire of the individual who was thus perched in
this dangerous position was sufficiently strange. He had
a coat of Irish tabinet, with glossy trousers of the same
national material. He wore no waistcoat: a blue shirt,
lined with streaks of white, was open at the neck, in which
the strength of Hercules and the symmetry of Alcinous
were combined; a broad green sash, with the medal of the
" Order of Liberators " at the end of it, hung conspicuously
over his breast ; and a prolusion of black curls, curiously
festooned about his temples, shadowed a very handsome
and expressive countenance, a great part of which was
occupied by whiskers of a bushy amplitude. "Who, sir,
are you ?" exclaimed the high-sheriff, in a tone of impe-
rious melancholy. "My name is O'Gorman Mahon," was
the reply, delivered with a firmness which clearly showed
that the person who had conveyed this piece of intelligence
thought very little of a high-sheriff and a great deal of
O'Gorman Mahon. The sheriff had been offended by the
teneral appearance of Mr. Mahon, who had distracted the
public attention from his own contemplation, but he was
particularly irritated by observing the insurgent symbol of
the " Order of Liberators " dangling at his breast. " I tell
that gentleman," said the sheriff, "to take off that
badge." There was a moment's pause, and then the fol-
lowing answer was slowly and articulately pronounced:—
" This gentleman (laying his hand on his breast) tells that
gentleman (pointing with the other to the sheriff) that if
that gentleman presumes to touch this gentleman, this
gentleman will defend himself against that gentleman, or
any other gentleman, while he has got the atm of a gentle-
man to protect him."

The " strength of Hercules and the sym-
" metry of Alcinous " are now pretty well
known by their model—and we commend
the comparison as an instance of Mr. Sheil's
usual correctness. The most curious paper in
these vainhes is that ott the Penendeeath

Meeting, the report of Mr. Sheila speech at
which in some newspapers, with the " cheers,"
" loud cheers," " laughter," and " here the
" learned gentleman was vociferously ap-
" plauded," excited so much ridicule at the
time. Carefully preserving the anonymous,
Mr. Shell wrote in this article :
There were many who surmised that his motire for
presenting himself at this early stage of the proceedings
was, that he had sent his speech to London to be printed ;
and he was heard to say, that he did not care whether the
Brunswickers listened to him or not, provided his argu-
ments were read.

•
Again :
Of what Mr. Sheil actually said it is impossible to give
any account, and the miraculous power by which the San
newspaper of that night contrived to publish his oration in
three columns must be referred to some Hobanloe's
interposition in favour of that journal. 1 heard but one
sentence which I afterwards recognised in print as having
been spoken With this exception, I do not
think that the Irish demagogue uttered one word of what
appeared in the shape of an elaborate essay in the news-
paPers.

Mr. Shell's portrait of himself is too good to
be lost :

That gentleman sat in one of the waggons, apparently
careless of the impression which he should produce; but
his pale and bilious face, in which discontent and solici•
tude, mingled with a spirit of sardonic virulence, are ex-
pressed, and his restless and unquiet eye, gave indications
that he was annoyed at the opprobrious epithets which
were showered upon him, and that he was anxious about
the event as it should personally affect himself. There is
oertainly in Mr. Sheil's face and person little to bespeak
the favour of a public assembly; and if he produces
oratorical effects, he must be indebted to a power of
phrase and an art in delivery of which in the uproar in
which lie spoke it was impossible in that meeting to form
any estimate.

The book, generally, gives little evidence of
that ability, in the shape of " sardonic viru-
lence," which Mr. Sheil undoubtedly pos-
sessed. Some curiosity may be felt to know
what a man of so much notoriety, and who
turned that notoriety to such good account,
would write under a mask. As a publishing
speculation, therefore, the book may pay, but
is regards Mr. Sheil's memory we can only
endorse Byron's apothegm, "It is better to
" gibbet a man's body on a heath than his soul
" in an octavo."

Les Contemporains. Par Eugene de Mirecourt.

Paris : Roret.
THOSE who are well versed in modern French
literature may doubtless remember some very
clever biographies entitled " Les Contempo-
rains Illustres. Par un Homme de Rien."
Being excellently written, those biographies
gained some share of reputation for their
author, and they have moreover procured him
the doubtful compliment of being closely
imitated by M. Eugene de Mirecourt. Closely,
we say, for a close imitation is that which
shares the faults and the mannerisms of the
original, without any of the cleverness. Nor
does M. de Mirecourt seem in the least par-
ticular as to the truth of his biographies.
They are merely gossip and tattle embodied,
the most outrageous anecdotes being given as
perfectly genuine. The consequence is. that
Emile de Girardin and Mme. Dudevant have
both remonstrated against the biographer's
wilful perversion of truth. Strange that so
small a scribbler should have power to make
George Sand descend from her pedestal to
contradict his loose assertions !

The style of these biographies is even worse
than their unscrupulousness and their as-
sumption They are written most affectedly, in
that elliptical manner which is always straining
after wit, and which fancies there is some con-
nection between the words epigrammatical
and ungrammatical. It would be useless to
give the author's opinions at any length.
Alfred de Musset and Emile de Girardin fall
under his lash, the one for drinking eau de vie,
the other for immorality, literary and political.
Victor Hugo is praised to the skies, and it is
recorded that he has spoken to the biographer.
Jules Janin and Rachel are castigated for pri-
vate faults ; Dumas, as an historian, is con
sidered superior to Thiers ; and, while the
romances of George Sand are denounced as
stimulants to vice, a high moral purpose
is discovered in Paul de Kock ! But, if the
authoi-has failed in critical discernment, he has
been able to collect from one source or another
a marvellous number of anecdotes which
gthott rival those of tho Bourgeois de Paris,

166

Dr. Viron. Had M. de Mireoourt but stuck to
the anecdotes, leaving out all disquisitions ou
morality and absinthium, his volumes would
have been more readable than they are. Then
he would have been simply a frog ; now he is
the frog imitating the ox—and we all know what
was that animal's finale. Here is au anec-
dote, thoroughly French, of M. and Mme. de
Girardin

During the worst days of It4B Mine. tie Girardin said
to several people who were visiting her, " Everything
goes worse and worse. There is only one above who can
save us." The visitors bowed, thinking she spoke of Pro-
vidence. But she was alluding to her husband, who was
at work in a room overhead.

According to M. de Mirecourt, sonic of the
French writers have very eccentric habits.
Scribe rises at five every morning, and works
till noon without any interval. Balzac re-
tired to rest every evening at six, rose at
midnight, and wrote till nine in the morning,
and after breakfasting then resumed his pen
till three, when a walk of two hours, and din-
ner at five, brought him again to his bedtime.
Alfred de Musset, when asked for " copy " for
the Revue des Deux Afolvies, would say, " Send
" me fifty francs and a bottle of brandy, or
" you will have none." The next morning the
proverbe required would be finished, and the
braudy-bottle also. Alexandre Dumas sits in
his shirt-sleeves from morning till night,
writing in a remarkably fluent manner, with-
out blot or erasure. As an improvisateur,
Mery is only second to Dumas. It is stated
that he wrote a play in four days that
had a run of one hundred nights. At one
of Mme. do Girardin's evening parties he
proved, categorically, and without leaving
space for reply, that Lamartine had caused
the Revolution of February for a pair of boots.
In describing George Sand's country resi-
dence, M. de Mirecourt gives the following
anecdote of the great novelist's humour :

An individual named Cador arrived at Nohaut to visit
Mme. George Sand, and ordered the MO to prepare him a
wonderful dish of cabbage. He loved this indigestible
vegetable to distraction. Surprised at seeing cabbages
continually on the table, Mme. Sand asked the reason,
and laughed heartily on hearing that M. Cadur gave these
orders in the kitchen. When this strange guest was about
to take leave of her, after an interminable week and a pro-
digious consumption of cabbages, lie said to her, " I ven-
ture to hope, madam, that you will be kind enough to give
me something that may recal to me your memory and the
gracious reception with which you have favoured me."
They were at that time walking in the garden. " Without
doubt, Monsieur Cador," she answered, and turning to the
gardener, who was some distance off, she added, "John, a
cabbage for M. Cadur "
With this we close our notice of "Les Con-
temporains." We observe that M. de Mire-
court prohibits the translation of his work in
England. We can assure him that the prohi-
bition is perfectly unnecessary.

Institutes of Metaphysic ; the Theory of Knowing
and Being. By J. B. Ferrier, A. 8., Oxon.
London : Blackw•oods.

" THERE are no writers who give us so much
" must with so little why as the metaphysicians,"
says the author of a well-known treatise on
logic, and, as if to falsity this generally well-
merited criticism, Professor Ferrier presents
the philosophical world in these " Institutes "
with the preliminary propositions of a. system
of metaphysics which, whatever may be its
intrinsic merits, possesses, without doubt, the
great and rare advantage of a perfectly logical
arrangement. The " Ethica ordiue geometrico
demonstrata" of Spinoza, in which the pre-
cision of the Greek geometers is closely
imitated, appears to have been taken as a
model; in both works, however, there is an
appearance of logical cogency in the argu-
ment which vanishes, or at least diminishes
considerably, on a close inspection. The " In-
stitutes " is divided into three sections, in-
cluding respectively the theories of knowing,
ignorance, and being ; to every proposition
(each being followed by an appropriate demon-
stration, except the first, which is presented
as " claiming all the stringency of a geom.e-
-" trical axiom") are appended explanatory
cussions and criticisms of the counter-propo•
sition which the supposed false reasoning of
philosophers, or the " inadvertency of ordinary
" thinking" (as Mr. Ferrier, with a somewhat
pedantic felicity, has termed the uncorrected
conclusions of common sense), have hitherto

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