The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-05 00:00:00

TILE StIN, LONDON, MONDAY EyENING, MARCH 5, 1855.

MARKET NEWS---(THIS DAL)

LITERATU.R.E.

Major Bagstock and to Major Pendennis. Watch
him, as he saunters by, while we are looking with
Mr. Shiel out of this memorial window of the
Past :

CORN EXCHANGE.

Sketches, Legal and Political. By the late Right
Hon. Richard Lalor Shiel. Edited by M. W.
Savage. Hurst and Blackett, for Henry Col-
burn.
The sparkling volumes before us are more than
ordinarily acceptable. They recall to mind, agree-
ably enough, the animated eloquence and keen ob-
servation of one of the last, as he was also, in an-
other sense, one of the first, among the great ora-
tors of Ireland. We are gratified to observe that
a biography of Richard Shiel, from the pen of one
no less competent for the. task of writing it than
Torrens M'Cullae,h, is at length announced for
early publication. In the meantime we are re-
joiced to have the opportunity of affording the pre-
sent collection of " Sketches' a welcome befitting
their various, brilliant, and uncommon excellence.
As already in so many similar instances, their tardy
issue from the press in this country, in a form thus
aggregated and revised, seems to be attributable
chiefly, if not entirely, to the appearance of an un-
authorised production of a like cheracter (a pro-
miscuous jumble of papers, attributed, Some cor-
rectly, some incorrectly, to the late Master of the
Mint and Envoy to the Court of Tuscauy)—an
enterprise not arising, of course, from any of the
great houses of the Row, but (the old story again)
from the illicit bookstalls of New York and Phila-
delphia. However it may have happened that
these volumes have at length found their way into
existence, authoritatively, amongst ourselves, they
are welcome for the sake of their departed writer—
for their own intrinsic worth—and, beyond this, if
for no other reason, because they are the realisation
of a design, the accomplishment of which has in
various quarters been, now for some time, deside-
rated. Nay, let us be so far oandid even as to
acknowledge that we entertain a sneaking sort of
kindness for, a species of spurious, and, morally
speaking, a wholly unjustifiable gratitude to, the
piratical presses of Brother Jonathan. It is, as we
have already intimated, by no means the first occa-
sion upon which we have been indebted to the ne-
farious speculation of certain unscrupulous pub-
lishers of the United States for the issue at
last, so to speak, perforce amongst ourselves
of some long-desired collection of papers, until
then scattered disjointedly among forgotten
volumes of reviews and magazines literary
treasures thereby allowed to remain, in fact,
the veritable waifs and strays of periodical litera-
ture. But, for substantial works of this descrip-
tion, formerly pirated at one time in Paris, and at
another in Brussels, and still at intervals, likewise,
up to the present moment, in America, it is not
quite certain that many a now familiar volume, long
since well-thumbed from title-page to appendix,
would be smiling down upon us in goodly roan, or
goodlier calf, from our more frequented book-
shelves. It has been peculiarly thus, indeed, with
the particular department of polite letters to which
these " Sketches' by Mr. Shiel of right belong—
effusions midway between essays and memoirs,
equidistant from political satire and literary criti-
cism, partaking at once of the attractions arising
out of the colloquial of the diarist, and out of the
more studied and didactic, though not less alluring,
revelations of the autobiographer.
A glance at the " Preface by the Editor " will
inform the uninitiated that the papers now at last
collected together in these volumes first appeared in-
termittently, and almost as a matter of course from
the circumstance of their political character anony-
mously, in the pages of the Neu, Monthly Maga-
zine. Each essay has here prefixed to it the date
of its original publication. The earliest date being
the October of 1822, and the latest the August of
1831—a period of nearly nine Years—when the
New Monthly was confided to the editorial guid-
ance of Thomas Campbell, consequently • before it
passed under the sway of Hood's literary fasces—
[a sheaf of comic pens surrounding a pencil, if pos- ,
sible, yet more comic and grotesque !)—therefore,
no less obviously, prior to the time when that same
eminent periodical, long since become the ap-
panage of Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, had for its
sub-editor one no less skilled than Mr. S. C.
Hall, and for its editor a man of letters no
less illustrious than Sir Bulwer Lytton. It was,
consequently, we must remember, during the
early period of the career of the New Monthly
that Mr. Shiel was among the number of its hid-
den contributors. Throughout the whole series of
his " Sketches Legal and Political," issued through
the pages of the New Monthly, from time to time,
and only thus tardily grouped together after having
undergone a certain moderate degree of revision,
it would have been difficult for the most discerning
critio to have detected the identity of the writer at
the time of their periodical appearance. It was
only here and there, indeed, that the orator could
have been conjectured by the more astute observer,
through the glimpses inadvertently given of any
favourite tricks of rhetoric, or pet eccentricities of
phraseology. Everywhere in the " Sketches," the
author of them, alternately as a Legal Pasquin and a
POlitical satirist, concealed his individuality under
the ingenious assumption, an assumption cleverly'
sustained from first to last, of the writer being an
Englishman ! It so happens, consequently, by reason
of Mr. Shiel's amusing anxiety to bide his own face
behind the mask lie is carefully holding before him
as ho writes, that he not unfrequently falls foul of
himself in the most unwarrantable manner, speak- I
ing in terms the most reprehensive, if not the most I
opprobrious (just as it may suit his fancy on the
instant), uow of his own policy, now of his own
speeches, now even of his own personal peculiarities
or defects. The result produced on the reader's
mind by the passages in question must be allowed
Ito be not the least entertaining in the work before
us—one or two of the more unexpected allusions of
the kind being in their effect, for the moment, so
to speak, bewilderingly delightful. It is thus, for
example, when we find Mr. Shiel writing at page
48, vol. ii.:--
" Mr. Shiel rose under similar disadvantages. The
echo produced by the diminution of the crowd
drowned his voice, which, being naturally of a harsh
quality, requires great management, and, in order
to produce any oratorical impression, mast be kept
under the control of art. Mr. Shiel became disheartened,
and lost his command over his threat. He grew
loud and indistinct. 110 also fell into the mis-
take of laying aside his habitual cast of expres-
sion and of thought, and in place of endeavouring
to excite the feelings of his auditory wearied them with
a laborious detail of uninteresting facts."
Equally droll as a cool impertinence in the way
of self-depreciation is the mention made of Mr.
Shiel by himself at p. 201, vol. ii., when recording
the fact of his appearance on the platform at the
famous Penenden Heath Meeting, on Friday the
24th of October, 1828. Speaking of himself in
that instance rather sneeringly, Mr. Shiel calls
himself " Mr. Shiel, the Irish demagogue," and
adds, ludicrously enough it must be admitted :
" That gentleman sat in one of the waggons appa-
rently careless of the impression which be should pro-
duce ; but his pale and bilious face, in which, discontent
and solitude, mingled with a spirit of Sardonic virulence,
are expressed, and his restless and unquiet eye, rave
indications that he was annoyed at the opprobrious usepi-
thets which were showered upon him, and that he was
anxious about the event, as it should' personally affect
himself. There is certainly in Mr. Sh,el's face and per-
son 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 be spoke it was impossible in that meet-
ing to form any estimate."
Perhaps, however, the most ridiculous incident
of the kind discoverable in the whole work is that
which may be found yet further on in the same
volume from which we have already quoted, namely,
at p. 345, where Mr. Shiel thus humorously de-
scribes the difficulty of his (Mr. Shiel's) own posi-
tion as the Marquess of Anglesea's nominee in the
representation of Milbourne Port
"There is this farther awkwardness in his position :
as a Government member allowance would have been
made for his necessity to sustain the Administration
which put him in : he has now no apology to make to
his constituents. If he votes against Government he
will be charged with an oblivion of favours ; and if he
votes with Government he will be denounced by his
friends as a traitor to the people. The little gentleman
is in a practical dilemma, which it will require some of
his habits of rhetorical artifice to escape."
If our orator-essayist can contrive thus shrewdly
to hit off himself with all his oddest
i peculiarities—
be sure he is not a jot less skilful n his sketches
of others, his contemporaries.
Sketches, merely, they are at the best, but
such sketches! No paltry silhouettes—snipped
out of black upon white as with the petty
scissors of some priggish profilist. No mere
washy shadowings-forth, as if in pale indigo
on paper of a neutral tint. But actual life-
portraits—veritablemind-callotypes --as though
each bad been keenly, brilliantly, searchingly pho-
tographed !
How Mr. Shiel brands upon his tablet, not with
a crayon, but as if with lunar caustic, that sketch
of the Reverend Sir Harcourt Lees—whom he here
depicts as " a little lumpish man, who rather looked
like a superannuated jockey than a divine, with an
equestrian slouch in his walk, and the manger in
his face, and with a mouth the graceful configura-
tion of which appeared to have been formed .by the
humming of that stable melody with which the ap-
plication of the currycomb is generally accompanied.
After looking at this singular figure, which the
tutelary genius of the Church had chosen for its
residence, I gave up all my belief in physiognomy,
and renounced Lavater for ever." Again, look at
his outline of Major M‘Namara—" a Protestant in
religion, a Catholic in politics, a Milesian in
descent"—whose figure comes before us out of the
canvass, in spite of any likeness to George IV.,
with a memblance, ill (mg eye, both to

Very moderate supplies of home-grown wheat were on
sale in most of the country markets held on Saturday,
yet the demand for most kinds was in a sluggish state, and
prices were barely supported. Barley and malt were very
dull and cheaper. Oats, beans, peas, and flour had a
downward tendency.
From New York we learn that both wheat and flour
have realised higher rates. The continental markets have
been devoid of animation.

"In Dublin he may be seen at half-past four o'clock,
strolling with a lounge of easy importance, towards
Kildare-street Club-house, and dressed in exact imitation
of the King, to whose royal whiskers the Major's are
considered to bear a profusely powdered and highly
frizzled affinity. Not contented with this single point
of resemblance, he has, by the entertainment of 'a score
or two of tailors,' and the profound study of the royal
fashions, achieved a complete look of Majesty ; and by
the turn of his coat, the dilation of his chest, and an
aspect of egregious dignity, succeeded in producing in
his person a very fine effigy of his Sovereign."
Sometimes with one master-touch in the shape
of a single felicitous phrase Mr. Shiel brings his
man before us, finished to aT. Witness tins, his
mention of the " purposed swell and dilation of the
shoulders," but above all the " elaborate erectness"
of Honest Jack Lawless. Or, again, his pencilling of
Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, with his "gentlegracefulness
and easy intrepidity." Or that fine dash of vigorous
and impromptu portraiture where he talks of
Father Murphy of Corofin, and his " smile of
ghastly derision." The same epigrammatic powers
of description are discernible iu Mr. Shiel's sketch
of the tall, brawny, pallid figure, of Lord French,
with cheeks as white as parchment, and a voice
" which, rolled out in a peculiarly melancholy mo-
dification of the Irish brogue, had a dismal and
appalling sound ! " Then, moreover, who that has
once read it can forget his picture of Lord Win-
chelsea, roaring out to the mob on Penenden
Heath, " with the lungs of a stentor, and the
gesture of a pugilist, and the phrenzy of a fanatic !"
Who, again, can resist a smile at his mention of
Mr. George Moore, once M.P. for Dublin, with
his " look of ruddy juvenility at forty-eight," and
his " formidable flow of tautology "—the same un-
fortunate wight who was dubbed (if we recollect
rightly by Mr. Disraeli) as " Sir Forcible Feeble."
It is not alone by the vivacity of his derision, how-
ever, that Mr. Shiel displays his quick and vivid
appreciation of his contemporaries. He delineates
them accordingly as they appear to him deserving
of delineation—some he warms into life before us
by the fervour of his panegyric ; others, on the con-
trary, as we have shown, he preserves for our in-
spection (as flies are congealed in amber) by holding
them suspended in the refrigerating current of his
vituperation. Among his more genial descrip-
tions, commend us to his portraiture of O'Gorman
Mahon, with a form "in which the strength of
Hercules and the symmetry of Antinous were com-
bined,". and whom our author here describes as
retorting with somuch humorous chivalry at th.
famous Clare election, to the mandate to remove
from his breast the symbol of the obnoxious
" Order of Liberators." When the High Sheriff
called out before the assembled
_multitude in the
Court-house " I tell that gentleman to take off
that badge "—'.and when, after a moment's pause,
O'Gorman Mahon thus responded slowly and arti-
culately..." 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 gentle-
man, while he has got the arm of a gentleman to
protect him." Among the more sarcastic limnings
of those with whom Mr. Shiel came in contact, we
need go no further in search of any remarkable
example than his sketch of the functionary just
mentioned, the High Sheriff, who, Mr. Shiel drolly
avers to have so contrived, en his return from
China to Ireland, as to have imparted " the ca-
dences of Wesley to the pronunciation of Confu-
cius." A more extended specimen of our essayist's
Mivasi-like powers of portrait painting in pen-and-
ink will not be unacceptable to our readers, we
feel assured. Wherefore, we can scarcely do better
than transcribe Mr. Shiel's miniature description of
the renowned concoctor of whisky punch, and in-
comparable adept in the use of scholastic syllo:
gisms—

Very moderate supplies of English grain were received
up to our market last week. The imports from abroad
amounted to 2,810 qrs of wheat, 1,200 barley, 1,460 beans,
56 tares, 21,164 linseed, 3,113 rapeseed, 142 sundry seeds,
13,997 sacks, and 10,105 barrels of flour.
The quantity of English wheat received fresh up this mom-
ing from Essex and Kent coastwise was moderately good, but
the receipts by land carriage wore small. The show of samples
of both red and white was by no means extensive. The trade,
however, owing to the prospect of peace with Russia, was
in a most depressed state. For some time after the open-
ing of the market scarcely a transaction took place, and
the few sales subsequently made wero at a decline in last
Monday's quotations of from 3s to fully 4s per quarter.
There was a fair average quantity of foreign wheat on
sale. No inclination whatever v;as shown to invest in any,
description, and prices were nominally about 3a per quar-
ter lower than on Monday last. Scarcely any of the fresh-
arrived samples were in the market.
There was very little doing in floating cargoes, the prices
of which were not supported.
Bath English and foreign barley came slowly to hand.
Although the stands wero scantily supplied, the barley
trade was heavy, at a fall in value of from is to 2s per
quarter.
We had a dull inquiry for malt, the prices of which had
a downward tendency.
The oat trade was excessively heavy, and the quotations
fell is per quarter.
Beaus met a very dull sale, at a fall in value of is per
quarter.
In peas scarcely any business was doing, and prices gave
way is per quarter.
The flour trade was very dull. The top price of English
was 70s per 2801bs, and other kinds were lower to purchase.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

Wheat—Essex & Kent,
Red • • .. new 589 to 685
Ditt0............ old 638 709
Ditto, White .new 74s 79s
Ditt0........ old 778 62s
Norfolk and Lin-
coln, Red, old 64s 765
Ditto now .• •• •• 64s 75s
Rye—Old •••••••••••• —s —s,
Now •• •• •• 42s 44s'
Barley—Grinding••• .. 285 305
Malting ....... •• 132 s 34s
Chevalier.... ... 343 355,
Kelt—Suffolk and Nor-
folk .• ••........ 623 67s
8r0wn............•.. 588 60s
KinastonandWare 68s 70s

Malt—Chevalier .... 70s to 71s
Oats Yorkshire and
Lincolnsk., Feed 25s 28s
Potato •• • • 28s 30s
Youghai and Cork
81ack....... 248 298
Cork, White ..... 26s aOs
Bootch,Feed... • • 27s 30s
Beans—Tick 378 39s
Pigeons .... 434 45s
Peas—Grey ..•• ••• • •• 33s 37s
Maple 38s 418
White. ••. • • 39s 42s
Boilers .• .• 41s 43s
Flour—Town-mado. •• 65s 70s
Suffolk .. •....• • • a4s 60s
Stocktn & Norfolk 535 548

SMITHFIELD.

Last week's imports of foreign stock into London were on
a very limited scale—the total supply being only 358 head.
In the corresponding week in 1854 we received 2,331 ; in
1853, 2,834; in 1852, 1,519; in 1851, 2,321; in 1850, 1,318 ;
in 1849, 1,695 ; and in 1848, 701 head.

IMPORTS INTO LONDON LAST WEEK.

Beasts.

Sheop. Lambs. Calves. rigs
96 ...
29 ...

"•"'" ...

..-- •••

- ... ^-••

gg FATHER TOM."

"His manner is peculiar; it is not flowery nor decla-
matory, but is short, somewhat abrupt, and, to use the
French phrase, is trandtant. His countenance is adapted
to his mind, and is expressive of the reasoning and con-
troversial faculties. A quick blue eye, a nose slightly
turned up, and formed for the tossing off of an argument,
a strong brow, a complexion of mountain ruddiness, and
thick lips which are better formed for rude disdain than
for polished sarcasm, are his characteristics. He is not
greatly gifted with a command of decorated phraseology ;
bnt he is master of vigorous language, and has a power
of strong and simple reasoning, which is equally intelli-
gible to all classes. He employs the syllogism of the
schools as his chief weapon in argument ; but uses it
with such dexterity, that his auditors of the humblest
class can follow him, without being aware of the techni-
cal expedient of logic by which he masters the under-
standing."

Another wonderfully life-like miniature is the
following serio-comic sketch of—

64 DOCTOR. DRUMGOOLE."

"He was, beyond doubt, a very well-informed and a
clover man. He had a great command of speech, and
yet was nota pleasing speaker.--He was slow, monotonous,
and. invariable. His countunance was full of medical
and theological solemnity, and he was wont to carry a
hugs stick with a golden head, on which he used to
press both his hands in speaking; and, indeed, from the
manner in which he swayed his body, and knocked his
stick at the end of every period to the ground, which
ho accompanies with a species of strange and gutteral
hem !' he seemed to me a kind of rhetorical paviour,
who was busily engaged in making the great road of
liberty, and paving the way to emancipation."
As companion portraits, moreover, take the sub-
joined outlines of two far-famed English dema-
gogues.