The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-06 00:00:00

DEATH OF LORD PLUNKET.

The electric telegraph brings intelligence of the death
of Lord Plunket, yesterday, at his residence near Dub-
lin, at the great age of 89 years. His death revives re-
collections of a time so far distant that many will wonder
when they read that a man so famous when their grand-
fathers wore young survived until within this present
week.

Throughout the first quarter of -the present century,
the bar of Ireland was rarely adorned by talent and
learning. Far above the most eminent of his order stood
William Conyngham Plunket. He had not perhaps the
legal lore of Saurin or Burton, the fine genius of Curran,
or the graceful elocution of Bushe, but he was the most
efficient advocate that Ireland ever produced. He ad-
dressed a jury or a judge, an English or an Irish audi-
ence, a select committee or a popular assembly, with
equal power and success. A supporter of Roman Catho-
lic claims, he still contrived to win and to retain the
suffrages of Dublin University—a lawyer indurated by
the practice of his profession, he was yet a legislator and
a politician—a flaming patriot with Grattan, Flood, and
Cbarlemont—a supporter of Addington and afterwards
of Pitt ; on the death of the latter, an aristocratic
Whig swearing by Charles Fox ; a Grenville in Perce-
val's time, a Tory with Lord Liverpool, a partisan of
Canning upon favourable terms, and a staunch Liberal
with Melbourne and Grey. He began the world with
scarcely the position or the resources of a gentleman,
but long before old age could quell his keen ambition
he had won a coronet for himself and a mitre for his
son, places for several of his family, together with ease
and opulence and honours, and every other appliance
that could soothe the decline of his own protracted
existence. Fully 40 years practising at the bar, nearly
20 years in the House of Commons, twice Attorney-
General, once Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, twice
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, he retired from public affairs
in 1841, and survived, as we have said, till yesterday.
Some fourscore years ago the Rev. Thos. Plunket was
the pastor of a Presbyterian congregation in the town of
Enniskillen. He had two sons, the eldest son of whom
was Patrick ; the second, considerably junior to his bro-
ther, was the celebrated man whose death we have just
recorded. Lord Plunket was born in the month of
July, 1764. In a pecuniary sense his prospect of in-
heritance was small, but nature compensated him by the
most precious of her gifts—a sound mind in a vigorous
frame. A few of the north of Ireland Presbyterians
doubt the doctrine of the Trinity, as it is generally re-
ceived in Christian churches, and of that number was
Mr. Thomas Plunket. While yet a comparatively young
man he removed with his family to Dublin, and became
the minister of Strand-street Chapel, in that city. This
change greatly facilitated an object very dear to his
heart, that of giving a liberal education and learned pro-
fessions to both his sons. Patrick, the eldest, became a
physician, died childless, and, we believe, unmarried,
more than forty years ago, bequeathing to his brother,
William (Lord) Plunket, a large library and a very
considerable fortune. William was, however, yet a
boy when death removed his father from a world in
which his struggles were at once severe and unsuc-
cessful. He died in embarrassed circumstances, and
left to his congregation the care of his family. This
appeal was handsomely responded to, and, though
the Unitarians in Dublin were neither numerous nor
wealthy, still a sufficient sum was subscribed to pay
Mr. Plunket's debts, as well as to defray the expense
of keeping the younger son at school, and completing
the education of the elder, who soon found himself in a
condition to return their assistance as well as to contri-
bute to the expenses of William Plunket, who had re-
solved to engage in the profession of the law, upon which
he entered in Hilary Term, 1787, having previously ob-
tained a scholarship and graduated with considerable
credit at Trinity College, Dublin. The legislative inde-
pendence of Ireland had not been established many
years when Mr. Plunket was called to the bar, the one
event having occurred in 1782, and the other in 1787.
The late Lord Charlemont was then one of the leaders
of the Irish Liberal party, and Mr. Plunket, while at
college, had acquired no small fame for oratory in a de-
bating club called the Historical Society, which in those
days held its meetings within the walls of the Dublin
University. He was just the man "to badger a
Government," and Lord Charlemont, with his usual
shrewdness, secured his services. His Lordship
immediately brought him into the Irish House
of Commons for his own borough of Charlemont,
and Mr. Plunket then commenced a career which
ended with the Chancellorship and a peerage.
He was bold, sarcastic, unsparing ; at once witty
and logical, popular and prudent, he displayed an
energy which misfortunes could not conquer, and a
spirit of political antipathy as strong as if the Ministers
of that day had once been his friends. Stimulated by
narrow circumstances and boundless ambition, he gave
all his days, and almost all his nights, to toils which
politicians " court, and think them joy;" but, though
capable of speaking at the shortest notice, he was yet a
holiday orator. He could indeed speak with ease and
effect about anything or nothing ; but he never relished
small skirmishing, and almost always reserved himself
for great occasions. Not that he was ever in the habit
of writing pamphlets and committing them to memory,
but it seemed as if the fervour necessary to his nobler
efforts could only be excited by profound emotions long
indulged, supported by reasonings so cherished and nur-
tured as to have become a part of his being. With the
every-day business of legislation his name is therefore
little associated, while the fame which he acquired in
the Irish House of Commons is due principally to the
power which he displayed in resisting the Legislative
Union. He scarcely could be said to have brought to
its discussion the views of a philosopher or the experi-
ence of a statesman ; but from night to night, during
the debates on the Union, he directed against the
Treasury bench a perfect hurricane of wrath. Al-
though these efforts conferred no benefit on his country,
they tended greatly to advance his own reputation ;
although the Viceregal Castle would not capitulate,
he took the Four Courts by storm. The palace of the
Lord-Lieutenant closed its gates, but in the Temple of
Justice he was received as her most favoured son ;
professional income which had been reckoned by hun-
dreds soon rose to be computed by thousands, and the
legal circles of Dublin, not less than those of the North-
West Circuit, still cherish the traditions of his forensic
victories. Every faculty of his vigorous mind, as well
as every feature of his extraordinary character, were
disciplined and developed by the Union debates ; and
most especially did be acquire fame from the boldness—
we had almoA said the audacity—with which he con-
fronted his political adversaries.

The extinction of the Irish Parliament seemed for a
time to extinguish Mr. Plunket's hopes of building up
the character of a statesman ; but he "improved the
occasion" by creating the greatest forensic reputation
that any Irishman ever attained. A short time after his
"call" he obtained business sufficient to justify his being
allied in marriage to a lady of good fortune, and de-
scended from an ancient family. The wife of Mr.
Plunket was Catherine, only daughter of Mr. John
M'Causland, who had represented the county of Done-
gal in four Parliaments. The union of Mr. Plunket
with Miss M'Causland took place in 1791, and a nu-
merous family were the issue of that marriage. Anxious
as he must necessarily have been at this period of his
life to provide for the necessities of his position, yet he
cordially united with his brother, Dr. Plunket, in re-
turning to those members of his father's congregation
who subscribed to pay that gentleman's debts and main-
tain his family the amount of all their contributions,
with full interest, so that the Unitarians of Strand-
street lost no money and gained much honour by their
connection with the Plunkets.
When the rebellion of 1798 burst forth Mr. Plunket
was a Member of Parliament, a rising man at the
bar, and the father of a family—all excellent reasons,
even if higher motives werewanting, to restrain
him from abetting that sanguinary movement ; though
he subsequently gave his professional aid to some
few men among its leaders and victims. Alany years
before that fatal period, at the time when Persian savans
were indoctrinating all Europe, it is said that Mr. Plun-
ket did not quite escape their influence, aid that among
the Irish Liberals of 1789—more especially at the houses
of Dr. Emmett and his son Thomas—Mr. Plunket was
accustomed to proclaim that " all the sovereigns of
Europe were malefactors, and all the nations of Europe
enslaved." But such a charge against such a man is
more easily preferred than established, and we have yet
to learn that there ever existed for it even the semblance
o f any foundation. People have thought, however, that
it was urged with sufficient pertinacity to render Mr.
Plunket very desirous of some signal and public oppor-
tunity to give that calumny a practical refutation. An
occasion favourable for that purpose presented itself in
the month of August, 1803, upon the trial of Robert
Emmett, whose followers murdered the Irish Chief
Justice, Lord Kilwarden. Mr. Plunket—who in three
months afterwards became Solicitor-General—appeared,
in addition to the learned gentlemen who were then law
officers of the Crown, as counsel for the prosecution ; and
there are those who thought, and said, that he discharged
his duty during that painful trial in a manner more re-
markable for zeal in his cause than for humane conside-
ration towards the culprit. The immediate conviction
and ultimate fate of the prisoner were regarded as
matters of certainty. The earnest address of Mr.
Plunket to the jury was therefore calculated to promote ,