The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY

if he saw a reasonable prospect of proceeding with it
he should be glad to introduce it, but he
expressed his unwillingness to introduce ten or
twelve Bills, when only two or three could
be passed. On the subject of the recent evictions in
Ireland, Sir G. GREY stated that a Bill had been
prepared and transmitted to Ireland for the Lord-Lieu-
tenant's consideration, which Bill should be brought
before the House shortly after Easter. The mis•
cellaneous estimates and the Joint-Stock Companies
Bill are to be considered on an early day.
This is an epitome of the proposed Government pro-
ceedings after the Easter recess. It is useless now to
consider their merits, as those merits must depend
chiefly upon how they may be carried out. If, however,
such measures as reform in the practices of elections,
the Health of Towns Bill, and remedial measures for
Ireland be passed in a comprehensive and satisfactory
form, we shall have little cause to complain of the
doings of the session.

There are few persons of any class, shade, or
variety of creed or politics, on either side of St.
George's Channel, who will not receive with deep
regret the painful intelligence contained in another
column of the attempted suicide of the high-minded,
the honest, the unpurchaseable THOMAS STEELE.
The attempt was happily frustrated, and the unfor-
tunate gentleman still survives to receive, we trust,
those expressions of sympathy and friendly solici-
tude that may reconcile him to a prolonged sojourn
in what he has had too much reason to complain of
as a cold•bearted and ungrateful world. Whatever
opinion may have been entertained with respect to the
political views advocated by Mr. STEELE, during a life
of no ordinary activity, there can be no question as to the
purity and disinterestedness of his motives, and the
zeal and energy with which he obeyed the dictates
and advanced the objects of his great leader—the
departed Liberator of Ireland—to whom be clung
through the varied scenes of his eventful career with
a desperate fidelity, an unparalleled devotion. Few
men have ever taken so prominent a part in political
strife whose integrity and honour have been less
questioned. THOMAS STEELE never had a personal
enemy, for even his warmest opponent in the turmoils
of party warfare ever recognised his consistency of
character, and acknowledged that he put forward
the honest convictions of his heart.: _ _

Mr. STEELE entered life under the most favourable
circumstances. He graduated at Cambridge, having
previously taken high honours both in classics and
science, and he is at present a member of the Senate
of that University. His attainments are such as
would have insured him the highest success in any of
the learned professions, but he was (perhaps unfor-
tunately for himself) possessed of a handsome inde-
pendence, and he was actuated by a spirit of the
most enthusiastic and ardent patriotism. He, there-
fore, dedicated his talents, his life, and his property
to the service of his country, and no man ever
laboured more zealously to redeem the pledge
thus given. Early in life he became acquainted
with the late DANIEL O'CONNELL, and he conceived
the most profound admiration for that distinguished
patriot. In consequence of that feeling he altered
the name of his ancestral property to which he had
succeeded at the death of his uncle, from Cullane
Castle, to "Lough O'Connell," by which name it is
still known. It is not necessary that we should now
relate the part which Mr. STEELE took in the strug-
gles for the emancipation of his Roman Catholic
brethren, and other liberal and constitutional reforms.
His name is as widely known, his okaracter as
honourably appreciated, as that of the leader himself,
whose chief follower and " head pacificator" it was
his greatest pride to be accounted. In his struggles
for the advancement of his country, he unfortu-
nately to a great degree neglected his private
affairs, and in consequence the estates, from which
he had at one period realised a handsome income of
from 1,8001. to 2,000/. per annum, were thrown
into Chancery, and a receiver appointed through
whom the rents, issues, and profits were paid into
Court. The property being strictly entailed
could not be sold, otherwise a very considerable
surplus would have remained, which would have
maintained the inheritor in perfect independence.
It was unfortunately otherwise, and, after the legal
costs, expenses, and the other charges, a small sum
only could be made applicable to his private purposes ;
straitened and harassed, however, as he had been for

some time by pecuniary embarrassments, his spirit
shrunk from accepting the aid that would have been
freely tendered by many when his exigencies be-
came known, and he suffered in silence without per-
mitting his wants to be revealed either to friend
or foe. Such was his condition when two circum-
stances occurred which changed the entire character
of his life, and plunged him into the deepest afflic-
tion. First, the mysterious visitation by which the
food of the greater portion of his countrymen was
blighted, and the greatest destitution and misery
inflicted on the Irish people. He saw his beloved
country suffering under all the horrors of famine
and pestilence induced thereby, and he found his own
limited resources almost wholly cut off by the depre-
ciation of every description of Irish property. But
everything was comparativeiy forgotten at the death
of his idolised leader—the man whom he had almost
worshipped as a superior being. From that
moment he retired from public life, and
never again interfered in party conflict. He wit-
nessed with the deepest pain the precepts and coun-
sels of his deceased friend wholly forgotten, and a
wild and sanguinary course recommended by the
would-be leaders. Then, indeed, his spirit sunk
within him, he found himself forgotten, and he de-
spaired for his country. The feelings which prompted
him to the desperate effort may be gathered from the
following letter, which he wrote and posted just
before the moment that he supposed would have been
his last, having ascertained that it could
not reach its destination until this morning. It
will appear therefrom that his heart was racked
by conflicting emotions—deep and bitter regret for
his country—placed as it is in the hands of heartless
and bloodthirsty agitators—and sorrow for his own
trials and sufferings, which his pride forbade him
to publish or reveal. It will, however, speak for
itself:—

" Wednesday, April 19, 1848.
"My dear - -,--You will, I well
know, read this letter of your old friend with deep
pain.

_
" Bat, when you contemplate the dreary and
heart-breaking present aspect of Ireland, and con-
trast it with what it was in its majestic peaceful
movement, under the sublime and benign moral sway
of my ever-deplored friend and leader, august
O'Connell, you cannot be surprised that, with a
complication of private ills upon me at the same time,
the ties of life are with me dissevered and in disrup-
tion for ever.

" The highest aspirations of my nature were, that
I should be O'Connell's principal instrument of
peace, his Head Pacificator of Ireland,' in his
efforts for the peaceful, bloodless regeneration of his
own country, and for setting an example to other
realms, as was nobly proved in England by Richard
Cobden and his League, how revolutions may be
achieved by the consolidated organization of public
opinion, and without the pollution of carnage, blood-
shed, and convulsion.

" Before you receive this to-morrow I will have
ceased to live. I am quite weary of existence,
although of course, as a matter of manly firmness,
in private society I deport myself as if I were without
a care.

" I shall manage the matter in such a way that
there shall be no corse for the ceremonial of a coroner's
inquest and post mortem examination. When a
thing of this kind must be done, the more quietly and
less theatrically it is done the better.

" I am, with most grateful feelings for all your
kindness to me for so many years as a private
friend and public journalist,
" My dear --
"Affectionately yours—Farewell for ever !
" THOMAS STEELE."

Now, that PaoVJDENCE has happily prevented the
catastrophe which a prolongation of anguish had
rendered desirable, it is but right, it is but just,
it is but generous, and true-hearted, that hu-
manity should strive, in some measure to assuage
a desolation resulting from the abandonne of a ro-
mantic patriotism. Tom STEELE has been rescued
from destruction—his heart is still beating with en•
thusiasm for the hopes of Erin and the dreams of