1829.] a Sketch from Life. 307 



he might, by a stroke of good fortune, succeed by flinging himself 

 into an eccentric opposition, and creating a party of his own. The 

 French Revolution, and dreams of meretricious eloquence and sen- 

 timental martyrdom were before his eyes ; he thought of the tailor in 

 the revolt, who threw his goose into his leader's face, and flourishing his 

 needle, cut off a remnant of the sans culottes. Brilliant prospects opened 

 upon his crusade against the chief democrat ; and he became an incar- 

 nation in little of IMirabeau, as the infant at Astley's personifies the 

 heroism of Napoleon. Alack ! there was no justice in those days ; mis- 

 taken clemency spared the idiot insurrectionists ; and the only fluid that 

 was spilled was some vagrant ink to rebut calumny and detraction. 



It was natural that Sheil, in his lack of political knowledge and sound 

 judgment, should fly from one extreme to another. His transit from 

 ultra emancipation — unconditional, unrestricted, and boundless — was to 

 that qualified arrangement, the most atrocious in the eyes of all true 

 Catholics, which would have placed their ecclesiastical appointments 

 and their church government in the hands of the British minister. Upon 

 this alarming negation of Papal independence, he took his stand against 

 Daniel. The consequence was personal estrangement, lavish abuse, 

 mutual Billingsgate, and the utter defeat of poor Sheil, who shrank 

 out of the whirlwind he had raised about his own ears. 



It must not be supposed, because he adopted this line of policy, 

 that he therefore assented to its utility, or believed in its merits. His 

 actions have never been of the syllogistic class ; it is impossible to infer 

 first principles, or draw logical conclusions from any part of his conduct. 

 He always did that which seemed to suit the momentary exigency, 

 without consulting results or reasons. He hoped to make a diversion 

 by resisting O'Connell, and he expected, at all events, to combine out of 

 the scattered troops, a sufficient number over whom he might assume 

 the command ; a desire which, next to filling his bag, mainly occupied 

 his attention. An embittered correspondence between the worthy cham- 

 pions ensued, in which he exhibited a specimen of that new talent 

 which, under the mortifications of a neglected probation at the bar, he 

 found it useful and convenient to cultivate. We mean that poUtico- 

 dramatic skill which enabled him to exhibit to the public, in all 

 the perfection of character, the " Apostate." His letters to O'Con- 

 nell developed an intimate acquaintance with stage trick, and the 

 usual melo-dramatic flourishes of the theatre; he ranted like Lee's 

 Alexander, and boasted of bestriding the people, as the Macedonian 

 gloried in crossing Bucephalus ; and when O'Connell reproached him 

 with borrowing his patriotic enthusiasm from the green-room, he hinted 

 darkly at some deep tints that lay within the surface of his rival's repu- 

 tation ; and a compromise in secret preserved the public from the con- 

 tinuance of a controversy which promised to commit both parties. 

 Sheil retired, fell into the ranks again, and with an O'Connell cockade 

 in liis hat, was well pleased to follow where he could not lead, 

 and to pick up the loose guineas which the superabundance of busi- 

 ness enabled the " Counsellor" to drop in his path. From that 

 hour he became an echo in the councils, and a jackall at the agregates. 

 His political importance consisted in a subservient repetition of the 

 praises of him wliom he hated to obey, but feared to contradict ; and a 

 miserable improvement in his finances was the only token he ever re- 

 ceived of the wisdom of his degradation. 



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