1829.] a Sketch from Life. 311 



state. The sins of the uiicle, however, are not forgotten to the ivephew ; 

 little Sheil reminded him the other day of the pension and the govern- 

 ment influence ; and drew therefrom a series of deductions, which, as 

 they were neither logical, true, nor apposite, we shall not pause to re- 

 count. Pretensions that are founded upon the demerits of another, could 

 find favour no where except at the election of a Pope, where the votes of 

 the assembly fall on the man who is least capable of performing the 

 duties of the office.* 



Considered merely as a speaker, without reference to his political 

 tenets, Sheil presents some curious points for consideration. His phraseo- 

 logy is of the most laboured and infelicitious description ; he seems 

 carefully to avoid those words that would most clearly convey his meaning, 

 and to ramble away in search of those modes of expression that are 

 the least obvious and natural. He uses words that have long been laid 

 aside in polite literature ; and delights in creating out of foreign and 

 heterogeneous materials, a strange and indescribable style in which he 

 is certain nobody will attempt to imitate him. His enjoyment consists 

 in this very dissociation from the ordinary habitudes of public speaking. 

 The favourite fig-ure with Sheil is, as may be anticipated, the 

 antithesis ; the last remnant of that old, formal, and crippled school 

 which depended, like the French gardeners, rather upon the cut of its 

 flowers than their beauty or fragrance. We have had no writer since 

 Junius, who could render antithetical composition popular ; with him 

 the power died: and we have fallen into the more simple, but just, 

 manner which substitutes fluency for method, and aims at attaining per- 

 spicuity, unincumbered by obsolete forms. But Sheil has not partici- 

 pated in the improvements of the age. His mind and his models are 

 with the Jesuits ; he cannot fling himself abroad, and bathe in the fresh 

 waters of regeneration. There is no flow of thought or language in 

 Sheil, although the flexibility and rapidity of his speeches have been 

 mistaken for facility of comprehension and delivery. He is cold and 

 slow, but by a painful preparation of topics, and the gathering of a 

 voluminous vocabulary, he is enabled to assume the air of a ready 

 speaker. His speeches are all written deliberately for the occasion. 

 Break in upon him, arrest him in the midst of his memory, and he 

 drops into verbiage and common-place. Flights, such as he indulges in, 

 are not compatible with deep thinking, or a profound mastery of the 

 subject ; they betray their origin, and can never deceive the audience 

 into a belief that they spring from the emotions they are intended to 

 characterize. In describing him, we should rather say, that he has 

 accomplished the art of talking quick, not the art of oratory. But 

 such audiences as he addresses would spoil loftier minds. Unless a 

 speaker at the association uttered extravagant absurdities, and indulged 

 in violent anathemas, he would make no impression. Sheil has profited 

 by a temperament so congenial to his own, and perfected liimself in that 

 species of hyperbole which is fortimately suited at once to the elements 

 by which he is surrounded, and his own taste. 



• It is well known that the animosity wliich rages amongst tlie cardinals previously to 

 an election is of so bitter and uncompromising a kind, that they invariably elect the oldest 

 of the fraternity, because he is tl)e least likely to live long in the enjoyment of tlie ponti- 

 fical chair. Thus the head of the Catholic church, and the successor of St. Peter, is 

 systematically the most incompetent papist iu the priesthood ! 



