CONQRKVE, WILLIAM. 



DNOV. 



had, in 1TS, IMM nttted by act of parliament upon Henry, and he 



uae into po i"Q of them upon the death of hi father in 1801. 



Th. Urooeuy, an Iri.h one, fell to him upon the death of his brother 



14 



On the 17th of February IsOl, Mr. Parnell married Lady Caroline 

 BUaabeth Damon. eldest daughter of John, fint Earl of 1'orUrlingtuu, 

 and granddaughter of the Earl of Bute, George III.'" prime minister; 

 and at the general election in 1802 he was returned to Parliament for 

 the borough of Portarlington. of whioh hit fatheriii-law wan the 

 politic*! patron. But a few weeki after the opening of the tension he 

 resigned hi* Mat to make way for Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas 

 Tyrwhitt; and he remained out of parliament till March 1806, when 

 he was again returned aa one of the member* for Queen'* County. 

 TDM aeat was commanded by the conjoint influence of his own pro- 

 perty, of that of Lord Portarlington, and of that of Lord De Vesci, 

 who was also his near relation. Sir Henry sat in every succeeding 

 parliament as one of the members for Queen's County till the general 

 election in 1834, when he declined a contest with the Repeal of the 

 Union party, and Mr. Lalor waa elected in his place, lu April 1833, 

 be was returned for Dundee ; and be was elected again for the same 

 place in 1835 and 1837. In August 1841 he was removed to the 

 Upper House by being created Baron Congleton, of Congleton. in the 

 county of Chester, from which county the Parnell family originally 



Sir Henry Parnell's political course was throughout that of an 

 adherent to the most liberal section of the Whig party. Upon tha 

 ac MSI ion of the Whig niinitry in 1S06 he waa made a Lord of the 

 Treasury in Ireland. He made the motion on the civil list which 

 diaaolvrd the ministry of the Duke of Wellington in the end of 1830 ; 

 and on the accession of his friends to power, which followed, he was 

 made Secretary at War. In 1832 however a difference wilh his col- 

 league* on some financial points led to his resignation ; and he 

 remained out of office till the formation of Lord Melbourne's adminis- 

 tration in 1S35, when he was made paymaster of the forces and 

 treasurer of the ordnance and the navy, both which offices he retained 

 till the breaking up of the ministry to which be belonged in August 

 1841. He had also served as chairman of the finance committee 

 appointed by the House of Common* in 1828. In 1S33 he was made 

 a member of the government commistion appointed to inquire into 

 the excise ; and he was also chairman of the Holyhead Road com- 

 miauon. In each of these investigations he took a leading part. 

 Lord Congleton had been for some months iu a state of health which 

 made it necessary that he should be carefully watched ; but on the 

 morning of the 8th of June 1842, having been left for a few minutes 

 alone, he put an end to his life. He left two sons and three 

 daughters. 



Beside* corrected reports of five speeches which be delivered in the 

 Bouse of Commons, Sir Henry Parcell published the following trea- 

 tiare and pamphlets : ' Observations on the Currency of Ireland, and 

 upon the Course of Exchange between London and Dublin,' 1804 ; 

 ' The Principle* of Currency and Exchange, illustrated by Observa- 

 tions on the State of Ireland,' 1805; ' An Historical Apology for the 

 Irish Catholics,' 1807 ; 'A History of the Penal Laws against the Irish 

 Catholics, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Union,' 1808 ; ' Treatise 

 on the Corn Trade and Agriculture,' 1809; 'Observations on the Irish 

 Butter Act*.' 1826; 'Observations on Paper Money, Banking, and 

 Overtrading,' 1827 ; ' On Financial Reform,' 1830 (his principal work, 

 reveral time* reprinted) ; and ' A Treatise on Roads,' 1833, reprinted 

 i- -. 



CONOREVE, WILLIAM, was the second son of Richard Congreve 

 of Congreve in Staffordshire, and was born at Bardsa, near Leeds, in 

 Yorkshire. His father, who hrld a commission in the army, took him 

 over to Ireland at an early age, and plactd him fint at the Great 

 School at Kilkenny, and afterwards under the direction of Dr. St. George 

 Ache, in the University of Dublin. After the revolution in 1688 he 

 returned to England, and was entered a* a student in tho Temple. 

 Hi* fin* pUy, written at the age of nineteen, was the ' Old Bachelor,' 

 which waa produced with great applause at Drury-Lane in 1693 ; and 

 Dryden is laid to have remarked that he bad never seen such a fint 

 play. The not year he produced ' The Double- Dealer,' and in 1695, 

 joining with Bettertun, they commenced their campaign at the new 

 bouse in Lincoln's Inn Fields with a new comedy written by Congreve, 

 called ' Love for Love.' In 1607 be produced his tragedy of ' Tim 

 Mourning Bride," and two years afterwards the comedy of ' The Way 

 of the World.' The indifferent success of this last play disgusted him 

 with the theatre, and he determined to write no more for the (tag*. 

 Through the friendship of Ms patron the Earl of Halifax, he waa fint 

 Bade on* of the ootnmiuionen for licensing haokney-coaches, then 

 |MB*ntd with a place in the Pipe Office, and after that with one iu 

 the Custom*, worth 6002. per annum. On tha 14th of November 

 1714 be was appointed commissioner of wine licence", and on the 17th 

 of December, in the same year, nominated secretary of Jamaica. The 

 last twenty yean of hi* life were spent in retirement, and towards its 

 clone he was much afflicted with the gout snd with blinilnera. K.MH- 

 overturned in hi* chariot on a journey to Bath, be received, it is 

 opposed, some internal injury, and, gradually declining in health, 

 die*! on the 10th of January 1729, at bis house in Surrey-street in the 

 London, aged fifty-seven, and was buried on the 26th of 



January in Westminster Abbey. Mr. Congrevo was also the author of 

 a romance called 'The Incognita, or Love and Duty reconciled,' 

 written ut, the age of seventeen ; ' The Judgment of Paris,' a maiue ; 

 'Sumelo,' an opera, nod several poems. Congreve was as Johnson 

 lough observed, undoubtedly an 'origin*!' writer, as he ' bor- 

 rowed neither the models of plot, nor the manner of his dialogue." 

 But the plot is confused, and in the conduct of it little alien 

 given to propriety or probability. His characten are untrue, and 

 artificial, with very little of nature, and not much of life. llin scenes 

 seldom exhibit humour or passion ; his personages are a kind of intel- 

 lectual gladiators every sentence is to ward or strike ; the contest 

 of smartness is never intermitted ; his wit i* a meteor, playing to and 

 fro with alternate coruscations. He has abundant wit, but it is i 

 very origin*! nor very choice, and as cold and feeble as genuine wit 

 can well be. His only tragedy, ' The Mourning Bride,' although very 

 successful, is a piece of unrelieved bombast. 'Love for Love' is tho 

 only play of Congreve's which has still possession of the stage, aud 

 even that is rarely acted, aa its wit cannot atone for the exceeding 

 grotsnejs of the dialogue. 



;Ui:VK, .silt WILLIAM, BARONET, was the son of the fir,t 

 baronet, an artillery officer of the same name, and was born in Middle- 

 sex May 20, 1772. He was destined by bis father to a military life, 

 and in 1S16 had attained the rank, of lieutenant-colonel of artillery, 

 when he retired from the service. 



He very early distinguished himself by his inventions in the con- 

 struction of missiles. The rockot which bean his name waa in 

 in 1808, and proved a most destructive engine. It was used witli 

 great effect by Lord Cochraue in his attack on tho French squadron 

 in the Basque roads, at Walcheren, and at Waterloo, and tun Emperor 

 of Russia sent Sir William the decoration of St Anne for its service at 

 the battle of Leipzig in 1813. The rocket has however been mil h 

 modified and improved since, and become an essential part of every 

 armament, not iu England alone, but universally. Sir William, who 

 succeeded his father as baronet in 1814, had sat in parliament for 

 Qatton in 1812, and in 1820 and 1826 he sst for Plymouth. He was 

 patronised by the Duke of York, took on active part in the improve- 

 ments aud ameliorations introduced by him into the army, ami was 

 inspector of the royal laboratory at Woolwich. In 1816-17 Sir William 

 was appointed to attend on the Grand-Duke Nicholas (afterwards 

 Emperor of Russia) on his tour through England. In 1826, when the 

 speculative mania ran high, Sir William became connected wilh the 

 Arigna Mining Company : he in fact contracted to sell certain mines 

 to the company of which he was to become a director. The honesty 

 of the contract was impugned, and became the subject of a suit iu 

 chancery, and the Lord Chancellor decided that the transaction was 

 fraudulent. This decision was announced on May 3, 1828 ; Sir William 

 retired to Toulouse, and there he died on the 14th of the same month. 



Sir William wrote and published ' An Elementary Treatise on the 

 Mounting of Naval Ordnance,' 1812, and ' A Description of the Hydro- 

 pneumatic Lock,' 1815. In 1815 also he obtained a patent for a new 

 mode of manufacturing gunpowder; and in 1819 a patent for the 

 manufacture of bank-note paper for the prevention of forgery. 



CUN'ON, an Athenian general, was the son of Timotheus. The first 

 time he is mentioned in history is B.C. 413, in the eighteenth year of 

 the Peloponneaian war, when he had the command at Xaupactus on 

 the Corinthian gulf. (Thucyd. vii. 31.) Conon was the chief of the 

 ten generals who were appointed to the command of the Athenian 

 fleet, when Alcibiados and Thrasybulus were removed from office, and, 

 though at fint beaten in a sea-fight by Callicratidas [CALLICRATIDAS] 

 the Lacedemonian general, he afterwards gained a signal victory at 

 Argiuusw. Lysander being appointed a second time to the command 

 of the Spartan fleet, engaged with Conon at .-Egoapotami, and defeated 

 him, n.0. 405. Immediately despatching to Athens the sacred ship 

 ' Paralua* with the news of the defeat, Conon himself fled to S.ilamis 

 in Cypnio, where the friendship of the king, Evagoras, sheltered him 

 from the obloquy or punishment which he would have encountered at 

 home. 



Isocrates has given us a pleasant picture of the intimacy which 

 subsisted between the Athenian general and the Prince of Salauiis 

 during Conou's residence in Cyprus. Here for a time be kept aloof 

 from action, watching attentively the progress of attain : the negotia- 

 tions, which he commenced with the Persian satrap Pharuabazus, 

 terminated in a speedy union of the Persian aud Athenian forces with 

 those of Kvagoras, with the view of stopping the progress of the 

 Lscodxmoniana. Evagoras, Conon, and Pharnabaius together, railed 

 a powerful fleet, in the command of which Pharuabazus was materially 

 assisted by the experience of Conon. Falling in with the enemy'* 

 fleet near Cnidos, they gained a complete victory, B.C. 394. The galley 

 of the Spartan general, Peisander, being driven on shore, most of his 

 crew escaped ; but Peisander disdained to save himself by flight, and 

 was killed on bourd his ship. Tho consequences of this victury were 

 of great importance to the interests of Athens ; and Isocratea (' Philip.' 

 tt 94, 95) represent* Conon a* having completely destroyed tho 

 Laeedtcmonian empire. Of the (irecian inland*, some Rurrcudere.il at 

 once, and otben showed a readiness to renew their old alliance. This 

 was a juncture too favourable to bo lost night of, and accordingly 

 Conon and Pharnabazua hastened to follow up their success by an 

 invasion of tho Thracian Chersonese. Town after town submitted to 



