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of sneering at Lord Mansfield, whose genius he was unable to comprehend-was a consummate lawyer of the Eldon type; and he presided in the Irish Court of Chancery for some years with very high credit. Yet this worthy and really amiable man was as violent a fanatic as Lord Clare; he was a mere instrument for an Orange junta; and he has left on record his deliberate opinion that Popery was the sole evil in Ireland, and that what she required was a second Cromwell. Lord Manners, who held the Irish Seals for the long period of twenty-two years, from 1807 to 1827, could not be compared to Lord Redesdale in law; but in politics he was a fitting parallel with more plausibility and less vigour; and his system of sectarian favouritism at the Bar and in the appointment of Justices of the Peace is unhappily not yet wholly forgotten. Men such as these, representing faithfully the false and mischievous views of their party, only added fuel to the animosities of Ireland; nor can we wonder that, being what they were, they have left disagreeable memories behind. One Chancellor, however, of these days, stands out in distinctive and honourable contrast. George Ponsonby, the friend of Grattan and Charlemont, one of the purest patriots of the Irish Parliament, and afterwards leader of the Whig Opposition, received the Irish Seals in 1806; and, during the short ministry of All the Talents,' won golden opinions for his impartiality and liberal conduct in his high office. Let us add, however, that in this he was only true to the family character; the house of Bessborough has at all times deserved respect and esteem in Ireland.

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The successor of Lord Manners was Sir Anthony Hart, who held the Irish Seals for three years only. Sir Anthony was an able lawyer and an honourable and high-minded man, but there is nothing remarkable in his judicial career, except perhaps that he gave little countenance to the pretensions of the Orange magistracy. It had been expected, when the break-up of the Liverpool Administration placed Canning in office, that Plunket would have become Chancellor of Ireland; but owing to the jealousy of George IV., the illustrious advocate of the Catholic claims was nominated to the Rolls in England, although he never sate in that Court, the English Bar resenting what it thought the intrusion of a stranger from an alien forum. In 1830, when he came into power, Lord Grey did tardy justice to Plunket, who had been vegetating since 1827 as Chief of the Irish Common Pleas; and the great orator, having been made Chancellor, continued in office until 1841, except for an interval of a few months. During this era of

memorable change, the Irish Government endeavoured to give effect to the noble measure of justice by which at last the gates of the Constitution were thrown open to Catholic Ireland, and her people became in a true sense citizens for the first time in her unhappy history. The system of ruling the country through a faction, of giving an oligarchy of sect a monopoly of influence, of treating the Irish as a subject race, was wholly and for ever abolished; and though much remained yet to be done, Protestant ascendency at least received its death-blow. Plunket, as a member of the Executive at the Castle, took part in this great social revolution; but age and infirmities had lessened his powers, nor can it be said that as an Equity Judge he added to his previous reputation. We shall not dwell on the life of this eminent man, for we reviewed it not long ago;' and an interesting account of his career has been published by one of his grandsons, who has already shown to the House of Commons that he inherits some of his ancestor's gifts, though we regret to say they have been displayed from the benches of the reactionary party. The characteristics of Lord Plunket— he was raised to the Peerage in 1827-may be set forth in a few sentences. In politics he was a disciple of Burke, and a Whig of that sober, thoughtful school; and accordingly in his Parliamentary career he adhered to the party of Lord Grenville, denounced Napoleon and the French Revolution, disliked the excesses of English Radicalism, and advocated on high Constitutional grounds-as required by the principles of 1688 interpreted in their true meaning-the concession of the Catholic claims. As a lawyer he was not very great, though his reasoning powers were of the finest kind; nor was he distinguished as a judge, though he discharged creditably the duties of his office. His eloquence is his true title to renown; his speeches on the Catholic question are the best ever made upon the subject considered from an Imperial point of view; and in closeness of reasoning, power of statement, convincing force, and dry, hard sarcasm, he has not been surpassed in the British Senate. Mr. O'Flanagan's volumes do not extend beyond the Chancellorship of Lord Plunket, and we have no wish to overpass these limits. In looking back at the long series of distinguished names we have been considering, one reflection, we think, must strike the mind. Some of these Chancellors were good men, with a fine natural sense of right; many were richly endowed with intellect; all were placed in an eminent position from which, it might be supposed, they ought to

* Edin. Rev. July, 1867.

have seen the fitting course of our Irish policy. Yet with rare and not very important exceptions, they identified themselves with an odious system of conquest, misgovernment, oppression, and proscription; they sided with the colonists of the Pale in their cruel strife with the Celtic tribes; they seconded Tudor and Stuart ambition; they believed that Christianity was promoted by a state of society in which a sect was encouraged to trample a nation down; they obliterated studiously the forms of life and usages congenial to Irish instincts; they were stanch friends of Protestant ascendency; they saw in the Irish people a degraded race, pariahs in the midst of a superior caste, whose mission it was to subdue and civilise. The reason of this great moral perversion was that they belonged usually to the conquering race; and they were compelled from the nature of their office to promote measures of wrong and severity, and to administer laws which, viewed as a whole, enthroned injustice in the very seat of equity. Yet were they not sinners beyond others; for this unhappy tone of opinion, until a comparatively recent period, pervaded the whole of the Government of Ireland; and it especially characterised the whole Judicial Bench, which, until the beginning of this century, was but too instinct with the evil spirit of the ascendency of class and religious exclusion. The Bar of Ireland, more within reach of popular and improving influences, felt the approach of a better time sooner; and, since the days of Curran at least, has proved itself on many occasions not unequal to its place in a free State; but even this body was too long an example of the unhappy misrule which sacrificed a people to a caste and a creed. Those who feel astonished that the Irish have no affection for the English name will do well to recollect these facts. It is not long since the Irish race knew English law and its representatives only as emblems and signs of injustice; and a nation needs time to unlearn its history. The appointment of the distinguished person who is now the Keeper of the Irish Seals-esteemed by Irishmen of all parties, and the first of the race and faith of the people to whom the office has been intrusted-will, we trust, tend to lessen antipathies, deplorable indeed, but not difficult to comprehend.

ART. III.-1. Songs before Sunrise. By ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. London: 1871.

2. Poems and Ballads. By A. C. SWINBURNE. London:

1866.

3. Notes on Poems and Reviews. By A. C. SWINBURNE. London: 1866.

4. Chastelard: a Tragedy. By A. C. SWINBURNE. London: 1865.

5. The Queen Mother. SWINBURNE.

Rosamond.

London: 1860.

Two Plays. By A. C.

IN noticing Mr. Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon' we paid a merited tribute to the lyrical and descriptive power which parts of the poem displayed. While doing this we at the same time pointed out some striking defects both of substance and form which marred the execution of the work, and seriously interfered with its unity, completeness, and poetical effect. These were its perverted moral perceptions, harsh and violent religious spirit, even from the Greek point of view, unpruned exuberance of language and imagery, want of definiteness in the conceptions, and of fresh and living interest in the motives and management of the story. In a word, there was a marked poverty of the ethical and reflective element, combined with a wild luxuriance of merely metrical diction, an obscurity of thought and expression, a monotony of emotional and rhythmical effect that, if uncorrected, would exclude the author from any high or permanent place even among contemporary poets. During the interval that has elapsed since the publication of this drama, Mr. Swinburne has produced two volumes of collected poems, besides an historical tragedy and occasional pieces of considerable length. We have thus ample materials for judging how far Mr. Swinburne's maturer poems fulfil the better promise of his earlier work. It is hardly necessary to state at any length the result, for it is unhappily but too notorious. In his later volumes all the vices of his earlier thought, and feeling, and style not only reappear, but reappear in an intensified and malignant form. This, moreover, is not the worst. The later writings are marked by new features, so coarse, repulsive, and utterly unpoetical, that they must of necessity prevent the writer from being numbered or named amongst the poets whose genius has been fruitfully employed for the delight and instruction of mankind. These features are, it is well known, a feverish sensuality sinki

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times into the lowest depths of obscenity, and, as the speculative reflex of this, a passion for blasphemy, for reviling the higher powers and laws of the universe, so violent, bitter, and envenomed as very much to defeat its own object. It is not a very grateful task to dwell on these peculiarities, but in the higher interests of literature it is necessary that they should be at least signalised and exposed. This is the more desirable as in the new volumes there is no falling off in the writer's 'old power. He shows the same mastery over certain materials and departments of his art. Many of the new poems evince the same wonderful sense of melody, the metrical beauty of some being extreme. As mere verbal music several of the lyrics in 'Poems and Ballads' are almost perfect, such for example as The Match,' The Garden of Proserpine,' and The Sundew.' These and some others are moreover simple, expressive, and complete in feeling as well as in form. But in relation to much that the volume contains these songs are like sweet flowers on a dunghill, precious gems amongst sordid and venomous refuse, or points of tender light above the gloom and horror of corruption and decay. This is particularly true of the beautiful little song entitled The Match,' which is placed between two pieces that, although full of the writer's peculiar power, could not be quoted out of Holywell Street, and are even worse in what they suggest than in what they express. In both volumes there are, moreover, characteristic illustrations of the rich and vivid descriptive power which appears so conspicuously in 'Atalanta.' The last volume, Songs before Sunrise,' displays in addition a certain faculty of musical thought, or rather of stating large abstract conceptions in a lyrical form, which the author had not previously evinced, at least in equal strength, definiteness, and persistency. A writer who employs gifts of this order for vicious ends may succeed in doing considerable injury, especially amongst the young, the thoughtless, and the ignorant. The glorification of sensual appetites and sensual indulgences as the highest exercises and elements of human nature may find a dangerous response in the ill-governed hey-day of youthful blood, while the daring proclamation of principles subversive of domestic life, social order, and settled government, may from its very boldness and novelty have a disastrous fascination for excitable but weak and unbalanced natures. It is not unlikely, indeed, that Mr. Swinburne's crude but highly-seasoned hashes of old impieties may even be regarded as a new Evangel by credulous and wondering disciples. But, apart from these, there is much in Mr. Swinburne's writing to attract students of a higher type who may be

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