on the misgovernment of Ireland, with that enthusiasm for liberty which never chilled in his burning and feverish heart.

It is probable, however, his eloquence was very ineffective, for an Irish gentleman, Chief Baron Woulfe, who remembered him speaking at a meeting of the Catholic board, has described him as exhibiting a peculiarity of manner, which is a great fault in oratory.

He says he would utter a sentence, then pause as if he were taking time to frame a second, which was slowly enunciated, giving to the whole speech the effect of unconnected aphorisms.* His voice too was devoid of all melody; but poets are seldom orators, and if he failed in this he was by no means singular.

We are, however, enabled to form some idea of Shelley's eloquence on the subject of Repeal from a report in the Dublin "Evening Post," of 29th February, 1812, of a speech delivered by him at a meeting which took place on the previous evening at Fishamble Street Theatre. The Earl of Fingall was in the chair, and the

* North British Review, vol. viii.

chief speakers are said to have been "Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Wyse, Lord Glentworth, and Mr. Shelley." The report runs thus :--

"Mr. Shelley requested a hearing. He was an Englishman, and when he reflected on the crimes committed by his nation on Ireland, he could not but blush for his countrymen, did he not know that arbitrary power never failed to corrupt the heart of man. (Loud applause for several minutes).

"He had come to Ireland for the sole purpose of interesting himself in her misfortunes. He was deeply impressed with a sense of the evils which Ireland endured, and he considered them to be truly ascribed to the fatal effects of the legislative union with Great Britain.

"He walked through the streets, and he saw the fane of liberty converted into a temple of mammon. (Loud applause.) He beheld beggary and famine in the country-he never saw such in any country; and he could lay his hand on his heart, and say that the cause of such sights was the union with Great Britain. (Hear, hear.) He was resolved to do his utmost to promote a Repeal of the Union.

"Catholic Emancipation would do a great Ideal towards the amelioration of the condition of the people; but he was convinced that the Repeal of the Union was of more importance. He considered that the victims whose members were vibrating on gibbets, were driven to the commission of the crimes which they expiated by their lives, by the effects of the Union."

CHAPTER XXII.

Shelley a political writer-Publishes "An Address to the Irish People"-Its tendencies-And general character.

THE youthful politician did not limit himself to speaking. He employed his versatile pen in the production of a voluminous pamphlet, which he published under the title of "An Address to the Irish People," with an advertisement on the titlepage, stating that "The lowest possible price is set on the publication, because it is the intention. of the author to awaken in the minds of the Irish poor a knowledge of their real state, summarily pointing out the evils of that state, and suggesting rational means of remedy-Catholic

Emancipation and a Repeal of the Union Act, (the latterthe most successful engine that England ever wielded over the miseries of fallen Ireland,) being treated of in the following address as grievances which unanimity and resolution may remove; and associations conducted with peaceful firmness, being earnestly recommended as means of embodying that unanimity and firmness which must finally be successful."

This pamphlet, dated No. 7, Lower Sackville Street, was written apparently in England, previous to Shelley's visit to Ireland, and was first published at the moderate price of five-pence, the author gravely informing us in a postscript, that "he has now been a week in Dublin, and has made himself acquainted with the public mind, and is prepared to recommend an association for the purpose of restoring Ireland to the prosperity which she possessed before the Union ;" a remarkably brief period, we may readily conceive, for a youth of nineteen to make himself acquainted with the wishes and necessities of a nation; and he promises another pamphlet in which he shall reveal the plan and structure of the proposed association.