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topics, that any Member of the Convocation can have the hardihood to propose either of them in opposition to Lord Grenville.

That Lord Eldon has been a successful man-that he is a moral man and a prudent man nobody will deny, but that he is distinguished by the talents of his predecessors on the Woolsack, that he is celebrated as a scholar or as a statesman, that he possesses a large and enlightened mind will be asserted by few, who are not in expectation of the good things he has to give, and believed by none, who are not, through his favour, in the actual enjoyment of a snug living, a comfortable commissionership of bankrupts, or a warm mastership in Chancery. By the bye his Lordship very opportunely, a short time since, made the nephew of the Master of one of the most numerous Colleges a Commissioner of Bankrupts. In fact, Lord Eldon's life is chiefly remarkable for an inordinate love of the profits of place. He has never shewn himself animated with a laudable political ambition. He has been seen Chancellor under Mr. Pitt's Administration, Chancellor under Mr. Addington's, still Chancellor when Mr. Pitt turned out Mr. Addington, now Chancellor with Mr. Perceval, and ready to have been Chancellor under Lords Grey and Grenville, had they listened to the proposal lately, so impudently made to them; to enable the rump of the No Popery Junta to continue in officeLord Eldon deprived of the seals would be personally as insignificant as the Duke of Beaufort.

As to his Grace, it would be unfair towards him not to state, that from some supposed littlenesses, which are said to deform Lord Eldon's character, he is understood to be entirely free. He is admitted to be an hospitable, correct, and generally respectable man, and if the ques

tion were, whether he should be appointed Chairman of Quarter Sessions in one of his dependent Counties, Monmouth or Gloucester, it might perhaps, be thought, that his mediocrity of understanding did not render him incompetent for such a situation. But as Chancellor of Oxford to preside in the seat of learning, I do assert, that he has no qualification whatever. Is his rank to carry it? If his Dukedom is to recommend him, why does not the University present its honours to a Royal Duke-the Duke of York, for instance, has now leisure to attend to the concerns of Alma mater. In truth, the Duke of Beaufort would not have been named, if his influence in a certain House had not made him a powerful patron. -Believe me, Sir, my brethren here are not inattentive to the disposition of Church patronage, looking in vain for superior merit in those who are put over their heads, they have searched for the recommendations they have been fortunate enough to procure. In this inquiry they have discovered, that the Duke of Beaufort is one of the few whose wishes upon such subjects are in the nature of commands. They have seen him make Dr. Luxmore a Bishop of a valuable See, and before his Lordship was enthroned, they saw him obtain for Mr. Talbot, who married a daughter of the Duke; and who is a very young man, the rich Deanery of Salisbury-besides, in other departments of the State, he is accounted lucky in obtaining for his friends the most desirable appointments. But these sordid considerations, however they may have influenced persons who have proposed the Duke, will, I trust, have no effect upon the great body of electors, who ought to have, and I am convinced, will have, no other views in the choice they may make, than the honour of their University, and the interests of learning.

Lord Grenville between his pigmy rivals rises with a colossal grandeur of character-with all the private worth that belongs to both of his competitors, and without the infirmities that are imputed to one of them, he unites the accomplished scholar with the eminent statesman. As a parliamentary orator, he is considered by a celebrated author, whose works now lie before me, since the extinction of the great luminary, Mr. Fox, without an equal. But Lord Grenville not only possesses appropriate excellence for the Chair of an University, but is also particularly recommended to the admiration of the country by his manly political career. Twice has he given up place and power, and lately refused them, solely upon public principle. These are facts which confer real dignity, and constitute a great man. In these times, when independence is so rare, and when place is generally sought alone for the profit it produces, it is the duty of those with whom the expression of any part of the national voice is entrusted, to honour with all the distinction they can bestow, him who is almost a solitary exception to the opprobrium cast upon public men; a contrary course of conduct must induce a suspicion, especially if it be seen on the present occasion, that if public virtue be seldom found in the Statesmen of the present day, it is because the public itself is degraded.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Oxford, Nov. 13, 1809.1

A. M. OXON.

P. S.-I am happy to say, that the Colleges most in repute among us, Christ Church, Brazenose, and Oriel, are decidedly in favour of Lord Grenville.

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SHELLEY'S SPEECH

IN

II.

FISHAMBLE STREET THEATRE,

DUBLIN, ON THE 28TH OF FEBRUARY, 1812.'

From The Freeman's Journal, Dublin, 29 February, 1812, and other papers.

On the fifth resolution being proposed, Mr. Shelley, an English gentleman (very young), the son of a Member of Parliament, rose to address the meeting. He was received with great kindness, and declared that the greatest misery this country endured was the Union Law, the Penal Code, and the state of the representation. He drew a lively picture of the misery of the country, which he attributed to the unfortunate Act of Legislative Union.

1 Mr. MacCarthy (Shelley's Early Life, p. 226) records that on the 28th of February, 1812, the poet attended an Aggregate Meeting of the Catholics of Ireland, at the Theatre in Fishamble Street, Dublin, and spoke for an hour. The precise words of the speech we shall probably never recover; but in their absence we cannot do better than repeat the three reports of it which Mr. MacCarthy's indefatigable industry has disinterred from the contemporary newspaper press. Of the first, Mr. MacCarthy says:

"This brief report appeared on the morning after the meeting in The Freeman's Journal of Saturday,

Feb. 29th, 1812. It was repeated
in The Hibernian Journal, or Daily
Chronicle of Liberty, Dublin, Mon-
day, March 2nd, 1812. And again
in a
more accessible shape in
Walker's Hibernian Magazine for
February, 1812, p. 83."

2 Mr. MacCarthy says we should read sixth. The resolution was as follows:

"RESOLVED, That the grateful thanks of this Meeting are due, and hereby returned to Lord Glentworth, the Right Hon. Maurice Fitzgerald, and the other DISTINGUISHED PROTESTANTS who have this day honoured us with their presence."

From The Dublin Evening Post, Saturday, 29 February, 1812.

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, 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 deal 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.

From Saunders's News Letter, Saturday, 29 February, 1812, and The Patriot, 2 March, 1812.

Mr. Shelley then addressed the Chair. He hoped he should not be accounted a transgressor on the time of

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