dents of his life present for a slight retrospect, which, with a few additional details in our memoir of lord Charlemont, will connect the historical events related in a former volume, with the more momentous and interesting order of events into which the subsequent memoirs must lead.

The ancestors of Lucas were farmers in the county of Clare. It is supposed that, by misfortune or mismanagement, the property of his family was lost. The earliest notice we have been enabled to obtain of him places him as an apothecary in Dublin. At a subsequent period he took the degree of doctor of medicine. Of his private history the details are few. And we shall, therefore, here proceed to introduce the civil contests in which he bore a distinguished part; and which we consider to have interest both as true indications of an interval in which our history is nearly silent, and also still more importance, as the first steps and faint beginnings of a different state of things. These, as we have suggested, appertain rather to the termination of the former period than to the beginning of the present, into which Lucas lived about eleven years. It is thus that he becomes an intermediate link between the two.

The interval between the revolution of 1688, and the accession of George III., was one of comparative tranquillity, and which offers little to the narration of history. As, upon a general view might be anticipated, this interval was productive of some national growth in the wealth, numbers and intelligence of the middle classes. An advance, however, both concealed, and, to a great extent, retarded and neutralized by the internal abuses-the misgovernment, and the dissensions, essentially belonging to an immature and crude state of society. A most complicated system of abuses prevailed-a powerful aristocracy, consisting of a few great families, possessed an unconstitutional influence, the remains of an unconstitutional power. No longer permitted to bring their followers to the field-they contended to outweigh each other in the scale of faction. To steer between these, to

obtain a preponderance by their division, and to govern by means of the secret influences of intrigue, subordination and terror, was the policy of the Castle, a policy inconsistent with the good government of a well-ordered constitution, but not perhaps without some reasonable excuse in the times to which it is referred.

An immediate consequence of such a state of things was the diffusion of a violent spirit of faction into every institution, and into every public department. There was a pervading influence of abuse, feebly counteracted by a faint spirit of opposition,-principles which, however, were gradually to become more balanced as the public advanced in political growth. There was not yet a sufficient power in the popular elements of opposition-since so enormously accumulated into a preponderance to give weight and sanction to mere popular resistance. The Geraldine might encounter the Butler -not as of old upon the field, but in the walls of a most corrupt and subservient parliament, with the votes they could respectively muster on the floor; and other great powers, similarly organized, might exercise a similar weight with safety. But, for men like Lucas, it was wholly a different thing. The administration were not compelled to

stand on points of law, or, as has since often occurred, to allow themselves to be evaded and defied from behind the seemingly insignificant intrenchments of form; still less was power deterred from going straight to its victim by any weight existing in public opinion.

To be a patriot then was something-there was neither the stimulus of applause, nor the prospect of self-interest. The man might be mistaken, but his honesty could scarce be doubted. It was his part to brave opposite dangers-the despotism of power, and the animosity of faction, under circumstances in which ambition or the hope of preferment had little to expect. The first appearance of Dr Lucas, upon the public scene, was in the commencement of the growth of that popular spirit which was afterwards, before his death, to make a bold and effective stand against such a state of things.

Having early obtained a dangerous notoriety as a political writer, he was, by the notice on some occasion drawn upon his writings, under the necessity of escaping to the continent. On his return, he was elected a member of the common council, where a field soon offered for the most praiseworthy and honourable, as well as spirited resistance to the encroachments and abuses of the privy council. The Irish parliament had, in compensation for the act of settlement in the reign of Charles II., given up the corporations of Ireland to be most available engines of despotic control in the hands of the administration: and the Irish government, using the advantage to its full extent, deprived the corporation of Dublin of its popular character, by transferring some of its most important powers from the whole body to the board of aldermen,—well indeed considering that such bodies must become more inclined to subserviency, and in every way more manageable, as their powers become vested in a smaller and more privileged circle. We do not presume to say that an alderman is less likely to be an honest man than a common-council man,-looking generally, the contrary is the fact; but one of a small body will always be found more prudential and less bold than one of a multitude. He is more marked; he stands closer to the seat of corruption and corrupt influence; and it is to be confessed, has more tempting allurements. We feel in duty bound to add-though in no way necessary to our immediate concern,-that there is an opposite extreme. Corporate institutions, when they contain too large an infusion of the democratic element, can answer no good purpose: but can only tend to give the same unconstitutional authority to a rabble, as the former to a despotic power. That the effect of this is, no one can doubt, to throw power into the hands of those irresponsible and often unprincipled individuals by whom the elements of disorder are governed, so far as may be. But to proceed: the aldermen, not content with the privileges conferred on them by the stated changes, usurped several rights to which they had no claim and by these means obtained a degree of influence and authority, which they used for the private ends of providing for their own families, and sharing among themselves every lucrative post.

It was in or about the year 1743, that Lucas and another commoncouncil man, Mr James Latouche-a name honourable in the records of Dublin-entered together into concert for the purpose of withstanding the power of the board of aldermen.

At that time, it appears that the city estate was encumbered to the amount of £30,000—a circumstance which these gentlemen considered as attributable to mismanagement, and perhaps to other abuses of a more exceptionable nature. It was while engaged upon this inquiry, that a new quarry started before their scrutiny. They thought they had discovered that the right of electing aldermen was not in the board; but in the entire corporate body, the mayor, sheriffs, commons, A committee to inspect the city records, was appointed in the common council, with Mr Latouche as chairman. Three reports were brought in, strengthened with the most eminent legal opinions: a suit was brought in the King's Bench, on a motion of quo warranto against the last elected alderman; but after a hearing, the court refused to grant permission for an information. The efforts of the common council were thus rendered abortive, and the main confederates were left to sustain the weight of the board's displeasure, which was shown by striking their names out of the triennial returns of common-council men.

A series of spirited exertions on the part of Lucas, which were displayed during the continuation of this contest, brought both himself and his able confederate into great and popular notoriety. In 1740, the death of Sir J. Somerville, the member for Dublin, left a vacancy in the representation, for which Latouche, Lucas, and another gentleman, set up their claims, and addressed the electors. This competition was looked upon with an eye of satisfaction by the aldermanic board, who anticipated the division of their adversaries with no unfavourable eye; and agreeably with such an expectation, the common council quickly began to fall asunder: a division took place, in which the several merits of the respective candidates were maintained by their adherents.

This disunion, however, took a turn unfavourable to Lucas: his antagonist had taken a leading part in the previous contest, and been not only the chairman of the committee, and drawn up the three several reports which had been published on the part of the common council, but the tone which he took in the contest was far more moderate, and less calculated to compromise him with any party. The position which he had thus obtained rendered it necessary for Lucas to go to extreme lengths. While Latouche only questioned the jurisdiction of the board, Lucas arraigned their administration, and thus made personal enemies among a powerful and influential body. Unhappily he thought it essential to his success to go to farther and still more dangerous lengths. Latouche confined himself to the politics of the corporation; but Lucas, in his address to the council, denounced the public conduct of the administration, and assailed the authorities and the parliament, in language which laid him open to the charge of sedition. Lucas was evidently, though by nature endowed with considerable abilities—a man of more heat than discretion; and we can have no doubt, from the comparison of his addresses, that his entire conduct was, in that respect, the result of pure inadvertence: he hoped to distinguish himself over his discreet antagonist, by displaying his zeal for the rights and liberties of the people; and, while acting a popular farce not uncommon among popular men, he overlooked the

ears and eyes of a far more formidable power. In one of his addresses* this sentence occurs, which, as it but more distinctly expresses what is variously and strongly suggested throughout, we may quote as his own sentiment. "If he (Latouche) be a true advocate for liberty, let him show it in setting forth your constitutional rights and liberties." And it was in the full and unqualified spirit of this dangerous defiance that he spoke and wrote. The politic and wary colleague and rival who was thus evoked to plunge, "upon a raw and gusty day," into the dangerous tide of democratic agitation, saw more clearly, or more prudently avoided the obvious peril. But Lucas shrunk from no extreme of daring appeal and defiance; and while he simply looked to outgo his rival in popularity, he roused the apprehension or the policy of the administration. It has, indeed, been argued, from the general quiet of the town and country, as well as from the apparent indifference manifested during these corporation contests, by the Castle and the law-officers of the crown, that no danger was in any way attached to the conduct of Lucas; and that the violence, of which he soon after became the mark, was simply for the purpose of putting him down, and the result rather of a conspiracy among the aldermen than any resentment or policy of government. We have little doubt in combining both reasons. Whatever importance might have been attached by the government to a contest, of which it was the tendency to instil a democratic spirit in the corporation, or to a series of pamphlets and speeches, which, whether well designed or not, were well adapted to diffuse a similar spirit among the people; the elevation of their author to an eminence of far more public authority and influence was, unquestionably, an object to be feared. The success of Lucas in arousing popular sentiment was even surprisingly great; nor do we think it can be a stretch of conjecture to refer the spirit of a period, later by not many years, to his exertion as a main origin. In a country, of which the state was so immature and so replete with all the elements of confusion, and which was, in a measure, governed by a system of (perhaps) necessary abuses, such sentiments, when once fully roused, could never again wholly sink to rest. They are truly like those waves of incidental motion, which Mr Babbage supposes to be propagated, without end, into the mass of undulations with which space is filled.†

On his part, Mr Latouche took the precisely opposite tone: against the abuses, real or supposed, of the corporation, he declared his hostility; but, as to the questions of more general scope, entertained so violently by his rival, he, as distinctly, declared his dissent from his opinions. The connexion between the two kingdoms he viewed as too fixed to be shaken-he denied the dependence of Ireland to be an evil, and pointed out the great and unquestionable benefits of which it was the source and deprecated, as rash and ruinous, any attempt to awaken jealousies between the two countries. Of the substantial truth and wisdom of these sentiments referred to that time, we can have no doubt. To see the question in a different point of view, it is necessary to commit the very general fallacy of looking on that Ninth Bridgewater Treatise.

*The 14th, page 35.

period through the history of after times, and applying reasons drawn from a different stage of national, and, indeed, human progress. Ireland was misgoverned; and we much doubt if it could have been otherwise; but it must be admitted, that, under the tyranny-if it will be called so—of "an old and haughty nation, proud in arms,” Ireland had, even at this time, arrived at a state of civilization far beyond most of the continental nations, of which the advance had been less interrupted. Ireland had, indeed, passed for centuries through the process which no other country could have survived. It was the firm tie that bound her to the mighty frame of England that upheld and carried her onward on the wave of national vicissitude and progress. The motives of Mr Latouche, like those of most public men, may have been factious; but we think the ground which he took to have been reconcileable with an enlarged patriotism.

While the contest between these two men was pending, an event occurred which altered the face of affairs. Mr Alderman Pearson, the other member for the city, died in May, 1749, and put an end to the competition. In this emergency, the board of aldermen set up a third candidate, a Mr Charles Burton, whose father, Mr Benjamin Burton, had been a whig alderman, who had long been the representative for the city, and had suffered considerably in the cause of the corporation. This gentleman had left a considerable property to his son, who having likewise become an alderman, was now called upon by his civic brethren to stand for the city.

The popular party was alarmed, and a junction between the rivals was urged. This they acceded to, and appeared together in the hall; but it was quite evident that there was still a hostile feeling between them. The friends of Lucas admit that he had attacked Latouche so unfairly, and with such bitterness, that it was impossible to suppose the existence of any sincere cordiality.

While the two popular candidates continued to harangue the companies in their halls, the candidates of the board took to the more efficient and less laborious method of a personal canvass. This, too, was loudly denounced by Lucas as an invasion of their liberties. In the mean time, an accidental circumstance gave much encouragement to the board of aldermen.

The tolls and customs had for a considerable time been falling in value, from the mismanagement of the collectors, and it was not unreasonably thought that this would, to a great extent, be remedied by committing them to the charge of individual self-interest, the best security that the constitution of things perhaps affords. On this understanding, an alderman undertook to farm them for a term of years at a very advanced rate. Lucas immediately denounced the transaction as a job, and alleged that the assembly of the commons, in which the proposal had been discussed and carried, was a packed assembly, and insinuated that they who had been summoned were slaves to the board, and prompt to execute their purposes.

Thus it will at once be seen, a large party of the commons must have been insulted and irritated; and the effect was immediately felt. Acting promptly on the occasion, the board obtained a resolution from which the commons could not well shrink-that so lowering a charge