from the sale of the library of a clergyman of the name of M'Namara, a native of Cork, latterly resident in Dublin; on the back of these volumes, the words: "Reverend Mr. Lee's premium to John Sheares," are stamped in gold letters; and on opening the books, I found the customary engraving-of a youth, led by the hand of Science, towards a temple where Fame is stationed at the portals, holding a myrtle crown to the advancing student: underneath, there is the usual printed form, with the names and dates written upwards of sixty years ago, in the following terms: "At a public examination, held in the Reverend Mr. Lec's school, Cork, on February 19th, 1781, this premium was given to John Sheares, for his distinguished merit, in answering in the sixth book of Virgil's Æneid. President: G. Lee." I know not whether the mention of this premium, the proof and recompense of youthful merit, may excite the same melancholy feelings which the accidental discovery of it called forth; but no man, who ever felt a father's hopes, or shared in those of an affectionate family, can picture to himself the fond expectations which this first indication of dawning merit might seem to warrant, and recall, unmoved, the mournful issue of those hopes in the case of the illfated John Sheares. By the college books, I find, that he entered the university of Dublin as a pensioner, the 20th January, 1783, under Mr. Slack, his college tutor. Of the daughters of Henry Sheares, one was married to Mr. Gubbins, of Limerick; another, to Mr. Henry Westropp; another, to Doctor Payne, of Upton; a fourth, Julia, the favourite sister of her unfortunate brother John, was not married, and died a few years ago. Mrs. Sheares had the misfortune to survive all her children, with the exception of her daughter Julia. Four of her sons perished by untimely ends, previously to her death: her amiable spirit was sorely tried by afflictions; and in mercy, they terminated soon after the last and direst calamity of all fell upon her children, in 1798. Inscrutable, indeed, are the dispensations of Providence; the sins of the fathers are visited on the children of the unrighteous, to the third and fourth generation; but the noblest virtues of the parents are not always sufficient to shield their offspring from the direst calamities! Such is the will of Heaven, and we bow to those decrees which human wisdom cannot comprehend, but more than reason brings us to believe, are planned by wisdom that is not human, and ordained for ends that are not evil. The eldest brother Henry, succeeded to property estimated at £1,200 a year. He was by no means successful, however, in his management, and was ultimately obliged to dispose of some portion of it. It would still have been ample for his support, with ordinary prudence; and the circumstance of his son Richard Benjamin, at his decease, in November 1835, having left the property he inherited from his father, estimated at about £600 a-year, shews that his means were still considerable, however embarrassed they had been. Through Lord Shannon's interest, Henry Sheares obtained a commission in the 51st regiment of foot, but he did not continue in the army above three years. He was twice married; his first wife, was the only daughter of Mr. Swete, of Cork, supposed at the time of his marriage to be possessed of immense wealth. When Lord Clare was a young, struggling barrister, (then Mr. Fitzgibbon,) before he had become acquainted with Miss Whaley, whom he married, in July, 1786, he had paid his addresses to Miss Swete, and had been rejected. She subsequently eloped with Henry Sheares; and the rejected admirer never forgot or forgave the success of his rival. Henry Sheares was married to Miss Swete, in the month of April, 1782. This circumstance deserves to be remembered, and to be recalled, when the failure is referred to, of every effort that was made to save this rival from an ignominious death; and the cause of that failure, is attributed, it is to be feared with too much justice, to the implacable hostility of Lord Clare, to both the brothers, but particularly to the elder. Miss Swete, who, it was generally imagined, was to have a large fortune, in the usual vagueness of Irish calculation on such subjects, estimated at that time at £50,000, was no sooner married, than her father failed, and all the rumoured dowry vanished into air. About the period of this occurrence, he had some thoughts of offering himself as a candidate for the representation of his native city; but whatever steps he might have taken in canvassing, on that occasion, it does not appear that he entered on the contest. The consequences of his father-in-law's embarrassments, obliged him to study the law as a profession, having previously retired from the army. Henry Sheares was called to the bar in the Michaelmas term of 1789; his brother, John, having been admitted a barrister the year previously. He removed to Dublin and entered on his profession. From the commencement of their career in that city, they resided together; first, in apartments on Ormond Quay, at the house of a Miss Reid; and from 1796, in the house in Bagot-street, at the corner of Pembroke-street, in which they continued to live to the time of their arrest. Mrs. Sheares died on the 11th of December, 1791, and was interred in the burying-ground of St. Peter's Church, Aungier-street, where the tombstone placed over her remains by her husband still exists, bearing the following inscription :— "Here lies the body of Mrs. Alicia Young Sheares, The beloved and lamented wife of Henry Sheares, And at no great distance from this grave, in the same churchyard, the remains of Lord Clare are buried, and these words are inscribed on the stone erected to his memory, which is indeed less likely to perish than the monument itself: "Here lieth the body of John Fitzgibbon, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, Who departed this life the 28th of May, 1802, The Hotspur of his party, who caused the land to tremble at his name, lies here at rest; the turbulent, overbearing politician, who set the country in a flame, is still and quiet as the meanest of the dead. "Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk! After the death of Mrs. Sheares, her children were taken under the care of their grandmother. The circumstances of Mr. and Mrs. Swete, about this time, rendering it necessary for them to quit their native country, they went to one of the French provinces, and took the three eldest of the children with them. In the year 1792, Henry Sheares paid a visit to France, to see his children, and was accompanied by his brother. The Revolution in that country was then making rapid progress; and the stirring events that were taking place in the capital, led the brothers to Paris, where they remained for some weeks. During their residence in the French capital, they became acquainted with the leading men of the revolution, and intimately so with Roland and Brissot. They attended the meetings of various political societies; they became interested in the questions that were then the general subjects of discussion; and those subjects were certainly calculated to excite the imagination, and to inflame the political feelings of the young and inexperienced of any country; but more especially, of one in which liberty had lately achieved a partial triumph, and had still left more political evils to be redressed, than perhaps existed |