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den, by leaping into the Thames from one of the bridges of London. He was taken up alive, but greatly injured by his rash attempt. A benevolent Englishman, the proprietor of Peele's Coffee House in Fleet-street, received the ill-fated agitator into his house, where he ministered with the utmost generosity and delicacy to the wants of poor Steele during the short remainder of his life." Lord Brougham and many political opponents generously came forward with offers of aid, which the dying man declined. He breathed his last on the 15th June 1848, aged 59. His re- mains were brought to Ireland, waked in Conciliation Hall, Dublin, and buried in Glasnevin. The Standard concluded its notice of his death with the words : " Fare thee well, noble, honest Tom Steele ! A braver spirit, in a gentler heart, never left earth — let us humbly hope for that home where the weary find rest." In person Steele was tall and well- proportioned, and had a somewhat martial appearance, to which his military cap and frock-coat not a little contributed. His bronzed countenance wore an expression of resolute determination. ' ss 58 177 233

Steevens, Dr. Richard and Grissel, brother and sister, founders of the Dublin hospital bearing their name, were born in England the latter part of the 17th century. Their father, a royalist Church clergyman, for preaching against Oliver Cromwell, was obliged to seek refuge in Ireland, bringing with him his wife and twin infants, Richard and Grissel. He gave the former a good education, and at his decease in 1682 left his daughter a portion of £800. Richard, after proceeding so far in his divinity course as to be admitted to deacon's orders, devoted himself to the study of physic, and became a doctor. Impressed with the condition of the Dub- lin sick '^oor, he, when dying in 17 10, left the whole of his property, consisting of real estate in the County of Westmeath and Queen's County, worth then £604 a year, in the hands of trustees, for the benefit of his sister during her life, and after her death to be devoted to the foundation of a hospital. Grissel, de- siring to see her brother's good intentions carried into effect during her own life- time, surrendered the income bequeathed to her, reserving only £150 a year for her maintenance, and apartments in the pro- posed institution. She also contributed £2,000 of her own savings. Additional funds were collected, an Act of Parliament was procured, and a board of governors incorporated at Madame Steevens's desire, of which, Swift was a member. Among 492

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the endowments was one from Esther Johnson, to continue only so long as the Episcopal Church remained in connexion with the state in Ireland. The building of the hospital was commenced in 17 20 and completed in 1733, at a cost of £16,000 ; and it has ever since continued one of the most important and beneficial of Dublin charities. It was very generally believed amongst the poor that Madame Steevens had the face of a pig ; to dissipate which absurd idea she was accustomed to sit in one of the corridors of the hospital with her veil up, for some hours once a week. Grissel Steevens died at an advanced age, in March 1747. Her portrait occupies a prominent position in the board-room of the institution. "** ^^et

Sterne, Lawrence, Rev., author of Tristram Shandy, was born at Clonmel, on the 24th November 171 3. His father, Roger Sterne, grandson of an Archbishop of York, was an ensign. His mother, Agnes Nuttle, a native of Clonmel, was the daughter of a sutler. They married during the campaign in Flanders. Sterne gives the following picture of his father : " My father was a little, smart man, act- ive to the last degree in all exercises, most patient of fatigue and disappointments, of which it pleased God to give him a full measure ; he was in his temper somewhat rapid and hasty ; but of a kindly, sweet, disposition, void of all design, and so in- nocent in his own intentions, that he sus- pected no one ; so that you might have cheated him ten times a day, if nine had not been suflScient for your purpose." Law- rence was born shortly after their return from the Continent. " My birth-day," he continues, " was ominous to my poor father, who was, the day after our arrival, with many other brave officers, broke, and sent adrift into the world, with a wife and two children." Much of his early life was passed in the different gar- rison towns. When seven years of age Mrs. Sterne and her family lived for a time with a relation at Annamoe, in the County of Wicklow. " It was in this parish," says Sterne, "during our stay, that I had that wonderful escape, in fall- ing through a mill-race while the mill was going, and being taken up unhurt ; the story is incredible, but known for truth in all that part of Ireland, where hundreds of the common people flocked to see me." At eleven years of age he was sent to England, and put to school near Halifax, at the expense of his father's relatives. His father died in Jamaica in 1731, from the effects of a duel fought at Gibraltar a few years before. The widow, though