Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/476

 472 PONSON BY. making a variety of changes, and, amongst the rest, Mr. Ponsonby was dismissed from office to make room for Mr. Marcus Beresford, a beardless stripling, the cadet of a powerful family, whose star was now in the ascendant. There could be no objection to the age or talents of Mr. Ponsonby; for his successful rival was comparatively a boy, just fledged in a bar gown, with the person, the voice, and the frivolous manner of a young lady. This youth too, was promoted to a seat in parliament, and took a pro minent post on the treasury bench; where it was truly ludicrous to see this political tyro, night after night, rising to oppose, in treble tones, the formidable thunders of Grattan, Ponsonby, Curran, and others of their eloquent colleagues. - - who might have lain dormant in the lap of ease and tran quillity, have likewise been often roused and confirmed by i t. Mr. Ponsonby, a younger brother, with n o other inheritance than his talents and his profession, now found himself deprived o f a lucrative office, which h e had con fidently hoped long t o enjoy. He was also a married man, and already hailed a s the father o f a n offspring that must look t o him for support. He had formed a n esta blishment suitable t o a permanent revenue, now diminished more than half b y his loss o f office. His wounded pride could not tamely view a hostile family triumphant, and himself a victim o f that triumph. The occurrence, how ever, proved fortunate i n i t s result; i t roused a l l his slum bering energies t o action, and effected thenceforth an important change i n his character and conduct. He determined o n a new course o f life, and resolved t o sacri fice indolence a t the shrine o f laudable ambition, t o direct his talents t o worthier pursuits, and not only t o render h i s professional avocation a source o f emolument, more pro ductive than that h e had lost, but t o convince the new viceroy that h e was not t o b e injured with impunity. Hounds and hunters vanished b y rapid degrees;–the Four Courts became the constant theatre o f his sedulous
 * Persecution has often produced martyrs; and patriots,