Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/37

   ‘Letters of Fabius to Right Hon. William Pitt, on his proposed Abolition of the Test in favour of the Roman Catholics of Ireland’ [anon.], 1801. The letters originally appeared in Cobbett's paper, ‘The Porcupine.’  ‘Nuptiæ Sacræ, or an Enquiry into the Scriptural Doctrine of Marriage and Divorce’ [anon.], 1801. Reprinted by desire 1821, and again in 1830.  ‘The Claims of the Establishment,’ 1807.  ‘Paganism and Christianity compared, in a Course of Lectures to the King's Scholars at Westminster in 1806–7–8,’ 1809; new edit., 1825. The lectures were continued until the summer of 1812, the second subject being ‘The History and Principles of Revelation,’ but they were not printed.  ‘Letter to Henry Brougham,’ 1818, and in the ‘Pamphleteer,’ vol. xiv. relating to certain charities at Croydon, which were referred to by Brougham in his ‘Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly on the Abuse of Charities.’ A printed letter to Sir William Scott on the same subject is also attributed to Ireland in the Catalogue of the British Museum Library.  ‘The Plague of Marseilles in 1720. From documents preserved in the archives of that city, 1834.’ It was read by Sir Henry Halford at the College of Physicians, 26 May 1834. A lecture on the ‘Plague of Athens compared with the Plague of the Levant and that of Milan in 1630’ was also written by Ireland, and read by Halford on 27 Feb. 1832, but does not appear to have been printed. When dying he ordered that all his manuscripts should be destroyed.

Ireland gave valuable assistance to William Gifford in his edition of the works of Massinger, and Gifford cordially acknowledged his help in his translation of Juvenal. In the ‘Mæviad’ (lines 303, &c.) are some touching allusions by Gifford to their long friendship, and among the odes is an ‘Imitation of Horace,’ addressed to Ireland. At the close of the ‘Memoir of Ben Jonson’ (Works, i. p. ccxlvii) is a feeling reference by Gifford to his friend, and in announcing to Canning his retirement from the editorship of the ‘Quarterly Review’ (September 1824), he mentions that Ireland had stood closely by him during the whole period of its existence. He is said to have contributed many articles to the early numbers of the ‘Quarterly,’ but none of these have been identified. Ireland proved Gifford's will, and obtained his consent to his burial at Westminster Abbey.

[q. v.], provost of Oriel, and first professor of the exegesis of the Holy Scripture under Ireland's will, delivered the inaugural lecture (2 Nov. 1847), which was afterwards printed, ‘with brief notices of the founder.’



IRELAND, SAMUEL (d. 1800), author and engraver, began life as a weaver in Spitalfields, London, but soon took to dealing in prints and drawings and devoted his leisure to teaching himself drawing, etching, and engraving. He made sufficient progress to obtain a medal from the Society of Arts in 1760. In 1784 he appears as an exhibitor for the first and apparently only time at the Royal Academy, sending a view of Oxford (cf. Catalogues, 1780–90). Between 1780 and 1785 he etched many plates after John Hamilton Mortimer and Hogarth. Etched portraits by him of General Oglethorpe (in 1785) and Thomas Inglefield, an armless artist (1787), are in the print room of the British Museum, together with etchings after Ruisdael (1786) and Teniers (1787) and other masters, and some architectural drawings in water-colour. There is something amateurish about all his artistic work. Meanwhile his taste for collecting books, pictures, and curiosities gradually became an all-absorbing passion, and his methods exposed him at times to censure. In 1787 Horace Walpole, writing of an edition (limited to forty copies) of a pamphlet which he was preparing at Strawberry Hill, complained that ‘a Mr. Ireland, a collector, I believe with interested views, bribed my engraver to sell him a print of the frontispiece, has etched it himself, and I have heard has represented the piece, and I suppose will sell some copies, as part of the forty’ (Letters, ed. Cunningham, ix. 110). In 1794 Ireland proved the value of a part of his collection by issuing ‘Graphic Illustrations of Hogarth, from Pictures, Drawings, and Scarce Prints in the Author's possession.’ Some of the plates were etched by himself. A second volume appeared in 1799. The work is of high interest, although it is possible that Ireland has, either wilfully or ignorantly, assigned to Hogarth some drawings by other artist (cf. sketch of Dennis in vol. ii.).

In 1790 Ireland published ‘A Picturesque Tour through France, Holland, Brabant, and part of France made in the Autumn of 1789,’ London (2 vols. roy. 8vo and in large-paper 4to). It was dedicated to Francis Grose and contained etchings on copper in aqua-tinta from drawings made by the