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 provement Compensation Bill (ib. pp. 1089–1123). On the same day the Tenant Right Bill was read a second time, but it was subsequently condemned by the select committee, to which it and Napier's scheme of Irish land reform had been referred. On 16 Feb. 1854 Shee brought in a bill which, with the exception of three clauses, was the exact counterpart of Sharman Crawford's bill of the previous session (ib. 3rd ser. cxxx. 770–7), but it met with little encouragement. On 13 June in the same year Shee moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the laws relating to the temporalities of the church of Ireland, and to increase the means of religious instruction and church accommodation in that country. This motion was, however, rejected after a debate of three nights by a majority of eighty-six votes (ib. 3rd ser. cxxxiv. 116–36). Convinced of the impossibility of carrying Sharman Crawford's bill through parliament, Shee, with Sharman Crawford's concurrence, on 20 Feb. 1855 brought in a Tenants' Improvement Compensation Bill, founded on two of Sir Joseph Napier's bills as amended by the select committee of 1853 (ib. 3rd ser. cxxxvi. 1634–44). This bill also met with but little success, and was ultimately dropped. Owing to the unpopularity which he incurred by the abandonment of Sharman Crawford's measure, Shee lost his seat for Kilkenny county at the general election in April 1857, and he was again defeated there at the general election in May 1859. In 1860 he refused the offer of the chief-justiceship of Madras. He was nominated as a candidate at the by-election for Stoke-upon-Trent in September 1862, but he only received thirty-two votes.

Shee was an earnest and conscientious advocate, and an able though somewhat heavy speaker. He possessed an extensive knowledge of the law, as well as a large share of sound common-sense, and his genial manners made him very popular with all those who came into contact with him. He was counsel in most of the famous trials of his day. He conducted the defence of William Palmer (1824–1856) [q. v.], and he appeared on behalf of the plaintiff in the famous Roupell case. In the former case he incurred considerable blame for avowing in his speech his own belief in Palmer's innocence. On 19 Dec. 1863 he was appointed by Lord Westbury a justice of the court of queen's bench in the place of Sir William Wightman, and on 10 June 1864 he received the honour of knighthood (London Gazette, 1863 p. 6645, 1864 p. 3072). He was the first Roman catholic who had been promoted to the English bench since the Revolution. After sitting on the bench for little more than four years, he died from an attack of apoplexy on 19 Feb. 1868, at his residence in Sussex Place, Hyde Park Gardens, London, aged 63.

He married at Paris, on 26 Dec. 1837, Mary, second daughter of Sir James Gordon, bart., of Gordonstown and Letterfourie, Banffshire, by whom he had, with other issue, two sons, viz. George Darell Shee [see below], and Henry Gordon Shee, Q.C., recorder of Burnley, and judge of the Salford Hundred court of record. Lady Shee died on 11 Oct. 1861, aged 45.

He edited several editions of Lord Tenterden's ‘Treatise of the Law relative to Merchant Ships and Seamen’ [see, first ], and Samuel Marshall's ‘Treatise on the Law of Insurance.’ He was the author of:
 * 1) ‘Reflections on the Trial of the Prince de Polignac and his Colleagues before the Chamber of Peers of France in 1830 … In a Letter addressed to an Advocate of the Cour Royale at Paris,’ London, 1836, 8vo.
 * 2) ‘The Act for the more effectual Application of Charitable Donations and Bequests in Ireland (7 & 8 Vict. cap. xcvii.), with Notes explanatory of the alteration introduced by it into the Law of Ireland, and some notice of the Law of England and Scotland relating to the same subject,’ London, 1845, 8vo.
 * 3) ‘Three Letters addressed to the Rev. J. Fitzpatrick on the Justice and Policy of appropriating a portion of the Revenues of the Irish Protestant Church to the Increase and Maintenance of Church Accommodation for the Catholic People of Ireland,’ London, 1849, 8vo.
 * 4) ‘The Church of Rome in Ireland in its relation to the State, with Remarks on the Question of the Endowment of the Roman Catholic Clergy,’ London, 1849, 8vo.
 * 5) ‘A Letter to the Hon. A. Kinnaird [on Church of England] Missions to the Roman Catholics of Ireland,’ London, 1852, 8vo.
 * 6) ‘The Irish Church; being a Digest of the Returns of the Prelates, Dignitaries, and Beneficed Clergy,’ &c., London and Dublin, 1852, 8vo; a second edition, the preface of which is dated 5 Sept. 1863, was published in that or the following year.
 * 7) ‘The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, 17 & 18 Vict. cap. 104, and the Merchant Shipping Repeal Act, 1854, 17 & 18 Vict. cap. 120, with a Notice explanatory of the principal alterations made by them in the Statute Law now in force relating to Merchant Shipping, being a Supplement to the ninth edition of Abbott on the Law of Merchant Ships and Seamen,’ London, 1854, 8vo.
 * 8) ‘The Tenants' Improvements Compensation (Ireland) Bill,’ London, 1855, 8vo.
 * 9) ‘A Proposal for Religious Equality in Ireland, and for a charitable