Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/221

 ''Addit. MS''. 32931, ff. 11, 31, 33), his object being mainly to form a parliamentary interest in Clive's support. He retained his seat till 1780, and much of his correspondence with Clive is printed in Malcolm's ‘Life of Clive’ (1836, 3 vols.). He also corresponded with Warren Hastings, but quarrelled with him in 1781 because of the dismissal of his nephew, Francis Fowke, from his post at Benares (''Addit. MSS''. 29136 f. 169, 29152 ff. 478–91).

Walsh's main interests were, however, scientific, and he was the first person to make accurate experiments on the torpedo fish. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 8 Nov. 1770, and F.S.A. on 10 Jan. 1771, and on 1 July 1773 a letter from him to Benjaman Franklin, treating ‘of the electric property of the torpedo,’ was read before the Royal Society (Philosophical Transactions, lxiii. 461). In this paper he for the first time conclusively demonstrated that the singular power of benumbing the sense of touch possessed by the fish was due to electrical influence, and that it could only send a shock through conducting substances. On 23 June 1774 a second letter by Walsh was read before the society, entitled ‘of torpedoes found on the coast of England’ (ib. lxiv. 464). It was addressed to Thomas Pennant [q. v.], the author of ‘British Zoology,’ and was published in pamphlet form (London 1773, 4to). For these discoveries the Royal Society awarded him the Copley medal in 1774, and again in 1783 (, Lit. Anecdotes, viii. 132). No further experiments were made until 1805, when Humboldt and Gay Lussac examined the properties of the torpedo at Naples; but the first investigator to make fresh discoveries on the subject was John Thomas Todd at the Cape of Good Hope in 1812. Todd's papers on torpedoes are printed in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (1816 and 1817).

Walsh died, unmarried, on 9 March 1795 in London, at his residence in Chesterfield Street. He left his property, including Warfield Park, to Sir John Benn, who had married, in 1778, Margaret, daughter of Walsh's sister Elizabeth. Benn assumed, in accordance with the provisions of the will, the additional name of Walsh, and was father of Sir John Benn Walsh, first baron Ormathwaite [q. v.]

[Ency. Brit. 8th edit. i. 738, viii. 572–3; European Mag. 1795, p. 215; Ann. Reg. 1772 i. 135, 1809 p. 799; Debrett's Baronetage, 1840, p. 569; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1894, ii. 1352; Malcolm's Life of Clive, passim; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. x. 208, 291.] 

WALSH, JOHN (1835–1881), Irish poet, was born of humble parentage at Cappoquin, co. Waterford, on 1 April 1835. He became a school teacher, and followed that calling in the national school of his native town for several years; and subsequently in the national school, Cashel, co. Tipperary, where he died in 1881. He was buried in the graveyard attached to the famous ruins on the rock of Cashel. Walsh contributed poems to the ‘Nation,’ the ‘Harp,’ and the ‘Celt.’ Several are to be found in anthologies of Irish verse, but no collection of them has yet been published in book form.

[O'Donoghue's Dictionary of Irish Poets; articles by the Rev. M. P. Hickey in the Waterford Star, 1891–2.] 

WALSH, JOHN (1830–1898), archbishop of Toronto, the son of James Walsh, by his wife Ellen (Macdonald), was born at Mooncoin, co. Kilkenny, on 23 May 1830. After education at St. John's College, Waterford, he emigrated to Canada (April 1852), entered the grand seminary at Montreal, and received the tonsure.

In 1855 he served on the Brock mission on Lake Simcoe; shortly after the consecration of Dr. Lynch as bishop of Toronto in 1859, he became rector of St. Michael's Cathedral in that city, and in 1862 was nominated vicar-general of the diocese. In 1864 he visited Rome and was nominated by Pius IX bishop-elect of Sandwich. Four years later he removed the episcopal residence from Sandwich to London, Ontario, to which city the see was transferred by a decree from the propaganda, dated 15 Nov. 1869. Great scope was now afforded to Walsh's administrative ability. Within three years he paid off a large debt. In 1876, when he again visited Rome, he reported twenty-eight new churches and seventeen presbyteries built within his diocese, in addition to a college, an orphanage, and the episcopal residence at Mount Hope. In May 1881 the corner-stone of the new cathedral in London was laid, and St. Peter's was dedicated by Walsh on 28 June 1885. By a brief dated 27 Aug. 1889 he was appointed archbishop of Toronto, and he died in that city on 27 July 1898. As a pulpit orator and a prudent organiser he enjoyed a great reputation in Canada. He was also very popular in Ireland, and took a leading part during the summer of 1896 in organising the Irish race convention in Dublin, by which it was hoped to reconcile the various sections of the nationalist party.

[Morgan's Canadian Men of the Time, Toronto, 1898, p. 1053; Tablet, 6 Aug. 1898; Tanguay's 