Life
1722-1785; b. Dublin; ed. Thomas Sheridan’s school; entered TCD at
15; TCD Schol. at 19; unsuccessful attempt to procure fellowship, 1745;
TCD fellow, 1746; holy orders, 1748; issued The Helps and Impediments
to the Acquisition of Knowledge in Religious and Moral Subject (1748),
admired but not extant; The Philippic Orations of Demosthenes (vol.
1, 1754; completed with vol. 3, 1700), translation with critical notes;
and English trans., The Orations of Demosthenes against Philip
(1754-61); History of [Life and Reign of] Philip of Macedon
(1758); Professor of Oratory, 1763; The Principals of Human Eloquence
(1765), fiercely attacked by Warburton and Hurd; replied with great force;
appointed Vicar of Bray with prebend[ary] of Rathmichael, under Viscount
Townsend, 1768; Johnson’s high opinion reflected by Boswell, and
reiterated by Dr. Parr; presented Irish MS Annals of Loch Cé
to TCD Library, 1766; vicar of St. Anne’s, 1773; issued a History
of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II, 3 vols. (Dublin and London
1773), with assistance from Charles O’Conor, which however did not
elicit the desired result. RR CAB DNB DIW [FDA] OCIL.
Works
The Philippic Orations of Demosthenes (1754) [cf. Demosthenes’
Philippics and Olynthiacs (1754), with John Stokes, and
All the Orations, infra.]; [Speeches of] Demosthenes
(1st vol. 1756) [95 edns.]; History of the Life and Reign of Philip,
King of Macedon (1758); A dissertation on the Principles of Human
Eloquence, with Particular Regard to the Style and composition of the
New Testament, in which the Observations by the Lord Bishop of Gloucester,
in his Discourses on the Doctrine of Grace, are Distinctly Considered
(1765) [DIW: The Principles of Human Eloquence, 1764]; An Examination
of the Arguments Contained in a Late Introduction to the History of the
Antient Irish and Scots (Dublin 1772); History of Ireland from
the Invasion of Henry II with a preliminary Discourse on the ancient
State of that Kingdom, 3 vols. (Dublin & London 1773) [Leerssen:
1772], French trans. 1779. NOTE, The History of Ireland, 3 vols.
(Dublin: R. marchbank for R. Moncrieffe 1773), 4o [Marsh’s
Library].
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Criticism
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (Amsterdam
1986).
Father Paul Walsh, Irish Men of Learning, ed., Colm Ó Lochlainn
(Fleet St. Dublin: Three Candles 1947).
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976;
1984).
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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography, calls him an intimate of the
Caulfeild family at Marino; resided at 18 Clare St., Dublin; a friend
of Burke; portrait by Reynolds; his History too impartial to be
accepted by either of the parties. SEE also Richard Ryan, Biographia
Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), vol. II, p.372-74.
Charles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols., 1876-78),
selects ‘the Battle of Aughrim’ (from History); ‘Education
of Alexander’; ‘On the Sublimity of Composition’ [‘It
can scarcely be controverted, I presume that some subjects are in themselves
intrinsically and essentially greater and more elevated than others, and
that whenever they are proposed to the mind they must be received with
superior emotion, reverence, awe, or terror, naturally or instinctively,
or at least independent of any casual association of ideas. We call the
ocean a grander subject than a rivulet, because it strikes the sense and
imagination more forcibly. the serious actions and engagements of human
life are really greater objects than its amusements. A battle is still
a more awful subject than any of the calmer occupations of social life.
And the works and dispensations of the Deity still more august and awful
than the most striking actions of the creature … There is no grander
an more awful subject on which a writer can be employed than that of the
Deity executing his justice publicly and sensibly on his offending creatures.’
Leland here cites the Alcoran’s account of the destruction of the
Ethiopians by birds and stones, and claims the treatment is ‘not
sufficiently exalted’.]
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ.
of America 1904), contains no excerpt, but this critent appears under
Charles Gavan Duffy’s ballad poem of 1641, [annotating ‘Pity!
no, no, you dare not priest ... preach to us now that godless creed -
the murderer’s blood to spare’ in ‘The Muster of the North’:]
‘Leland, the Protestant historian, states that the Catholic priests
labored zealously to moderate the excesses of war’ and frequently
protected the English by concealing them in their places of worship and
even under their altars.’ (Ftn., presum. by Justin McCarthy, in Irish
Literature, 1904; under Duffy.) Note that McCarthy annotates a poem
of Charles Gavan Duffy on the Rebellion of 1641, in which the editor cites
Leland on the mercy of the Catholic priests, Thus ‘Pity’ is
annotated, ‘Leland, the Protestant historian, states that the Catholic
priests laboured zealously to moderate the excesses of war’ and frequently
protected the English by concealing them in their places of worship and
even under their altars.’ He next annotates ‘Gobbin’, thus,
‘the scene of the massacre of the unoffending inhabitants of Island
Magee by the garrison of Carrickfergus.’
Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin:
Lilliput 1985), calls him the prob. son of non-conformist minister who
had written View of the Principal Deistic Writers (1754-56); ed.
TCD, ordained 1748; Professor of Oratory, 1763, and vicar of Bray, 1768;
The Principles of Human Eloquence (1764), followed by his History
of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II, 3 vols. (Dublin and London
1773); found by all sides to suffer from gross impartiality and much attacked,
but now a recognised Irish historical classic. [No extracts in JMC.]
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field
Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day Co. 1991), Vol. 1, notes at 687 [In Longsword, Earl of Salisbury,
1765,Thomas Leland wrote what has been claimed as the first historical
novel in English … quaintly accoutred present … such novels
merge easily into sentimental or gothic fiction, Ian Campbell Ross, ed.];
944 [bibl. note to Daniel O’Connell’s Speech in defence of William
Magee of Evening Post, ‘let me read for you two passages from Doctor
Leland’s History of Ireland (bibl., History of Ireland
&c., Dublin: Marchbank 1773), ‘Anno 1574 — A solemn
peace and concord was made between the Earl of Essex and Felim O’Nial.
However, at a feast, wherein the Earl entertained that chieftain, and
at the end of their good cheer, O’Nial, with his wife, were seized;
their friends, who attended, were put to the sword before their faces.
Felim, together with his wife and brother, were conveyed to Dublin, where
they were CUT UP IN QUARTERS (no page supplied); O’Connell continues,
‘How would you this fact described? In what ladylike terms is the
future historians to mention this savage and brutal massacre’]; 945n.
[further from Leland on Smerick, ‘garrison was butchered in cold
blood; nor is it without pain, that we find a service so horrid and detestable
committed to Sir Walter Raleigh, Vol. 2, p.283; quotation essentially
accurate]; 1291 [Johnson quoted, ‘Dr Leland began his history too
late, &c’ (writing to O’Conor)].
De Burca Books Catalogue No. 18 lists , The History of Ireland, From the Invasion of Henry II, 3 vols. (1773; [Dublin: Marchbank 1774]). Belfast Linenhall Library holds History of Ireland (1773)
Thomas Leland, trans., All the Orations of Demostenes (Dublin University
Press 1756), provides subject of Plate 11 in Maurice Craig, Irish Bookbindings
(1976), p.14. The volume, taken from the collection of Lady Celia
Milnes-Coates, formerly belonging to the famous collector Richard Monckton
Milies. Another copy known to be have been ded. to Earl of Charlemont,
has disappeared along with like most of Charlemont’s books.
Among other translations of Demosthenes, Several Orations ... to Encourage
the Greeks to oppose the exorbitant power of Philip of Macedon. English’d
from the Greek by several hands. To which is prefixed the Historical Preface
of Monsieur Tourreil. (Jacob Tonsin 1702), ed. by John Somers, Baron Somers,
who translated the prefac of Jacques de Torreil; contribs. by Earl of
Peterborough, Lord Lansdowne, Earl Stanhope, et al. [Blackwell’s
Rare Books, Cat. B119
Frequently cited in Daniel O’Connell’s Memoir on Ireland
Native and Saxon by Daniel O’Connell MP, 2nd ed., Vol. I (Dublin:
James Duffy, 24 Anglesea St 1844), 347pp. The volume bears the epigraph
‘On our side is VIRTUE and ERIN, / On theirs is SAXON and GUILT’
(Moore). O’Connell gives the impression that Leland’s testimonies
are those of an unwitting witness.
Leland is quoted extensively on his inadvertent revelation of the cruelty
of the English in Ireland, in Daniel O’Connell, Memoir of Ireland
(1844). He cites particularly this, following an account of the refusal
of Phelim O’Neill to save his life by perjury, ‘Yet,’ sys
Leland, ‘in the northern province which had been the great scene
of barbarity, not one was brought to justice but Sir Phelim O’Nial’
(Leland, vol. III, p.394). O’Connell argues, ‘The remark which
Leland makes upon there being but one case in the northern province, would
have assumed quite a different shape if he had been fair or candid. He
should have said that when this active, energetic, and ambulatory tribunal
of blood could find but one case in all Ulster, and when that one was
the case of Sir Phelim O’Neill; and as Ulster was the province the
most deeply and extensively charged with inhumanity and murder, it followed
inevitably that the charges were enormously exaggerated even against the
people of Ulster; as we have in fact seen they were.’ [See O’Connell,
Memoir of Ireland, 1844, p.323.]
Thomas Russell took notes from Leland’s History in his Journal,
Notes on Leland’s history, ‘Note the people of Wicklow troublesome
from their vicinity to the capital and strength of their country (Leland,
vol. 2, p.16); Russell notes details about the balance of Catholics and
Protestants in the Irish parliament during the viceroyalty of Strafford,
remarking, ‘Strafford balances the parties and by introducing officers,
etc., could make [57] either party preponderate. It does not appear that
the Catholicks made any attempt to change the establish’d religion.’
[SEE CJ Woods, ed., Journals and Memoirs of Thomas Russell, IAP
1992.p.58]
Charles O’Conor thanks George Faulkner for his introduction to Leland,
with complimentary phrases on Leland as being one who ‘does honour
to this country by their ability as well as their rank’ and one who
has ‘thrown away the weeds of spiritual hatred’. (25 Sept. 1766;
Letters of Charles O’Conor, ed. Ward & Ward, 1988, p.186.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)