Sir Boyle Roche
A few weeks ago, I bought a book by S. Anthony Barnett titled The Story of Rats, a short but interesting work whose main theme was the complex interrelationship between the species of humans and rats. But what really attracted my attention to the book was the quotation that the author used to introduce it.
The statement comes from an Irish MP (Member of Parliament) of the late 18th century, Sir Boyle Roche. The picture it evokes — of a creature that combines rat-ness with features of both clouds and flowers — is one worthy of Lewis Carroll.
I had to find out more about a man who could come up with such imagery.
The Internet was my source. An unreliable source, to be sure, but the best I had at the time. I discovered quite a bit about Sir Boyle Roche, including a clipping from the 14 February 2000 issue of the Irish Times (image at http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlker/roche.html).
Most of all I found several pages containing other Boyle Roche bons mots. View the second half of this page for the list of the quotations I found.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Boyle Roche (1743-1807) was born into an old Anglo-Norman family, and served in the army before becoming the MP (member of parliament) for Tralee in the Irish parliament in 1776.
Between 1776 and 1800 (when the Act of Union ended Irish self-government), he variously served as MP for Tralee, Gowaran, Portarlington, Tralee again, and Old Leighlin. He was made a baronet in 1782.
Though generally known today as a figure of fun, it is worth noting that, as a politician, he was not entirely harmless. When caught out lying about the contents of a letter sent to him that allegedly opposed Catholic emancipation, he replied that his lie was justified because he was “…authorised only by a knowledge of the sentiments of the persons in question.”
The more things change...
QUOTATIONS FROM BOYLE ROCHE
There are multiple versions of some of these quotations. Where that has happened, I have not looked for an authoritative source, but have placed alternative versions on another page. I can’t say definitively which of them is the real thing; but the sentiments expressed are identical.
STRANGE ANIMALS
Mr Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I'll nip him in the bud.
How can I be in two places at once unless I were a bird?
HALVES AND DOUBLES
Half the lies our opponents tell about us are untrue.
I concluded from the beginning that this would be the end; and I am right, for it is not half over.
The cup of Ireland's misery has been overflowing for centuries, and is not yet half full.
Ireland is today overflowing with absentee landlords.
Ireland and England are like two sisters; I would have them embrace like one brother.
Every pint bottle should contain a quart.
ALL OR NOTHING
It would surely be better to give up, not only a part but, if necessary, the whole of our constitution, to preserve the remainder.
I answer in the affirmative with an emphatic “No”.
We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech.
At present there are no such goings-on that everything is at a standstill.
Many of them were destitute of even the goods they possessed.
OF ANATOMICAL INTEREST
While I write this letter, I have a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other.
All along the untrodden paths of the future I can see the footprints of an unseen hand.
He is the kind of opponent who would stab you in front of your face and then stab you in the chest when your back is turned.
IT’S ABOUT TIME
The only thing to prevent what's past is to put a stop to it before it happens.
Why should we put ourselves out of our way to do anything for posterity? For what has posterity ever done for us?
The progress of the times...[is]...such that little children, who can neither walk nor talk, may be seen cursing their Maker!
OTHER IMPOSSIBILITIES
(in a letter) P.S. If you do not receive this, of course it must have been miscarried; therefore I beg you to write and let me know.
Sir, I would anchor a frigate off each bank of the river, with strict orders not to stir; and so, by cruising up and down, put a stop to smuggling.
THOSE DASTARDLY FRENCH
If we once permitted the villainous French masons to meddle with the buttresses and walls of our ancient constitution, they would never stop nor stay, until they had brought the foundation stones tumbling down about the ears of the nation.
Then perhaps, sir, the murderous Marseillaise men would break in and cut us up to mincemeat, and next throw our bleeding heads upon the table, to stare us in the face.
...AND THIS ONE ALMOST MAKES SENSE
I told you to make one longer than the other, and instead you have made one shorter than the other.