"it is impossible I could have been in two places at once, unless I were a bird."
| The Wit and Wisdom | The Legacy | The Life and Times | Endmatter |
I had never heard of Sir Boyle Roche until I found his name in Ambrose Bierce's definition of ubiquity. I didn't think much more about him until I received the following note from Bob & Melissa Williams (thanks, guys):
Sir Boyle Roche seems to have been England's Dan Quayle. He was MP from Tralee (County Kerry, Ireland) in the 18th century and did things to the King's English that no one could come up with without a team of writers today. I've found two of his manglings on a day-page calendar purporting to put forth the stupidest things anyone ever said. ...
Here are the two quotes that Bob or Melissa sent me:
I concluded from the beginning that this would be the end; and I am right, for it is not half over yet.
The only thing to prevent what's past is to put a stop to it before it happens.
Of course, this only whetted my appetite. A little web-trolling garnered the following:
At present there are such goings-on that everything is at a standstill.
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.
I told you to make one longer than another, and instead you have made one shorter than the other - the opposite.
Half of the lies our opponents tell about us are not true.
I smell a rat, I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky, but mark me, I shall nip him in the bud.
All along the untrodden paths of the future, I can see the footprints of an unseen hand.
Little children who could neither walk nor talk were running about in the streets cursing their Maker.
The cup of Ireland's miseries has been overflowing for centuries, and is not yet full.
Some off-web research garnered a few more:
The best way to avoid danger is to meet it plump.
[...they] would cut us to mincemeat, and throw our bleeding heads on that table to stare us in the face.
[We must be ready to give up] not only a part, but, if necessary, even the whole of our constitution to preserve the remainder.
I hope, my lord, if you ever come within a mile of my house that you will stay there all night.
[...I] answer boldly in the affirmative, "No!"
[...I] would have the two sisters embrace like one brother.
...a certain anonymous author called Junius1...
Their heads at present are hot, and will so remain till they grow cool again.
For the context of some of these remarks, and some other remarks than can only be appreciated in context, see "The Life and Times of Sir Boyle Roche" further on.
Mon Dieu est ma roche
Although a politician and statesman of unquestioned ability, Boyle Roche's reputation today is based on his being the "father of bulls."2
Apparently the bird remark was well-known enough to enter the English idiom: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable gives it as the origin of the phrase "Sir Boyle Roche's Bird" and lists an example of its usage. Bierce (himself born almost exactly one century later than Roche) alluded to the remark in The Devil's Dictionary more than 120 years after it had been made.
Ironically, the Roche coat of arms consists of an eagle with unfurled wings standing on a rock ("roche" in French).
Sir B. appears to have been a favorite of the Clinton administration - I will not speculate on the possible reasons. Former Vice President Al Gore and former EPA Assistant Administrator David Gardiner, in two separate speeches given in 1995 and 19963, both quoted:
Why should we put ourselves out of our way to do anything for posterity? For, what has posterity ever done for us?
Both Mr. Gore and Mr. Gardiner claimed that the emminent statesman was being sarcastic, but I believe this claim to have been professional courtesy on their parts. In fact, Sir Boyle later explained himself by stating that:
By posterity I did not mean our ancestors but those who came immediately after them.
Boyle Roche is on record as beginning a speech with the phrase "unaccustomed as I am to public speaking." It is possible that he was the inventor of this classic joke.
Boyle Roche was born, the youngest of three sons, in County Galway in 1743 (the year that also produced Marat, Lavoisier and Sir Joseph Banks). His was an ancient and respectable family, said to be a junior branch of the ancient baronial house of Roche, viscount Fermoy (from which the late lamented Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, descended). The family were also no strangers to politics: Roche's great-grandfather had been elected mayor of Limerick four times.
Boyle
Roche entered the army at an early age, and served in the American war
(that is, the American portion of the Seven
Years War, 1756-1763). It is possible that Boyle Roche served with
Wolfe at the siege of Quebec; it is a certainty that he distinguished himself
during the capture of El Morro
in Havana. By 1770 he had become a major in the 28th Footsoldiers.
Retiring from the army, he obtained an office in the Irish revenue department in 1775. Soon after this, Boyle Roche entered the Irish Parliament as member for Tralee, in the place of James Agar, created Lord Clifden.
Although he was one of the first volunteers to fight the rebellious colonials in 1776, his contribution to that conflict was mainly in the area of recruitment -- he successfully enlisted 500 volunteers in one weekend in Limerick alone, a feat which so gratified Lord Kenmare that he paid Roche an additional bounty of half a guinea per man! (As we shall see, Lord Kenmare eventually had cause to regret this extravagance).
Member
of ParliamentRoche continued on in the Grattan Parliament, representing Gowran from 1777 to 1783, Portarlington from 1783 to 1790, Tralee (again) from 1790 to 1797 and Old Leighlin from 1798 until the union with England in 1801. From the beginning of his parliamentary career he ranged himself on the side of the government, and for his services he was granted a pension, appointed chamberlain to the viceregal court, and on November 30, 1782 was created a baronet. For the office of chamberlain he was thought to be "eminently qualified by his handsome figure, graceful address and ready wit, qualities which were set off by a frank, open and manly disposition."
Apparently, members of the cabinet wrote speeches for Roche which he somewhat imperfectly committed to memory, in general mastering the substance but frequently producing, through his love of language and ornament, travesties on the original words. Through this he gained his lasting reputation as an inveterate perpetrator of "bulls."2
Sir Boyle's memory was indeed excellent. On one occasion he illustrated both the accuracy of his memory and the audacity of his character at the expense of a brother member. Mr. Serjeant Stanley, anxious to produce an effect in an important debate, had been at pains to reduce his speech to writing. Unluckily, Stanley happened to drop his manuscript in the coffee-room, and walked back into the House unconscious of his loss. Sir Boyle, finding the document, speedily mastered its contents, and, rising at the first opportunity, delivered the speech almost verbatim in the hearing of its dismayed and astonished author. His apology afterward only added insult to injury:
Here, my dear Stanley, is your speech again, and I thank you kindly for the loan of it. I never was so much at a loss for a speech in the whole course of my life, and sure it is not a pin the worse for the wear.
On another occasion, he amused and relieved the House, irritated by the prospect of being obliged to listen to the reading of a mass of documents as a preliminary to a resolution, by suggesting that a dozen or so clerks be called in who might read the documents simultaneously and thus dispose of the business in a few minutes.
Beyond these efforts, he was also the author of a bill to enact, among other things, that "a quart bottle should hold a quart."
The chief service Boyle Roche rendered government was in connection with the volunteer convention of November 1783, in which he "acted a part only less remarkable than his immunity from the opprobrium which might have been expected to attach to it" [Falkiner]. The question of admitting the Roman Catholics to the franchise was at the time being agitated, and found many warm supporters in the convention. The proposal was extremely obnoxious to the Irish government, and on the second day of the meeting the secretary of state, Mr. Ogle, announced that the Roman Catholics, in the person of Lord Kenmare, had relinquished the idea of making any claim further than the religious liberty they then enjoyed, and gave as his authority for this extraordinary statement Sir Boyle Roche, by whom it was confirmed!
Ten days later
Lord Kenmare (who had not been in Dublin at the time) denied that he had
given the least authority to any person to make any such statement in his
name. However, his disavowal came too late: the anti-catholic party in
the convention had found time to organize themselves, and when the intended
Reform Bill took shape it was known that the admission of Roman Catholics
to the franchise was not to form part of the scheme.
Several months later (on Valentine's Day), Sir Boyle explained himself in a public letter, starting with a description of his alarm upon hearing that the bishop of Derry (then Frederick Hervey) and his associates were bent on extending the legislative privilege.
I thought a crisis was arrived in which Lord Kenmare and the heads of that body should step forth to disavow those wilde projects, and to profess their attachment to the lawful powers. Unfortunately, his lordship was at a great distance, and most of my other friends were out of the way. I therefore resolved on a bold stroke, and authorized only by the sentiments of the persons in question, [took action].
He naively added that while he regretted that his message had been disowned by Lord Kenmare, that was of less consequence, since his manoeuvre had succeeded to admiration.
Sir Boyle fought hard for the Union:
Gentlemen may tither, and tither, and tither, and may think it a bad measure; but their heads at present are hot, and will so remain till they grow cool again, and so they can't decide right now, but when the day of judgement comes then honourable gentlemen will be satisfied with this most excellent union.
For himself, he declared that his love for England and Ireland was so great that he "would have the two sisters embrace like one brother."
Those who placidly accept the judgement that Sir Boyle Roche was "the Fool of the Grattan Parliament" should reflect on the fact that for almost 25 years he served as Gentleman Usher and Master of Ceremonies to the Irish Court, "an office for which a dignified and decorous demeanor is among the chief essentials."
Roche was also capable of humor which was both subtle and unquestionably intentional. Once, upon hearing his opponent John Philpot Curran3 expostuate that he could be "the guardian of his own honor," Sir Boyle offered his "congratulations to the honourable member on his possesion of a sinecure." On another occasion, when the Opposition tried to cough him down in a debate, Sir Boyle met the interruption by producing some bullets, with the observation "I have here some excellent pills to cure a cough." His personal courage being beyond dispute, this jest was quite sufficient in those duelling days to procure attention for the remainder of his speech.
At some point in his busy life Boyle Roche married Mary Frankland of Great Thirkleby Hall (Yorkshire), whose father was an Admiral and whose family name goes back to the time of William the Conqueror. Although childless, Sir Boyle and Lady Mary appeared to have lived a life of uninterrupted happiness.
Sir Boyle Roche died at his house in Eccle Street, Dublin, on June 5, 1807. In his public capacity, as master of the ceremonies at the Irish viceregal court, he was beloved and admired for his politeness and urbanity, and in private life there was said to be no more honorable gentleman.
 ![[Mail Me]](mail.gif){kind=small} Richard
Hoffman / ubiquity@yahoo.com
|
|