Thomas Spring Rice, Lord Monteagle

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Rice, Thomas Spring, Lord Monteagle, a prominent politican, was born in Limerick, 8th February 1790. He was educated at Cambridge, and studied for the Bar. In 1820 he entered Parliament for Limerick, which he continued to represent in the Whig interest until the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, when he was returned for Cambridge. He sat for that borough until his elevation to the peerage in 1839, lending his support to nearly every liberal measure. He was Under-Secretary for the Home Department in 1827; Secretary of the Treasury from November 1830 to June 1834; Secretary of the Colonies, and a Privy-Councillor, 1834; and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1839, when he was appointed Comptroller of the Exchequer, and raised to the peerage. He never occupied a more prominent place in the public mind than in 1834, when, as an Irishman, he may be said to have led the opposition to O'Connell's motion favouring the Repeal of the Union, on which occasion he replied to O'Connell's argument in a speech of six hours' duration. He frequently acted on royal commissions in matters of art, and gave much attention to the question of decimal coinage. He died at Mount Trenchard, near Limerick, 7th February 1866, aged 75.

Sources

7. Annual Register. London, 1756-1877.

177. Ireland and her Agitators: W.J. O'Neill Daunt. Dublin, 1867.

Featured Books

An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

See more of our books »

The Ocean Plague: or, A Voyage to Quebec in an Irish Emigrant Vessel is based upon the diary of Robert Whyte who, in 1847, crossed the Atlantic from Dublin to Quebec in an Irish emigrant ship. His account of the journey provides invaluable eyewitness testimony to the trauma and tragedy that many emigrants had to face en route to their new lives in Canada and America. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Irish in America by John F. Maguire provides a substantial and invaluable account of the extreme difficulties faced by pioneer Irish immigrants in North America during the 19th Century. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.

Show fewer titles