Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ensor, George

1153886Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 17 — Ensor, George1889Francis Watt

ENSOR, GEORGE (1769–1843), political writer, was born in Dublin, of an English father, in 1769. He was educated at Trinity College, where he proceeded B.A. 1790. He devoted himself to political writing, and produced a large number of works in which very ‘advanced’ views in politics and religion are advocated. He was widely read, and wrote in a powerful and sarcastic though sometimes inflated style. His attacks were specially directed against the English government of Ireland. He does not seem to have meddled, save with his pen, in political strife. ‘I never was of any club, fraternity, or association,’ he says (Addresses to the People of Ireland, p. 3). Bentham describes him as clever but impracticable. A large portion of Ensor's life was spent at Ardress, co. Armagh. There he died 3 Dec. 1843.

Ensor wrote: 1. ‘The Independent Man, or an Essay on the Formation and Development of those Principles and Faculties of the Human Mind which constitute Moral and Intellectual Excellence,’ 2 vols. 1806. 2. ‘On National Government,’ first part, 2 vols. 1810. 3. ‘Defects of the English Laws and Tribunals,’ 1812. 4. ‘An Answer to the Speeches of Mr. Abbot, &c., on the Catholic Question, debated in the House of Commons 24 May 1813,’ Dublin, 1813. 5. ‘On the State of Europe in January 1816,’ 1816. 6. ‘An Inquiry concerning the Population of Nations, containing a Refutation of Mr. Malthus's Essay on Population,’ 1818. 7. ‘Radical Reform, Restoration of Usurped Rights,’ 1819. 8. ‘Addresses to the People of Ireland on the Degradation and Misery of their Country,’ &c., Dublin, 1823. 9. ‘The Poor and their Relief,’ 1823. 10. ‘A Defence of the Irish and the Means of their Redemption,’ Dublin, 1825. 11. ‘Irish Affairs at the close of 1825,’ Dublin, 1826. 12. ‘Letters showing the Inutility and exhibiting the Absurdity of what is fantastically called “The New Reformation”’ [viz. the attempt to convert the Irish to the protestant faith], Dublin, 1828. 13. ‘Anti-Union: Ireland as she ought to be,’ Newry, 1831. 14. ‘A Review of the Miracles, Prophecies, and Mysteries of the Old and New Testaments, and of the Morality and Consolation of the Christian Religion,’ 1835. 15. ‘Before and After the Reform Bill,’ 1842. 16. ‘Of Property, and of its Equal Distribution as promoting Virtue, Population, Abundance,’ 1844. Ensor also wrote treatises on the ‘Principles of Morality,’ ‘National Education,’ ‘The Catholic Question,’ ‘No Veto,’ ‘Natural Theology,’ and the ‘Corn Laws.’

[Bentham's Works, x. 603; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biog. (Dublin, 1878); Cat. Dub. Grad.; Quart. Rev. xxii. 102.]

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