Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/48

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Ireland
34
Ismay

where many books from his own library afterwards came to be deposited. He cultivated the friendship of Carlyle and Leigh Hunt, for the latter of whom he entertained a warm affection, and upon whom he wrote for this Dictionary. He also prepared a most useful bibliography of Hunt's writings, united in the same volume with a similar list of William Hazlitt's, and printed in a limited impression in 1868. In 1889 he edited a selection from Hazlitt's works, prefaced by an excellent memoir. Upon Emerson's death in 1882 he published a biography of him, necessarily incomplete, but possessing especial value from his own recollections; it was enlarged and reissued within the year as 'Ralph Waldo Emerson : his Life, Genius, and Writings.' In the same year he published at Manchester 'Recollections of George Dawson and his Lectures in Manchester in 1846-7.' Perhaps, however, his best-known publication is 'The Book-Lover's Enchiridion,' a collection of passages in praise of books selected from a wide range of authors. It was published in 1882 under the pseudonym of 'Philobiblos,' and went through five editions. He himself possessed a fine library, especially rich in the works of early English authors, in which he was well versed. He especially admired Daniel and Burton, and possessed all the seventeenth-century editions of the latter's 'Anatomy of Melancholy.' Unfortunately, this treasured collection had to be sold owing to the reverse of fortune which overtook him in his latter days from the general transfer of liberal support from the 'Examiner' to the 'Guardian,' upon the latter journal's reconciliation with the more advanced section of the party on occasion of Gladstone's home-rule proposals in 1886. The 'Examiner,' now an unprofitable property, passed into other hands, and soon ceased to exist. Ireland bore his misfortunes with great dignity and fortitude, and, although an octogenarian, remained active to the last as a writer in the press. He died on 7 Dec. 1894 at Mauldeth Road, Withington.

Ireland was an excellent man, generous, hospitable, full of intellectual interests, and persevering in his aid of public causes and private friends. A medallion portrait is engraved in 'Threads from the Life of John Mills,' 1899. A collection of Ireland's books, rich in editions of Lamb, Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, and Carlyle, was presented in 1895 to the Manchester Free Reference Library by Thomas Read Wilkinson, and a special catalogue was issued in 1898.

Ireland was twice married first, in 1839, to Eliza Mary, daughter of Frederick Blyth of Birmingham, who died in 1842.

Mrs. Annie Ireland (d. 1893), Ireland's second wife, whom he married in 1866, was the sister of Henry Alleyne Nicholson [q.v. Suppl.], regius professor of natural history at Aberdeen, and was herself known as the biographer of Jane Welsh Carlyle (1891), and the editor of her correspondence with Miss Jewsbury (1892); her recollections of James Anthony Froude [q. v. Suppl.] were published posthumously in the 'Contemporary Review.' She died on 4 Oct. 1893.

[Manchester Guardian, 8 Dec. 1894; Threads from the Life of John Mills; personal knowledge.]

R. G.

ISMAY, THOMAS HENRY (1837–1899), shipowner, eldest son of Joseph Ismay, shipbuilder, of Marypoint, Cumberland, was born there on 7 Jan. 1837. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a firm of shipbrokers (Imrie & Tomlinson) in Liverpool, and on the expiration of his time made a voyage to South America, visiting the several ports on the west coast. Returning to Liverpool he started in business on his own account, and engaged especially in the Australian trade. In 1867 he acquired the White Star line of Australian clippers, and in the following year, in partnership with an old friend and fellow-apprentice, William Imrie, he formed the Oceanic Steamship Company. In 1870 they added the American trade to their other ventures, and in 1871 began running their steamers regularly between Liverpool and New York. In co-operation with Harland and Wolff of Belfast, the White Star liners earned a good reputation for safety, comfort, and speed; it is stated that between 1870 and 1899 they paid to Harland and Wolff no less a sum than 7,000,000l. In 1878 the White Star line placed their steamers at the disposal of the government as transports or cruisers an offer which led to the modern system of subsidising certain private companies. At the naval review at Spithead in 1897, the Teutonic, one of the largest steamers then afloat, was sent by Ismay to take part in the national display. In 1892 Ismay retired from the firm of Ismay, Imrie, & Co., but retained the chairmanship of the White Star Company, whose fleet then consisted of eighteen steamers, of an aggregate of 99,000 tons, which by 1899 was increased to 164,000. Ismay was also chairman of the Liverpool and London Steamship Protection Association, a director of the London and North-