Charles Lucas, M.D. Dublin, 1766; Lucas, A Third Address to the Lord Mayor, Dublin, 1766). In 1768 Lucas strongly oppposed the scheme for the augmentation of the army, on the ground partly that he favoured the establishment of a national militia, but chiefly because in his opinion 'Standing parliaments and standing armies have ever proved the most dangerous enemies to civil liberty' (Lucas, An Address to the Lord Mayor … relating to the intended Augmentation of the Military Force, Dublin, 1768). In this year he caused considerable sensation by trying to institute a parliamentary inquiry into the case of a soldier whom he regarded as the victim of military discipline. His efforts in parliament proving unsuccessful, he published a pamphlet entitled 'A Mirror for Courts-Martial: in which the Complaints, Trial, Sentence, and Punishment of David Blakeney are examined.' It is probably to his conduct on this occasion that Lord Townshend referred in a letter to the Marquis of Granby, 'Here is a Doctor Lucas, the Wilkes of Ireland, who has been playing the devil here and poisoning all the soldiery with his harangues and writings; but I have treated this nonsensical demagogue as he deserves, with his mob at his heels' (Rutland MSS. ii. 303; cf. also Charlemont MSS. i. 254). Lord Townshend's protest against the right of the Irish House of Commons to originate money bills, and his sudden prorogation of parliament in December 1769 drew from Lucas early in 1770 a pamphlet entitled 'The Rights and Privileges of Parliament asserted upon constitutional Principles.' It was announced in the newspapers that an answer, 'published by authority,' entitled 'The Usage of holding Parliaments and of preparing Bills of Supply in Ireland, stated from Record,' would shortly appear. The book appeared on the day announced, but was instantly suppressed. A copy, however, came into Lucas's possession, and finding that it told more against than for the government he immediately republished it, with a sarcastic introduction and commentary.
From his earliest years Lucas had been a martyr to hereditary gout, which rendered him a complete cripple, and latterly obliged him to be carried to the House of Commons. Nevertheless, says an eye-witness, 'the gravity and uncommon neatness of his dress, his grey, venerable locks, blending with a pale but interesting countenance, in which an air of beauty was still visible, altogether excited attention, and I never saw a stranger come into the house without asking who he was' (Dublin Penny Journal, i. 389). He died at his residence in Henry Street, Dublin, on Monday, 4 Nov. 1771. His remains were honoured with a public funeral of imposing solemnity (Freeman's Journal, 9 Nov.) He was interred in the family burial-ground in St. Michan's churchyard. Lucas married thrice, and is said to have left children by each wife, but only one, Henry [q. v.], is known to have attended his father's funeral.
As a physician Lucas was highly esteemed by Lord Charlemont. As an orator contemporary opinion differed about him; but it may well have been that the eloquence which moved and delighted his hearers in the guildhall was not so calculated to appeal to the less emotional and more refined audience of the House of Commons. As a writer he can lay little claim to literary ability, while his efforts at orthographic reform can at best only raise a smile. His works, which include numberless contributions to the periodical press, were, with the exception of 'Divelina Libera,' which is perhaps his best, his translation of the Great Charter and his treatise on waters, thrown off on the spur of the moment. His collected 'Political Addresses,' by which he is best known, are probably the worst written of all his pamphlets. As a man he was impulsive, impatient of contradiction, and slightly vulgar; but on the other hand he was sincere, honest, generous, and courageous to a fault. In his own language, it was his froward fate to have too much of a kind of political knight-errantry interwoven in his frame. He was proud of his English descent, an ardent protestant, a loyalist according to his own interpretation, and a perfervid patriot.
There are several engraved portraits of Lucas, but the best is a mezzotint from a half-length by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the National Gallery of Ireland.
[Wills's Irish Nation; Dublin Penny Journal; Munk's Coll. of Phys.; Freeman's Journal, 17 Dec. 1771; Madden's Hist. of Irish Periodical Literature; Journals of the House of Commons, Ireland; Plowden's Historical Register; Briton's Hist. of the Dublin Election in the Year 1749; A Critical Review of the Liberties of British Subjects; Lucas's own writings passim; Hardy's Life of Charlemont; Grattan's Life of Henry Grattan; Gilbert's Hist. of Dublin; Lecky's Hist. of England; Correspondence of the Duke of Bedford; Rutland MSS. in Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. v.; Charlemont MSS. in Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. x.; Egerton MS. 1772.]
LUCAS, CHARLES (1769–1854), miscellaneous writer and divine, son of William Lucas of Daventry, was born in 1769, and matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, 15 July 1786. He styled himself 'A.M.'
