a tendency to rant, which he partially and with difficulty conquered. His face, disfigured with the small-pox, lent itself with some difficulty to make-up, and his performance of characters such as Charles Surface were unsatisfactory as much through his appearance and dress as through the absence of lightness and refinement of style.
Sullivan was little seen in general society; his habit of reserve was due in part to a sense of educational shortcoming, and partly to morbid vanity. His temper appears to have been uncertain and a trifle arrogant and disputes with his managers were not infrequent. In appearance he was dark, and his hair, which was or seemed abundant, maintained its raven black until late in life. His figure, slight at first, hardened subse- quently until it became almost squat, and his musical voice lost its quality through incessant strain.
[Most ascertainable particulars concerning Sullivan are given in a biographical sketch by Mr. W. J. Lawrence, London, 1893. A copy of this, annotated and enlarged in manuscript by Mr. Lawrence, has been kindly placed by him at the present writer's disposal. Personal recollections extending over thirty years have been drawn upon, as have Scott and Howard's Blanchard; Pascoe's Dramatic List; Mennell's Australasian Biography; Dutton Cook's Nights at the Play; and files of the Athenaeum and Sunday Times.]
SULLIVAN, Sir EDWARD (1822–1885), lord chancellor of Ireland, was born at Mallow, co. Cork, on 10 July 1822. He was the eldest son of Edward Sullivan by his wife Anne Surflen, née Lynch. His father, a local merchant, realised a substantial fortune in business and was a friend of the poet Moore. Sullivan received his earliest education at a school in his native town, and later on was sent to the endowed school at Midleton, an institution in which many distinguished Irishmen, Curran and Barry Yelverton among them, had been trained. In 1841 he entered Trinity College, Dublin. His career at the university was distinguished. He obtained first classical scholarship in 1843, and graduated B.A. in 1845. He was also elected auditor of the college historical society in 1845, in succession to William Connor Magee [q. v.] (afterwards bishop of Peterborough and archbishop of York), and gained the gold medal for oratory. In 1848, after two years of preliminary study at chambers in London, Sullivan was called to the Irish bar, where his well-trained and richly stored mind, his great readiness, indomitable tenacity, and fiery eloquence very quickly brought him into notice. Within ten years of his call to the bar (1858) he was appointed a queen's counsel, and two years later, during the viceroyalty of Lord Carlisle, became one of the three serjeants-at-law. In 1861 he was appointed law adviser—an office subordinate to the attorney and solicitor general, which has since been abolished—and in 1865 became for a brief period solicitor-general for Ireland in Lord Palmerston's last administration. In this capacity he was called on to deal with the fenian conspiracy. In 1865 he was returned in the liberal interest to represent his native town in parliament. From 1866 to 1868, while his party was in opposition, he applied himself mainly to his profession, and acted, about this period, in conjunction with James Whiteside [q. v.], as leading counsel for the plaintiff in the celebrated Yelverton trial.
In December 1868, on the return of the liberal party to power, Sullivan became attorney-general for Ireland in Mr. Gladstone's first administration. He took an active—next to the prime minister, the leading—part in the conduct of the Irish Church Bill in the House of Commons. His services on this occasion, the debating ability he displayed in the stormy discussions which the bill provoked, and his knowledge and grasp of the details of a most intricate subject, raised him to a high place in the estimation of the House of Commons, and earned him the complete confidence of his leader. He retired from parliament in 1870 to become master of the rolls in Ireland. Until 1882 he was mainly engrossed by his judicial duties; but he was also an active member of the privy council. His advice was often sought on critical occasions by the Irish government. Mr. Gladstone placed much reliance on his judgment and knowledge of Ireland, and it was mainly at his instance that the important step of arresting Charles Stewart Parnell [q. v.] was adopted by the government in 1881.
In December 1881 Sullivan was created a baronet on the recommendation of Mr. Gladstone, in recognition of his services both as a judge and as a confidential adviser of the servants of the crown in Ireland; and shortly afterwards the premature death of Hugh Law [q. v.] opened the way for his elevation to the Irish chancellorship, to which he was appointed in 1883. In this capacity he displayed governing qualities of the highest order, and during the troubled period of Lord Spencer's second viceroyalty he may be said to have been the mainspring of the Irish government in the measures taken to stamp out the Invincible conspiracy. He enjoyed his office for a comparatively brief period,
