and he applied them to the restoration of his states. His father had died in 1553, leaving these in a condition of utter dissolution. Everything was to be built up again. Emmanuele Filiberto succeeded in establishing his sway over his subjects by governing them according to their interests, although he contemned their old franchises, and allowed them to fall into oblivion. Having secured to Piedmont an independent position between the rival ambitions of France and Spain, he reconstructed the whole administration of the state, improved the finances, organized the army, and followed out to the end of his reign a skilful and self-relying policy towards his powerful neighbours. His attention was particularly directed to the development of public instruction, of which the country stood in great need after a long period of war and desolation. The universities of Turin and Mondovi rose to efficiency and renown under his patronage. He died in 1580, and was succeeded by his son, Carlo Emmanuele.—(See Charles Emmanuel.)—There is an interesting biography of Emmanuele Filiberto written soon after his death by a conporary, Giovanni Tosi.—(Ed. Mediol, 1601.)—A. S., O.
EMMET, Christopher Temple, an Irish barrister of great oratorical power, born at Cork in 1761, was the son of Dr. Robert Emmet, an eminent physician, and maternally descended from Sir John Temple. He entered Trinity college in 1775, and was called to the bar in Trinity term, 1781. During the period which immediately preceded this event, he seems to have studied, with great application; for Grattan in the life of his father tells us—"Temple Emmet, before he came to the bar, knew more law than any of the judges upon the bench; and if he had been placed on one side, and the whole bench opposed to him, he could have been examined against them, and would have surpassed them all. He would have answered better, both in law and divinity, than any judge or any bishop in the land." Allowing for the exaggeration of this estimate, we may take it as evidence of great acquirements. The tenacity of his memory was also very remarkable. On one occasion, when the books of the Historical Society, of which he was a distinguished member, happened to be mislaid, and it was thought that no examination could have taken place, Emmet, who had read the course, recollected the entire, and with astonishing power examined the society in every part of it. But his whole academic career was equally brilliant. Charles Phillips tells us that Temple Emmet passed through the university with such success that the examiners changed in his case the usual approbation of valde bene, into the more laudatory one of O quam bene! In 1784 Emmet doubly linked his connection with the Temple family by marrying a young widow named Western, the daughter of Robert Temple, Esq. His matrimonial happiness was of even shorter duration than his short-lived brilliancy and success at the bar. He fell a victim to decline in 1788, leaving one child, a daughter, who died unmarried. "During his short professional career," observes Dr. Madden, "his brilliant talents and eminent legal attainments obtained for him a character that in the same brief space was probably never gained at the Irish bar." Temple Emmet's oratory teemed too much with gorgeous and poetic imagery to be at the present day eminently successful. His speeches abound with those flowers of rhetoric which may be said to have withered out of fashion with the death of Sheil. It is satisfactory to know, however, that John Philpot Curran entertained an enthusiastic admiration of the eloquence of Temple Emmet. Of this fact we have been assured by Mr. P____ (Emmet's brother-in-law), who has also told us that Temple Emmet never wrote with greater brilliancy and beauty, than when considerable noise and miscellaneous sources of distraction existed around him. While throwing off the most effective written composition, he constantly maintained at the same time sparkling conversations. Temple Emmet was the author of several poetical pieces, which were published after his death. "The Decree," addressed to Lord Buckinghamshire, abounds in beautiful imagery and musical rhythm.—W. J. F.
EMMET, Robert, youngest son of Dr. Emmet, who had filled the office of state physician, was born in Molesworth Street, Dublin, during the spring of 1778. Attending mathematical instruction, he was placed under the preceptorial care of Samuel Whyte, who had already numbered amongst his pupils Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Arthur Wellesley, the subsequently great duke of Wellington. Here Emmet became the schoolfellow of Thomas Moore, who, forty years afterwards, wrote a brilliant eulogium on Emmet's pure moral worth and intellectual power. Emmet was indeed wholly free from the frailties and follies of youth, though how capable he was of the most devoted passion, his attachment to Sarah Curran proved. Mr. Quinlan, the last surviving pupil of Samuel Whyte, has furnished the writer of this paper with some interesting reminiscences of Robert Emmet. "Even then," he observes, "Emmet had a striking taste for declamation. I well remember him procuring the coachman's coat, enveloping his slight person in its ample folds like a toga, and, having mounted to the summit of a deal kitchen table, giving full vent to a flood of oratory." "I speak from youthful impressions," writes Moore, "but I have heard little since that appeared to me of a loftier or, what is far more rare in Irish eloquence, purer character." With such Demosthenic tendencies, it is not surprising that Emmet should have joined the Historical Society, which at that time formed such a brilliant feature in the university of Dublin. Emmet spoke frequently; his eloquence was always fervid; and the effects which it produced were such as to arouse the serious vigilance of the academic heads. In February, 1798, a visitation was held by the Lord-chancellor Clare, and Emmet was, among other students, expelled. After the removal of the Irish state prisoners to Fort-George, Emmet visited his brother there, and immediately after started for the continent, where we find him associating with Allen, Dowdall, Macnevin, and other men whose minds had been tinged by the fashionable treasons of the day. A speedy rupture of the amicable relations between England and France, seemed in 1802 inevitable. Extensive naval preparations for the invasion of England, were being made by the first consul. Robert Emmet communicated with him, and the result was a determination on Emmet's part to co-operate with Napoleon by raising an insurrection in Ireland. Emmet set out for his native country in October, 1802, and at once placed himself in communication, not only with several of the leaders who had acted a prominent part in the former rebellion, but with some very influential persons who encouraged the movement behind the scenes. When too late it became fatally evident that Emmet had been deceived by many of his pseudo-friends, but more from apathy than from treachery. Full of ardour and enthusiasm, Emmet had no misgivings as to the result. Any one who differed from him he laughed to derision. Confident to insanity, he entered into the wildest and most perilous plans. He established a depot in Patrick Street and filled it with ammunition; but with such carelessness was it superintended, that on the 18th July, 1803, the combustibles exploded, and the roof was blown off. After this alarm the leaders found it necessary to remain in concealment for a few days; but the government soon relapsed into apathy, and Emmet into his fool-hardy confidence. Indeed, so utterly unprepared was the government, that, as we are assured by Charles Phillips, a single ball did not exist in the chief arsenal which would fit the artillery. Emmet now purchased a second depot in Marshalsea Lane, and another at Irishtown, stocked them with pikes, blunderbusses, ball-cartridges, grenades, and exploding beams; despatched emissaries through the counties of Wicklow, Wexford, Meath, and Dublin, and implicitly believed their inflated reports and assurances. He resided entirely at the depot; lay at night upon a mattress, surrounded by all his various implements of death; and spent his days in devising plans of attack. His projects were visionary; his pecuniary means scanty; and many of his colleagues false. Bonaparte also, it became evident, had deceived him. Yet he resolved to make an immediate effort, lest further postponement should lead to discovery and death. The morning of the 23rd July, 1803, arrived, and found the leaders divided in their councils. Treachery, moreover, was at work. Portion after portion of his original plan was defeated by, as he thought, accident, ignorance, or neglect. The Wicklow men under Dwyer—on whom great dependence was placed—had not arrived; the man who was charged with the order to him from Emmet never delivered it. The Kildare men came into Dublin, and, having been informed by a false agent that Emmet had postponed his attempt, went back to Kildare. Three hundred men from Wexford repaired to Dublin, but no order or communication reached them from Emmet. A large body of men were assembled at the Broadstone, awaiting the discharge of a rocket to act; but no such signal was made. Emmet counted to the last on large help, and about nine o'clock on the evening of the 23rd July, 1803, full of sanguine hope, he sallied forth, dressed in green
