secured the right of publishing it. In less than two years it ran through seven editions, and has been reprinted since. The book became the subject of considerable political controversy in Dublin, and the liberal and catholic party championed her, and, after her heroine's name, knew her as 'Glorvina.' She was encouraged, under whig patronage, to bring out an opera, 'The First Attempt,' at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, 4 March 1807, which ran several nights, and brought her 4001., but she wrote no more for the stage. Later in the year she published two volumes of 'Patriotic Sketches.' In 1805 she wrote 'The Lay of an Irish Harp,' metrical fragments collected in, or suggested by, a visit to Connaught, and, in 1809, 'Woman, or Ida of Athens,' a romance in four volumes. Quitting patriotic Irish subjects, she wrote in 1811 a novel called 'The Missionary,' which sold for 400l. This was remodelled in 1859 under her directions, and renamed 'Luxima the Prophetess.'
Miss Owenson's popularity in Dublin led to her being invited to become a permanent member of the household of the Marquis of Abercorn. There she greatly extended her acquaintance with fashionable society, and her accomplishments were fully appreciated. Her patron's surgeon, Thomas Charles Morgan [q. v.], devoted himself to her, and, on a hint of hers, as she alleged—more probably at Lady Abercorn's request—the Duke of Richmond knighted him. Subsequently, on 20 Jan. 1812, Sydney Owenson, somewhat reluctantly, became his second wife, under pressure from Lady Abercorn. In 1808 her younger sister, Olivia, had married Sir Arthur Clarke, M.D., who had been knighted for curing the Duke of Richmond of a cutaneous disease. For some time after her marriage Lady Morgan published nothing, but in 1814 appeared 'O'Donnel, a National Tale,' in which she set herself to describe Irish life as she actually saw it, under the colour of Irish history as she heard it from her friends (for Sir W. Scott's favourable criticism of it see Lockhart, Scott, vi. 264). The book was written to furnish her new house in Kildare Street, Dublin. It brought her 550l., and being very popular with the 'patriots' she was fiercely attacked by the 'Quarterly Review.' These attacks were carried on by Gifford and Croker for years with indecent violence and malignity (cf. Blackwood's Magazine, xi. 695). In 1816 she published another Irish novel, 'Florence M'Carthy,' for which she received 1,200l., and caricatured Croker in it as 'Counsellor Con Crowley.' Despite savage reviews, her next work, 'France,' 1817, 4to, a book dealing with travel, politics, and society, as observed by her in France in 1815, became very popular, and reached a fourth edition in 1818. On the strength of its success Colburn offered her 2,000l. for a similar book on Italy, and she left Dublin in August 1818 to travel through that country. She visited London, where she saw much of Lady Caroline Lamb and Lady Cork and met with much social success (Moore, Memoirs, iii. 36). At Paris she met Humboldt, Talma, Cuvier, Constant, and others, and she paid Lafayette a visit at La Grange. Eventually she reached Italy, where she spent more than a year and was presented to the pope. Her book, which was published 20 June 1821, induced Byron, who was not prepossessed in her favour, to call it 'fearless and excellent' (Byron to Moore, 24 Aug. 1821); on the other hand it was proscribed by the king of Sardinia, the emperor of Austria, and the pope, and was fiercely assailed by the English ministerial press. The 'Quarterly' said of it: 'Notwithstanding the obstetric skill of Sir Charles Morgan (who we believe is a man-midwife), this book dropt all but stillborn from the press,' but it sold well in England, and editions also appeared in Paris and in Belgium. In October 1821 she retaliated upon the reviewers in 'Colburn's New Monthly Magazine.' In 1823 appeared her 'Life of Salvator Rosa,' republished in 1855, and in 1825 she collected, from 'Colburn's New Monthly,' her papers on 'Absenteeism.' In November 1827 appeared her novel 'The O'Briens and the O'Flaherties,' which expressed vigorous emancipation sentiments. It was a hostile review of this book in the 'Literary Gazette' that induced Henry Colburn [q. v.] to join the 'Athenæum' established by James Silk Buckingham [q. v.] She next issued, in 1829, the 'Book of the Boudoir,' a series of autobiographical sketches. She again visited France in the same year, and in July 1830 produced her second work under that title, most of the permanent value of which was due to her husband's assistance. Its sale to Saunders & Otley for 1,000l. so infuriated Colburn that he advertised that all her previous works had been a loss to him. In 1833 she published 'Dramatic Scenes,' and having visited Belgium in 1835, embodied her observations in a novel called 'The Princess' in that year.
Lord Melbourne, on Lord Morpeth's solicitation, bestowed on her a pension of 300l. a year in 1837, 'in acknowledgment of the services rendered by her to the world of letters.' This was the first pension of the kind given to a woman. Her husband was also appointed a commissioner of Irish fisheries. She wrote occasionally for the 'Athenæum' in 1837 and 1838. In 1839 she removed from Kildare Street, Dublin, to 11 William Street,
