William Saurin

His tenure as Attorney-General is remarkable not only for its length, but also for his effective dominance of the Irish administration, a position never equalled by any other holder of the office (with the possible exception of Philip Tisdall, Attorney General 1760-1777). The fact that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was usually an absentee appointment and that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Lord Manners, was not familiar with the Irish political scene gave Saurin the opportunity to direct the Irish Government, an opportunity of which he took full advantage. Sir Robert Peel, Chief Secretary for Ireland 1812-1818, was said to be wholly in sympathy with Saurin,[9] although Peel was later to radically alter his own position on Catholic Emancipation.

As an Ulster Protestant, of Huguenot origin, it was perhaps natural that he should combine sympathy for the Orange Order with hostility to Catholic Emancipation; but his perceived bias against Catholics destroyed his popularity. As early as 1813 his enemy Daniel O'Connell tried to turn the trial of the publisher John Magee for libel into an indictment of Saurin's anti-Catholic bias, although at the time these attacks did not greatly damage him; indeed O'Connell's personal attacks on Saurin, whom he called "stupid and vulgar", may have aroused sympathy for him.[10] Saurin's prejudice against Catholics, sharpened by his personal feud with O'Connell, grew stronger until it became a matter of serious political concern; and while the Crown succeeded in convicting Magee, it failed to secure convictions in other related trials such as that of Dr. Sheridan.

Saurin's effective control of the Dublin administration was well known to and for many years taken for granted by the British Government; in time however his inflexible opinions and unpopularity made him a political liability. The publication of a letter he wrote to John Toler, the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, urging him to use his influence with Protestant juries to secure guilty verdicts against Catholics in political cases, did great damage to both of their reputations. In due course the decision was taken to remove him from office as Attorney General, but to compensate him by appointment to the Bench. In 1822 the new Lord Lieutenant, Lord Wellesley, offered him the vacant position of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland; when Saurin, who had never shown any interest in going on the Bench, refused, he was dismissed from the Attorney General's Office outright, a decision which seems to have come as an utterly unexpected blow to Saurin.[11] Saurin's anti-Catholic bias is also said to have offended Wellesley's second wife, Marianne Patterson, who was a Catholic.[12] Daniel O'Connell exulted in "the downfall of our mortal foe".[13] Wellesley, who was accused of treating Saurin harshly, said that short of offering him the Lord Lieutenancy itself, he did not see what more he could have done. Saurin retained some indirect political influence until the enactment of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 finally ended his political career.[14]

Despite his increasing age he returned to private practice for some years, and became "Father of the Bar" (that is, its longest serving member). In that capacity he gave the farewell address to the departing Lord Chancellor, Sir Anthony Hart, in 1830.

He was described as small and decidedly "French" in appearance (hence O'Connell's gibe about his being a "transplanted Frenchman"); his face was dominated by shaggy eyebrows, under which his black eyes had a piercing but not unkindly expression.[17] His private life was blameless and despite his anti-Catholic bias his character was described as honourable and affectionate.