Bell was the son of an Irish magistrate, born at
Cork on 16 January 1800. He was a student at
Trinity College, Dublin, where he founded the
Dublin Historical Society, in place of the old Historical Society which had been suppressed. He is said to have obtained early in life a government appointment in Dublin, and to have edited for a time the
Patriot, a government organ. He is also described as one of the founders of and contributors to the
Dublin Inquisitor, and as the author of two dramatic pieces,
Double Disguises and
Comic Lectures. In 1828, Bell settled in London, around the time he authored a pamphlet on
catholic emancipation. At this period he was appointed editor of
The Atlas, then one of the major London weekly papers, and ran it for many years. In 1829, at a time when press prosecutions were rife, he was indicted for a libel on
Lord Lyndhurst, a paragraph in the
Atlas having stated that either he or his wife had trafficked in the ecclesiastical patronage vested in the lord chancellor. The indictment would have been withdrawn if Bell had revealed the name of his source, but he refused. The jury found him guilty of publishing a libel, but virtually acquitted him of malicious intention. The attorney-general expressed satisfaction with the verdict, and Bell seems to have escaped punishment. A member of the committee of the
Royal Literary Fund, Bell helped struggling and unsuccessful men of letters, and his death on 12 April 1867 was much regretted. In accordance with his request he was buried near the grave of his friend
William Makepeace Thackeray, in
Kensal Green Cemetery. ==Works==