\lilf filiant 'Lane 
 
 ;I/LV . 
 
 NEW WORKS. 
 
 In one vol. square 16mo, beautifully printed, price Is. 6d. cloth, 
 
 BALLADS, POEMS, AND LYRICS, 
 
 ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED. 
 
 BY DENIS FLORENCE M'CARTHY. 
 
 REVELATIONS OF IRELAND. 
 
 By D. OWEN-MADDEN. 
 
 Post 8vo, price ]0s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 IRISH POPULAR SONGS ; 
 
 WITH ENGLISH METRICAL VERSIONS, ENGLISH AND IRISH INTERFACED. 
 
 BY EDWARD WALSH. 
 
 Price 2s. 6d. sewed. 
 
 SPECIMENS OF THE EARLY NATIVE POETRY OF 
 IRELAND, 
 
 In English Metrical Translations, by Miss Brooke, Dr. Drunmiond, 
 
 Samuel Ferguson, J. C. Mangan, T. Furlong, H. Grattan Curran, 
 
 Edward Walsh, J. I)' Alton, John Anster, LL.D., &c., c. 
 
 BY HENRY R, MONTGOMERY. 
 
 Price. 2s. 6d. cloth, gilt edges. 
 
 IRELAND SIXTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 A NCAV Edition, with Illustrations. Price is. 
 
 RAMBLING RECOLLECTIONS OF A SOLDIER OF 
 FORTUNE. 
 
 By W. H. MAXWELL, 
 
 Author of " Stories of Waterloo." With Illustrations by Phiz. 
 Third and Cheap Edition, 12mo, fancy cover, Is. 
 
 A WEEK IN THE SOUTH OF IRELAND, 
 
 Including Notices of Cork, Limerick, Killarney, and Glengariff. 
 With a Map, price 6d. 
 
 A HANDBOOK FOR THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 
 BOTANIC GARDENS, GLASNEVJN. 
 
 With numerous Cuts, price 6d. 
 DUBLIN : JAMES M'GLASHAN, 21 D'OLIER-STREET. 
 
 WM. S. ORR AND CO., AMEN-CORNER, LOXDON. 
 
 AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.
 
 iR.er>e 5aeene. Omen
 
 JO JOMfSSOSSSl 
 
 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES, 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 VALENTINE LORD CLONCURRY. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 DUBLTN 
 JAMES M C GLASHAN, 21 D'OLIER-STREET. 
 
 WILLIAM S. OBR AND CO., PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON. 
 MDCCCL.
 
 DUBLIN : 
 PRINTED BY ALEXANDER THOM, 87, ABBEY-STREET. 
 
 1
 
 PEEFACE, 
 
 IN preparing for the press this second edition of my 
 Recollections, which 1 dedicate to my countrymen, I 
 have taken advantage of the labours of my various re- 
 viewers, so far as they have come under my notice, to 
 correct a few errors. None of them, indeed, were of much 
 more importance than the substitution of " ! Charles," 
 for " ! Richard, ! mon Roi !" into which a lapse of 
 memory led me when alluding to the musical contests of 
 the French and Austrian armies, in the year 1795; 
 nevertheless, it is desirable to be accurate, even in trifles, 
 and I thank those who have taken the trouble to set me 
 right. I have added a few anecdotes and explanations 
 which occurred to me in the course of a perusal of the 
 earlier publication. In the political opinions I first ex- 
 pressed, in relation to the past, the present, or the future, 
 as I feel no alteration I have made no change. Whether 
 they were right or wrong, they were and are sincerely 
 entertained and honestly told, and it is with a deep sense 
 of satisfaction I now gratefully acknowledge that, with 
 perhaps a single exception, they were received in a frank 
 and kindly spirit, both by those who generally agree 
 with, and those who altogether dissent from, them. 
 There have been, perhaps, few autobiographers who, 
 upon the whole, have had less occasion to complain of 
 the critics ; but in offering my thanks to those rulers of 
 
 2065697
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 public opinion, I beg leave, respectfully, to interpose a 
 word of explanation. A disregard of order in narrative 
 has been charged against me by some of the reviewers, 
 and a failure in historical completeness by others. In 
 deprecation of these criticisms I would beg leave to 
 observe, that it was not my intention to produce a his- 
 tory of Ireland, or even a complete story of my own po- 
 litical life. I would not presume to attempt the former, 
 and to accomplish the latter was rendered impossible by 
 the seizure and destruction of my papers upon the 
 occasions of my imprisonments, and by the irregularity 
 with which, at all times, I was in the habit of record- 
 ing passing events. My design, which I endeavoured 
 to express in the title of my book, was simply to compile 
 my recollections of political and personal occurrences 
 during three-quarters of a century, and to deduce there- 
 from such conclusions as the experience of a long life and 
 some acquaintance with men and affairs taught me to think 
 they might warrant. Such a plan could not be carried out 
 consistently with a strict adherence to chronological 
 order: to give a full and broad effect to the natural truth 
 of my drama, I was forced sometimes to disregard the 
 technical unities of time and place. My memory passed 
 over cycles of facts, and my thoughts stretched into the 
 future destiny of my country: I looked not, "only on the 
 stop watch." Not to have introduced a document or 
 told a fact at the time when it would most conduce to 
 the development of the truth or to the justification of a 
 sound inference would indeed have been to have made 
 my history no better than an old almanac. 
 
 MABETIMO, June, 1850.
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 17731795. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction Birth, in 1773 School Friends Dublin Schools in 1785-6 
 College House-property in Dublin, in 1791 and in 1801 The His- 
 torical Society Sojourn in Switzerland Society of the Swiss Towns 
 in 1793-4 Its effect upon a young Irishman The Irish Brigade The 
 Amenities of War The French Army Le Beau Dillon and Pat Lattin 
 Lausanne Letter to my Mother 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 1795. 
 
 Ireland in 1795 My Father's Settlement in France Honours of the Church 
 there His Return to Ireland Position of the Catholics An Octogena- 
 rian Student Objects of the Irish Patriots after '82 The French 
 Invasion Progress of Ireland Hopes and Desires of the People Par- 
 liamentary Reform The Emancipated Irish Legislature Traffic in 
 Corruption Efforts of the Patriots Lord Strangford's Pension The 
 United Irishmen Catholic Emancipation Protestant Liberality Hu- 
 mility of the Catholics The Fatal Enfranchisement of 1793 Establish- 
 ment of Religious Discord 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 17951797. 
 
 Become a Student of the Middle Temple Hear of the Projected Union from 
 Mr. Pitt Consequent Essay in Pamphleteering London Acquaintance 
 John Macnamara- Mr. Macnamara, the London Agent of Irish Poli- 
 ticians His mode of Conducting the Business of his Agency His 
 Sunday Parties at Streatham John Home Tooke John Reeves 
 Colonel Despard Progress of Irish Politics Become a Supporter of 
 the " Press " and a United Irishman Approaching Conflict of Parties 
 Murder of Christopher Dixon Judge Toler's Charge at the Trial of the 
 Murderer Kildare Petition Interference of the Government Cor- 
 respondence with Secretary Pelham Withdrawal of the Patriot Mem- 
 bersfrom Parliament Mr. Grattan's Address Suspicions of the Govern- 
 ment Correspondence with Under-Secretary Cooke Lord Clonmel 
 
 A bra Pleasura 30 
 
 A 2
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 17971798. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Take up my abode in London Irish Refugees Their Appeals to their 
 Fellow-countrymen The Free-quarters System The United Irish 
 
 Club Its Objects and Members Duel with Mr. H ; Disclosures 
 
 in the Castlereagh Papers Manufacture of Treason Espionage St. 
 Patrick's Dinner O'Coigly Assist him in his Defence Arrested 
 Simultaneous Arrest of the Duke of Leinster, Mr. Curran, and Mr. 
 Grattan Intentions of the Government, as disclosed in the Castlereagh 
 Papers Their Failure Examination before the Privy Council Libe- 
 ration Letters ; from Lord Cloncurry, from Miss C. Lawless Pro- 
 jected Marriage 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1799. 
 
 Disengagement from Politics Hostile intentions of the Government towards 
 me Their unsuccessful Efforts to procure Evidence Proposition to 
 Except me from the benefit of a General Pardon "Private and 
 Secret" good wishes of Lord Castlereagh My own Freedom from Ap- 
 prehension Letter to my Sister Warning Second Arrest Examina- 
 tion before the Privy Council Committed to the Tower Sufferings 
 there Consequences to my Prospects, Health, and Fortune The Story 
 of my Imprisonment Letters; from Colonel Cockburn, my Father, 
 Myself, Mr. Foulkes, Mr. Reeves, my Sister, my Father My Father's 
 death Letters ; from my Sister, the Duke of Portland, Mr. C. Crawford 
 Refusal of Permission to pay the Last Duties to my Father Letters; 
 from Mr. Burne, the Duke of Portland, my Sister, Mr. Cooke . . 63 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 18001801. 
 
 Continued Imprisonment Accession to the Peerage Communication of the 
 fact of my Detention to the Irish House of Lords Their Apathy 
 Precautions of the Government to prevent the Exertions of my Friends 
 Letters; from my Sister to Lord Cornwallis Colonel Littlehales* 
 Replies Disgust at the Treachery of the Government Letters ; from 
 my Sister to Lord Moira Rigours of my Prison Life Comparison of 
 the Treatment of Convicted and Untried Prisoners Intrusions of my 
 Enemies Ingenious Attempt to Rob me Letter from my Sister Com- 
 plaints Letters; from the Duke of Portland, from Mr. Reeves Death 
 of my Affianced Bride Correspondence between my Sister, Mr. Burne, 
 and the Duke of Portland Renewed Impatience of Confinement 
 Letters to Mr. Foulkes and Mr. Burne Petition to the House of 
 Commons Letters; from Colonel Smith, from Mr. Foulkes Confirmed 
 Madness of George the Third Impossibility of Renewing the Suspension 
 of the Habeas Corpus Act Liberation Letter from Lord Castlereagh 
 Proceed against the Ministers for False Imprisonment Met by an 
 Act of Indemnity My Fellow-sufferer, Mr. Bonham Letter from him 
 Return to Ireland The Miserable Triumph by which it was cele- 
 bratedLetter from Lord Holland . 93
 
 CONTENTS. VII 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Changes observable on my Return to Ireland Reminiscences of Friends 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald His Affectionate and Enthusiastic Character 
 The Earlier and the Later Designs of his Patriotism Separation 
 from England an Afterthought Its Foundation in the hopelessness of 
 Prosperity co-existing with Political and Social Dependence Neither 
 Individual Men nor Nations grow to Maturity without Self-reliance 
 Why not adopt Lord Durham's Colonial Policy? Lord Edward's Reli- 
 gious Sentiments His Bravery Refuge of Lady Edward in my Father's 
 House Seizure of her Effects there Capture of the supposed Great 
 Seal of the Irish Republic The True History of that Instrument 
 Curious Error in Treasonmongering and in Cotemporary History Re- 
 versal of Lord Edward's Attainder, and my Trusteeship of his Estate- 
 William Duke of Leinster His Political Views Efforts of the Govern- 
 ment to drive him into War Outrages committed on him, and their Fa- 
 vourable Effects upon his Fortune Arthur O'Connor Character of the 
 Movement of which he and Edward Fitzgerald were Types Patriots 
 of those Days Men of Substance and Independence Archibald Hamilton 
 Rowan His Personal Characteristics His Chivalry Letters from 
 Pedestrian Tour in company with him and Sir Thomas Frankland An 
 Interview with Sir Richard Arkwrisht Rowan's Social Position His 
 Means of Livelihood in America Our Last Interview Thomas Addis 
 Emmett M'Nevin Bond Sampson Robert Emmett General Law- 
 less His Narrow Escape His Success in France Letters ; from Chan- 
 cellor Ponsonby; from General Lawless The Rebel General Aylmer 
 His eventful History Curran His brilliant Social Qualities His De- 
 cline after the Union Misunderstanding between him and George Pon- 
 sonby Monument to Amelia Curran Grattan His Transplantation 
 to the English House of Commons His Opinion of the Union Political 
 Lesson deducible from that Measure Letter from Grattan Patrick 
 Lattin Wogan Browne His Dismissal from the Magistracy for kick- 
 ing Football His Narrow Escape from being Hanged Characteristic 
 of Irish Misfortune exhibited at his Funeral Mr. Henry A led 
 Captain 126 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 18021805. 
 
 Effects of my Imprisonment upon my Health and Fortune Difficulties in 
 Repairing the Latter A Pugnacious Middleman Begin my Travels 
 My Sisters and their Husbands Jerusalem Whalley Paris Presenta- 
 tion to the First Consul His Court Ceremonial on his Acceptance of 
 the Consulate for Life Bonaparte's Personal Appearance Curious In- 
 stance of his Ignorance Feelings of the Republicans towards him The 
 Corps d' Elite Kosciusko Helen Maria Williams Parisian Society 
 The Officials and the Financiers Madame Recamier Journey to Italy 
 Nice Foreign and Irish Climates Galley Slaves Florence 
 Friendly Warning from the Due de Feltre to evade Verdun Rome 
 The Palazzo Accaioli House-rent and accommodation in Italy in 1803 
 Impoverished Condition of the Roman States Vertu-Market The 
 Earl-bishop of Derry His Eccentricities and Death Removal of 
 Antiquities History of the Pillars of the Golden House Roman Civi- 
 lization Mixture of Bigotry and Feebleness with Urbanity Trasteve-
 
 Till CONTENTS. 
 
 TAG* 
 
 rini The Jews Kindness to Strangers Weakness of the Fabric of 
 Society The Papal Fleet and its Admiral Apathy of the Upper 
 Classes Their Epicureanism Their Submission to the Popular Su- 
 perstitions Prince Massimo and his Shrine The King of Sardinia 
 and his Cross Ignorance of the Nobles The Prince Borghese Con- 
 trasted Vigour of the Artists Canova His Statues of the King of 
 Naples and of Napoleon Pius VII. His Departure to France The 
 Cardinal York His Hospitalities at Frescati Estimation of English 
 Manufactures in Italy Madame d' Albany Alfieri Foreign Residents 
 Duchess of Cumberland The Princes of Mecklenburg Count Orloff 
 Prince Potemkin Count Pahlen's Constitution of Russia Father 
 Concanen The Abbe Taylor Letter from him Travelling Compa- 
 nions from Rome Madame de Stael United Irishmen in Vienna 
 Prince Xavier of Saxony Princely Hospitality Return through Den- 
 mark to England 154 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1806. 
 
 Ireland after the Union Insincerity of the English Government Disap- 
 pointment of the Catholics New Enlistment of the Protestant Garri- 
 son Obliteration of all traces of Union among Irishmen Elements 
 of Strife Operation of the Franchise of '93 Progress of the Power of 
 the Catholics Effect of the Penal Laws in driving them to Industrial 
 Pursuits Effects of Placehunting in crushing the spirit of the Protest- 
 ants the Clare Election Surrender of the Duke of Wellington 
 Zenith of Catholic Power Social Changes observable in 1806 Dublin 
 Society before the Union Change in Feeling between the Classes 
 Settlement at Lyons Traces of the Condition of Irish Society visible 
 there Loyal Invasion and Robbery of my House during my Absence 
 Kindness of Lord Hardwicke A Hint of what I was to expect from 
 the Powers that were Lord Redesdale's Refusal to grant me the Com- 
 mission of the Peace Letters ; from Mr. Burne, Lord Redesdale, and 
 Myself Intervention of Lord Hardwicke Submission of the Chan- 
 cellor Letters from him and Mr. Burne Accession of " all the Talents" 
 . Tbe Magistracy, and their Mode of doing Business Ancient and Dis- 
 creet Constables Their Protestant Qualification An Embarrassing 
 Inquiry Care taken of the King's Windfalls Kenny's Case The 
 Dublin Police Affair at Saggard Working out of the Policy of 
 Discord and Corruption 1 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Improvements in the Administration of Justice Petty Sessions Origin of 
 the System at Celbridge A Case of Appeal The Stipendiary Magis- 
 tracy Effects of the System ; in widening the Breach between the 
 Classes; in stimulating Placehunting Letter from Lord Chancellor 
 Manners Memorandum on required Changes in the Law Letters; 
 from Sir John Newport, from Sir William Gosset, from Mr. Peel, from 
 Attorney-General Ball, from Mr. Drummond Use of Petty Sessions 
 to solve the Landlord and Tenant Question The Constabulary Letter 
 from Mr. O'ConneU . . . .204
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 18071828. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Viceroyalty of the Duke of Richmond My Second Marriage Domestic 
 Circle and Occupations Associates Mr. Kirwan, the Geologist Mr. 
 Chenevix Mr. Jephson Viceroyalty of Lord Whitworth A new 
 Persecution on the score of my " d d Politics" Letters from Lord 
 Whitworth Memorandum of Mrs. Douglas's Interview with Lord 
 Chancellor Manners Letters to and from Lord Manners Affidavit of 
 Mrs. Douglas Letters ; from the Earl of Donoughmore, from the Earl 
 of Limerick Viceroyalty of Earl Talbot Letter from him Lord Tal- 
 bot's Private Kindness His Public Policy Meeting at Kilmainham 
 to address the King Its Conduct and Dispersal A Characteristic 
 Incident Letters; from Sir Francis Burdett, from the Duke of 
 Leinster, from Mr. Murphy Mot of the Duke of Wellington Visit 
 of George IV. to Ireland Ebullition of Loyalty- Renewal of Discord 
 The Lord Mayor's Dinner Recall of Lord Talbot Viceroyalty of 
 the Marquis Wellesley His intended Policy His Rupture with " the 
 Castle" Protestant War declared against him The Bottle Riot 
 Stretching of the Law Letters from Lord Holland Enlightened Opi- 
 nions of Lord Wellesley on the leading Irish Questions . . . 215 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Waifs and Strays of Memory A pregnant Question from Sir Francis Bur- 
 dett Letter from Sir Francis His visit to Ireland Mr. Peel's Opi- 
 nions on Irish Distress and Government Interference in 1817 Ditto in 
 1826 Ship- Canal from Dublin to Galway Efforts to advance that 
 Project Letter from Mr. Killaly Ireland, the Natural Centre of 
 Commerce between the Hemispheres Letters from Dr. Drennan 
 The Ex-Judge Johnson ; Authorship of Juverna ; his turn for Military 
 Affairs Letters from him Letter from Baron Smith Letter from Dr. 
 Doyle, on Saints' Days and Holydays 241 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Three Irish Political Questions of the Nineteenth Century Their real 
 Value The Catholic Question Kildare Meeting in 1811 Wariness of 
 its Promoters Absence of Professional Agitators from the early Catholic 
 Meetings Growth of Violence Its effects upon Protestant Sympa- 
 thizers Evidence of the early existence of Good Feeling Letters; 
 from Mr. O'Connell, from the Marquis of Downshire, from the Earl of 
 Fingall The Rotunda "Tin-Case" Meeting Letters from Mr. O'Con- 
 nell Indications of the Workings of Professional Agitation Refusal 
 of Messrs. O'Connell and Sheil to merge their Sectarian Grievances in 
 the common cause of Ireland Pressure on the Catholics of Rank 
 Letters; from the Earl of Donoughmore, from Mr. O'Connell Arrival 
 of Lord Anglesey in Ireland Policy of the Government in appoint- 
 ing him to the Viceroyalty Its Effects My own Connexion with Lord 
 Anglesey His Recall Progress of the Catholic Question Letters 
 Illustrative of the Time ; from Lord Anglesey Position of the Duke of 
 Wellington and Sir Robert Peel in 1829 Triumph over their Fears 
 Their spiteful Treatment of Mr. O'Connell Its Evil Effects Per- 
 petuation of Religious Discord Effects upon the Country Letters; 
 from Father L' Estrange, from Lord Holland, from Lord Melbourne . 261
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PAOH 
 
 The Church Question The Church Establishment a Citadel for the English 
 Garrison Its Failure as an Ecclesiastical Institution Its Use as a 
 Party Grievance Value of the Reforms already made Lord Angle- 
 sey's Church Bill Defeated hy Mr. Stanley Church Question still 
 unsettled, and at the service of the Factions Payment of the Catholic 
 Clergy Separation of Church and State Letters ; from Lord Dacre, 
 the Marquis of Anglesey, Lord Holland, Sir H. Hardinge, Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, Myself 289 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Education Question Restrictions upon the Education of the Catholics 
 Evasion by the Protestant Clergy of their obligation to establish Schools 
 The Charter Schools Struggles of the Peasantry to obtain Educa- 
 tion The Kildare-place Society Discords in that Body, resulting from 
 their enforcement of Religious Education A pious Fraud Mode in 
 which the Education War between the Kildare-place Society and Myself 
 was carried on Letters ; from Doctor Doyle, the Earl of Donough- 
 more, the Rev. Mr. Armstrong The National System of Education 
 Mr. Stanley's opposition Withdrawal of the Parliamentary Grant from 
 the Kildare-place Society Combination of the extreme Factions against 
 the National System Ultimate Triumph over Bigotry Moral of the 
 Education War The Godless Colleges 310 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 18291831. 
 
 The First Recall of Lord Anglesey Reasons assigned by the Duke of Wel- 
 lington His Attack upon Myself Lord Anglesey's Reply Minis- 
 terial surveillance of Hospitality Letters from Lord Anglesey Vice- 
 royalty of the Duke of Northumberland Unnecessary Irritation of 
 Mr. O'Connell Its Consequences Renewal of Party Violence Lord 
 Anglesey's Return to Ireland His Reception and Difficulties Letters ; 
 from Lord Anglesey, from Mr. William Murphy, from Mr. George 
 Villiers My own Difficulties at this Period The Campaign opened 
 by Mr. O'Connell His Attempt to force me into Collision with the 
 Lord Lieutenant Letter from Lord Anglesey Arrest of Mr. O'Con- 
 nell His Arraignment and Escape from Judgment .... 330 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 18311833. 
 
 Renewed Agitations and Party Struggles The Parliamentary Reform Ques- 
 tion Negotiations for a Peace with Mr. O'Connell Letters; from 
 Mr. O'Mara, from Mr. O'Connell Memorandum by the Earl of Meath 
 Mr. O'Connell re-opens his Campaign Letter from Mr. O'Mara > 
 Subsequent Reconciliation with Mr. O'Connell Letters; from Mr. 
 O'Connell, from Mr. Wm. Murphy, from Lord Anglesey Manly 
 Struggles of the Lord Lieutenant Letters from him Termination 
 of Lord Anglesey's Second Viceroyalty His Intercepted Letter to 
 Lord Grey His Irish Policy Letters ; from Mr. Littleton, from Lord 
 Anglesey Created an English Peer Letters ; from Myself, from the 
 Duke of Leinstcr, from Mr. George Villiers 354
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 18341846. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Abandonment of Lord Anglesey's policy Statesmanship on the Whig Model 
 Its results in the Demoralization of the People Testimony to this 
 Truth ; of Dr. Doyle, of Mr. Lambert Persistence in the same Policy 
 Political Quietism Letter from Lord Holland Break up of the 
 Grey Ministry Wellington Dictatorship Reheating of the Whig Mess, 
 with the Old Condiments Letters; from Lord Holland, from Lord 
 Durham Working of the Normanhy Government .... 383 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Moral of the Tale Hope for Ireland Its Foundations Over-success 
 of the Policy of the Unionists The Irish Burthen upon England Ex- 
 patriation and Corruption of the Irish Gentry Effects upon the People 
 Natural Results of the Policy The Land Difficulty The Land In- 
 quiry Commission The "Fixity of Tenure" Movement The Potato 
 Failure Final Ruin of the Gentry The Old Liens on Estates The 
 New and More Fatal Encumhrances What can an Irish Gentleman 
 do under existing circumstances ? Old English Party Politics Decline 
 of their Interest in Ireland The Political Inquiry proper for the Oc- 
 casion Determination of the Land Struggle Mischievous Effects of 
 the Fixity of Tenure Movement on the National Cause Signs of the 
 Effects of the Removal of the Barriers of Irish Society Natural and 
 necessary Solution of the Anglo-Irish Question Conclusion . . 395 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. Thoughts on the Projected Union between Great Britain and Ireland, 
 
 published in 1797 411 
 
 II. Reply to an Address from the High Sheriff of the County of Kildare, 
 the Lady Ponsonby, the Gentlemen, Clergy, Freeholders and Land- 
 holders of the Barony of South Salt 430
 
 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 VALENTINE, LORD CLONCURRT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1773 1795. 
 
 Introduction Birth, in 1773 School Friends Dublin Schools in 1785-6 
 College House-property in Dublin, in 1791 and in 1801 The Historical 
 Society Sojourn in Switzerland Society of the Swiss Towns in 17; 3-4 
 Its effect upon a young Irishman The Irish Brigade The Amenities 
 of War The French Army Le Beau Dillon and Pat Lattin Lausanne 
 Letter to my Mother. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the undoubted truth of Solomon's 
 proposition, that " there is nothing new under the sun," 
 it has always seemed to me that any man who has lived 
 through three quarters of a century, must have had 
 knowledge forced upon him, which, though not new, 
 would yet, if communicated in a plain tale, teach many 
 a useful lesson to those who are girding themselves for 
 entrance upon that pilgrimage, of whose perils and joys 
 the wisest of the young must always form an inaccurate 
 estimate. Such a tale, honestly told, even though its 
 events would too often fail to serve as beacons to warn 
 against danger or to point out the true course to the 
 inexperienced voyager through life, yet would it, upon 
 many an occasion, cast a cheering light upon his track, 
 and not seldom sustain courage that would sink under 
 disasters which an unchastened imagination might look 
 
 B
 
 2 INTRODlCTiON. 
 
 upon as unprecedented and irretrievable. It would (at 
 least so my recollections tell me) do even more and 
 better than this : it would prevent many a disaster, by 
 teaching the most useful of all lessons to a passer through 
 the world that of forbearance and charity towards those 
 with whom the accidents of his journey bring him into 
 collision. There are few of the injuries men suffer from 
 each other that would not be rendered less galling were 
 the motives of both parties mutually understood ; there 
 are none that would not leave a slighter wound if a 
 kindly view of human nature (such as experience tells 
 me is the true one) were to influence the mind of the 
 sufferer, in forming an estimate of the designs of his 
 occasional opponents. 
 
 It is with impressions such as these fresh upon my 
 mind, that I sit down to question my memory upon the 
 occurrences of a life which has been neither short nor 
 uneventful. I have lived many years, seen many men, 
 Buffered and prevailed, been persecuted and honoured ; 
 and now, having laboured in iny generation with, at 
 least, a hearty desire to serve my fellow-men, I look at 
 the past without even a transient feeling of unkindness, 
 and at the present with, I trust, a reverential gratitude 
 for the large share vouchsafed to me, by a beneficent 
 Providence, of those three cardinal blessings of humanity 
 health, competence, and respect of men. A beginning 
 and ending that can be thus characterized, constitute of 
 themselves a fact worthy of being recorded ; and if it 
 shall excite in the mind of any reader, sufficient interest 
 to induce him to accompany me in my efforts to illustrate 
 it by reminiscences of the events of my life, I will pro- 
 mise him that he shall hear, if not an amusing or elo- 
 quent, at least a true tale. 
 
 I shall begin with the beginning, by noting that I 
 was born in my father's house, in Merrion-square, 
 Dublin, on the 19th of August, 1773. I was then a 
 younger son, and (my birth having occurred somewhat 
 prematurely) a weakly child. I was nevertheless a great
 
 SCHOOL FRIENDS. 3 
 
 favourite with both my grandfathers, and continued to 
 hold a high place in their regard up to the period of 
 their deaths, which occurred at very advanced ages, and 
 were occasioned, in the case of my paternal grandfather, 
 by an injury from the kick of a horse ; and in the other, 
 I believe, by anxiety and grief resulting from my pro- 
 tracted imprisonment in the Tower, during the years 
 1799 and 1800. The circumstance of my not being an 
 eldest son, I presume, procured for me the advantage of 
 being sent, at the age of eight years, to a public school 
 at Portarlington, where I was roughly enough treated as 
 a " fag," and even at that early period, initiated into au 
 experience of the rude course of life. In my case, how- 
 ever, this advantage was not obtained without its accom- 
 panying drawback, which came in the shape of a dislo- \J 
 cated elbow, occasioned by a fall from a pent-house, from - <. 
 which I was pushed by a boy named Faulkner, afterwards 
 the Sir Frederick Faulkner, who, many years subse- 
 quently, committed suicide at Naples. The confinement 
 consequent upon this accident, and, I suppose, somo 
 neglect, acted upon the original delicacy of my consti- 
 tution, and produced a scrofulous complaint, from which ^ 
 I suffered severely for four or five years. The malady ^ 
 was, however, completely rooted out of my system, as is 
 proved by my long and uninterrupted enjoyment of 
 health and strength. At the time, it had the effect of ~i\ 
 bringing me into the closest and most tender relations 
 with the best and kindest of mothers, towards whom my 
 feelings of respect and affection were never afterwards 
 for a moment blunted. 
 
 At the age of twelve years I was placed at the school 
 of the Rev. Dr. Burrowes, at Prospect, Blackrock, very 
 near to my father's villa of Maretimo, where I remained 
 for about two years. Burrowes was an extremely good- 
 natured and friendly man, possessed of taste and good 
 manners ; but he was no scholar, and otherwise ill-suited 
 for his vocation, loving the pleasures of the table, and 
 unfortunately also of the gaming-table. Poor man ! I 
 
 B2
 
 4 DUBLIN SCHOOLS IN 1785. 
 
 well remember the anxious haste with which he was ac- 
 customed to close the daily business of the school, in 
 order that he might be at liberty to repair to Dublin, 
 for the purpose of mingling in the more congenial occu- 
 pations of the frequenters of the then fashionable clubs. 
 A few years afterwards, in the natural course of things, 
 my poor schoolmaster illustrated the result of the incon- 
 gruity of his tastes with his profession, by visiting me in 
 college, and borrowing a few pounds to relieve some- 
 urgent necessity. 
 
 At Prospect, there was among the assistants a Dr. 
 Beatty, an excellent scholar and a most worthy man ; 
 but simple as a child, and consequently the victim of all 
 our schoolboy tricks. There was, at the same time, 
 another assistant, a Master in the University of Dublin, 
 where he was then celebrated under the sobriquet of 
 Beau Myrtle. The very opposite of poor Dr. Beatty, 
 this person was one of the most depraved, vicious, and 
 filthy wretches that ever disgraced the name of man. 
 His character was fortunately discovered, and he was 
 banished from the school before he had time to do much 
 mischief. 
 
 For the information of the highly-respectable frater- 
 nity of Irish schoolmasters of the present day, I must 
 not omit to mention that Dr. Burrowes' pupils then 
 (1785-6) numbered from eighty to one hundred, all of 
 rank, and of the first families in the country earls, vis- 
 counts, lords, and squires. Among my schoolfellows 
 whose names I still remember, were Lords Shannon, 
 Ponsonby, and Mountcashel, John Creighton (father of 
 the present Earl of Erne), the last Lord Llandaff, and his 
 brother, Montagu Mathew, Edward Taylor, son of Lord 
 Bective, John Jones, son of Lord Eanelagh, the present 
 Bishop of Derry, Lord de Vesci, and the late Knight of 
 Kerry. It was the fashion of that day to educate boys 
 in the community in the midst of which their duties and 
 interests as men required them to live. We were not 
 then sent to learn absenteeism and contempt, too often
 
 COLLEGE. 5 
 
 hatred, for our country, in the schools and colleges of 
 England. 
 
 I must not omit to mention one person whose acquaint- 
 ance I made during this period of my school life, and 
 whose subsequent fate had a melancholy relation with 
 my own. This was poor Trenor, the Master of Elocution 
 in Dr. Burrowes' household, who afterwards became my 
 companion and secretary, and was accordingly arrested 
 in 1798, at the same time as myself, upon an equally 
 false suspicion of high-treason. The ill treatment to 
 which he was then subjected ultimately caused his death, 
 which took place shortly after I was enabled, upon my 
 succession to my father, to do something to evince my 
 esteem for his fidelity and sympathy for the sufferings 
 he endured as the consequence of his affectionate attach- 
 ment to myself. 
 
 From the school of Prospect I was sent to the King's 
 School at Chester, at that time presided over by Dr. 
 Bancroft. This step was taken in accordance with the 
 advice of my father's excellent friend, Dr. Cleaver, then 
 Bishop of Chester, and Principal of Brazen ose College, 
 but who had previously been private secretary to the 
 Marquis of Buckingham, with whom my father was on 
 terms of close intimacy during his residence, as Lord 
 Lieutenant, in Ireland. While at Chester I lived in the 
 family of the Bishop, and was brought by him to Oxford, 
 with the view of being entered of Brazenose College ; 
 but I prevailed upon my father to change his intention 
 with respect to my destination, and to permit me to be- 
 come a member of the university of my native city, from 
 which I graduated in arts in the year 1791 ; as it hap- 
 pened, upon the day on which my father entertained the 
 Lord Lieutenant (the Earl of Westmoreland) for the first 
 time, at Mornington House, a residence in Merrion-street, 
 which he had just purchased from the late Marquis 
 Wellesley. Among the notabilia of this entertainment, 
 I may mention the presence at it of the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, who attended as an aid-de-camp to the Lord
 
 6 HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Lieutenant. The locale was subsequently rendered 
 infamous as the nidus of that miserable hatching of cor- 
 ruption, from which the union between the two king- 
 doms was evolved. Mornington House was rented from 
 my father by Lord Castlereagh during the course of the 
 Union debates, and in it were concocted those plots that 
 ended in overturning the liberties, and arresting the 
 prosperity of Ireland. There also were celebrated, with 
 corrupt profusion suited to the occasion, the nightly 
 orgies of the plotters. As an illustration of the econo- 
 mical effect of the extinction of Irish independence, I 
 may mention that the house alluded to. which cost my 
 father 8,000 in the year 1791, was sold, the year after 
 the Union, as a part of his personal property, for 2,500. 
 Although still in the best and most fashionable quarter 
 of Dublin, it would not now, in all probability, fetch the 
 odd 500. It is at present occupied by the Ecclesias- 
 tical Commissioners. 
 
 My course through the University was not free from 
 storms ; a strong antagonism then existing between the 
 youthful patriotism of many of the students, and the 
 bigotry and servility of the heads of the society. Among 
 the latter, my tutor, Dr. Elrington, afterwards Bishop of 
 Ferns, was remarkable. He was a learned man, but 
 stupid and blockish, and thoroughly imbued with the 
 narrowest bigotries of his class and position. It was he 
 who accomplished the suppression of the Historical 
 Society, then obnoxious to all who dreaded progression, 
 as a nursery of genius and patriotism, and as opening a 
 common field whereon the rising generation of Irishmen 
 were learning mutual respect for each other and, in the 
 generous rivalry of their young ambition, beginning to 
 forget those vain jealousies and discords of creed and 
 caste, whereby, alone, the common oppressors of all 
 have, for so long and dreary a period, borne rule in the 
 land. It is with many strangely-mingled feelings of 
 pride and humiliation, of pleasure and sadness, that I 
 call to my recollection, after the lapse of half a century,
 
 SWITZERLAND. 7 
 
 the games and the athletes of that celebrated arena. 
 The former are now forgotten the latter have, with 
 scarcely an exception, passed from the scene. I will 
 only mention one, and that among the latest surviving 
 of the friendships which I formed at the Historical So- 
 ciety, as affording no bad illustration of its operation 
 upon society at large in Ireland and of the mutual 
 influence of civilization and kindness it was calculated to 
 extend over classes that now have no common meeting- 
 place. The person to whom I allude was the late Ed- 
 ward Lawson, of the Irish bar. He was the son of a 
 glazier ; but, in the republic of the Historical Society, he 
 became one of the most distinguished and respected 
 chiefs. Between him and me an intimacy then began, 
 in the continuance of which, I am happy to say, I was 
 enabled long afterwards to secure a provision for his 
 declining years. The instance is, perhaps, not worth 
 much ; but, in recording it. my design is to mark my 
 regret that there should now be left in Ireland so few 
 points of union between the multiplied grades, classes, 
 and castes of her children. 
 
 Shortly after leaving College I went to Switzerland, 
 in the year 1792, and remained there about two years. 
 While in that country I resided first at Neufchatel, 
 en pension in the family of a Protestant clergyman 
 named Meuron, and subsequently in a hired villa at Lau- 
 sanne. There were a good many English at that time 
 in Switzerland, with most of whom I made acquaintance, 
 which, in some instances, ripened into permanent friend- 
 ship. Among those whose names I can now call to mind 
 were the present Earl Digby (then Lord Coleshill), with 
 whom I lived in the same house ; His Iloyal Highness 
 the Duke of Sussex, Lord Boringdon (afterwards Earl 
 Morley), Lord Morpeth (father to the present Earl of 
 Carlisle), the Duchesses of Devonshire and Ancaster, 
 Lord Carmarthen (afterwards Duke of Leeds), Lord 
 Cholmondely, and Mr. afterwards Earl Annesley. In 
 this society, and that of the best of the native families,
 
 8 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 time passed pleasantly. We had constant excursions 
 and social meetings, and among the latter not the least 
 agreeable were the Sunday parties of Madame Perou, 
 the wife of the intimate friend and executor of Voltaire. 
 During the period of my residence at Neufchatel, it was 
 visited by Mr. Beckford, the well-known author of 
 " Vathek," who made his journey in a style that would 
 astonish the princes of the present degenerate days. His 
 travelling menage consisted of about thirty horses, with 
 four carriages, and a corresponding train of servants. 
 Immediately upon his arrival, Mr. Beckford set up a fine 
 yacht upon the lake, and, by his munificent hospitality, 
 soon ingratiated himself with the young Englishmen of 
 rank whose names I have mentioned. The friendship, 
 however, was not of long endurance : in the course of a 
 few weeks, letters came from England to Captain Arbuth- 
 not (Lord Coleshill's tutor), as the result of which our 
 visits to Mr. Beckford ceased. 
 
 My sojourn, during those years, in Switzerland, was 
 attended with circumstances which, no doubt, consider- 
 ably modified the future events of my life. 1 left Ireland 
 with a mind freely sown with the seeds of love of coun- 
 try and nationality and hatred of the oppressions imposed 
 upon the Irish masses by the oligarchy into whose hands 
 the legislative power had fallen. These seeds had begun 
 to germinate under the culture of the Historical Society; 
 their growth was not smothered at Neufchatel, Geneva, 
 and Lausanne. In addition to the English society in 
 which I mixed in those places, I met many officers 
 of the Irish Brigade,* who had been forced to emigrate 
 from France, and many French patriots of the parties 
 beaten in the struggles of the Revolution, then in the 
 
 * There could not be a better example of the physical advantages of 
 crossing blood, than was afforded by those gentlemen. They were 
 generally the offspring of Irish fathers and French mothers, and were 
 the finest models of men I ever recollect to have seen. Morally, I 
 regret to be obliged to say, they were fashioned somewhat too closely, 
 in certain particulars, in the likeness of the two nations. Brave, 
 spirited, and generous, they were also reckless, dissipated, and profuse.
 
 AMENITIES OF WAR. 9 
 
 height of its most feverish paroxysm. The former of 
 these, though sufferers in the cause of royalty, and aris- 
 tocrats by nature and habits, had yet the tale to tell of 
 their fathers' expulsion from their country for opinion's 
 sake; the latter were glowing with the ardour of their 
 recent contests with tyranny and despotism. Surrounded 
 by such society, it was natural that my thoughts should 
 dwell upon the rights of men, the abuses of party domi- 
 nation, and especially of that form of the latter which 
 had so long held Ireland back in the progress of civiliza- 
 tion. Thus my residence in Switzerland sent me home 
 to Ireland more Irish than ever ; I lamented her fate, 
 ardently desired to be able to aid in ameliorating it, and 
 became filled with a passionate love of country, which 
 neither persecutions, nor disappointments, nor even the 
 efflux of time, have, I am happy to say, rooted out of my 
 heart. 
 
 In the peculiar condition of Europe, and especially of 
 Switzerland (as a neutral state), that country was the 
 scene of many strange occurrences during the period of 
 my visit. I have just referred to the incongruous mixture 
 of society in the Swiss towns, where English people of 
 fortune and rank, and the double exiles of the Irish 
 Brigade ; French royalist emigres, and repudiated revo- 
 lutionary patriots were huddled together in extraordinary 
 but not uninteresting confusion. Still stranger conjunc- 
 tions also frequently took place. At Basle, in 1793, I 
 remember to have frequently profited in the increase of 
 my amusements, by the amenities of civilized war. The 
 French under (I think) Hoche were encamped upon one 
 bank of the Rhine, and the Austrians upon the other ; but 
 the officers of both armies frequently met, on the most 
 friendly terms, upon the neutral ground of the coffee- 
 houses and hotels of Basle, and especially round the 
 table d'hote of Les Trois Rois, the balcony of which 
 stretching over the Rhine gave the guests an opportunity 
 of catching their own fish for dinner. It was also a 
 common pastime with us to lounge in boats upon the 
 
 B 3
 
 10 PAT LATTINT. 
 
 river, while perhaps eight or ten bands from each camp 
 came down to the water's edge, upon the opposite 
 banks, and played, alternately, the Marseillaise, and O, 
 Richard ! O, mon roi I 
 
 The French officers were very courteous, inviting the 
 English whose acquaintance they made, to visit their 
 camp. I recollect availing myself of their civility, and 
 dining and spending a very pleasant day among them ; 
 not being influenced by the same sturdy John Bullism 
 as my late friend General Taylor who was then among 
 our party at Basle. He most loyally declined to accept 
 the republican invitation to dinner, when it was intimated 
 to him that it would be considered prudent as well as 
 polite for the guests to mount a tri-coloured cockade in 
 their hats for that special occasion. 
 
 The French camp was a splendid military spectacle, 
 although (as might, indeed, be inferred from the recom- 
 mendation respecting the cockade just referred to) the 
 discipline of the troops was better adapted for the field 
 of battle than for the cantonment. Immediately prior 
 to the period to which I refer, Le Beau Dillon, a well- 
 known Irish officer, who commanded that portion of the 
 Brigade that remained in the service of the revolutionary 
 government, was dragged out of his cabriolet and mur- 
 dered by the French soldiers, upon the suspicion of his 
 being influenced by royalist predilections. His aid-de- 
 camp, who was in the carriage with him at the time of 
 his murder, was my late worthy friend Pat Lattin, who 
 immediately afterwards resigned his commission, and 
 retired to his patrimonial estate of Morristown-Lattin, in 
 the county of Kildare, where he lived many years, the 
 centre of a circle of friends, whom he delighted by the 
 brilliancy of his wit and his eminent social qualities. 
 
 1 may here anticipate so far as to note that, some years 
 afterwards, I was able, through the influence of my friend, 
 Marshal Berthier, to procure from Napoleon permission 
 for Mr. Lattin to return to Paris and reside in a house, 
 of which he was the owner, in the Rue Trudon. This
 
 LAUSANNE. 11 
 
 was, at the time, esteemed a very great indulgence, as 
 all English subjects were then exposed to the most rigid 
 treatment in France. 
 
 Among my personal adventures at Lausanne was a 
 quarrel with a young Scotchman, named Bailey, upon 
 the subject of the comparative merits of our respective 
 countries, in the course of which words grew so high 
 that Bailey challenged me to mortal combat. However, 
 the Rev. Robert Fowler, afterwards Bishop of Ossory, 
 but then a young man just admitted into orders, happen- 
 ing to be present at the dispute, interfered, and it was 
 finally arranged that a duel ought not to take place, 
 under the circumstances, in a foreign country, between 
 British subjects. A good humoured apology was accord- 
 ingly arranged, and, the affair passing off with a laugh, 
 Bailey and 1 became excellent friends. 
 
 Mr. Fowler did not, however, always distinguish him- 
 self as a peacemaker, as I recollect him, upon one occa- 
 sion, to have been so excited at some revolutionary toast 
 proposed at a public table in Geneva, that he threw a 
 glass of wine at the head of the Frenchman who filled 
 the office of president a feat which ended in the whole 
 party spending the remainder of the night in a guard- 
 house. 
 
 Nor was this the only collision that occurred between 
 the future Bishop and the Genevese authorities, by whom, 
 I dare say, we were all voted to be very troublesome 
 visitors. The appearance of the spruce old magistrate, 
 with his solemn face and hands encased in a muff, is now 
 vividly present to my memory just as I saw him adjudi- 
 cating upon one of these occasions, in the matter of a 
 complaint brought against our party for infringing the 
 municipal law of Geneva, by galloping through the streets 
 to the endangerment of the lives and limbs of the good 
 citizens. It was clearly proved that Fowler and some 
 others had only trotted their horses ; but it was held 
 that an gros trot Anglais was equivalent to a gallop, and 
 so they were all fined ; while I escaped, although being
 
 12 LAUSANNE. 
 
 mounted upon a small Swiss pony I had really been 
 obliged to urge my steed into a canter in order to enable 
 me to keep up with my companions. 
 
 During my residence in JSeufchatel, Fowler and I made 
 an excursion to Berne, he to christen and I to stand 
 sponsor for a daughter of Lord Robert Fitzgerald, a lady 
 who afterwards became the wife of my friend the French 
 General, De Gaja. We did not trouble ourselves about 
 passports, and accordingly were taken out of the diligence 
 at Ponthiel, where we were kept in durance until the 
 ensuing morning, and were then obliged to walk to 
 Berne in order to be in time for the christening. 
 
 In connexion with my residence in Switzerland, I have 
 found the following letter among some old papers, and I 
 print it partly as being a cotemporary (though slight) 
 tracing of the life that was passing ; but perhaps still 
 more as a record, pleasing to myself, of the feelings 
 which I then entertained towards a beloved and most 
 estimable parent : 
 
 The Hon. V. B. Lawless to the Lady Cloncurry. 
 
 Lausanne, June 30, 1793. 
 
 In the midst of the paii), both of body and of mind, with 
 which, spite of your virtues, God has been pleased to visit you, 
 you still have, dearest and best of mothers, showed more anxiety 
 for the well-being of me, to whom you not only gave life, but 
 whose health you have, by so many years of care and difficulty, 
 established, than for your own recovery, for which, if I did not 
 perpetually beseech the Almighty, I should be truly unworthy 
 of such a mother. How I wish for a letter, in which you will 
 yourself assure me of your perfect re-establishment, and how I 
 pray that, on my return to Ireland, I may see you stronger and 
 Lappier than when I left you. 
 
 Be not uneasy on my account, for your parting advice made 
 too strong an impression on me to suffer me to transgress; and 
 my situation is otherwise much better than I could, from my 
 circumstances, have expected. I hare got a pleasant little 
 lodging near the lake, about half a mile from town, with a little 
 garden of fruit and vegetables, which are much better thanr
 
 LAUSANNE. 13 
 
 meat during the present insufferable heats. I spend a good 
 while every day in the bath, and at night it is impossible to go 
 to bed, the whole air being on fire with perpetual flashes of 
 lightning. I am almost the only Englishman in Switzerland 
 that has not had a fever. I can't at present think of making 
 any tour, Meuron having so completely fleeced me before I left 
 him, that I came off a third poorer than I expected. 
 
 I hope I shall be able to clothe and feed myself without 
 running in debt a thing I have not as yet done, though it is 
 much the fashion here. Mr. Annesley, who my lord said had 
 but 300 per annum, has 600, half from his father, and half 
 from his uncle, yet he owes upwards of .200 in this town, 
 without having ever travelled. I had already told you that 
 400 a-year would be enough for me whilst not travelling, and 
 so it will; but for this I shall not be able to take one or two 
 masters I would wish for. One of them is a Mr. Mortimer, an 
 Englishman, acknowledged the best master in Europe for 
 finances, eloquence, and modern history. 'Twas he that taught 
 Isaac Corry. He now gives lessons to Lord Morpeth, Lord 
 Carlisle's son, who is my neighbour, and a very accomplished, 
 agreeable young man; and also Mr. Annesley, who, I am afraid, 
 will not profit much. He costs a louis per week : when I am a 
 little richer I shall take him. Otherwise Lausanne is a pleasant 
 town, for you can have as much society as you please without 
 being intruded on. Savoy, which is at the other side of the 
 lake, is full of French, who often fire on boats going by. We 
 have the English and all other newspapers here, but they con- 
 tain nothing new. 
 
 Farewell, dear, dear mother; may God strengthen, and bless, 
 and reward you, for your goodness and kindness to me. 
 Your ever truly affectionate and dutiful son, 
 
 V. B. LAWLESS.
 
 14 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1795. 
 
 Ireland in 1795 My Father's Settlement in France Honours of the Church 
 there His Return to Ireland Position of the Catholics An Octogenarian 
 Student Objects of the Irish Patriots after '82 The French Invasion 
 Progress of Ireland Hopes and Desires of the People Parliamentary Re- 
 form The Emancipated Irish Legislature Traffic in Corruption Efforts 
 of the Patriots Lord Strangford's Pension The United Irishmen Catholic 
 Emancipation Protestant Liberality Humility of the Catholics The Fatal 
 Enfranchisement of 1793 Establishment of Religious Discord. 
 
 IMBUED with such feelings as I have described in the 
 last chapter, I returned to Ireland in the year 1795, and 
 entered at once into manhood and what I may perhaps 
 call my national life. Before, however, proceeding with 
 my reminiscences of succeeding events, I will pause for a 
 moment to call to mind the actual position of the country 
 and of myself at that period. 
 
 My father, who was born about the termination of the 
 first third of the eighteenth century, was one of the 
 many Irish Roman Catholics who sought, in foreign 
 countries, for liberty to enjoy those privileges of property 
 and talent from which they were debarred in their native 
 land. Very early in life he settled in France, upon a 
 considerable estate which he purchased at Galville, near 
 Rouen ; and there my elder sisters were born. He was 
 not long, however, in finding out that they did not order 
 things much better in France than in Ireland ; and that 
 although he was there nominally equal to his neighbours, 
 in religious caste, still the Church made invidious dis- 
 tinctions in the distribution of her honours among the 
 faithful. My father, probably having previously experi- 
 enced more substantial annoyances, was finally so nettled 
 at the partiality shown by the Cure, in administering the 
 honours of the censer to a neighbouring seigneur (who,
 
 MY FATHER. 15 
 
 <is he thought, had no right to be incensed before him- 
 self) that he sold his estate and returned to Ireland where 
 he conformed to Protestantism, and became thereby 
 qualified to hold a territorial stake in the country. 
 
 So far, the French priest's nationality was a fortunate 
 matter for my father and his descendants. He found a 
 good market for his chateau and lands, the ownership of 
 which, fifteen years later, would, in all probability, have 
 cost him his head ; and he made a good investment of 
 the proceeds in his native country. His first possession 
 in Ireland was the estate and borough of Rathcormac, 
 in the county of Cork ; but this he subsequently sold 
 to the first Lord Riversdale, and bought the estates in 
 Limerick, Kildare, and Dublin, which still remain in the 
 family. To the active mind of my father, however, 
 neither the duties nor the rights of landed property 
 afforded sufficient occupation ; and he accordingly en- 
 tered, to a large extent, and with considerable success, 
 into the banking and woollen trades, in the first of which 
 he was conjoined with Patrick Lawless, father of the first 
 Countess of Clonmel, and John Dawson Coates, a member 
 of the Society of Friends. He also became a member of 
 the Irish House of Commons, was created a baronet in 
 1776, and removed to the House of Peers in 1789. 
 
 This short sketch of my father's career is, in fact, a 
 practical commentary upon the position of the Irish 
 nation during the latter half of the last century. By the 
 operation of the penal laws, the most energetic and intel- 
 ligent and even wealthy Irishmen, of the majority, were 
 driven into foreign lands, to seek a sphere for the em- 
 ployment of their activity and ability, and a field for the 
 secure enjoyment of the property they inherited, or which 
 those qualities enabled them to accumulate. Abroad they 
 became bitter foes to the dominant faction in their own 
 country ; or if they returned to the land of their birth, 
 it was either as partisans of their former oppressors, to 
 whom a hard necessity served to reconcile them ; or as 
 champions of the oppressed, from whose ranks they found
 
 16 POSITION OF THE CATHOLICS. 
 
 themselves so lucky as to have risen. My father, not- 
 withstanding the favours he obtained from the govern- 
 ment, enrolled himself from the outset in the latter 
 category ; and during his parliamentary career, voted on 
 most important questions upon the popular side. The 
 turn of his mind was certainly liberal by nature, although 
 he was often influenced by his intimate friends and near 
 neighbours, the first Earl of Clonmel, and John Lees 
 of the Post Office. Under their advice, and probably 
 swayed by a desire to serve me, who was, at the time, 
 imprisoned in the Tower, he voted for the Union ; but 
 in the earlier struggles by which the temporary inde- 
 pendence of Ireland was won, as well as in the contest for 
 parliamentary reform, by the failure of which it was sub- 
 sequently lost, he was to be found fighting in the ranks 
 of the patriots. 
 
 The tone of the circle of relatives and intimate 
 acquaintances with which I was then surrounded, was 
 pitched at the same key. My two grandfathers w r ere 
 Roman Catholics, and both smarted under the mortifi- 
 cation that must naturally be felt by the most kindly- 
 hearted men, when they find themselves debarred from 
 the reasonable enjoyment of advantages of wealth and 
 social standing, their claim to which they are not con- 
 scious of having forfeited by any personal shortcomings. 
 With one of these parents, then nearly eighty years old, 
 but in the full vigour of a green old age, I took up 
 housekeeping upon my return to Ireland in 1795, in a 
 small house in Merrion-row close to my father's residence ; 
 and a merry, hospitable house we kept : but in our late 
 sittings after dinner (which were then the fashion) we 
 seldom failed to have our political discussions, all tending 
 in the same direction. My grandfather was, of course, a 
 complainant ; and I well remember the cordial sincerity 
 with which he expressed his theory as to the primary 
 cause of division and discord among Irishmen and the 
 consequent retardation of national prosperity, in his con- 
 stant saying, " curtail the clergy."
 
 OBJECTS OF THE PATRIOTS. 17 
 
 My father's land-agent, Thomas Broughall,* and his 
 solicitor, Matt. Bowling, were still more active patriots 
 than my grandfather. They were both most zealous and 
 faithful servants and good friends of my father ; and so 
 I was naturally upon terms of such close intimacy with 
 them, as brought their sentiments and feelings into ope- 
 ration to confirm in my mind the opinions already 
 planted there, with regard to the condition and pros- 
 pects of my country. 
 
 Nevertheless, I am firmly convinced, that at the period 
 of which I speak, the liberal opposition which included 
 so great a majority of the Irish people, was altogether 
 untouched by treason. The men to whom I have re- 
 ferred and they were fair types of the mass were 
 influenced by a desire to improve their own condition, 
 to escape from bondage, by constitutional means, and by 
 these alone. They belonged to the moral force party of 
 that day ; and that party, I sincerely believe, included 
 in its ranks the vast majority of the nation ; nor was a 
 recourse to physical force or foreign aid thought of, 
 until desperation succeeded to hope in the public mind. 
 
 For the still higher purity of the motives of the Pro- 
 testant martyrs and champions in the cause of Irish 
 liberty, I can answer with equal confidence. Of my 
 dear friend, Edward Fitzgerald, of the Emmets, and of 
 Sampson, I can say, with not less certainty than of 
 Grattan, Curran, Arthur O'Connor, and the late Duke 
 of Leinster, that they were all, at the outset of their 
 career, actuated by the most earnest love of the British 
 constitution ; and that the truly patriotic object at which 
 they aimed, w r as nothing else than the extension to Ire- 
 land of those blessings and guarantees of liberty, civil 
 
 * Mr. Broughall was a man of great energy of mind and body. He 
 had been educated, in his youth, at Douay ; but feeling conscious of 
 some provincialism in his accent, he took advantage of the peace of 
 Amiens and went to Paris, when close upon his eightieth year, for the 
 express purpose of correcting his pronunciation of the French language. 
 Before he had made much progress, la yrippc interrupted his studies, 
 and carried him off.
 
 18 OBJECTS OF THE PATRIOTS. 
 
 and religious, the principles of which are engrained in 
 the texture of the constitutional monarchy of England. 
 If any of the excellent and single-hearted men whose 
 names I have mentioned, not counting the cost of thoir 
 enterprise, stepped out too boldly upon the foot-tracks 
 of the founders of that monarchy, the blame of ill suc- 
 cess and of wrong estimation of the value of the tools 
 with which they worked, must, indeed, be theirs ; but in 
 the merit of good intent, they must be permitted to 
 share, on equal terms, with their English predecessors of 
 1688; while the infamy of having driven sincere lovers 
 of their country from the position of parliamentary re- 
 formers to that of armed rebels, as equally lies upon the 
 ministers of George III., as upon the personal royalty of 
 James II. 
 
 Of the truth of these views of the actual position 
 and dispositions of Irish politicians at the close of the 
 eighteenth century, many incidents in my father's life 
 furnished no bad illustrations. He maintained a friendly 
 and respectful intercourse with the viceregal court, and 
 was upon terms of familiar intimacy with several viceroys, 
 among whom I may mention the Marquis of Buckingham 
 and the Earl of Westmoreland. With his sanction, I was 
 the chief promoter of the Bathdown Association, a volun- 
 tary organization of noblemen and gentlemen established 
 for the purpose of maintaining the public peace, and 
 protecting property in the populous district lying be- 
 tween Dublin and Bray a purpose then but little served 
 by the imperfect police of those days. I was also, at the 
 same time, an officer in a corps of yeoman cavalry* com- 
 manded by Colonel Corry, brother to the Chancellor of 
 the Irish Exchequer, and acted with them at the time of 
 the threatened French invasion, an incident connected 
 with which I may mention as further bearing out my 
 position. When the news of the landing at Bantry 
 reached Dublin, there was an encampment at Loughlins- 
 
 * I resigned my commission when the government began to employ 
 the yeomanry in visiting the houses of suspected persons.
 
 PROGRESS OF IRELAND. 19 
 
 town, in the county of Dublin, from which it was desired 
 to move the troops towards the seat of danger. The 
 desire, however, was not backed by the means. There 
 was not a farthing in the military chest. In this dilem- 
 ma, application was made to my father for aid, and by 
 an advance of 45,000 made by him, the government 
 was enabled to break up the camp, and march its occu- 
 pants southward.* 
 
 Treason or disloyalty, in the proper sense of those 
 terms, there was not then in Ireland ; but a general 
 feeling of dissatisfaction with the past there was, and 
 coupled with it a strong desire for national progress, 
 rendered active and impatient by the successes of '82 
 and by some degree of disappointment at the still incom- 
 plete development of that prosperity which was too san- 
 guinely looked for as the direct and immediate conse- 
 quence of political advancement. That an immense 
 
 * The movement was made so suddenly, that there was not time to 
 bury the body of a paymaster of one of the regiments, who shot him- 
 self on the morning of the breaking up of the camp, in consequence of 
 the discovery of a defalcation in his accounts. The body was locked 
 up in the hut occupied by the unfortunate man during life, and upon 
 the return of the troops from the south, it was found to have been 
 completely anatomized by rats. Nothing but the skeleton remained. 
 The weather at the time of the march was very inclement, so much so 
 that I recollect hearing of the men in a Highland regiment having their 
 legs severely cut by the frozen borders of their kilts ; and in connexion 
 with this circumstance it is worthy of remark, as showing the state of 
 feeling then existing between the people and the troops, that the latter 
 received shelter everywhere along the line of road, and were hospitably 
 entertained as well in the peasants' cabins as in the houses of the 
 gentry. Archbishop Agar, in his palace at Cashel, was said to have 
 been the only individual who closed a 'door against them. 
 
 While alluding to the Loughlinstown camp, I may as well mention 
 my recollection of it. It was situated on a fine piece of ground lying 
 between Brennanstown and Loughlinstown, at a short distance from the 
 Bray road, from which it was divided by a little valley. The line of 
 huts of which it was composed were extended along the brow of a 
 gentle declivity, and formed a very picturesque object. They were 
 occupied by several regiments, both of the line and mililia, the officers 
 of which kept very gay messes, giving frequent balls and dinners, at 
 which I was often a guest. Upon the occasion of one of these, given 
 in the month of July, I remember the singular occurrence of a hail 
 storm so heavy that ice sufficient to cool the wine and refreshments 
 was collected from the roofs of the huts.
 
 20 HOPES OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 progress in material prosperity did take place during 
 the eighteen years that preceded the Union, is a fact 
 now rendered but too striking by the depression that 
 succeeded that fatal measure, and that has permanently 
 kept down the country during half a century ; but the 
 " before and after" of the political courtship were not 
 then visible to the people ; and not knowing how mise~ 
 rable a contrast was soon to be opposed to their existing 
 state, men, feeling within them a new sense of power, 
 became discontented that its products did not come to 
 use more promptly, and in greater abundance. Having 
 acquired freedom of trade, our merchants and manufac- 
 turers thought they should at once see Liverpools, 
 Bristols, and Manchesters springing up in the land ; they 
 forgot by how slow degrees and through how long an 
 enjoyment of the liberty of industry such results were 
 attained to in the sister kingdom. Then recurred the 
 idea of the Volunteers and their noble work ; and, 
 dazzled with the splendour of that victory, the people 
 looked for the improvement of their material condition 
 too much to political changes, and too little to the more 
 certain means of patient and farseeking industry. This 
 popular impatience for progress gave an important ad- 
 vantage to those who desired nothing less than either 
 the commercial prosperity or political advancement of 
 Ireland. English statesmen were enabled to point to it 
 as a proof that the nation was unfitted for self-govern- 
 ment ; that the extension of their franchises but served 
 to render them less reliant upon their own resources, 
 and more disposed to adopt political agitation as a trade. 
 The argument was used with skill and power, when the 
 destruction of Irish independence became the great 
 object of England. 
 
 By the higher classes of Irishmen, the same end the 
 political inhumation of their country was, by another 
 course, not less actively approached. When the legis- 
 lative freedom of the Irish parliament was established, 
 the more forward and farseeing of the patriots at once
 
 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 21 
 
 perceived that, unless the legislature was pure as well as 
 free, its independence could not endure. The English 
 minister must have the support of a majority in the Irish 
 as well as in the English House of Commons : it was not 
 to be expected that he would seek to secure this by 
 popular measures, if the easier alternative of command- 
 ing it by corruption should lie within his reach. That 
 alternative was provided for by the existence of upwards 
 of eighty patronage boroughs, and by the restriction of 
 the elective franchise to a minority of the people. To 
 new struggles for the enlargement of the constituent 
 body by the emancipation of the Roman Catholics and 
 for the reform of the representative system, the patriot 
 leaders, therefore, turned their arms as soon as they had 
 achieved the victory of '82. 
 
 " We moved," said Grattan, " a reform of parliament, 
 which should give a constitution to the people, and the 
 Catholic Emancipation, which- should give a people to 
 the constitution."* The movement was opposed by the 
 borough mongers, and it was these all-important ques- 
 tions that, during the ensuing eighteen years, divided 
 Irishmen, and ultimately rendered them up a weakened 
 and easy prey to their common enemy. The former 
 measure was obstinately and successfully resisted ; the 
 latter was partially conceded, but in such a manner as to 
 entail upon the country that mass of moral and physical 
 misery that now renders Ireland a spectacle to the 
 nations. Both the resistance and the concession actively 
 co-operated in bringing about the distractions of 1797, 
 and the disastrous rebellion of 1798, and as these events 
 materially influenced my own personal fortunes, I will 
 dwell a little longer upon their causes. 
 
 The first, in order, of the two causes of Irish discord 
 and ruin to which I refer, was the question of Parliamen- 
 tary Reform. "When it was pressed upon the considera- 
 tion of the House of Commons by the Convention of 
 
 * In his address to the citizens of Dublin, on retiring from Parlia- 
 ment in 1797.
 
 
 22 THE EMANCIPATED LEGISLATURE. 
 
 Volunteers in 1783, the zeal perhaps a little exceeding 
 discretion evinced by some members of that celebrated 
 body, and the caution perhaps much exceeding pru- 
 dence of others, created an occasion for difference of 
 opinion between many excellent Irishmen who, up to 
 that point, had stood shoulder to shoulder in the patriot 
 ranks. The appearance in the house, upon the cele- 
 brated night of the 29th November, 1783, of the advo- 
 cates of reform, in the uniform and arms which they wore 
 as delegates to the Convention, naturally alarmed many 
 men who, while they earnestly desired the independence 
 of their country, wished to seek it through the use of 
 those constitutional means whereby the recent victory 
 had been gained : 
 
 "Blessed," said Mr. Yelverton, " with a free trade and a free 
 constitution our peers restored to their rights and to their 
 lawful authority our judges rendered independent the ma- 
 nacles fallen from our commons all foreign control abolished 
 we take our rank among nations as a free state. And is this 
 a time to alter that constitution, which has endured so many 
 storms, and risen superior to all oppression 1 Will the armed 
 associations, wise as they may be, be able to form a better 
 though they reject this 1 Before they have for a single session 
 entered into the enjoyment of it, like children, they throw away 
 the bauble for which, with all the eagerness of an infantine 
 caprice, they have struggled ; or, like spendthrifts, they would 
 make away with their inheritance before they enter into pos- 
 session of it." 
 
 The borough proprietors gladly availed themselves of 
 such help as was afforded in this argument, and of such 
 defenders as Yelverton, and Daly, and Conolly, and that 
 night the fatal blow was inflicted upon the independence 
 of Ireland by the unanimous adoption, by Lords and 
 Commons, of an address to the crown, declaring "perfect 
 satisfaction in our present happy constitution." 
 
 The Irish legislature, at that time, consisted of a 
 House of Lords, of which fifty-three peers nominated 
 one hundred and twenty-three members of the other
 
 TRAFFIC IN CORRUPTION. 23 
 
 branch ; and of a House of Commons of three hundred 
 so-called representatives of the people, scarcely one- 
 third of whom were freely and fairly returned hy popu- 
 lar election. That such a body should have achieved so 
 much as they did in '82, was truly wonderful; but that 
 they should feel perfect satisfaction with their own share 
 in the benefits of that achievement, was only natural. 
 They had indeed vindicated freedom of trade and judi- 
 cial independence for the masses of their fellow-country- 
 men, but they had also secured for themselves a mono- 
 poly of the pleasures and profits of legislative power. 
 Even at that early period that monopoly had begun to 
 bear golden fruits for its owners. Possessing an uncon- 
 trolled power of using the public purse, the Irish govern- 
 ment had set themselves to counterwork the popular 
 progress of the past year, by an extension of the system 
 of corruption which, a few years previously, was in such 
 active operation as to warrant an attorney-general in 
 avowing that a single address of thanks to Lord Towns- 
 hend, had cost the nation half a million of money.* The 
 parliamentary vote-market was, in short, opened with 
 spirit, and as the House of Commons had bought their 
 country, and the House of Peers had sold it, and as 
 both meant to pursue the infamous traffic, with activity 
 increased in proportion to the increased value of the 
 subject of their bargains, they felt "perfect satisfaction" 
 in the happy constitution that made them the masters of 
 so prosperous a commerce. 
 
 Very different, however, were the feelings of the peo- 
 ple ; and the proceedings prior to the attainment of the 
 political and commercial independence of Ireland having 
 been the means of training them in a course of agitation, 
 and having also inspired them with confidence in the 
 success of popular exertion, the satisfaction of their 
 quasi representatives with the existing state of things, 
 
 * This infamous avowal was made in the House of Commons on the 
 25th of February, 1789, upon the occasion of Mr. Grattan's motion for 
 a short supply.
 
 24 EFFORTS OF THE PATRIOTS. 
 
 but served to render them more anxious for a change. 
 Accordingly, the parliamentary proceedings in 1783, to 
 which I have alluded, only stimulated the zeal of the 
 Reformers, and they continued, during the ensuing two 
 years, to agitate the suhject of the purification of the 
 legislature, through the medium of public meetings, con- 
 ventions, and congresses, all of which movements were 
 met by the government by increased restrictions on 
 freedom the steps necessary to the obtaining of each 
 new coercive law being, in every case, an advance in the 
 career of parliamentary corruption. Nevertheless, it was 
 not until the crisis of the plague of venality and bribery 
 was reached in 1791, that the people appeared to have 
 abandoned the hope of succeeding in their object by 
 strictly constitutional methods. In that year Mr. Grattan 
 made his splendid but fruitless effort, upon the " Res- 
 ponsibility Bill ;" and a vigorous struggle against the 
 increase of ministerial influence and corruption, begun 
 by him on the first night of the session, was energetically 
 carried on by Messrs. George Ponsonby, Conolly, and 
 Forbes ; and by Lord Portarlington and the Duke of 
 Leinster in the House of Lords. But the war was waged 
 with unequal forces : on the one side, indeed, was the 
 noblest patriotism, backed by the most brilliant genius ; 
 on the other, the purse of the nation, and the power of 
 the minister to open it to the servile partisan and to 
 close it against the justest claims of the patriot, whom 
 his conscience pressed more closely than his poverty. 
 
 In the same year, 1791, Mr. Grattan also moved an 
 amendment to the address, deprecating " the great 
 increase of ministerial influence and corruption, and 
 requesting his Majesty to apply a remedy to the growing 
 evil, by abolishing unnecessary and burdensome places 
 and establishments." It was, however, rejected by a 
 large majority, as was a similar proposition brought 
 before the House of Lords by Lord Portarlington. My 
 excellent friend, however, again returned to the charge, 
 upon the occasion of the creation of two new Commis-
 
 LORD STRANGFORD'S PENSION. 25 
 
 eioners of the Revenue, when his motion for an address 
 to the King was seconded by Mr. Conolly, but rejected 
 by a majority of more than fifty votes. The pension-list 
 was next attacked by Mr. Forbes, who was also beaten. 
 Mr. George Ponsonby then came to the rescue, but with 
 no better success ; he, too, was defeated by a large 
 majority, on his motion to represent to his Majesty " that 
 his faithful Commons having taken into consideration the 
 growth of public expense in the last year, could not but 
 observe many new and increased salaries annexed to 
 offices granted to members of that house, no fewer in 
 number than fourteen; that so rapid an increase of 
 places, together with the number of additional pensions, 
 could not but alarm the house, and though they could 
 never entertain a doubt of his Majesty's affection and 
 regard for his loyal kingdom of Ireland, yet they feared 
 that his Majesty's servants may, by misinformation, so 
 far have abused his Majesty's confidence, as to have 
 advised such measures for the purpose of increasing 
 influence." 
 
 But a climax was set upon the fabric of corruption by 
 the withdrawal of a pension of 400 a-year from Lord 
 Strangford, on account of certain independent votes 
 given by him in his place in parliament an event which 
 led to the proposal in the House of Lords, by the Duke 
 of Leinster, of the following remarkable resolution : 
 " Whereas the Lord Viscount Strangford has been de- 
 prived of a pension which, at the request of this house, 
 his Majesty was graciously pleased to grant him until an 
 adequate provision should be made for him in his own 
 line of profession : and whereas no cause has been sug- 
 gested or communicated to the noble lord for such mark 
 of his Majesty's displeasure : the house, therefore, has 
 every ground to believe, that the same had reference to 
 his conduct in parliament in the last sessions ; and declare 
 and resolve that the adviser of the measure acted dis- 
 respectfully to this house, unconstitutionally, and unduti- 
 fully to his Majesty." This motion was rejected by a 
 
 c
 
 26 CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 
 
 majority of twenty peers, and became the subject of a 
 manly protest, which was signed by the Duke of Leinster, 
 the Bishops of Cork and Clonfert, and by Lords Moira, 
 Arran, Farnham, Charlemont, and PortarUngton. 
 
 With these transactions of 1791 appear to have ended 
 the hopes of the people, that the desired object of re- 
 presentative reform could be attained by constitutional 
 efforts in parliament, and in that year, accordingly, the 
 Society of United Irishmen was originated ; conceived, 
 says Arthur O'Connor, in the memoir to government 
 signed by him and his fellow-prisoners, Thomas Addis 
 Emmett and Dr. M'Nevin, in " the idea of uniting both 
 sects (Catholics and Protestants) in pursuit of the same 
 objects, a repeal of the penal laws, and a reform, includ- 
 ing in itself an extension of the right of suffrage to 
 Catholics." Nothing beyond these objects was at first 
 thought of by the originators of that organization. 
 " During the whole existence of the Society of United 
 Irishmen of Dublin" (I quote from the memoir just 
 referred to), " we may safely aver, to the best of our 
 knowledge and recollection, that no such object as 
 separation from England was ever agitated by its mem- 
 bers, either in public debate or private conversation ; 
 nor until the society had lasted a considerable time, 
 were any traces of republicanism to be met with there. 
 Its views were purely and in good faith what the test of 
 the society avows." 
 
 That test I took on becoming a United Irishman, before 
 the society was rendered illegal by a coercive statute. 
 It was then unaccompanied by any obligation to secrecy, 
 and bound the taker as follows : " To promote a union 
 of friendship between Irishmen of every religious per- 
 suasion, and to forward a full, fair, and adequate repre- 
 aentation of all the people in parliament." 
 
 Coincidently with the struggle for representative re- 
 form, that for the emancipation of the Roman Catholics 
 was ardently prosecuted by the Irish patriots, and (the 
 fact is a remarkable one) with infinitely more vigour and
 
 PROTESTANT LIBERALITY. 27 
 
 zeal by the Protestants than by those with whom they 
 proposed to share their exclusive privileges. Thus, while 
 the representatives of one hundred and forty-three corps 
 of Protestant volunteers at Dungannon resolved (with 
 two dissentient voices), " That they held the right of 
 private judgment in religion to be equally sacred in 
 others as in themselves, and that, therefore, as men and 
 as Irishmen, as Christians and as Protestants, they re- 
 joiced in the relaxation of the penal laws against their 
 Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and conceived the mea- 
 sure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to the 
 union and prosperity of the inhabitants of Ireland" 
 while these noble sentiments were expressed by the domi- 
 nant class, that which was oppressed declared through 
 their representatives in the general committee of Roman 
 Catholics, that they would be content with such maimed 
 and halting concessions as the following : 
 
 1. Admission to the profession and practice of the law. 
 
 2. Capacity to serve in county magistracies. 
 
 3. A right to be summoned and to serve on grand and petty 
 juries. 
 
 4. The right of voting in counties only for Protestant mem- 
 bers of parliament, in such a manner, however, as that a Roman 
 Catholic freeholder should not vote, unless he either rented and 
 cultivated a farm of twenty pounds per annum, in addition to hia 
 forty-shilling freehold, or else possessed a freehold of twenty 
 pounds a-year.* 
 
 Of this poverty of spirit among the Roman Catholics 
 the government did not fail to take advantage, and find- 
 ing that portion of the nation so willing to be made use 
 of, they determined to qualify it to be employed in the 
 work of corruption. In this spirit the Relief Bill of 1 793 
 was passed that fatal measure to which I have already 
 pointed as the ultimate cause of every succeeding cala- 
 mity of Ireland. By this act, the lower classes of Roman 
 
 * Resolutions entered into by the Roman Catholic Committee, on the 
 4th of February, 1792, upon the occasion of the introduction of Sir 
 Hercules Langrishe's Relief Bill. 
 
 c 2
 
 28 THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF '93. 
 
 Catholics were endowed with the elective franchise, while 
 the wealthier and more intelligent members of the body 
 were excluded from seats in either house of parliament. 
 The inevitable consequences of so mischievous an absur- 
 dity were clearly foreseen and predicted at the time by 
 many patriotic men. They were not developed in their 
 maturity until the visitation of the famine of 1846 vindi- 
 cated the paramount authority of the laws of nature, and 
 exhibited to the world a signal instance of retributive 
 punishment of their violators. 
 
 The concession of the forty-shilling franchise to the 
 Roman Catholics had the immediate effect of stimulating 
 to an extraordinary degree the progress of parliamentary 
 corruption. A new trade sprung up in the country ; men 
 speculated in the multiplication of forty-shilling free- 
 holders, as they ought to have done in the breeding of 
 sheep. The minister opened the national purse wider 
 and wider, and the Protestant squires strove for its con- 
 tents, each backed by as large a following of servile 
 voters as it was possible for his lands to maintain. In 
 the prosecution of such a slave-traffic, the productive 
 powers of the potato afforded invaluable aid. By the 
 use of no other species of food could so large a number 
 of human beings be raised upon so small an area of soil. 
 This was the consummation to be desired when every 
 adult male was a unit in the price of a peerage or 
 baronetcy, or equally available towards the purcbase of 
 the more substantial benefit of a well-endowed sinecure. 
 The potato was grown, and freeholders were bred until 
 the former wore out the soil, and the latter multiplied 
 from droves of useful and obedient slaves into swarms 
 of hungry, restless vermin. The wort of their destruc- 
 tion was then taken in hand with as little regard to 
 justice or mercy as was shown at their creation. The 
 forty-shilling franchise was abolished in 1829 ;* but the 
 
 /\ * It must not be forgotten that this reaction upon the measure of 
 1793, by which the accomplishment of its fatal effects was hastened, 
 was the work of Mr. O'Counell. The fortj -shilling freeholders of Clare
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGIOUS DISCORD. 29 
 
 forty-shilling freeholders remained to encumber the land, 
 and to torment, to the second and third generation, 
 those who called them into a miserable existence. The 
 laws of nature are immutable and inevitable ; the poli- 
 tical monopoly of 1793 contained within itself the ele- 
 ments of the dissipation of those unlawful gains, for the 
 accumulation of which it was devised. The substance of 
 many a lord and squire of high degree, made out of the 
 voices of his forty-shilling voters, has been eaten up 
 during the famine of 1846-9, by the mouths of the 
 children of those serfs whom his progenitors had chained 
 to the soil, in helpless dependence on the potato. 
 
 Thus, no sooner had the Irish legislature secured its 
 own independence of England than it sold itself again 
 to the English minister by private contract. The nation 
 witnessed the bargain, and striving to break it by the 
 agency of representative reform, the struggle divided 
 the people from the parliament. The latter, aided for 
 their destruction by the English government, sought to 
 strengthen themselves by again dividing the people : they 
 bought the Catholics with a niggard price, and having 
 once separated them from the grand national army, and 
 erected distinct standards for Catholic Emancipation and 
 for Reform, they rendered a new junction all but impos- 
 sible, by subsidizing the Protestants. By an exclusive 
 distribution among these of the public patronage, they 
 joined them to their own ranks as a mercenary body- 
 guard of corruption. The events of the rebellion of 1798 
 widened the breach between the two sets of religionists, 
 and the catastrophe of the miserable story was the Union, 
 the consummation of which, it must never be forgotten, 
 was the direct result of the religious discord, whose rise 
 and growth I have thus slightly sketched. 
 
 forced him into parliament, and thereby brought upon themselves the 
 vengeance of their former masters ; he assented to their political de- 
 struction (the forerunner of their personal annihilation) within a few 
 short months after the date of the Clare election.
 
 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 17951797- 
 
 Become a Student of the Middle Temple Hear of the Projected Union from 
 Mr. Pitt Consequent Essay in Pamphleteering London Acquaintance 
 John Macnamara Mr. Macnamara, the London Agent of Irish Politicians 
 His mode of Conducting the Business of his Agency His Sunday Parties 
 at Streatham John Home Tooke John Reeves Colonel Despard Pro- 
 gress of Irish Politics Become a Supporter of the " Press" and a United 
 Irishman Approaching Conflict of Parties Murder of Christopher Dixon > 
 Judge Toler's Charge at the Trial of the Murderer Kildare Petition In- 
 terference of the Government Correspondence with Secretary Pelham 
 "Withdrawal of the Patriot Members from Parliament Mr. Grattan's Ad- 
 dress Suspicions of the Government Correspondence with Under-Secre- 
 tary Cooke Lord Clonmel A hra Pleasura. 
 
 SHORTLY after my return from Switzerland, in 1795, I 
 entered as a student at the Middle Temple a step 
 which rendered it necessary for me to pay frequent 
 visits to London. During one of these, I happened to 
 meet Mr. Pitt at dinner, at the house of John Macna- 
 mara, in Baker-street; and there, for the first time, 
 heard of the contemplated project of a union between 
 Great Britain and Ireland. The news naturally acted 
 as a ferment upon my notions of patriotism and nation- 
 ality, the product of which was, the publication of a 
 pamphlet under the title of " Thoughts on the Pro- 
 jected Union." This brochure, which was published by 
 Moore of College-green, was, I dare say, of no great 
 intrinsic value ; but it was the first blow at the minis- 
 terial scheme, and was, therefore, honoured by a special 
 reply from the pen of Mr. Edward Cooke, then Under- 
 secretary of State for Ireland. My essay in literature, 
 as will be afterwards seen, cost me a heavy price. 
 
 My occasional sojourn in London, during the years of 
 my studentship at the Temple, brought me into contact
 
 MR. MACXAMARA. '31 
 
 with some remarkable men, of whom I must endeavour 
 to sketch a few traits. 
 
 Of one of these John Macnamara I have just men- 
 tioned the name. With him I had become acquainted 
 in Switzerland ; and upon meeting him again in London, 
 I found him noted as a high Tory politician, and upon 
 intimate terms with Mr. Pitt. He had, a few years 
 before, taken a very active part against Mr. Fox, in the 
 celebrated contest for the representation of Westminster, 
 in the course of which he got his skull fractured, and 
 was thus beaten into a sort of celebrity, that was much 
 increased by a horrible event, in which he was in some 
 degree an actor. I allude to the murder of Miss Kay, 
 a distinguished actress of the day, who was shot through 
 the head by a clergyman named Backfall, while leav- 
 ing the theatre, leaning upon the arm of John Macna- 
 mara. I have often heard him describe the scene (which 
 naturally made a great noise at the time) with frightful 
 distinctness the sudden assault of the assassin, the 
 instantaneous death of the victim, and the spattering of 
 the poor girl's brains over his own face, made a terrible 
 tale. 
 
 There was also among the notables of London of J^. 
 that day, another Macnamara, whose position was very 
 curiously illustrative of the state of society at the time, 
 and especially of the character of the relation that sub- 
 sisted between the two kingdoms. Mr. Macnamara, to 
 whom I now refer, notwithstanding the impediments of 
 being an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, was, in the 
 latter part of the last century, a very celebrated con- 
 veyancer in London ; and, from his position, upon terms 
 of the closest intimacy with the highest members of the 
 legal profession. He was also land-agent, or steward, 
 to the Duke of Bedford ; but the most extraordinary of 
 his occupations was that of London agent for political 
 affairs to several of the public men of Ireland. In that 
 capacity he was retained by Lord Clonmel, then Chief 
 Justice, at a regular salary of 400 a-year. He was, in
 
 32 MR. MACNAMARA. 
 
 like manner, bound to the service of several other Irish 
 politicians, by stipends fixed at various rates ; and even 
 my father, who was neither placeman nor placehunter, 
 constantly paid him 100 a-year. What his duties in 
 this strange employment were it would not be easy to 
 define : his commission was a general one to take care 
 of the interests of his employers at the Court, and to 
 keep them informed in reference to all political events 
 that might concern them individually, or the country. 
 To realize to one's mind, now-a-days, any conception of 
 the uses of so singular an office, one must first forget 
 the fact that thirteen hours now suffice for a journey to 
 London, which can be performed with scarcely as much 
 fatigue as would attend a ride of thirty miles ; and must 
 next call to memory the correlative fact that, at the 
 period of which I write, a dangerous and often tedious 
 sea passage, and a land journey of two or three days, 
 was to be got over, in accomplishing the same purpose. 
 Consequently, information which an Irish Chief Justice, 
 or peer, or even a placehunting barrister, could, at the 
 present time, get for himself, by running over to the 
 seat of government, at the cost of a few pounds and an 
 absence of three or four days, would, in the last century, 
 have been unattainable in time for use but for the ser- 
 vices of such an agent as Mr. Macnamara. Unfortunately 
 for Ireland, Irish politicians of this day enjoy a fatal 
 facility for absenteeism, of which they are but too ready 
 to avail themselves. 
 
 At the period of my early visits to London, Mr. 
 Macnamara's mode of conducting the business of his 
 agency was infinitely more interesting to me than the 
 nature of the business itself; and a strange mode it 
 was. His table was open to his Irish employers and 
 their connexions ; and at it was to be met the elite of 
 the London Society of the day. At his villa at Streatham, 
 near Croydon, where his hospitality shone out with the 
 greatest brilliancy, the larder was a sort of public curi- 
 osity, and was usually shown to his visitors as such. It
 
 JOHN HORNE TOOKE. 33 
 
 was always provisioned as for a siege, which, in fact, it 
 sustained every Sunday, when a large, and very often 
 a most agreeable dinner-party assembled. On these 
 occasions it was no unusual event for the Prince of 
 Wales to attend uninvited, as did also men of the 
 highest rank and note in both houses of parliament. 
 Having a general invitation, I was frequently a Sunday 
 guest at Streatham, and made many lasting acquaint- 
 anceships during those pleasant symposia, the agree- 
 ability of which was, however, sometimes diversified by 
 an afterpiece in the fashion of the time. Thus, I re- 
 member, upon one Sunday night, coming up just in 
 time to save Lord and Lady William Russell from being 
 rifled by highwaymen on Blackheath. They had left 
 Streatham before me, but I drove up, as it happened, 
 to their rescue about ten minutes after they had fallen 
 into the hands of some gentlemen of the road, who 
 took a hasty departure upon hearing the approach of 
 my carriage. Such events as this were of daily occur- 
 rence in the neighbourhood of London in those days, 
 and excited but little attention. 
 
 About this period, also, I became acquainted with 
 another and a much more remarkable man than Mac- 
 namara the celebrated John Home Tooke. My first 
 meeting with him was not an auspicious one, as we 
 commenced our knowledge of each other by a quarrel. 
 The occasion was a public dinner in commemoration of 
 some political event, at which, for what reason I know 
 not, I was asked to preside. After dinner, Home Tooke 
 (whether moved by an accidental fit of ill-humour, or 
 by displeasure at some part of my presidential conduct) 
 suddenly broke out into a violent attack upon me, which, 
 at the time, rather disturbed the harmony of the com- 
 pany, but ended in our becoming excellent friends. I 
 was afterwards in the frequent habit of dining with him, 
 at a cottage at Wimbledon Common, where he resided, 
 supporting himself chiefly, I believe, upon the produce 
 of his literary industry. These, too, were pleasant par- 
 
 c3
 
 34 
 
 JOHN REEVES. 
 
 ties. Among the guests were Sir Francis Burdett, a 
 Colonel Boswell, the two Perrys (one of them editor of 
 the Morning Chronicle), and sometimes Curran. 
 
 My reminiscences of those days would, indeed, be 
 very imperfect, if they did not include a recollection 
 of my excellent friend John Reeves, the author of a 
 " History of the Law of England ; " hut better known 
 as the object of prosecution by the House of Commons, 
 for the publication of ultra-Tory opinions. The corpus 
 delicti was a pamphlet, entitled " Thoughts on the 
 English Government," in which Mr. Reeves maintained, 
 that " with the exception of the advice and consent of 
 the two houses of parliament, and the interposition of 
 juries," the government of England is absolutely monar- 
 chical ; that it might go on, in all its functions, without 
 Lords and Commons ; resembling a stately tree, of which 
 the king is the stem, and the estates of parliament only 
 branches goodly, it is true, but which might be lopped 
 off, and the tree remain a tree still; " shorn, indeed, of its 
 honours, but not, like them cast into the fire." 
 
 This theory was, in the year 1 795, pronounced by the 
 House of Commons, at the instance of Mr. Sheridan, to 
 be a scandalous and seditious libel; and poor John 
 Reeves was accordingly prosecuted by the Attorney- 
 General, brought to trial, and acquitted. 
 
 It was not, however, in the power of prosecution or 
 persecution to beat an idea out of John Reeves' head ; 
 and, accordingly, he held by his theory to the last, with 
 as much constancy as Voltaire's Optimist. To the day 
 of his death he continued to seal his letters with an 
 impression of his emblem of the British constitution 
 a goodly oak, surmounted by the motto, " Quiet good 
 sense." One of these letters, so sealed, has just fallen 
 under my hand ; and though not chronologically in place 
 here, I will insert it, as illustrating the sentiments of a 
 man who was made the subject of a state prosecution 
 some five years prior to its date :
 
 JOHN REEVES. 35 
 
 John Reeves, Esq., to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 7th August, 1800. 
 
 My dear Madam I have the honour of your letter, and I am 
 very happy to be able to answer the main of your inquiry to 
 your satisfaction that is, your brother is in very good health. 
 Last time I was with him he borrowed some books of me 
 Gibbon and Clarendon. I own I rather persuaded him to have 
 Clarendon ; for Gibbon was the book he wanted. Clarendon's 
 history contains the origin of all our political and party ques- 
 tions ; they are there set in their true light, such as will ever 
 after be a guide in forming a judgment upon the merits of such 
 claims. 
 
 I saw in the paper the account of the Irish Parliament meet- 
 ing for the last time. I protest I am so much of an Irishman 
 as to sympathize in the feelings that most of those present must 
 have had. The Union may be believed to be a good measure; 
 but it is an experiment, and then the splendour and pride of a 
 parliament is gone for ever. These are natural feelings. We 
 are to hope it is for the best. I myself have no doubt about 
 it, except the doubt that must accompany all human attempts 
 at improvement. 
 
 Well, we are all one now; you and I are countryfolks; that 
 is, we shall be so on 1st January, 1801. As yet it is only an 
 espousal; the Union will be then. 
 
 I do not hear of Lady Clonmel: indeed I have not sent, 
 taking it for granted she would do me the favour to acquaint 
 me with her arrival. She was to be here on 1st August. 
 
 I say nothing to you upon the other inquiry you naturally 
 make about our friend; you, as well as he, must live in hope. 
 
 Pray make my best remembrance to your sisters, and to 
 Lady Clonmel, if she is still with you, and believe me, 
 My dear Madam, ever truly yours, 
 
 JOHN KEEVES. 
 
 In one respect John Reeves was himself an excellent 
 type of a despotic monarchy. He was the most noted 
 pluralist of the day ; uniting in his own person the 
 offices of Chief Justice of Newfoundland, of a Bow- 
 street Police Magistrate of London, of a Commissioner 
 of Bankrupts, of Secretary to the Board of Trade, of 
 King's Printer, and finally of prime mover of the Crown
 
 36 JOHN REEVES. 
 
 and Anchor Association for the Defence of Church and 
 State against all their enemies. The duties of these 
 various employments it was, of course, physically impos- 
 sible for any man to fulfil ; but the emoluments of them 
 were, no doubt, duly received, and were as duly invested 
 in the performance of many kind acts, and in the pur- 
 chase of a most extensive library, with which the houses 
 he occupied successively in Thanet-place, Cecil-street, 
 and Duke-street, literally overflowed. 
 
 The remembrance of Mr. Reeves suggests to my 
 memory another individual with whom he and I became 
 acquainted together, and whose name I am anxious to 
 contribute my aid to rescue from the load of opprobrium 
 placed upon it, as the coping of a series of misfortunes 
 and persecutions such as few men in latter times have 
 been made to suffer. I allude to the gallant and unfor- 
 tunate Colonel Despard. This gentleman, who was of 
 Irish birth, highly educated, and gifted with the most 
 fascinating manners, had commanded in the West Indies, 
 at Honduras, and on the coast of South America. In 
 the course of his service he was the companion and friend 
 of Nelson ; and during his co-operation with that cele- 
 brated officer, at the taking of Honduras, in his zeal for 
 the public cause, he advanced large sums of money from 
 his own resources, for the promotion of the operations 
 of the war. For this, as well as for his gallantry and 
 ability, he was thanked by parliament, but not repaid. 
 On his arrival in England, he naturally pressed his 
 claims for repayment upon the ministry ; and, irritated 
 by the delays and difficulties thrown in his way by 
 officials, he indulged in strong and angry expostulations, 
 which only had the effect of converting the apathy of 
 those persons into violent animosity. From the ill treat- 
 ment of the ministry, poor Despard appealed to the 
 House of Commons ; but his claims being supported by 
 the opposition, were the more certain of rejection, and 
 he was still left without redress. He then fell into pe- 
 cuniary difficulties, became excited to desperation, wrote
 
 COLONEL DESPARD. 37 
 
 violent letters to ministers, and, having joined the Lon- 
 don Corresponding Society, was taken up under the act 
 for suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus, and confined 
 in Coldbath Fields prison. His case was again brought 
 before parliament by Sir Francis Burdett and Mr. Dun- 
 das (not Pitt's friend) ; and then, for the first time, I 
 became acquainted with the circumstances. I had never 
 seen Colonel Despard ; but having been much affected 
 by reading the story of his oppressions and misfortunes, 
 as told in the discussion in the House of Commons, I got 
 my friend Mr. Reeves to accompany me, in his capacity 
 of a magistrate of Middlesex, on a visit to Coldbath 
 Fields. We found the colonel, who had served many 
 years in tropical climates, imprisoned in a stone cell, six 
 feet by eight, furnished with a truckle-bed and a small 
 table. There was no chair, no fireplace, no -window. 
 Scanty light was admitted into this miserable abode 
 through a barred but unglazed aperture over the door, 
 which opened directly into a paved yard, at the time 
 covered with snow. 
 
 Mr. Reeves, whose toryism never interfered with the 
 promptings of his kindly and benevolent heart, at once 
 took up Despard's case, and, by his influence with his 
 brother magistrates, he got him removed to an upper 
 room, provided with chairs and a fireplace, where his 
 wife was allowed to visit him, after a long separation. 
 She was a Spanish Creole, a remarkably fine woman, and 
 much younger than her husband, who then appeared to 
 be about sixty years of age. 
 
 I may as well now finish this episode of poor Despard's 
 history. From the winter of 1797 until the spring of 
 1801, I did not see him, and during most of that time I 
 believe he was in confinement. As I passed through 
 London, on my way to the Continent, in 1802, he called 
 to see me; but was then so wan and worn, that he 
 looked like a man risen from the grave. Of the unsound 
 state of his mind, the following anecdote may convey 
 some notion. In talking over the condition of Ireland,
 
 38 PROGRESS OF IRISH POLITICS. 
 
 he told me that though " he had not seen his country for 
 thirty years, he never ceased thinking of it and of its 
 misfortunes, and that a main object of his visit to me was 
 to disclose his discovery of an infallible remedy for the 
 latter viz., a voluntary separation of the sexes, so as 
 to leave no future generation obnoxious to oppression." 
 This plan of cure would, he said, defy the machinations 
 of the enemies of Ireland to interrupt its complete suc- 
 cess. 
 
 A year after this conversation, this poor madman 
 made mad by official persecution was executed for a 
 plot to take the Tower. 
 
 I was afterwards able to afford his wife an asylum from 
 destitution. She lived in my family at Lyons for some 
 years. 
 
 During the years from 1795 to 1 797 my time was passed 
 between London and Dublin, and as events progressed in 
 Ireland, I began to take a more active and decided part 
 in the angry politics of the day. The course of Irish 
 affairs was now down a steep decline, and I went rapidly 
 with it. My time was spent in the society of the leaders 
 of the popular movement of my beloved friend Edward 
 Fitzgerald, of Arthur O'Connor, the elder Emmett, 
 Sampson, Curran, Grattan, and George Ponsonby. I 
 joined in the support of the Press newspaper, then the 
 organ of reform and popular rights, and in the autumn 
 of 1797 was elected, though without my desire or even 
 knowledge, a member of the Executive Directory of the 
 United Irish Society, when, for the first and only time, 
 I attended a meeting of that body, held at Mr. Jackson's 
 in Church-street. 
 
 The conflict of parties was now rapidly drawing near, 
 and of the spirit in which it was to be conducted suffi- 
 cient indications were not wanting. The people disap- 
 pointed, as I have shown, in their protracted efforts to 
 obtain parliamentary reform, and a full relaxation of the 
 penal laws, had become impatient, and exhibited their 
 impatience in the usual mode, by local tumults and
 
 MURDER OF DIXON. 39 
 
 violence. These were met in the equally usual mode by 
 coercive laws. An Insurrection Act was passed; por- 
 tions of the country were proclaimed as being in a state 
 of disturbance, and declared to be under martial law ; 
 flying camps were established, and a curfew regulation 
 was enforced in the proclaimed districts. How these 
 measures worked will be illustrated by the facts of the 
 following little tragedy. 
 
 It happened that the barony of Carbery, in the county 
 of Kildare, was proclaimed under the Insurrection Act, 
 and a camp established in it, which was occupied by the 
 Fraser Fencibles. One evening, the commanding-officer, 
 a Captain Fraser, returning to camp from Maynooth, 
 where he had dined and drank freely, passed through a 
 district belonging to my father, which was very peace- 
 able and had not been included in the proclamation. 
 As Captain Fraser rode through the village of Cloncurry, 
 attended by an orderly dragoon, just as the summer sun 
 was setting, he saw an old man, named Christopher 
 Dixon, upon the roadside, engaged in mending his cart. 
 The captain challenged him for being out after sunset, in 
 contravention of the terms of the proclamation. Dixon 
 replied that he was not in a proclaimed district, and that 
 he was engaged in his lawful business, preparing his cart 
 to take a load to Dublin the following day. The captain 
 immediately made him prisoner, and placed him on 
 horseback behind his orderly. The party proceeded 
 about half a mile in this manner to a turnpike, where the 
 officer got into a quarrel with the gatekeeper, and some 
 delay took place, of which Dixon took advantage to beg 
 of the turnpike man to explain that the district in which 
 he was taken was not proclaimed, and that therefore there 
 was no just ground for his arrest. While the altercation 
 was proceeding, the poor old man (he was about eighty 
 years of age) slipped off from the dragoon's horse, and 
 was proceeding homewards, when the officer and soldier 
 followed him, and having despatched him with sixteen 
 dirk and sabre wounds, of which nine were declared to
 
 40 JUDGE TOLER'S CHARGE. 
 
 be mortal, they rode off to the camp. A coroner's 
 inquest was held on the body, and a verdict of wilful 
 murder returned ; whereupon Mr. Thomas Ryan, a ma- 
 gistrate, and the immediate landlord of Dixon under my 
 father, proceeded to the camp with a warrant for the 
 apprehension of Captain Fraser, who, however, was pro- 
 tected by his men, and Mr. Ryan was driven off. Mr. 
 Ryan applied to my father, who sent me with him to 
 Lord Carhampton, then commander-in-chief in Ireland. 
 We were accompanied by Colonel (afterwards General 
 Sir George) Cockburn ; and Mr. Ryan having produced 
 the warrant, and Colonel Cockburn having pointed out 
 the provision of the Mutiny Act bearing upon the case, 
 we formally demanded the body of Fraser, which his 
 Lordship refused to surrender. At the next assizes, 
 Captain Fraser marched into Athy, with a band playing 
 before him, and gave himself up for trial. The facts were 
 clearly proved ; but the sitting judge, Mr. Toler* (after- 
 wards Lord Norbury), instructed the jury that " Fraser 
 was a gallant officer, who had only made a mistake ; that 
 if Dixon was as good a man as he was represented to be, 
 it was well for him to be out of this wicked world ; but 
 if he was as bad as many others in the neighbourhood 
 (looking at me, who sat beside him on the bench), it was 
 well for the country to be quit of him." The captain 
 and his orderly were acquitted accordingly. 
 
 Such was the training of both peasant and soldier for 
 the bloody civil war of the ensuing year. In the mean- 
 time those among the higher classes, who yet hoped to 
 avert the dreadful calamity from their country, perse- 
 vered in their exertions to procure the necessary reforms 
 by constitutional means, while their opponents had 
 already begun, with mischievous energy, to agitate the 
 fatal project of a legislative union. I still took an active 
 part on the side of Ireland ; and, in conjunction with my 
 friends, Wogan Brown, of Castle Brown (now the Jesuit 
 
 * Mr. Toler was at the time (as well as my memory serres me) 
 Solicitor-General, but sitting as Judge of Assize.
 
 INTERFERENCE OF GOVERNMENT. 41 
 
 College of Clongowes), and Pat Lattin, whose name I 
 have already mentioned, I aided in preparing the Kil- 
 dare petition against the Union and in favour of Reform 
 and Catholic Emancipation, which was signed by several 
 hundreds of the first men of that county, including the 
 Duke of Leinster, Lord (then the Right Hon. William 
 Brabazon) Ponsonby, my father, and others of the prin- 
 cipal proprietors of the soil. 
 
 It is in connexion with this particular movement that 
 I find among my papers the earliest traces of a personal 
 collision between the government and myself. The 
 meeting, at which it was intended to propose the peti- 
 tion, had been called by the Duke of Leinster, the go- 
 vernor of the county (upon the refusal of the high 
 sheriff, Mr. Robert Latouche, to convene it), in com- 
 pliance with a requisition signed by several magistrates, 
 and was fixed for a certain day, when it became incident- 
 ally known that the government intended to prevent its 
 assembling. With that view they had concentrated a 
 large military force at Naas, and, oddly enough, had 
 placed it under the command of a brother of Arthur 
 O'Connor's, Major John O'Connor, who made known his 
 intention of striking a signal blow, should an occasion 
 be given him, " by the quarrelling of two dogs in the 
 streets of Naas," on the day of the proposed meeting. 
 The rumours of the design of the government led to the 
 making of a formal inquiry by Wogan Brown and myself, 
 to which we received the following answer : 
 
 TJie Right Hon. Thomas Pelham to Wogan Brown, Esq., and 
 the Hen. V. B. Lawless. 
 
 Dublin Castle, 25th May, 1797. 
 
 Sir Mr. Cooke having communicated to me that you and 
 Mr. Lawless had called upon him, stating that there was a re- 
 quisition signed by you and several magistrates of the county 
 of Kildare, for summoning a meeting of all the inhabitants of 
 that county, on Monday next, at Naas, to consider certain po- 
 litical subjects ; and that they understood that government had
 
 42 INTERFERENCE OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 issued orders to his Majesty's forces to disperse such a meeting; 
 and desiring to know whether such orders had been actually 
 given, as they did not wish to commit the county; I have laid 
 the communication before my Lord Lieutenant; and am directed 
 by his Excellency to point your attention to the proclamation 
 of the Lord Lieutenant and Council, wherein they have thought 
 it advisable, under the existing circumstances of the kingdom, 
 to forewarn all persons from meeting in any unusual numbers 
 under any pretence whatsoever; and also to the present state 
 of the county of Kildare, part of which is under the provisions 
 of the Insurrection Act, on account of the turbulence of the 
 inhabitants, and other parts of which have been disturbed by 
 treasonable associations and nocturnal outrages. I am also to 
 suggest to you, as a magistrate, the obvious impropriety and 
 danger of summoning all the inhabitants of the county to meet 
 in one place, at the present crisis; and in consequence of that 
 danger, I am directed to desire that you will use your influence 
 as a magistrate to prevent the said meeting, as hazardous to the 
 public peace ; and I am likewise to inform you that his Excel- 
 lency will give directions to his Majesty's forces to prevent an 
 assembly so unusual as that of all the inhabitants of a county, 
 especially where part of that county has been proclaimed to be 
 in a state of disturbance, and other parts of it much infested 
 with outrage; and when, for these reasons, the high sheriff of 
 the county, at the special desire of many most respectable noble- 
 men, magistrates, and gentlemen, has thought it his duty not to 
 summon a meeting of the county upon a requisition in which 
 your name appeared. 
 
 I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient, 
 
 T. PELHAM. 
 
 The Kildare petition was followed up by an aggregate 
 meeting, held at the Royal Exchange, for the considera- 
 tion of the same subjects, with especial reference to the 
 general election then at hand. At this meeting I pre- 
 sided; but before doing so, I took the precaution of 
 making myself acquainted with the intentions of the 
 government in regard to an interference with the right 
 of public assemblage of the people upon the occasion. 
 My inquiry produced the following costive reply :
 
 WITHDRAWAL OF THE PATRIOTS. 43 
 
 The Right Hon. Thomas Pelham to the Hon. V. E. Lawless. 
 
 Dublin Castle, 21st July, 1797. 
 
 Mr. Pelham presents his compliments to Mr. Lawless. He 
 has received the honour of his note. He is not aware that it 
 was necessary for him to inquire whether the freemen and free- 
 holders of the city of Dublin were entitled to exercise the rights 
 of election in the usual manner. 
 
 Leaders as well as followers now began to get wearied 
 with the protracted struggle against the venality and 
 corruption of parliament, and the memorable secession 
 of the popular members from the House of Commons 
 having been determined upon, I made one of a deputa- 
 tion (including Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Arthur 
 O'Connor), appointed to carry an address to Messrs. 
 Grattan, Curran, and George Ponsonby, requesting them 
 to discontinue the mischievous mockery of attending 
 parliament. The request was complied with, and the 
 compliance recorded by Mr. Grattan in the following 
 words, with which he concluded his speech upon Mr. 
 W. B. Ponsonby's motion for parliamentary reform : 
 
 We have offered you our measure you will reject it; we 
 deprecate yours you will persevere. Having no hopes left to 
 persuade or dissuade, and having discharged our duty, we shall 
 trouble you no more, and after this day shall not attend the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 A dissolution of parliament shortly afterwards took 
 place, when the same policy was pursued ; and I remem- 
 ber writing the addresses of Lord Edward Fitzgerald 
 and Mr. Henry of Straffan, declining to offer themselves 
 as candidates for the representation of Kildare. Upon 
 the same occasion my illustrious friend addressed an 
 eloquent and most instructive letter to the citizens of 
 Dublin, the concluding paragraphs of which I cannot 
 deny myself the pleasure of quoting, as containing a 
 short, but lucid, exposition of the creed of Irish politics 
 which I confessed to then, and which I confess to now, 
 after the added experience of half a century :
 
 44 WITHDRAWAL OF THE PATRIOTS. 
 
 May the Kingly Power that forms one estate in our constitu- 
 tion, continue for ever; but let it be as it professes to be, and 
 as by the principles and laws of these countries it should be, 
 one estate only; and not a power constituting one estate, 
 creating another, and influencing a third. 
 
 May the parliamentary constitution prosper; but let it bean 
 operative, independent, and integral part of the constitution, 
 advising, confining, and sometimes directing the kingly power. 
 
 May the House of Commons flourish ; but let the people be 
 the sole author of its existence, as they should be the great 
 object of its care. 
 
 May the connexion with Great Britain continue ; but let the 
 result of that connexion be, the perfect freedom, in the fairest 
 and fullest sense, of all descriptions of men, without distinction 
 of religion. 
 
 To this purpose we spoke; and speaking this to no purpose, 
 withdrew. It now remains to add this supplication However 
 it may please the Almighty to dispose of princes or parliaments, 
 MAY THE LIBERTIES OF THE PEOPLE BE IMMORTAL. 
 
 HENRY GRATTAN. 
 
 I have narrated, candidly and franldy, the story of my 
 connexion with the popular movements in Ireland, up to 
 the period to which I have now brought my remini- 
 scences. All the prominent events of that connexion 
 are specified in the foregoing pages, and were, in fact, 
 patent to the whole world at the time of their occur- 
 rence. It was not to be wondered at, that, at such a 
 crisis, proceedings like those I have detailed should have 
 attracted the notice of a government conscious of the 
 unstable tenure by which they held the country, and 
 filled with jealous fear of every stir that might endanger 
 the rupture of those bonds of corruption and venality of 
 which alone the elements of that tenure were composed. 
 I accordingly became an object of suspicion, and several 
 intimations were made to my father that the evil eye of 
 the government was upon me. Some of these warnings 
 came to my own ears, and were made the subject of 
 warm remonstrance with those whom I had reason to
 
 SUSPICIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 45 
 
 believe to be their authors. It is to a matter of the kind 
 that the following letters refer : 
 
 The Hon. V. B. Lawless to Edward Cooke, Esq. 
 
 Sir I waited on you at your office, to speak with you on 
 the subject of a conversation you bad with our friend Mr. Lees 
 concerning me. I am sorry, sir, you should think the inter- 
 vention of a third person necessary; and therefore, notwith- 
 standing the opinion I must form of any one thinking to 
 influence me by threats, I shall trouble yourself alone with my 
 sentiments on this business. 
 
 The enemies of the government in this country accuse it of 
 dividing and disuniting the people. I hope the charge is false 
 and invidious; but base as the measure would be, it would fall 
 far short of an attempt to sow disunion in a private family. 
 If, therefore, any step is taken to injure me in the mind of my 
 father, I must look on it as the act of an individual. My con- 
 duct and my thoughts have, at least, the merit of being open 
 and aboveboard, and I never concealed them from my father, 
 nor from any other person, and I shall always be forthcoming, 
 if government thinks proper to make further inquiry into 
 them. My father, who is one of the most independent men in 
 the country, has for years supported government, without the 
 smallest acknowledgment on their part. You know enough of 
 the warmth of his zeal to believe the disagreeable effects to me 
 a charge of disaffection or treason against me might have; I 
 therefore, sir, request and desire you may be cautious in your 
 conversations relative to, sir, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 V. B. LAWLESS. 
 
 Edward Cooke, Esq., to the Hon. V. JB. Lawless. 
 
 Castle, "Wednesday. 
 
 Dear Sir I am very sorry I was not fortunate enough to 
 see you when you called on me. You must feel assured that 
 what I mentioned to Lees was from regard and friendship to 
 you, as I was convinced you would be as safe in communication 
 with him as with me. As I had heard a report respecting 
 your name being used, I was, of course, afraid that a similar 
 report might come to others respecting you, and I wished there- 
 fore that you should have notice, lest any thing injurious to you
 
 46 LORD CLONMEL. 
 
 in any respect might happen. I beg leave to assure you very 
 sincerely and very unaffectedly, that I would be the last person 
 to injure you in the opinion of your father or any one, and 
 that I should be happy at all times to be of any service to you 
 in my power. When you have a quarter of an hour's leisure, 
 I should hope you would call upon me. Believe me, dear sir, 
 Your most faithful and humble servant, 
 
 E. GOOKE. 
 
 At last the urgent advice of my father's friend and 
 connexion, Lord Clonmel, prevailed with him, and he 
 insisted upon my going to London to keep my term at 
 the Temple, which I accordingly did, in November, 1797. 
 Upon that occasion I remember calling to take leave of 
 Lord Clonmel, who lived at Temple Hill, near my father's 
 villa of Maretimo, and I shall never forget the words of 
 our last conversation : " My dear Val.," said he, " I have 
 been a fortunate man in life. I am a chief justice and 
 an earl ; but believe me I would rather be beginning the 
 world as a young sweep." A fortunate man he certainly 
 was, and in nothing more so than in the period of his 
 death, which took place the day before the outbreak of 
 the Rebellion of 1798.* 
 
 * Lord Clonmel had a villa named Temple Hill, close to Seapoint, 
 which was made the scene of an ingenious stroke of vengeance by John 
 Magee, then printer of the Dublin Evening Post newspaper. Mr. Magee 
 had been tried before his Lordship for a seditious libel, and, as he 
 thought, was made the subject of undue severity on the part of the 
 bench. He certainly was subjected to a very rigorous imprisonment, 
 in efforts to alleviate the hardships of which I myself took an active 
 part, and with some success, but not sufficient to obliterate from the 
 prisoner's mind the obligations he thought himself under to the Chief 
 Justice. This debt weighed heavily upon his conscience, and no sooner 
 had his term of confinement expired, than he announced his intention 
 of clearing off all scores. Accordingly, he had advertisements posted 
 about the town, stating that he found himself the owner of a certain 
 sum (I think it was 14,000), 10,000 of which he had settled upon 
 his family, and the balance it was his intention, ' ' with the blessing of 
 God, to spend upon Lord Clonmel." In pursuance of this determination, 
 he invited all his fellow-citizens to a " bra pleasura, " to be held upon a 
 certain day in the fields immediately adjoining Temple Hill demesne. 
 I recollect attending upon the occasion, and the fete certainly was a 
 strange one. Several thousand people, including the entire disposable 
 mob of Dublin, of both sexes, assembled as the guests at an early hour
 
 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 17971798. 
 
 Take up my abode in London Irish Refugees Their Appeals to their Fellow- 
 countrymen The Free-quarters System The United Irish Club Its Ob- 
 jects and Members Duel with Mr. H ; Disclosures in the Castlereagh 
 
 Papers Manufacture of Treason Espionage St. Patrick's Dinner 
 O'Coigly Assist him in his Defence Arrested Simultaneous Arrest of 
 the Duke of Leinster, Mr. Curran, and Mr. Grattan Intentions of the 
 Government, as disclosed in the Castlereagh Papers Their Failure Ex- 
 amination before the Privy Council Liberatiou Letters ; from Lord 
 Cloncurry, from Miss C. Lawless Projected Marriage. 
 
 IN November, 1797, as I have already stated, I took up 
 my abode in London, under circumstances, which will be 
 understood by any Irishman, who, having a few pounds 
 in his pocket, or bearing a name known beyond his 
 domestic circle, may have had occasion to reside in a 
 foreign resort of his poorer countrymen. To such a 
 reader there will be no necessity to explain the opera- 
 tion upon myself and some other young Irishmen then 
 in London society, of the gregarious habits of our com- 
 patriots. We became a sort of centre of refuge for the 
 hosts of poor people driven from their homes by the 
 atrocious deeds of an army, described by its commander 
 as being "formidable to every one but the enemy." 
 
 in the morning, and proceeded to enjoy themselves in tents and booths 
 erected for the occasion. A variety of sports were arranged for their 
 amusement, such as climbing poles for prizes, running races in sacks, 
 grinning through horse-collars, and soforth, until at length, when the 
 crowd had attained its maximum density, towards the afternoon, the 
 grand scene of the day was produced. A number of active pigs, with 
 their tails shaved and soaped, were let loose, and it was announced that 
 each pig should become the property of any one who could catch and 
 hold it by the slippery member. A scene, impossible to describe, 
 immediately took place ; the pigs, frightened and hemmed in by the 
 crowd in all other directions, rushed through the hedge which then 
 separated the grounds of Temple Hill from the open fields ; forthwith 
 all their pursuers followed in a body, and, continuing their chase over 
 the shrubberies and parterres, soon revenged John Magee upon the 
 noble owner.
 
 48 THE FREE-QUARTERS SYSTEM. 
 
 Some of these refugees were evading the grasp of the 
 law ; many were merely flying from the persecutions to 
 which they were exposed under the Insurrection Act, 
 and free-quarters system. Of the working of the former 
 measure I have given an example in the story of Captain 
 Fraser and Dixon the eifect of the free-quarters system 
 upon " the discipline of the troops," is so tersely des- 
 cribed in a short letter from Lord Castlereagh to General 
 Lake, that I will take the liberty of quoting it : 
 
 Dublin Castle, April 25, 1798. 
 
 Sir It having been represented to his Excellency the Lord 
 Lieutenant, that much evil may arise to the discipline of the 
 troops from their being permitted, for any length of time, to 
 live at free quarters; that the loyal and well-affected have, in 
 many instances, suffered in common with the disaffected, from 
 a measure which does not admit, in its execution, of sufficient 
 discrimination of persons; I am directed by his Excellency to 
 request that you will advert to these inconveniences, and adopt 
 such other vigorous and effectual measures for enforcing the speedy 
 surrender of arms as in your discretion you shall think fit, and 
 which shall appear to you not liable to these objections. 
 I have the honour, &c., 
 
 CASTLEREAGH.* 
 
 This frozen intimation of the inconveniences which 
 " free quarters and pillage" occasioned to the troops and 
 the " loyal," will convey a notion of their operation upon 
 those whom Lord Castlereagh and the Ancient Britons, 
 or Fraser Fencibles thought fit to include in the class of 
 " disaifected." The practical effect was, as I have said, 
 to send crowds of poor houseless and starving creatures 
 out of the kingdom, many of whom made their way to 
 London, and when there, applied to any fellow-country- 
 man they could find out, for relief and protection. What- 
 ever may be the faults of Irishmen, a want of generosity 
 and good feeling towards each other when absent from 
 home, and even of forgetfulness, under such circum- 
 
 * Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, edited by his 
 Brother. Vol. i., p. 189.
 
 THE UNITED IRISH CLUB. 49 
 
 stances, of domestic feuds, is not one of them. Accord- 
 ingly, we who were able to give any assistance to the 
 refugees did what we could in that direction ; and in the 
 course of our work of charity a sort of club was formed, 
 the members of which were chiefly young Templars, and 
 which we called the " United Irish." This club was not, 
 however, affiliated with the United Irish Society of 
 Ireland; and. indeed, had the character rather of a 
 debating and convivial, than of a political body. It was 
 certainly neither illegal nor mischievous, although it 
 would appear, from some vague allusions in the Castle- 
 reagh letters recently published, to have been repre- 
 sented by the spies of the government in both one and 
 the other light. The best proof that there was no 
 foundation for any such representations was, neverthe- 
 less, afforded by the fact, that it was never made the 
 subject of legal proceedings.* 
 
 Among the persons thus associated, and with whom I 
 w T as then on terms of familiar intimacy, were Mr. Stewart, 
 of Acton, and Mr. Bonham, who were both, as I sincerely 
 believe, as well as myself, utterly unconscious of any 
 illegal design, or indeed of any design, except that of 
 relieving our poor and persecuted fellow-countrymen 
 who flocked around us, and of participating in such 
 social amusements as are customary among very young 
 men. We were all three, however, made to pay dearly 
 enough for our whistle. Little did we then think how 
 uneasy the pillows of ministers were made by our sub- 
 scriptions to relieve the destitution of Peter Finerty.f or 
 
 * I may mention a little incident, illustrative, in some degree, of the 
 character of this club. Some of its members had access to the news- 
 papers, and upon one occasion a notice of our festive proceedings 
 appeared in one of these. Some expressions, condemnatory of the 
 publication, fell from me at a subsequent meeting, which resulted in a 
 
 duel (the only one, 1 am happy to say, I ever fought) with Mr. H , 
 
 a member of the Irish bar, now no more. We met at Norwood, and 
 exchanged a couple of shots, but without doing any damage. 
 
 f Ex-printer of the Press a paper honoured by being burned by the 
 common hangman. When Peter Finerty was pilloried for a seditious 
 libel published in the Press, Arthur O'Connor stood beside Mm upon 
 the scaffold, and held an umbrella over his head.
 
 50 DISCLOSURES IN THE 
 
 what mighty peril was supposed to hang upon our occa- 
 sionally dropping into a singing club, at the close of an 
 evening spent in one of the theatres. With a proper 
 force of spies and detectives, however, it is not difficult 
 to manufacture treason, and accordingly I find it was 
 announced by Mr. Wickham (an under-secretary of state) 
 to Lord Castlereagh, on the 8th of June, 1798,* that 
 " His Majesty's confidential servants had found it neces- 
 sary to take into custody and detain" the Hon. Mr. L , 
 
 Mr. S. of Acton, and Messrs. A. C. and T. of the Temple ; 
 and that " the testimony of two gentlemen recommended 
 [sic in orig.^\ by Mr. Cooke," left no room for doubt " that 
 all these persons were more or less deeply implicated in 
 the treasonable conspiracy in Ireland : that they had all 
 knowledge of the connexion between the traitors in that 
 country and the French Directory, or its ministers, and 
 had given aid and countenance to the agents who have 
 at different times been sent over from one country to the 
 other." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that the Hon. Mr. L 
 
 was the writer of these reminiscences ; Mr. S. was Mr. 
 Stewart, of Acton, a gentleman of large fortune in the 
 !North of Ireland ; and Messrs. A. C. and T. were, I pre- 
 sume, Mr. Agar, a relative of the Archbishop of Dublin ; 
 Richard Curran, eldest son of the future Master of the 
 Rolls, and Mr. Trenor, who was, at the time, my friend 
 and private secretary. I can with certainty ansAver for 
 myself, and I believe with almost equal certainty for all 
 the others, that the testimony of Mr. Cooke's two gentle- 
 manly friends was altogether untrue ; that none of the 
 party were engaged in any correspondence with the 
 French Directory or its ministers, and that the only aid 
 and countenance we gave to any suspected persons was 
 limited to the charitable assistance to our poor fellow- 
 countrymen, to which I have alluded, or to the ordinary 
 social intercourse between acquaintances casually meeting 
 
 * Castlereagh Memoirs, vol. i., p. 216.
 
 CASTLEREAGH PAPERS. 51 
 
 in a strange place. To the particular event which was 
 fixed upon as the justification of my own arrest, I will 
 presently refer ; but it may be worth while, first, to point 
 out another specimen of treason manufacture. 
 
 In the report from the Committee of Secrecy of the 
 Irish House of Commons, it is stated that " The leading 
 members of the disaffected societies were in the habit of 
 frequenting an occasional meeting, which was held at a 
 cellar in FurnivaPs Inn, and was first formed for the 
 purpose of reading the libellous and treasonable publi- 
 cation called the Press." When a mysterious intima- 
 tion of my own offences against authority was made to 
 me by the Privy Council, my attendance upon the Furni- 
 val's Inn reunions was enlarged upon with indications of 
 grave censure the fact being, that the meetings referred 
 to (which, by the way, were not held in a cellar) were 
 nothing more than the promiscuous assemblages of a 
 free-and-easy singing club, into which I had strolled, 
 altogether not more than two or three times, on leaving 
 a theatre or other place of public resort. If the persons 
 present on these occasions were " members of disaffected 
 societies," I certainly did not know of it ; and if the 
 business transacted was treason, it was carefully wrapped 
 up in the jokes and ribaldry commonly said or sung in 
 such places, even, I presume, up to the present loyal 
 and moral age. There was enough, however, to furnish 
 Mr. Cooke's gentlemen with a theme for their testimony, 
 and I was accordingly enrolled upon the list of suspects. 
 That I was placed in that unenviable situation, was not 
 a secret to myself, as, in addition to the hints to which I 
 have already referred as having been given to my friends 
 in Ireland, I was informed, soon after my arrival in 
 London, that all my motions were carefully watched by 
 a policeman in disguise one of those respectable mem- 
 bers of society whom it is now the fashion to distinguish 
 by the title of "detectives." My kind informant was 
 Dr. Hussey, afterwards Roman Catholic Bishop of Water- 
 ford, but who had been private secretary to the Duke of 
 
 D 2
 
 52 ST. PATRICK'S DINNER. 
 
 Portland, and, at the time I speak of, was upon familiar 
 terms with his Grace, although employed, in his profes- 
 sion, as Chaplain to the Spanish Ambassador's Chapel in 
 Manchester-square. The information did not give me 
 much uneasiness, as I was not conscious of any crime 
 that could justly bring me within the grasp of the law ; 
 and, accordingly, the only effect it produced was a laugh 
 among my friends, when I excused myself for breaking 
 up a party on the plea -that it would be an act of un- 
 warrantable cruelty to keep " rny spy" longer exposed 
 to the night air, and that I must, therefore, relieve him 
 from duty, by allowing him to see me safe to my 
 chambers. 
 
 An incident occurred about this time, which I may 
 also mention, as it not only throws light upon the state 
 of party feeling and the heated intolerance of those 
 who assumed to themselves the exclusive character of 
 loyalty, but also shows that my intimate associates w.ere 
 not, at that time, so selected as to make me now blush 
 at the remembrance of my connexion with them. On 
 St. Patrick's Day, 1798, I happened to be so unwell 
 indeed confined to my chambers that I determined not 
 to attend the public dinner, at which Lord Moira (the 
 late Marquis Hastings) was to preside. On his way to 
 the dinner, his lordship called upon me, and induced me 
 to accompany him. In his carriage with us were my 
 intimate friends, William Moore (brother to the late 
 Earl of Mountcashel), and Thomas Moore the poet. I 
 chanced to sit among some acquaintances at the lower 
 end of the table ; and when the Queen's health was 
 proposed, owing to some accident, probably the bodily 
 indisposition under which I was suffering, I did not rise 
 to drink the toast with so much alacrity as would have 
 been pleasing to some red-hot loyalists who sat near. 
 As I was dressed in green (then a suspected colour), 
 my slowness in rising was, without delay, interpreted 
 into an intention of not rising at all ; and a cry of " turn 
 him out " was raised among my enthusiastic neighbours.
 
 O'COIGLY. 53 
 
 The cry, however, soon came to an end, when my friends 
 close to me among them were Somerset and Pierce 
 Butler, brothers of the late Earl of Kilkenny announced 
 that the operation of turning me out would assume a com- 
 plex character. The moment the uproar subsided, I went 
 up to Lord Moira, and explained to him my share in the 
 transaction, assuring him that I had not the slightest 
 intention of showing disrespect to the Queen ; and that 
 if I had, I would not choose an occasion for doing so, 
 when I must necessarily accompany the act with an insult 
 to himself, as the proposer of the toast. The explana- 
 tion was at once accepted as satisfactory ; but the occur- 
 rence was made the most of by the government-hack 
 journals of the day. 
 
 Early in 1798 (as well as I recollect, some time in the 
 month of February), I was waited upon by an Irish 
 priest, who brought me a letter of introduction from my 
 father's solicitor, Matt. Dowling,* whom I have already 
 mentioned. This person, who was one of the finest men 
 I ever saw, was the unfortunate O'Coigly, or Quigly; 
 and upon this occasion, for the first time, I met him or 
 knew of his existence. His story to me was, that he 
 was driven from Dundalk, by the persecutions of the 
 Orangemen of that town, and that he was now endeavour- 
 ing to get back to Douay, where he had been a Pro- 
 fessor in the University. This statement was confirmed 
 by Mr. Bowling's letter, with the addition that O'Coigly 
 was very poor, and in much need of pecuniary aid to 
 help him on his journey. I was, at the time, living 
 upon a very moderate allowance, and had but little 
 money to give away ; but I did what I could, and asked 
 my visitor to dine with me a request which he readily 
 complied with. At dinner, Arthur O'Connor was one 
 of the party ; and, so far as I know, he also then met 
 O'Coigly for the first time. As to what communications 
 
 * It may not be improper to mention here that Mr. Dowling was a 
 Protestant.
 
 54 O'COIGLY. 
 
 took place between them subsequently, I have no know- 
 ledge ; but they shortly afterwards left London together, 
 the priest having been invited (as I understood) to ac- 
 company Mr. O'Connor as his secretary, so far as their 
 roads lay together. They were arrested, with some 
 others, as is well known, at Whitstable, tried at Maid- 
 stone, and O'Coigly who alone of the party was con- 
 victed was hanged at Penenden Heath, on the 7th of 
 May, 1798. 
 
 It was my casual act of charity towards this unfor- 
 tunate man, which furnished the ostensible excuse for 
 my arrest and detention, referred to in Mr. Wickham's 
 letter from which I have already quoted. No sooner 
 was O'Coigly lodged in jail than he sent me an earnest 
 application for funds to enable him to carry on his 
 defence; to which I responded by employing, on his 
 behalf, Mr. Foulkes, an eminent solicitor, then living in 
 Hart-street, Bloomsbury, but to whom I was at the 
 time a perfect stranger; and guaranteeing to that gentle- 
 man the payment of his costs. To enable me to meet 
 this engagement, I applied to some friends for subscrip- 
 tions; and, amongst others, I wrote to Mr. Broughall, 
 my father's land-agent, who was, at the time, secretary 
 to the Irish Catholic Association, telling him that it was 
 incumbent upon his co-religionists to subscribe for the 
 relief of a member of their priesthood, and naming, as 
 one of those who had already handsomely contributed, 
 my late excellent friend, Mr. Henry, of Straffan.* Mr. 
 Broughall, who was a suspected person, was shortly 
 afterwards arrested at Dublin, and his papers having 
 been seized, my letter was found among them. The 
 immediate result was my capture, at my lodgings in St. 
 Alban's-street ; and the arrest, at the same time and 
 place, of the Duke of Leinster, John Philpot Curran, 
 and Henry Grattan, who happened at the moment to be 
 
 ' * Mr. Henry, in reply to my letter mentioning the case of O'Coigly, 
 enclosed me a check for 500, of which I retained 50, a sum equiva- 
 lent to my own subscription.
 
 INTENTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 55 
 
 visiting me. They were all, however, immediately libe- 
 rated; the only tangible charge against any of them 
 being the supposed applicability to Mr. Grattan, of the 
 words " little Henry," used in my letter to Broughall, 
 in reference to Mr. Henry, of Straffan. 
 
 Coincidently with my own arrest, my secretary, Mr. 
 Trenor, was also put into confinement ; and the hardships 
 he was exposed to brought on an illness which terminated, 
 not long afterwards, in his death. My Swiss servant, 
 Christian Serry, a most respectable man, who had come 
 to my father's service from that of the Duchess of Devon- 
 shire, and had lived in our family many years, was also 
 laid hold of, under the authority of the Alien Act, and 
 sent out of the country. He was never afterwards heard 
 of; but I had the satisfaction of placing his son in a 
 respectable position in life ; and, a few months since, of 
 enabling his grandson to seek his fortune in America, I 
 trust, under happy auspices. 
 
 My first imprisonment (in 1798) lasted about six weeks, 
 during which time I was confined at the house of a 
 king's messenger in Pimlico. I was taken before the 
 Privy Council several times, and questioned more majo- 
 rum, with a view to the inculpation of myself and others, 
 by Lord Loughborough, Mr. Pitt, and the Duke of Port- 
 land. That there was every disposition to discover or 
 invent a plausible excuse for delivering me over to the 
 " due course of law," as it was then mercifully adminis- 
 tered, was made manifest enough to me by the course 
 of this inquisitorial proceeding. The secret intention 
 of the inquisitors is described in the following passage 
 of the letter of the 8th June, 1798, from Mr. Wick- 
 ham to Lord Castlereagh, from which I have already 
 quoted : 
 
 It is evident, under tlie present circumstances (wrote Mr. 
 Wickham), and with the evidence of the nature of that of 
 which government here is at present in possession, strong and 
 decisive as it is, that none of these persons can be brought to
 
 56 INTENTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 trial, without exposing secrets of tbe last importance to the 
 state, the revealing of which may implicate the safety of the 
 two kingdoms. But as it is possible, in the course of the 
 discoveries which his Majesty's Government in Ireland has 
 been lately, and may still be, enabled to make, that something 
 may appear of a public nature that may tend directly to affect 
 some one or more of the prisoners, either in this country or in 
 Ireland, his Grace has no doubt that his Excellency will, in 
 either case, give directions that such evidence may be imme- 
 diately communicated to him, to the intent that each person 
 so affected by it may either be proceeded against in due course 
 of law, or removed to Ireland, to be tried in that country, in 
 case his Majesty's Government there shall think proper to 
 demand him, according to the nature of each offence, and the 
 country where it shall have been committed. There are some 
 papers found in Mr. L.'s possession that tend directly to show 
 his connexion with some of the most desperate of the repub- 
 lican party here, as well as with those who are in habitual 
 communication with the French agents at Hamburgh ; and his 
 Grace is in daily expectation of some material evidence from 
 that place tending more directly to implicate that gentleman 
 in a treasonable correspondence with the enemy. 
 
 That his Grace never obtained what he so anxiously 
 desired, is manifest from the sequel. The information 
 he sought so diligently he would, no doubt, have un- 
 scrupulously received ; and my only wonder, now that 
 the publication of the Castlereagh letters has shown 
 me, in full light, the pitfall over which I stood fifty 
 years ago, is, that some of Mr. Cooke's " gentlemen " 
 did not contrive to satisfy the longing of the noble 
 duke. With such good will to the work, his Grace and 
 his colleagues were, after all, but bungling manufac- 
 turers of treason, or they would have discovered in the 
 pockets of O'Coigly, or in the memories of the frequent- 
 ers of the Furnival's Inn " Free and Easy," enough to 
 have hung so desperate a traitor as myself. As to the 
 papers alleged by Mr. Wickham to have been found in 
 my possession, and " tending directly to show my cou-
 
 EXAMINATION BEFORE THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 57 
 
 nexion with some of the most desperate of the repub- 
 lican party " in London and Hamburgh, I now solemnly 
 declare, that I believe the statement to be a pure fic- 
 tion, and that no papers were found as I am most cer- 
 tain that, with my knowledge, no papers existed which 
 could have had any such tendency, more directly or in- 
 directly than, perhaps, a visiting ticket of Arthur O'Con- 
 nor's, or a note from O'Coigly in acceptance of my 
 invitation to dinner. 
 
 The questions put to me by the Privy Councillors, 
 whose names 1 have mentioned, were very numerous ; 
 but I refused to answer any of them, until, at the end 
 of six weeks, I was finally brought up, and told I should 
 be liberated. I then offered to answer any questions 
 that might be put to me, candidly and fully I had 
 nothing to conceal. Advantage was taken of this offer, 
 and I was asked what I knew of O'Coigly. I stated 
 how much and how, just as I have now recorded the 
 narrative of my intercourse with that unfortunate man. 
 I was then asked if I was acquainted with Mr. Bonham, 
 and had ever accompanied him to FurnivaPs Inn ; to 
 which I also replied fully. The question was then put 
 " Was I a United Irishman?" To which I answered 
 " I was, before any law was passed against that society." 
 At length Lord Loughborough closed the conference by 
 saying " Mr. Lawless, we believe you have been impru- 
 dent rather than criminal ; your father is very angry 
 with you for incurring our suspicions ; be careful in 
 future, and we will esteem you as we do him." 
 
 Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Portland also assured me 
 that " they were sorry for what had happened ; that 
 my good nature had led me astray ; but they had a 
 great regard for my fatherr and hoped we would be 
 good friends for the future ; " and so ended this first act 
 of my persecutions. One or two documents referring 
 to it, which I have found among my papers, I will here 
 introduce, as being corroborative of the testimony of my 
 own recollection : 
 
 D3
 
 58 LETTERS ; FROM MY FATHER AND SISTER. 
 
 Nicholas Lord Cloncurry to Lord Loughborough. 
 
 Dublin, 20th June, 1798. 
 
 My Lord I request you may receive my most sincere thanks 
 for the goodness and condescension your Lordship has shown to 
 my son, as I have been informed by a friend ; and in advising 
 my son, a young man who, I fear, had been led into great indis- 
 cretion, by the influence and example of persons with whom he 
 associated, several of whom, perhaps, highly respectable from 
 rank and connexion, but whose opinions on political subjects 
 are, in the present situation of the empire, very doubtful I 
 believe I may say dangerous and, as he well knew, extremely 
 opposite to the principles which I wish him to entertain. 
 
 I have the honour to be, with respect and gratitude, my 
 Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant, 
 
 CLONCURRY. 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to Lord 
 
 My Lord Having been apprized of Colonel Clavering's 
 truly kind effort to interest your Lordship for my brother, 
 Lord Cloncurry, and having seen your Lordship's obliging 
 answer, I feel most anxious, by the communication of every 
 information his friends could obtain, to remove, as far as pos- 
 sible, the difficulties which a politic mystery observed as to the 
 real cause of his confinement and the various reports indus- 
 triously circulated, must naturally oppose to the most earnest 
 intention to befriend him. 
 
 The memorial which mistaken but well-meant zeal troubled 
 your Lordship to present, without my brother's knowledge or 
 consent, could contain nothing but the general grievances of his 
 situation ; and I cannot think that any application of the kind 
 is likely to induce the Duke of Portland, &c., &c., to allow that 
 the warrant under which my brother is confined cannot be jus- 
 tified. I therefore request to intrude another memorial on your 
 Lordship's attention, which contains every thing relative to his 
 arrest and detention that could, with prudence, be made public; 
 
 * The title has been omitted in the copy, which is in my sister's 
 handwriting ; but I believe her correspondent to have been Lord Moira. 
 The letter bears internal evidence of having been written during my 
 second imprisonment, but as it traces the causes of niy persecutions 
 from the commencement, I insert it here.
 
 LETTER FROM MY SISTER. 59 
 
 and submit to your Lordship's consideration whether it, being 
 addressed immediately to the king, does not afford the best, the 
 only chance of redress. If such a measure is strictly proper, I 
 speak the wishes of all my brother's friends when I entreat your 
 Lordship to present it to his Majesty. There are passages in 
 this memorial not so explicit as I am desirous to be with you, 
 my Lord. Since my brother's arrest, I have, with the assist- 
 ance of friends, endeavoured to discover whether there was any 
 information, true or false, against him ; suspicion being all that 
 was alleged, and the supposed offence said in this country to 
 relate to the mutiny of the fleet, or to some offence his conduct 
 in London gave to English ministers; and in England, the result 
 of every inquiry was, that information was sent from this side 
 the water, and that being an United Irishman and implicated 
 in the rebellion, was imputed to him. Of the falsehood of the 
 last accusation there is not only the strongest proof, in his name 
 never having been mentioned in the secret reports or any of the 
 trials of this country, but upon an application I made to Lord 
 Cornwallis, he assured me, through his secretary, that he had 
 purposely caused to be examined the papers in the various 
 offices under him, and that I might be assured no official infor- 
 mation had gone from Ireland against my brother, which 
 directly contradicts an assertion Mr. Cooke made to me. As 
 to the egregious absurdity of his knowing any thing concerning 
 the mutiny of the fleet, it is not worth speaking of; he was not 
 above eighteen at the time. 
 
 I will now, my Lord, tell you, in the fullest confidence, what 
 I am as fully persuaded as of my existence, is the sole charge 
 that could be proved against him. Numbers of poor Irish, 
 whom he had not the means to assist, were in the habit of 
 soliciting relief from him in London. To assist them, and also 
 to furnish means of defence to some of his unfortunate country- 
 men persons who were to stand their trial in England, and 
 who he thought were unjustly accused he openly called on all 
 his acquaintance to subscribe; and never conceived it possible 
 that his doing so could meet the disapprobation of anybody, 
 much less that it could ever be deemed illegal. I understand, 
 however, it may be construed so. He undoubtedly gave offence, 
 also, by his interference in regard to Coldbath Fields, though 
 the measures adopted there since prove that he was in the 
 right, and by making public his sentiments on the Union. It 
 cannot be supposed, however, that the treatment he has received
 
 60 LETTER FROM MY SISTER. 
 
 had no other foundation; and it is a cruel circumstance that I 
 am obliged to observe the most guarded caution on points that 
 leave not a doubt in my mind that private malice took advan- 
 tage of public confusion, and by acts of the basest treachery and 
 gross misrepresentation, contrived to make ministers believe 
 they were taking a step of necessary and even lenient precau- 
 tion, in arresting and detaining my persecuted brother. Mr. 
 Lees and Mr. Cooke I do believe to be the decided though con- 
 cealed enemies of my brother. They had been intimate in our 
 family as long as I can remember; and until my brother was 
 of an age to see their views and character, always affected to 
 lead my father's opinions and direct his decisions on every 
 political question. I need not say how opposite was the part 
 iny brother urged him to take. He succeeded for a time; but 
 by alarming insinuations, and false construction of his opinions, 
 these gentlemen so irritated my father against him, that, aware 
 of their conduct, he went to them separately, and told them, 
 that if they persisted to interfere between him and his father, 
 he would resent it. This occurred just before his going to 
 London, to pursue his studies at the Temple, in the year 1797. 
 My father continued in the sentiments his own unbiassed judg- 
 ment and my brother's wishes led him to entertain of the pro- 
 ceedings in this country, until the ever-to-be-lamented events 
 of the year '98. I know no person who was more sincerely 
 grieved at that fatal rebellion than my brother, who saw that 
 the blind infatuation of those who led the wretched people to 
 destruction, though their intentions sprung from feelings that 
 do them no dishonour, afforded the greatest triumph to the real 
 enemies of Ireland. I have ever possessed his entire confi- 
 dence; and his letters to me contain the strongest evidence of 
 the falsehood of those imputations, by which every endeavour 
 has been made to injure his character, and by which my father 
 was so incensed as to be on the point of disinheriting him; or, 
 as he mentioned to a friend who interceded for him, leaving him 
 and all of us under the control of Mr. Lees. 
 
 With my father's life ended the views of this seeming friend 
 of our family. Mr. Cooke, I believe, acted from resentment, 
 and, perhaps, apprehension of the threat my brother held out. 
 Both together, I am convinced, represented him to government 
 as too dangerous to be left at liberty, and gave such a turn to 
 the few acts of imprudence his generous, benevolent disposition 
 led him into, as might, in some measure, justify his arrest.
 
 LETTER FROM MY SISTER. 61 
 
 Knowing we had no friends who had any interest to cause an 
 inquiry into the business, they supposed he would remain for- 
 gotten in his prison; but when they found that the zealous 
 affection of sisters fondly attached to the best of brothers, of 
 whom they have ever been justly proud, would make every 
 possible exertion to procure his liberation, they adopted the 
 plan of appearing to serve us ; and I do conceive that they would 
 now wish him at liberty, and their proceedings undiscovered. 
 Mr. Cooke visited my brother in the Tower; and a gentleman, 
 admitted frequently to see him, understood from my brother, 
 that the purport of Cooke's visit was, to hint to him that an 
 acknowledgment of his having been in error would procure his 
 liberty. He not only spurned with indignation at this offer, 
 but, I fear, let Cooke see that he knew where all the injustice 
 he suffered originated. This was very unguarded, as those who 
 had the power to cause may also prolong his confinement, if 
 they find themselves interested to do so a consideration that 
 has obliged me to a forbearance I would still wish to observe, 
 did it not appear to me necessary that those who interest them- 
 selves for my brother should know such strong presumptions of 
 the most unworthy conduct towards him. 
 
 I have not entered into this detail, my Lord, from the idea 
 that all the calumny which tyrannical oppression endeavouring 
 to exculpate itself, malevolent design, or prejudice, has vented 
 on my brother, could make any impression unfavourable to him 
 on a liberal mind, but in the hope that should you find any 
 opportunity to serve him, the possession of the facts I have 
 stated may be useful. He has given me full power to act for 
 him in every respect, and I am certain of his approving what I 
 do. In near two years' severe confinement his sufferings have 
 been such as to try the firmest mind. His father died in anger 
 with him; an amiable, charming girl, to whom he was to have 
 been united, has fallen a victim to her anxiety on his account; 
 he is deprived of the consolation of almost any intercourse with 
 his dearest friends ; for as letters that must undergo inspection, 
 or meetings in the presence of a jailer and guard, could not 
 afford him or us any satisfaction, we have never combated his 
 aversion to such intercourse. I know he never will leave his 
 prison on any condition that can reflect in the least upon his 
 character; but, perhaps, there may be some concession abso- 
 lutely necessary, and no way humiliating, such as going to 
 some other country. Of this it will be time enough to speak
 
 62 PROJECTED MARRIAGE. 
 
 should it be proposed, and most joyful should I feel if it were. 
 At present I am told to look to peace as the only probable ter- 
 mination of this intolerable outrage, which is little better than 
 desiring one to resign all hope. 
 
 The miserable anxiety of my mind has made me too incon- 
 siderate of your Lordship's time and patience; but public and 
 private testimony instruct me to seek no excuse for pressing on 
 your attention a subject so interesting to every just and humane 
 feeling. With sincere respect, I have the honour to be, 
 Your Lordship's very humble servant, 
 
 CH. LAWLESS. 
 
 Immediately after my liberation from arrest that is 
 to say, about the end of June or beginning of July, 1798 
 I left London, and being commanded by my father 
 not to return to Ireland, I employed the summer in 
 making a tour of England on horseback, which occupied 
 me until the month of October, when I visited some 
 friends in Yorkshire, and remained, partly at Harrowgate, 
 and partly at Scarborough, during the remainder of the 
 year. At the latter place I met Miss R (the sister- 
 in-law of an intimate friend), my acquaintance with whom 
 ended in an engagement to marry, which, after a length- 
 ened correspondence with iny father, was sanctioned by 
 him, on condition that I should first complete my terms 
 at the Temple, and be called to the bar. In accordance 
 with this arrangement I returned to London, at the close 
 of 1798, much against my will, I admit, and with my 
 mind fully engrossed by my project of marriage indulg- 
 ing hopes of happiness and quiet, which it pleased his 
 Majesty's ministers to scatter to the winds.
 
 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1799. 
 
 Disengagement from Politics Hostile intentions of the Government towards me 
 Their unsuccessful Efforts to procure Evidence Proposition to Except me 
 from the benefit of a General Pardon "Private and Secret" good wishes 
 of Lord Castlereagh My own Freedom from Apprehension Letter to my 
 Sister Warning Second Arrest Examination before the Privy Council 
 Committed to the Tower Sufferings there Consequences to my Pros- 
 pects, Health, and Fortune The Story of my Imprisonment Letters; from 
 Colonel Cockburn, my Father, Myself, Mr. Foulkes, Mr. Reeves, my 
 Sister, my Father My Father's death Letters ; from my Sister, the Duke 
 of Portland, Mr. C. Crawford Refusal of Permission to pay the Last Duties 
 to my Father Letters ; from Mr. Burne, the Duke of Portland, my Sister, 
 Mr. Cooke. 
 
 DURING the short period of my detention in May and 
 June, 1798, the crisis of the Irish rebellion had passed, 
 and most of its unfortunate martyrs were finally disposed 
 of in the interval that succeeded before my return to 
 London. Throughout the whole of that interval I was 
 entirely disengaged from politics and political connexions; 
 my time was passed, as I have stated, in a manner in- 
 compatible with political pursuits. Nevertheless, as is 
 shown by the recent revelations in the Castlereagh 
 papers, I was still the object of the anxious care of the 
 ministers. It was not their fault if I escaped being 
 driven to desperation by being excepted by name from 
 the bill of indemnity, or even specially attainted by a 
 bill of pains and penalties, in consideration of its being 
 impossible to convict me "by the ordinary course of law." 
 The latter mode of making traitors was, I find, recom- 
 mended to be adopted towards a class of persons against 
 whom nothing could be proved " offenders who cannot 
 be convicted by the ordinary course of law"* (in which 
 
 * Castlereagh Memoirs, vol. L, p. 163.
 
 64 HOSTILE INTENTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 category I presume I should have been included) and 
 was made the subject of two elaborate communications 
 from Lord Grenville to members of the Irish govern- 
 ment. The same thing was done, argued the noble 
 lord,* against Atterbury, "in very good times, and 
 under the direction of some of the ablest lawyers we 
 have had." " It would be best," he continues, in a sub- 
 sequent letter, t "(but I do not think it at all necessary) 
 that these bills [of pains and penalties] should be 
 grounded on previous indictments found in the usual 
 course of law. If that cannot be done, there must then, 
 I conceive be some examination of witnesses, either at the 
 bar of the House of Commons or in a secret committee, 
 or at least some papers produced to such a committee, 
 such as may personally implicate the individuals in the 
 charge of treason." I confess it seemed to me to be 
 matter for marvel, when I read this passage, that Lord 
 Grenville's advice was not followed, and that some kind 
 of evidence was not provided, either public or private, to 
 warrant my attainder. I read a little further on, how- 
 ever, and found the reason for that forbearance : an able 
 purveyor of false testimony was out of the way. 
 
 On the 9th August, 1798, Mr. Wickham wrote to 
 Lord Castlereagh as follows: 
 
 To enable the Duke of Portland to do this [to fill up blanks 
 for exceptions in the bill of pardon], Mr. Cooke bad referred 
 me to a man, who, I have no doubt, is well able to give the 
 greater part, if not the whole, of the information necessary for 
 that purpose; but unfortunately he is now, and has been for 
 some time, at Paris; and all my endeavours to find a person 
 capable of supplying his place, have been hitherto without 
 effect.! 
 
 In the same letter, the cases of myself and two of my 
 fellow-sufferers, together with an exposition of the bene- 
 volent intentions of the Duke of Portland towards us, 
 
 * Castlereagh Memoirs, vol. i., p. 163. 
 t Ibid., p. 201. I Ibid., p. 252.
 
 PROPOSED EXCEPTIONS FROM BILL OF PARDON. 65 
 
 are so fully set forth, that I cannot avoid quoting a 
 rather long extract from it : 
 
 Among the persons excepted (writes Mr. Wickham), there 
 is one upon whose case his Majesty's law officers have made 
 particular observations I mean Mr. Stewart, of Acton. From 
 the secret information in the Duke of Portland's possession, 
 independent of that which has been transmitted from Ireland, 
 his Grace can have no doubt that this gentleman is a very 
 proper person to be excepted from his Majesty's pardon. But 
 a difficulty has arisen from the circumstance of his being now 
 at large in this country. Your lordship will remember that 
 Mr. Stewart, with several other persons resident here, known 
 to be connected with the rebels, were taken into custody on 
 the breaking out of the rebellion in Ireland. They were all 
 afterwards discharged upon bail, as the rebellion assumed a 
 less alarming appearance, and as the probability of the peace 
 of this country being disturbed by the United Irishmen be- 
 came less. 
 
 It is therefore contended, that it would have a very strange 
 appearance, were his Majesty's Ministers here to advise the 
 King to except from the benefit of a general pardon a person 
 who is now at large, not even proceeded against, and who was 
 not thought by them sufficiently dangerous to be detained in 
 custody, even at the time when the rebellion was not yet sup- 
 pressed, however its force might have been diminished; and 
 the Duke of Portland (agreeing entirely on that point with the 
 Lord Chancellor and the Attorney and Solicitor-General) is 
 decidedly of opinion that the inserting his name among the 
 exceptions should be preceded by an order to take him again 
 into custody, for the purpose of sending him over to Ireland; 
 which, under all the circumstances of the case, can only now be 
 done on a direct application from the Lord Lieutenant, founded 
 on the particular knowledge his Excellency has of the part that 
 Mr. Stewart has taken in the rebellion, and of the evidence by 
 which his guilt may be proved. 
 
 The Duke of Portland desires me to observe, on this occa- 
 sion, that Mr. Lawless and Mr. Bonham appear to stand nearly 
 in the same situation with Mr. Stewart, as far, that is, as their 
 respective cases are known to this government, and as far as 
 they are affected by the circumstance of their having been
 
 C6 " PRIVATE AND SECRET " GOOD WISHES. 
 
 taken into custody here on a charge of treason, and afterwards 
 admitted to bail; and his Grace is of opinion that the decision 
 with respect to each of these three persons ought to be governed 
 by the same rule. They have all been the active agents of the 
 United Irishmen in this country, and, as such, are extremely 
 proper objects of punishment. But unless they, or some one 
 or more of them, have committed some overt act in Ireland, 
 which may be proved by such evidence as is required by the 
 regular course of law, of at least by attainder in parliament, it 
 is thought that it would be too much to except them, or any 
 of them, from an act of pardon; nor, indeed, would it answer 
 the end required, as, conscious of the want of evidence against 
 them, they would probably come forward themselves, and de- 
 mand a trial; and, in every case, the inserting of the name of 
 any of them in the exceptions of the bill, must be preceded by 
 their being taken into custody, and sent over to Ireland to be 
 tried. 
 
 These were the " private and secret " sentiments of 
 those conspirators for such they confessedly were 
 against the lives and liberties of their fellow-subjects ; 
 Buch were the reasons of state that influenced them to 
 stop short of the final destruction of their victims. The 
 " private and secret " despatch of Mr. Wickham elicit- 
 ed the following reply from Lord Castlereagh, dated 
 "Dublin Castle, August 12, 1798 ": * 
 
 After a full consideration of Mr. S.'s case, his Excellency is 
 of opinion that the evidence against him in this country will 
 not warrant his being transmitted to Ireland; consequently 
 that it is most eligible, under all the circumstances, that his 
 name should be omitted [from the list of exceptions in the bill 
 
 of pardon]. Mr. L and Mr. B stand, as you observe, 
 
 in the same predicament, in point of criminality; and, I am 
 sorry to say, we are equally destitute of evidence to prove 
 their guilt. 
 
 I was, of course, at the time, altogether ignorant of 
 the friendly intentions entertained towards me by those 
 noble members of the paternal government of the day. 
 
 * Castlereagh Memoirs, vol. i., p. 260.
 
 FREEDOM FROM APPREHENSION. 67 
 
 Their thoughts did not appear in the daylight, under 
 their own authority, until half a century had elapsed. 
 I was, therefore, on my return to London, in the begin- 
 ning of 1799, quite free from apprehension on that score, 
 as will appear by the following passages from a letter 
 written at the time, and which accidentaEy remained 
 among my sister's papers : 
 
 The Hon. V. B. Lawless to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 London, Feb. 16, 1799. 
 
 Dearest Cha. I am pretty sure I sball receive a letter from 
 you to-day, for I am told that seven Irish mails are just arrived, 
 so I shall begin an answer in anticipation. Lady Cloumel has 
 at length condescended so far as to leave tickets at Mrs. 
 Cockburn's door; at the same time she wrote me an elegant 
 apology for inattention, which I answered with all due form. 
 I have also written to my father, as he was indisposed. * * * 
 
 All my snug little party here will break up in a few days. 
 I have seldom passed three pleasanter months than the last, 
 every thing being considered. * * * 
 
 I hope you like the " Case of Ireland Re-considered," as I 
 claim a share in it, though it don't go directly to what I wish. 
 I have sent a short address to the people of Kildare, whom I 
 saw called by their rascally sheriff. By way of excuse for his 
 lordship's foolish vote, I tell them that " many of the best men 
 in the country favour the Union, from a conviction that 
 enemies of Ireland will not cease to intrigue amongst us until 
 the parliament is either reformed or annihilated." This really 
 would be a famous time to press the question of reform (for 
 emancipation is nothing), because the parliament and the people 
 must see that Pitt will never give up the Union, and if some 
 steps are not taken to strengthen the cause of the country, he 
 will certainly catch our new-fledged patriots napping, and poor 
 Erin will either be lost for ever, or become the scene of war 
 between French and English armies. I was sorry to find 
 George Ponsonby pledge himself so strongly, along with Mr. 
 Barrington, to support all the measures of government; for 
 you may be sure there will be such heavy taxes laid on, and 
 such severe laws passed, as will drive the people into new 
 violences, and finally break down the country to the desire of 
 ministers. The taxes, Pitt has already declared, you shall have.
 
 68 WARNING. 
 
 Lord Harrington is going over as commander-in-chief if Lord 
 Cornwallis likes to remain, for he has his choice, which I am 
 glad of; but if he returns, either Hobart or Hertford takes his 
 place. 
 
 Did you ever read any thing so insolent or ignorant as the 
 ministerial speeches relative to Ireland in the English house ? 
 I am surprised that neither Curran nor Grattan publish any 
 thing on the present occasion : the latter has a very famous 
 work almost ready. I expect him here soon. 
 
 Ever your own, V. 
 
 P.S. I have just received the dear letter of the 6th, for 
 which receive my constant and unbounded thanks. I had 
 already written to my father on the 13th, in the best style I 
 could in my present state of mind, which, though made up, is 
 not at ease. If you think I should not say a word at all of 
 politics, my letter to Kildare, which I sent to Mr. Dillon of 
 Parliament-street, should be stopped; but it is so mild and 
 gentle, I hardly think it can do harm, or vex the poor in- 
 valid. * * * 
 
 The official accounts of the capture of Naples are at length 
 arrived. The Neapolitans, an hundred and twenty thousand 
 strong, made some resistance. The French were not more 
 than twenty-five thousand. People here still think the Union 
 will be carried in Ireland. 
 
 That I was not, fifty years ago, regardless of a subject 
 which has never since ceased to interest me, is manifest 
 from the foregoing letter. I was then as now convinced 
 that the Union was pregnant with mischief to Ireland. I 
 was conscientiously opposed to it at all times, and I felt, 
 what I still feel, that it was the duty of every honest 
 man to express his sentiments openly upon a subject 
 admitted by advocate and opponent to be of the last 
 importance to the kingdom. In the eyes of the ministry 
 of that day, however, to oppose their project for the 
 enslavement of Ireland and for the interruption of her 
 rapidly-growing prosperity, was treason, and I was 
 warned, as before my arrest in the preceding year, that 
 in my case anti-unionism would be so considered and 
 dealt with. I was not at the time desirous of another
 
 SECOND ARREST. 69 
 
 collision with government, and accordingly I toolc the 
 precaution, upon receiving (again from Dr. Hussey) the 
 warning to which I have alluded, to write to the Duke 
 of Portland and to my friend John Reeves, who was 
 then one of the clerks of the Council, referring to the 
 information I had received as to the disposition of minis- 
 ters towards me, and declaring that, from the time of 
 my liberation, I had not, by act or word, meddled in 
 political proceedings of the kind for which my conduct 
 was then questioned. 
 
 My precaution was of little avail ; it was thought 
 necessary to make an example that might serve to ter- 
 rify those Irishmen, whose assent to the dishonour of 
 themselves and the ruin of their country, it was impos- 
 sible to buy with hard cash. I was considered a good 
 subject for such an experiment sufficiently known and 
 loved among my fellow-countrymen to insure notoriety 
 and fearful sympathy for my misfortunes, I was yet not 
 sufficiently powerful for self-defence or to cause anxiety 
 in the minds of my oppressors, from the fear of a public 
 reaction against their illegal conduct. I was also young 
 and active, and, above all, enthusiastic and incorruptible 
 enough to render my exertions in defence of the inde- 
 pendence of Ireland in some degree formidable, and 
 therefore it was thought advisable to remove me from 
 the scene of conflict. I was accordingly arrested for 
 the second time, on the 14th day of April, 1799, and 
 although at the time in my bed, suffering under an 
 attack of slight fever, I was immediately taken to the 
 house of a king's messenger, and from thence to the 
 Council. The warrant under which I was apprehended 
 was signed by the Duke of Portland, and was issued 
 under the authority of the Habeas Corpus Suspension 
 Act ; it was not, as on the former occasion, for treason, 
 but for " suspicion of treasonable practices." This time 
 my arraignment before the Council was obviously a 
 form, observed for appearance sake only. The old 
 ground was, nevertheless, gone over, and I was inter-
 
 70 COMMITTED TO THE TOWER. 
 
 rogated as to my acquaintance with O'Coigly and Mr. 
 Bonham, and my having gone to the singing-club at 
 Furnival's Inn with the latter. Of these matters I gave 
 the same account as I had done before, telling the exact 
 truth as to the facts, and adding that, even if my con- 
 duct in reference to these particulars had been matter 
 of offence, it had been already forgiven. This did not 
 avail me ; the course of my persecutors was already fixed, 
 and I was accordingly committed to the Tower upon the 
 8th May, 1799, where I remained until the expiration 
 of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act restored me to 
 liberty in March of the year 1801. 
 
 Of the sufferings and privations I was made to endure 
 throughout that protracted and rigid imprisonment, I 
 will not trust myself to write at length, but allow the 
 tale to be told in the words of letters written at the 
 time, both by my friends and persecutors, and such brief 
 memoranda of passing events as I find in my own con- 
 temporary communications which have escaped destruc- 
 tion. The authenticity of these documents will scarcely 
 be doubted ; but I confess I could hardly hope for belief, 
 in this age of prison humanity, were I to state, from my 
 own recollection simply, the fact, that I, an untried and 
 innocent man, against whom, as the Castlereagh papers 
 now conclusively prove, no criminatory evidence could 
 be found, after the most diligent search at home and 
 abroad that I, the immediate heir to a peerage, having 
 numerous and influential friends, and not unprovided 
 with sufficient pecuniary means, could have been dragged 
 from a sick bed, in the heart of the metropolis of British 
 freedom, incarcerated in a filthy and loathsome cell, 
 subjected to the continual companionship (even in my 
 hours of sleep) of a double guard, deprived of the society 
 of my nearest relatives, and even of the use of pen and 
 paper, and finally dismissed from my prison, after the 
 lapse of two-and-twenty months, without charge made 
 against me, or reparation offered for the monstrous 
 insults and injuries to which I was exposed during that
 
 LETTER FROM COLONEL COCKBURN. 71 
 
 dreary period. In the coure of those two-and-twenty 
 tedious months I lost my father and grandfather, and 
 the woman to whom I was upon the eve of being married 
 with every human prospect of happiness. Her life, I have 
 every reason to believe, fell a sacrifice to her continued 
 anxiety for my fate, in respect of which the known cir- 
 cumstances of my prison treatment were sufficient to 
 justify the most gloomy forebodings. To loss of friends 
 and health were added pecuniary losses, heavier than 
 were perhaps ever inflicted as punishment for the gravest, 
 established, political guilt. My father, fearing the con- 
 sequences of a persecution so unrelenting, altered his 
 will towards the close of his life, and left away from me 
 a sum of between 60,000 and 70,000, in order to 
 provide against the contingency of confiscation, which 
 it was not unreasonable to look to as a possible result 
 of the malice of enemies who had already shown them- 
 selves so powerful for evil. If to ithis direct loss be 
 added the waste and dilapidation of my estates, in con- 
 sequence of the impossibility of my exercising control 
 over my affairs, during the interval between my succes- 
 sion and liberation, I do not think I overrate my entire 
 losses in money, directly consequent upon the arbitrary 
 deprivation of my liberty, when I say they were not less 
 than 100,000. 
 
 Colonel (afterwards General Sir George) Cockburn to the Hon. 
 V. B. Lawless. 
 
 Dublin, llth April, 1799. 
 
 My Dear Lawless I received your letter yesterday. I have 
 seen your father twice lately. He is much better, and is now 
 able to go out. He never mentioned a word respecting your 
 marriage, and I therefore could not begin the subject. I have 
 seen Burne, and I understand from him that your father has 
 positively consented; but Burne says has never varied from 
 his first declaration, of the year. He thinks violence will not 
 do, and you must either submit to wait the end of the year, 
 or try what conciliation and coaxing will do. As to your mar- 
 rying without his leave, I assure you I hear from the best 
 
 . 
 
 * 

 
 72 THE STORY OF MY IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 authority that he has made the most positive declaration of 
 his determination to resist such a step in the strongest manner; 
 and the year is so nearly out, that it really would not be 
 acting with your usual good sense if you ran any risk of his 
 displeasure. Burne tells me he is determined to have you 
 called to the English Bar, and therefore insists on your re- 
 maining in London till June; that you are then to come over 
 to him, by which time he will have determined what property 
 he will settle on you ; and Burne thinks that your submission 
 to his will in these particulars will certainly bring matters to a 
 conclusion by July. 
 
 I did not go to Naas. I hear such a grand jury never was 
 heard of. Most respectable names left out Keatinge not 
 called on the panel. Dillon says, at dinner, they refused to 
 drink the duke's health. You will be concerned to hear that 
 thirty Ancient Britons have died of a contagious fever at Athy. 
 I had it from an officer of the regiment. 
 
 Yours, G. C. 
 
 P.S. There is no doubt but the King of Prussia has con- 
 sented to take all the men government will send him. Some 
 hundreds have embarked, and Prussian officers came to receive 
 them. He is to make soldiers of them. I think it disgraces 
 him to become a sort of bridewell-keeper or Algerine to any 
 nation. 
 
 Nicholas Lord Gloncurry to the Duke of Portland. 
 
 (Endorsed in my father's handwriting, " 13th May, 1799. Copy of my 
 
 letter to the Duke of Portland.") 
 
 My Lord Although I have not the honour and advantage 
 of being personally known to your Grace, I am not a stranger 
 to the humanity and benignity of your Grace's character, to 
 excuse the anxiety of a parent, where the character, and, per- 
 haps, future happiness, of an only son are so materially con- 
 cerned. I am very sorry to find that he has again incurred the 
 observation of his Majesty's government. I trust, however, 
 that it arises merely from precaution, in consequence of his for- 
 mer indiscretion, and the persons with whom he had, at that 
 time, the misfortune to connect himself. God forbid that I 
 should ever allow myself to consider him as criminal. That 
 he may have entertained vain and idle notions of liberty and 
 reform, I am perfectly aware, from the principles of certain per- 
 sons with whom he kept company, which I always disapproved
 
 THE STORY OF MY IMPRISONMENT. 73 
 
 of, as well by my example as by my advice. I owe it, in 
 justice to him, to assure your Grace that he wished to with- 
 draw himself from them, and to settle himself in this country, 
 to which I had consented; but, at my desire, he was to remain 
 in London until next month, in order to finish his terms at the 
 Temple. 
 
 If, my Lord, your Grace's warrant for again confining him was 
 granted, which I trust in God it was, merely as a measure of 
 precaution, in consequence of any former indiscretion, and that 
 he has not been guilty of any act of a serious tendency. I hope 
 your Grace and his Majesty's ministers will think him sufficiently 
 punished, and permit him to return to his family; and being 
 then under my own immediate observation, I can have no doubt, 
 from the contrition and concern he formerly expressed, and the 
 promise he made to me, but that his future conduct will be such 
 as becomes a dutiful and a loyal subject; and in acting as such 
 he will always have the advice and example of his father. I 
 have the honour to be, with much respect, my Lord, 
 
 Tour Grace's most humble and obedient servant. 
 
 The Hon. V. B. Lawless to the Hon. Valentino, Lawless. 
 
 Tower, Sunday, May 19th. 
 
 It will be as unwelcome a novelty to you, my dear sister, to 
 receive, as it is to me to write a letter from a prison : we must, 
 however, submit to necessity, and I endeavour to do so with the 
 best possible grace. This day ends the fifth week of my con- 
 finement, and you should have heard from me before were it not 
 that I was under great restrictions at the messenger's, and was 
 in daily expectation of being liberated; besides, the very day 
 of my first examination, I met a friend who undertook to set 
 you all at ease with respect to my safety and ultimate vindica- 
 tion. After my six weeks' confinement of last year, I should 
 hope my present misfortune would be less shocking to you or my 
 father; but I cannot express to you the pain I feel for the situa- 
 tion of my poor M : what a miserable disappointment to her, 
 
 after a month's expectation that I should join her at Cheltenham. 
 Write to her, I beg of you, my dear Valentina ; assure her that 
 I am quite well, and full of hope that we shall soon meet. Tell 
 her that I have got a good and airy room, with books to read, 
 and that I never cease to think of her: but I will not write, 
 because my letters should be inspected, which would be an 
 
 B
 
 4 THE STORY OF MY IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 injury to her, in case she should withdraw her affection from a 
 poor branded rebel; for although I do not much fear, still I will 
 make some allowance for the proverbial inconstancy of you ladies. 
 When you write to Merrion-street, let my father know that it 
 will be the greatest relief to me if he will rest assured that, in 
 word or act, I have never said or done any thing illegal, disloyal, 
 or unworthy of him. In case I am tried, I fear not I shall 
 make this appear; but I am chiefly afraid of a long confinement, 
 though hitherto, thank God, I have borne it pretty well: last 
 year I should have thought nothing of it, though in a very bad 
 state of health. I think government owes it to his services, if 
 not to justice or humanity, to bring me to trial, or to liberate 
 me. I believe I am the first person who has been committed 
 to the Tower for a suspicion of high treason; and it is only 
 under the new act I could be detained. However, I shall 
 patiently wait the result, provided I still possess the good opi- 
 nion of my friends. From what I recollect of my examination, 
 I am accused of meeting Colonel Despard and some United 
 Irishmen, at some period previous to my former arrest; but this 
 can be explained to you better by Mr. Reeves, or some other 
 official man. R. has been very friendly to me, and spoke in 
 my favour to Colonel Smith, who commands here; but so he 
 ought, for my foolish letter to him is an excuse for my detention. 
 I suppose my father will be told that I refused to answer ques- 
 tions; but I did the same last year till I was liberated, when I 
 offered, of my own accord, to give every account of my con- 
 duct; and Mr. Vaughan afterwards told me it was right, as my 
 answers would be twisted so as to justify my detention. The 
 same rule was followed by Mr. Sayre, in the year '75, when 
 arrested on a charge of high treason, and he was soon liberated. 
 All my letters and papers have, I suppose, been ransacked and 
 plundered, as they were last year. I hope my lodgings have 
 been given up; I shall settle that and other accounts when I 
 get out. In the meantime send the enclosed to whoever has got 
 possession of my goods and chattels. In case any money is 
 wanted on my account, you can draw on my agent in my name. 
 Send me fifteen pounds now, and the same every mouth whilst 
 I remain here; it is the outside of my expense. I was offered 
 a guinea per week, government allowance, but have refused it, as 
 none of our family have as yet been pensioners. I am surprised 
 I have received no letter or visit since my removal, but shall 
 expect a few lines from you in a day or two, open, and enclosed
 
 THE STORY OF MY IMPRISONMENT. 75 
 
 to Colonel Smith, Tower. This gentleman has been extremely 
 polite to me ; has lent me books, and got leave for me to walk 
 about the Tower: this last I have not profited of, except once 
 on the roof of my apartment. I get on pretty well in the day- 
 time, but am very feverish at night; but I will keep off the sick 
 list as long as I can. I am not allowed newspapers, which to 
 me is a great, as it is certainly a very useless, privation. 
 My fellow-prisoners, a Swede and a Manx, being married, are 
 allowed to see their wives; I do not know whether they are 
 suspected of being United Irish. I have always two warders, or 
 beefeaters in the room with me, and am alternately amused and 
 annoyed by their loquacity; a sentry at my door, who, on taking 
 post, views my person, and being of that excellent school, the 
 Guards, will probably, some of those days, swear some other 
 crime against me, if I escape the punishment due to my mani- 
 fold treasons. These grand forms would amuse me if I thought 
 them likely soon to end, and that the name of rebel will [not] 
 hurt me as much in society as the title of mad would a dog. 
 As I shall not write again soon, you must be my secretary, and 
 give what consolation you can to all my friends, especially 
 Minny and Charlotte; and tell Reeves he will find me " integer 
 mice scelerisque purus" I hope the desire of getting me out 
 will not induce my father to do any thing he would otherwise 
 not approve of. I owe it to him and to myself to prove the 
 rectitude of my conduct. If he had allowed me to follow my 
 own plans, this would not have happened ; but I am now so 
 deep, that, like Macbeth, I must go through. Remember me to 
 Tom and the countess. I used, indeed, to see you often drive 
 by the messenger's, where I was ; and I yesterday saw the cap- 
 tain, and one or two friendly faces under my window, but they 
 deigned not to look up at the poor prisoner. Tell me all the 
 news you can, and what conjectures are formed about me. 
 Adieu, my dear V. ; my hand is tired, and I can scrawl no 
 more; let me hear from you soon, and believe me ever yours. 
 " Quand aurai je le bonheur de te revoir 1" 
 
 Mr. FoulTces (solicitor) to Hon. V. B. Lawless. 
 
 Hart-street, Bloomsbury*square, 26th June, 1799. 
 My dear Sir For fear you should think yourself neglected, 
 or that I have been unmindful of my duty, I think it proper 
 to enclose, for your perusal, copies of the letters that have 
 
 E 2
 
 76 THE STORY OF MY IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 passed between me and Mr. Wickhara on the subject of your 
 imprisonment, die. 
 
 I hope my being denied access to you at present will not 
 have occasioned any inconvenience or injury to you in any of 
 your private affairs, and shall be glad to hear that this letter, 
 with the enclosed, has been delivered to you, as it doubtless 
 will be, by the Governor of the Tower, to whom I mean to send 
 it unsealed. I hope, too, that you have your health. 
 I am, very respectfully and faithfully yours, 
 
 JOHN FOULKES. 
 
 John Reeves, JZsq., to the Hon. V. B. Lawless. 
 
 6th August, '99. 
 
 Dear Lawless Your sister tells me she is going with Lady 
 Clonmel to Cheltenham the day after to-morrow; and she re- 
 quests I would undertake to supply you with your 15 per 
 month, which I certainly will do. I will send or call upon 
 Colonel Smith in a day or two. Pray do not think I have for- 
 gotten you, because I have not made application to see you; 
 believe that in this forbearance I do what appears to me, in the 
 present circumstances, to be prudent and proper. You may 
 rely upon my being ready to do any thing that can be useful to 
 you. God bless you, and believe me, 
 
 Yours ever truly, 
 
 J. REEVES. 
 
 P.S. Our friend Lees is in town. We have talked about 
 [you], and we both agreed, it was better not to interfere just at 
 this moment. He thinks very kindly about you. 
 
 The Hon. Valentina Lawless to the Hon. V. B. Lawless. 
 
 Portman-square, August 7th, '99. 
 
 My dearest Val. Mr. Caldwell's having seen you before I 
 leave town, has given me the greatest comfort, as he assures me 
 you continue in good health. I almost despaired of his obtain- 
 ing the permission, it is so long a time since he applied for it; 
 but his good nature and perseverance at length succeeded. 
 
 I fear Mr. Lees' intentions in your favour will not answer 
 our expectations. I have just received a letter from him, in 
 which he tells me that, from the best information he can obtain, 
 he has reason to believe his interference at present would answer
 
 LETTER FROM MY FATHER. 77 
 
 no good purpose; and that permission to see you in private 
 would not be granted. I own that this is a great disappoint- 
 ment to me; but we must be patient all will be well yet. I 
 saw Mr. Reeves last night, and he has promised me to send 
 your money regularly during my absence, and also any new 
 publications that he thinks may amuse you. I have not heard 
 from our friends since I wrote to you last, as they suppose me 
 to be at Cheltenham now; we set off to morrow for certain. 
 You shall hear from me soon. 
 
 Believe me, dear brother, ever sincerely yours, 
 
 V. LAWLESS. 
 
 I hope you received my letter of the 2nd, enclosing one from 
 Cha. I send the magazines by the bearer. 
 
 Nicholas Lord Cloncurry to the Duke of Portland. 
 
 (Copy endorsed in my father's handwriting, "My letter to his Grace 
 the Duke of Portland.") 
 
 20th August, 1799. 
 
 My Lord I had the honour of writing to your Grace, three 
 months since, on the 13th day of May last, a few lines in favour 
 of my unfortunate son. It was at the earnest entreaty of the 
 young man's sisters and friends that I troubled your Grace; for 
 there are very few persons who like less to trouble great men, 
 or men high in office, than myself. I have had the honour of a 
 seat in the Houses of Commons and Lords near thirty years, 
 yet may say that I never solicited nor obtained the least pecu- 
 niary favour or emolument for myself or any friend; if I have 
 obtained any honours, they cost me the full value. During your 
 Grace's residence here I heartily supported your administra- 
 tion; and your Grace well knows that I claimed no merit for it. 
 One reason for this long preamble is, to show your Grace that I 
 am no importunate courtier, and had some reason to hope, at 
 least, an answer from your Grace: indeed the few friends who 
 know that I have written to your Grace, cannot believe, from 
 your known character of urbanity and humanity, that you have 
 received my former letter (for which reason I have desired that 
 this letter should be dropped in the post-office chest.) 
 
 I hope, my Lord, that your Grace will excuse this trouble, and 
 honour me with an answer, however short. I have the honour 
 to be, with great respect, my Lord, 
 
 Your Grace's, &c.
 
 78 MY FATHER'S DEATH. 
 
 Tour Grace may know that I voted in the House of Lords 
 for receiving the proposition for a Union ; I also gave it my 
 interest in the county of Limerick, where I have some pro- 
 perty, and which, perhaps, few would have done, treated as I 
 have been. 
 
 The foregoing was written on the 20th of August, 
 and on the 29th my father breathed his last. All that 
 I was permitted to know of his last moments was com- 
 municated to me in the following letters : 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to John Reeves, J?sq. 
 
 Blackfock, August 28th. 
 
 My dear Sir I write to you in a moment of great distress, 
 being assured from your constant kindness to my beloved bro- 
 ther that you would assist him and us all in any way you could. 
 My poor father is in a sad state ; his physicians give us no hope 
 that he can recover though he may linger for a short time. You 
 may conceive how cruelly the being deprived of his son's pre- 
 sence at such a time weighs upon his mind. Val., who is much 
 attached to his father, will be made completely miserable. Do 
 you not think that if the Duke of Portland was informed of my 
 father's situation and ardent desire to see his son, he would, 
 taking proper security, allow him to come pay the last duties to 
 a kind and good parent ? Mr. Lees' being away is a great loss 
 to us, as he might put us in the right way to communicate this 
 matter to ministers, who, I am sure, when they punished a little 
 imprudence, did not mean to destroy the happiness of a family. 
 The mystery that has been observed has made my father so 
 unhappy, and particularly his letter to the Duke of Portland 
 never having been answered, that I fear much of his rapid 
 decline from robust health is to be attributed to anxiety he 
 endeavoured to conceal but which he now says he felt. Lord 
 Carleton is, I understand, now in London : he was always 
 very friendly to our family, and, perhaps, would undertake to 
 inform the duke, or any one who has power to interfere, of this 
 business. 
 
 I am sure I need not apologize for giving you this trouble, 
 nor importune you farther on a subject which the goodness of 
 your heart will make you take every interest in. 
 
 Believe me, dear sir, very much yours, 
 
 C. LAWLESS.
 
 MY FATHER'S DEATH. 7 
 
 P.S. If leave should be given to Val. to come over, give 
 him the enclosed; if not, it would be too cruel to let him know 
 his father's situation. 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to John Reeves, Esq. 
 
 Thursday, August 29th. 
 
 Dear Sir Soon after I had written to you yesterday, every 4 
 alarming symptom prepared us for the loss of our dear and 
 excellent parent. He died this morning, at five o'clock, of a 
 disorder in his bowels, which defied every effort of medicine. 
 He suffered much pain, but preserved his mental faculties to the 
 last moment; was perfectly resigned, and even desirous to quit 
 the world; and had no care or anxiety but what the constant 
 recollection of poor Val.'s situation gave him : this has long 
 weighed most heavily on his mind; I would not for any con- 
 sideration Val. should know how heavy. It will be a most severe 
 blow to him, and require all the kind management of friendship 
 to break it to him. His passions are high, and I dread the first 
 burst of feeling upon knowing he has for ever lost a father 
 whom he never designed to offend, but whom the circumstance 
 of his arrest (the cause of which has been variously represented 
 and exaggerated to him by every idle talker he met) had much 
 irritated against him. 
 
 If his enlargement is not to be obtained, how is all the com- 
 munication absolutely necessary upon his private affairs to take 
 place 1 I shall be truly obliged to you to tell me plainly what 
 can be obtained, and what should be done, and also to break this 
 painful news to my darling brother. 
 
 Excuse all this trouble; it is a great tax on your kindness. 
 Believe me, dear sir, most sincerely, 
 
 Your obliged servant, 
 
 CHARLOTTK LAWLESS. 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to Valentine Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Saturday, August 3 1st. 
 
 Dearest Val. Before you receive this letter you will have 
 been informed, I trust with the precaution and attention to your 
 feelings which I requested, of the severe and sudden loss we 
 have all suffered. It is no small aggravation of so painful a 
 circumstance that we are deprived of the comfort and assistance 
 of the best of brothers. Perhaps it would be doing an injustice
 
 80 MY FATHER'S DEATH. 
 
 to those wlio have it in their power to restore you to us, to 
 suppose that we should not see you very soon : we have done 
 whatever ourselves or friends thought could be done, to repre- 
 sent the urgency of the occasion, and shall live in hopes of your 
 being at liberty to come once more amongst us. 
 
 I shall not enter into the distressing detail of this unexpected 
 event; but rest assured all that medicine and attentive care 
 could do was done. Hume says, had it been possible to stop 
 the rapid progress of the disease, a year or two of great infirmity 
 was all could have been gained'. When I wrote to you on Wed- 
 nesday, this was the opinion entertained; but that night the 
 inflammation of the bowels assumed the most fatal appearance. 
 He suffered extremely at times; but in the intervals his resig- 
 nation, firmness, and self-possession astonished everybody who 
 saw him. His last will, which Crawford sends you a copy of 
 through the Duke of Portland, was made on Monday, when he 
 thought himself much worse than his physicians allowed us to 
 apprehend: it was opened to-day in the presence of all who 
 were thought necessary. The contents were known to Mary 
 before, to whom he explained every particular of his affairs, and 
 dictated what she should do. I must, in justice to her, mention 
 what Crawford and others can vouch for, that you are indebted 
 to her for some circumstances very essential to you, and for 
 much solicitation to have them still more so, as also for his for- 
 giveness of every uneasiness he suffered on your account. I 
 know your heart too well to suppose you capable of thinking 
 we have been too generously treated. I hope we shall ever be 
 as united as we have hitherto been; and that you will believe 
 the affection we have ever shown you cannot decrease when 
 we have it most in our power to prove it. God bless and pre- 
 serve the best beloved of my heart, and grant that I may soon 
 see him in the enjoyment of all the happiness I think he merits. 
 
 Your 
 
 CHA. 
 
 The Duke of Portland to Valentine Lord Cloncurry, 
 
 Bustrode, Monday, 2nd September, 1799. 
 
 Forty-five minutes past Eleven, P.M. 
 
 My Lord I have the honour of transmitting your Lordship 
 the enclosed, which I received this evening, and am very sorry 
 that my absence from town has delayed the communication of
 
 MY FATHER'S DEATH. 81 
 
 tbis melancholy event, which must so materially interest your 
 Lordship in various respects. 
 
 I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 The Eight Hon. Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 [Enclosure referred to in the foregoing note.] 
 
 Mr. Cooper Craivford to Valentine Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Hume-street, Dublin, 29th August, 1799. 
 
 My Lord An event happened this morning which must 
 necessarily be very painful to you to hear, and which I feel 
 much concern in communicating: however, my attention to 
 you calls upon me to discharge that duty. 
 
 The late Lord Cloncurry was, on Friday last, attacked with 
 a complaint in his bowels, which did not seemingly become 
 serious until Monday. He had every medical assistance and 
 attention; but in vain. This morning at five o'clock he de- 
 parted. 
 
 On Monday evening he called upon me to prepare his will, 
 which 1 did. You have enclosed a short abstract of the dispo- 
 sition he made of his fortune. 
 
 The demesne of Lyons was managed by Mr. Ryan, who is 
 still there. He is a man very capable, in every respect, of 
 managing it; and has conducted himself very much to the 
 satisfaction of the late Lord. He means to continue the same 
 plan of management for your Lordship, and will wait your 
 directions upon that subject. 
 
 I have not now time to state to your Lordship the business 
 which the late Lord was pleased to commit to my care, but I 
 will do so very soon. I have the honour to be 
 
 Your Lordship's very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 COOPER CRAWFORD. 
 
 To the appeals to the mercy of the minister, for per- 
 mission to perform the last duties to my father, referred 
 to in these letters, the following cold answer was re- 
 turned : 
 
 The Duke of Portland to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 Whitehall, 6th September, 1800. 
 
 Madam I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of 
 your letter of the 29th ult. ; and to inform you that I have 
 
 E3
 
 82 MY FATHER'S DEATH, 
 
 .granted the necessary permission to Mr. Burne to Lave access 
 to your brother. 
 
 I am concerned to be under the necessity of adding, that the 
 wish you have expressed for your brother's enlargement cannot 
 possibly be complied with. I have the honour to be, madam, 
 Your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 When permission was thus refused to a son (willing 
 to load himself with the fetters of the law), to pay the 
 last tribute of affection to a father, it was not to be sup- 
 posed that any relaxation of my unjust imprisonment 
 would have been conceded on the grounds of my own 
 failing health, or of the necessity that existed for atten- 
 tion to my personal affairs and to the duties that now 
 devolved upon me, as the owner of a considerable landed 
 estate. Nevertheless, my zealous friends made an at- 
 tempt in that direction also ; with what success will be 
 seen in the following letters : 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to the Dulce of Portland. 
 
 Thursday, 19th September, '99, Blackrock, Dublin. 
 My Lord The recent death of my respected father has de- 
 prived my brother, confined in the Tower under a warrant from 
 your Grace, not only of the best of parents, but also of the only 
 friend who could consider himself as having a right to interfere 
 in his behalf. It was the intention of my father, previous to 
 his last illness, to have written to your Grace to represent his 
 fears for the health of his son, and to entreat your consideration, 
 whether, if his liberation could not be granted, a removal to 
 some place where he could have the benefit of air and exercise, 
 might not be acceded to. Death has put an end to the anxiety 
 of a parent; but it has redoubled the affliction of sisters attached 
 by every tie of grateful affection to a dear and only brother, 
 whose constant kindness to them, and dutiful conduct to the 
 "excellent parents he has lost, impress on their minds the belief 
 that whatever imprudence he may, from his youth and warm 
 benevolence of disposition, have been led into, it is not possible 
 that any thing dishonourable or seriously wrong could be coun- 
 tenanced by him. But for the injury his health may sustain 
 we have serious ground for alarm. The painful feelings he has
 
 CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT. 83* 
 
 had to combat during six months' confinement, preying on a 
 delicacy of constitution, which has made the most attentive 
 care necessary from his childhood, may be very fatal to him. 
 If permission to go to Lisbon, with whatever precaution may 
 be deemed necessary, of bail, &c., could be granted, I am con- 
 vinced such an act of kindness would be of essential service to 
 his health, and have the best effect on his just and good mind. 
 Placed now at the head of his family, he will be guarded in his 
 conduct, and cautious of the connexions he makes. A short 
 time before his arrest, he had received his father's consent to 
 an alliance most agreeable to all his family, and had repeatedly 
 written to me his anxious wish to settle himself quietly in the 
 country, and get out of the way of being importuned on sub- 
 jects which he found he only incurred displeasure in inter- 
 fering in. 
 
 I must now apologize for this intrusion on your Grace's time. 
 A sincere conviction that I am not soliciting any thing you can 
 ever have cause to regret having granted, emboldened me to 
 venture an address where I could best hope for any relief that 
 may be possible. I remain, with all respect, 
 
 Your Grace's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 C. L. 
 
 P.S. Mr. Burne, my father's lawyer and most confidential 
 friend, is at present in London ; if your Grace could permit his 
 admission to my brother, it would be a great obligation and 
 satisfaction to his family. 
 
 My father, about a fortnight after my brother's arrest, wrote 
 a letter to your Grace, which not having received any answer 
 to caused him much uneasiness. 
 
 The Duke of Portland to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 Whitehall, 27th September, 1799. 
 
 Madam I have had the honour to receive your letter of the 
 19th instant, and I am very sorry to be under the necessity of 
 acquainting you that, under the present circumstances of Lord 
 Cloncurry's case, it is impossible that he can be liberated on the 
 conditions you mention. 
 
 With regard to Mr. Burne's having permission to see Lord 
 Cloncurry on matters relative to his private affairs, I have 
 given directions that the proper authority for that purpose 
 should be sent to him. 
 
 Had it been in my power to have returned such, an answer
 
 84 CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 to the letter I received from the late Lord Cloncurry, as could 
 have given him any sort of satisfaction, I should certainly not 
 have subjected myself to the mortification which I could not but 
 know I was liable to experience upon account of my silence, 
 although nothing but a desire not to increase his uneasiness 
 could have induced me to observe it. 
 
 I have the honour to be, madam, 
 
 Your most humble, obedient servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Duke of Portland. 
 [Copy not dated.] 
 
 My Lord I address this letter to your Grace by direction of 
 Lord Cloncurry, who is at present confined in the Tower, and 
 trust your Grace will excuse me for making an application 
 which want of pen, ink, and paper prevents him from making 
 for himself. 
 
 I presume your Grace is apprized that his Lordship has 
 lately become entitled to a considerable real estate in Ireland, 
 by the death of his father. The peculiar situation of this 
 estate, and of his Lordship's affairs in consequence of his 
 father's death, renders his presence in Ireland at this time 
 essentially necessary. I might add that, during a late inter- 
 view which, by your Grace's permission I had with him last 
 Friday, his health appeared much impaired by his confinement; 
 and so far as I am able to judge from my own observation, I 
 really think him very ill, though he makes no complaint of that 
 kind. He authorized me to inform your Grace that if permit- 
 ted to go to Ireland for five or six weeks to settle his affairs, 
 he is ready to enter into any security that may be required 
 for the rectitude of his conduct, and to surrender his person at 
 the end of that period, or dispose of himself in any manner 
 your Grace may direct. 
 
 The Duke of Portland to John Burne, Esq. 
 
 Burlington House, Monday, 23rd September, 1799. 
 Sir I this moment received a letter from you, which you 
 Btate to have been written by the desire of Lord Cloncurry, 
 who is himself unable to make the application it contains, by 
 being deprived of pen, ink, and paper. 
 
 I am very sorry to say that my duty to the public will not 
 suffer me to consent to the request you have made in Lord
 
 
 
 CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT. 85 
 
 Cloncurry's behalf, which I cannot but be surprised to find it 
 alleged he had not in his power to make himself. 
 
 I do not know of any order which has been given to debar 
 him the indulgence of pen, ink, and paper, or to restrain him 
 from the use of them in the presence of those who have the 
 charge of his person. 
 
 I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Duke of Portland, 
 
 My Lord Permit me to return my humble acknowledgments 
 to your Grace for your polite answer to my letter on behalf of 
 Lord Cloncurry. I lament extremely that public duty pre- 
 vents your Grace from consenting to his liberation, more espe- 
 cially because I believe his health, and I am sure his fortune, 
 will suffer essentially by his confinement. I stated to your 
 Grace that he was prevented from the use of pen, ink, and 
 paper, because he mentioned so to me; and I should be more 
 inclined to think that those who have the charge of his person 
 might misconceive your Grace's orders, than that his Lordship 
 should be guilty of any intentional misrepresentation. He 
 desired me, in case the application for his enlargement should 
 fail, to apply to your Grace for the indulgence of pen, ink, and 
 paper, newspapers, and the monthly magazines, and I am sure 
 your Grace's humanity will induce you to give orders for every 
 kind of accommodation that can be extended to him consist- 
 ently with your public duty. 
 
 Here I must interpose a few words in explanation of 
 the seeming contradiction between my complaint of the 
 deprivation of pen, ink, and paper, and the Duke of 
 Portland's account of the rules of my imprisonment in 
 that respect. The strict regulation went, from the first, 
 to debar me of the indulgence referred to, but at the 
 private request of Mr. lleeves it was relaxed by the 
 acting lieutenant-governor, Colonel Smith, so far as to 
 permit me to write to my family in the presence of the 
 gentleman-jailer, who was in every case to bring the 
 letter to the Colonel for perusal and transmission. This 
 disagreeable method of communicating with my friends 
 I adopted in preference to the alternative of allowing
 
 86 CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT* 
 
 them to remain in ignorance of my situation ; but my 
 earliest use of the permission led to a ridiculous quarrel 
 which ended in its withdrawal. In my first letter, after 
 assuring my friends of my innocence, I jocularly added 
 that I knew not why I had been arrested if it was not 
 for having paid too much attention to Queen Charlotte. 
 This jesting with royalty offended the loyal feelings of 
 Colonel Smith, who refused to transmit the letter, even 
 though I offered to expunge the offensive passage. An 
 angry altercation ensued ; but as soon as the lieutenant- 
 governor took his departure, the warder who was on 
 guard over my person at the time, offered to take the 
 letter to its destination. I accepted his offer, but care- 
 lessly forgot to erase the words " I send this by the kind- 
 ness of Colonel Smith." The consequence was, that my 
 correspondent enclosed her answer in a letter of thanks 
 to the Colonel, who immediately visited me and insisted 
 on knowing how I had sent the letter. Being refused 
 the information he retired in a great passion threatening 
 additional restrictions, and thenceforward the indulgence 
 of pen, ink, and paper was ordered to be withheld from 
 me. Nevertheless I procured those useful articles 
 through the kindness of my friendly warder and of 
 others of his comrades who subsequently took an inte- 
 rest in my sufferings. 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Friday, Sept. 27th. 
 
 ****** 
 
 I have some reason to hope you will soon be enabled to at- 
 tend to the management of your affairs. In the meantime, 
 whatever I am authorized to do shall be done according to the 
 exact letter of your directions. As soon as I received your 
 first order, I wrote to Trenor, who is now at Balbriggan, acting 
 as usher in his brother-in-law's school. He came to town and 
 received the 30. He looks as ill as possible, poor fellow, and 
 will not, I fear, long enjoy your bounty. I shall inform him 
 to-morrow of your further intentions in his favour, and shall 
 write to Mr. Thomas Ryan as you desire, and inquire about 
 your servant's son. As to an advertisement of notice, &c., I
 
 s'TINUED IMPRISONMENT, 87 
 
 have written Mr. Burne the reasons given me why I should not 
 publish one at present, and shall wait his advice before I do 
 anything more. I shall tell Arthur Hume what you desire he 
 should do, and see what is best to be done with your house in 
 Merrion-row. The service of plate, and books, and the pictures 
 in Merrion-street, you must accept from your sisters, as they 
 consider them by right yours, and have sincere pleasure in 
 giving them up to you. It was our intention to have made an 
 exchange with you, if you approved it, as we should prefer 
 residing at Maretimo; and you might keep or dispose of the 
 house in Merrion-street as you pleased. If you don't like this 
 plan, we shall dispose of it in the best way we can, and settle 
 otherwise with you. 
 
 What you call the angry part of your letter is easily an- 
 ewered. I never yet received either reproof or advice from 
 anybody whom I esteemed and knew to be my friend, that it 
 did not fill my heart with more gratitude than the highest com- 
 mendation could do. Be assured, then, my best and dearest of 
 friends, that one of the greatest obligations I can owe you is 
 your telling me when my ardent desire to comfort and assist 
 you makes me lose sight of sober prudence. My third sister 
 joins with Mary and me in commands to you to take care of 
 yourself. 
 
 Adieu, dearest Val., your 
 
 CHAKLOTTE. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 My dear Miss Lawless I delayed answering your letter till 
 I could give you some account of my interview with your 
 brother. Though I made an application to see him immediately 
 on my arrival here, I was not admitted till yesterday. Mr. 
 Reeves appointed me to call on him at eleven o'clock, and we 
 went together to the Tower in his carriage. Upon arriving 
 there we were obliged to wait some time, till certain formalities 
 were complied with ; but at length saw the poor prisoner. I 
 remained with him near three hours, and during the whole 
 time two beefeaters and the jailer remained in the room. He 
 was very cheerful, and apparently in good health; but I think 
 I could perceive that want of his usual exercise and free circu- 
 lation of air, have somewhat affected his nerves, but I hope not 
 materially. We had a great deal of conversation relative to his 
 private affairs, and he has communicated his sentiments fully
 
 88 CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 to you in a letter which he dictated to me, and which Jane is 
 copying to send you. He desired me to tell you that a power 
 of attorney, vesting the entire management of his affairs in you, 
 is to be executed in a day or two, and will be sent over by me. 
 In the meantime, you are to have an advertisement published in 
 the papers, directing the tenants to pay their rents to the former 
 agents, and ordering all letters and applications relative to his 
 affairs to be addressed to you; but you are not to send any 
 papers of business to him during his confinement. I mentioned 
 to him my intention of writing a letter on his behalf to the 
 Duke of Portland, and of applying to Lord Yelverton, who 
 happens to be here, to aid my application to the Duke in the 
 best manner he could. I was well pleased that he approved of 
 this, and authorized me to say that he was ready to accede to 
 any reasonable terms government might propose, in order to 
 obtain his liberty. He expressed a wish that Mr. Reeves and 
 I should dine with him next week, which we agreed to do, and 
 Mr. Reeves has promised to obtain permission for me to see him 
 whenever I require it. This morning I went to Lord Yelver- 
 ton, and was with him a considerable time. His Lordship has 
 promised to go to the Duke of Portland on Monday, and to do 
 what he can in support of my application to his Grace. Mr. 
 Reeves assures me that there is no person whose interference 
 could be more useful than Lord Yelverton's, and the kind 
 manner in which his Lordship promised to comply with my 
 request, induces me to entertain some hope. I have written a 
 letter to the Duke, representing the situation of our friend as 
 strongly as I could, and soliciting his liberation, even for a 
 limited time, upon the terms of entering into security to dis- 
 pose of himself in such manner as his Grace may think 
 proper. If allowed to go to Ireland for five or six weeks, he 
 will afterwards go to Lisbon, or wherever else ministers may 
 direct. If I should be able to bring about the liberation of our 
 dear friend, I should feel a degree of pleasure fully adequate to 
 reward my exertions. Be assured, nothing within the scope of 
 my very limited powers shall be left undone to attain this 
 most desirable object. 
 
 We shall remain in London till the 10th of October, but 
 must leave it then. Miss Valentina, in her letter to Jane, 
 says she will be in London the 6th, and will accompany us to 
 Ireland. If we could but bring the poor prisoner with us ! 
 But I can scarcely indulge the hope. Though I have much
 
 CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT. 89 
 
 more to say, I must conclude. Remember me in the kindest 
 manner to Miss L., 
 
 And believe me most truly yours, 
 
 J. B. 
 
 John Reeves, Esq., to John Burne, Esq. 
 
 Tuesday. 
 
 Dear Sir I am sorry I have not yet had the permission to 
 see Lord Clon curry. I will inquire again this morning, and 
 you shall hear from me. 
 
 We must give up all thoughts of dining there. It would 
 not be proper, as Colonel Smith told me, and as we may easily 
 believe. 
 
 1 am, dear sir, yours truly, 
 
 J. REEVES. 
 
 The Duke of Portland to John Burne, Esq. 
 
 Whitehall, 3rd October, 1799. 
 
 The Duke of Portland presents his compliments to Mr. Burne, 
 and acquaints him that he has signed a warrant, and which 
 will be forwarded to the Tower, for Dr. Turton to be admitted 
 to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 London, October 11, 1799. 
 
 My dear Miss Lawless From a conviction that your bro- 
 ther's health was materially injured by his confinement, I 
 advised him to call in a physician, to which he consented, and 
 desired me to bring Sir John Hayes, which I accordingly did. 
 When Sir J. Hayes saw him, he intimated his opinion that air 
 and exercise were essentially necessary; but at the same time, 
 expressed an anxious wish to have the assistance of another 
 physician, and requested me to call in Doctor Turton. In con- 
 sequence of this, I appointed Sir J. Hayes and Doctor Turton 
 to meet at the Tower yesterday, which they did; but though 
 Sir J. Hayes was anxious to give such a certificate as, I think, 
 must have procured your brother's liberation, yet Doctor Tur- 
 ton positively refused, and because he saw no immediate occa- 
 sion to prescribe any medical preparation, he objected to pre- 
 scribing air and exercise, which, I am persuaded, are essentially 
 necessary. Sir J. Hayes then said that he could not sign a 
 certificate to which Doctor Turton refused to put his name;
 
 90 MEMORIAL THE COUNCIL. 
 
 and thus a very important part of my plan has been defeated, 
 to the great gratification of some professed friends here; but 
 I still intend to present a memorial in your brother's name, 
 and with his approbation, stating some circumstances which, 
 I think, must have an influence in his favour; and though ap- 
 pearances at present are not very promising, I am not without 
 hopes that he will soon be liberated. At all events, I have 
 the satisfaction to reflect that nothing which I was able to do 
 has been left undone, and if my interference for him has had 
 no other effect, it has certainly diminished the rigour of his 
 confinement, and left him much more comfortable than I found 
 him ; and I assure you it is a fact, which I scarcely know whe- 
 ther to call fortunate or unfortunate, that he was infinitely 
 better the day the physicians saw him than when I first visited 
 him. Captain Manby arrived here a few days ago; I like 
 him very much, and he has obtained an order for liberty to see 
 your brother next week. We dined with Lady Clonmel yester- 
 day. Miss Valentina and Jane are very busy in buying bar- 
 gains, packing, &c. We shall all set out on Sunday morning, 
 and hope to be in Dublin on Thursday. Remember me to 
 your sister, and believe me 
 
 Most sincerely yours, &c., 
 
 J. BURNE. 
 
 Memorial from Lord Cloncurry to the Privy Council. 
 [Draft in Mr. Burne's handwriting.] 
 
 To His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council The Memo- 
 rial of Valentine Lord Baron Cloncurry. 
 
 That your memorialist was first arrested under a warrant 
 from his Grace the Duke of Portland, on the 30th day of May, 
 1798, and was kept in confinement for a period of six weeks; 
 at the end of which time, when liberated, he voluntarily offered 
 to give the Privy Council a full and faithful explanation of his 
 conduct. 
 
 That on the 14th day of April last, when your Memorialist's 
 health was scarcely restored from the effects of that confine- 
 ment, your Memorialist was again arrested under a similar 
 warrant, and has ever since been confined with a degree of 
 rigour unexampled on any former occasion, or at least rarely 
 exercised towards a person imprisoned for security, and not for 
 punishment.
 
 CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT. 91 
 
 That your memorialist, for six months past, has been totally 
 deprived of that wholesome air and exercise to which he had 
 been accustomed, and which the nature of his constitution 
 peculiarly requires; and he has been prevented from availing 
 himself of the permission to walk in one of the courts of the 
 Tower, by the mortifying restrictions under which he must 
 have taken that trifling indulgence. 
 
 That a melancholy event which has recently happened in 
 your Memorialist's family renders his presence in Ireland, at 
 this time, of the utmost importance, for the arrangement, of 
 his affairs; and if your Memorialist be permitted to go there 
 for four or five weeks, he is ready and willing to give the most 
 satisfactory security for the surrender of his person whenever 
 it may be required, or to go to Lisbon, and remain there till he 
 shall be permitted to return. 
 
 Your Memorialist therefore hopes he will be liberated from 
 a confinement which is no longer necessary for the security of 
 his person, and which can have no other effect than to injure 
 his health and embarrass his affairs. 
 
 The Diike of Portland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Whitehall, October 16, 1799. 
 
 My Lord The memorial which I received from your Lord- 
 ship on the 11 th instant has been submitted to the considera- 
 tion of his Majesty's Privy Council, who are of opinion, on 
 duly considering the same, that it is not advisable, under the 
 present circumstances, that the prayer of it should be complied 
 with. I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 Edward CooJce, Esq., to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 London, 6th November, 1799. 
 
 Dear Miss Charlotte I was much flattered by your letter, 
 because it proved your conviction that I should ever be dis- 
 posed to interest myself where your wishes were engaged. It 
 is, of course, a subject of real mortification to me that my 
 representations respecting your brother have not been success- 
 ful. Several untoward circumstances respecting him have arisen 
 even since I have been in London, which have contributed to 
 increase the reluctance which is felt to grant him his liberty. 
 These circumstances need not make you uneasy, and I will
 
 92 CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 explain them when I have the honour of seeing you, which 
 will be soon. You may have this consolation, that however 
 Lord Cloncurry's confinement may be irksome, it has not as 
 yet in any degree affected his health. 
 
 I have the honour to be, with the most sincere regard, dear 
 Miss Charlotte, 
 
 Your most faithful and humble servant, E. COOKE. 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Blackrock, Thursday, Dec. 5. 
 
 My dearest Val. However foolish it might appear to pay 
 any attention to mere newspaper intelligence, I should certainly 
 have been much alarmed yesterday, had not Mr. J. Hume's 
 very kind attention in writing on the very evening of the day 
 in which the Sun reported your illness, satisfied my mind and 
 relieved all your friends here from a momentary shock. We 
 all depend on the uncommon firmness of mind you have ever 
 shown, to prevent your suffering any material injury from vexa- 
 tions few men could support as you have done. I had a long 
 conversation with Mr. Cooke, on Sunday last. If you continue 
 in good health, I shall not go to England, which I firmly in- 
 tended, as I have good reason to think I shall see you about 
 the meeting of Parliament. 
 
 We are at present very busy emptying Merrion-street house, 
 which is let to Lord Castlereagh at 500 per annum. We pay 
 taxes. Trenor has taken a complete catalogue of the library, 
 which is packed in cases, and sent to Merrion-row, where it 
 will remain safe until its dear owner arrives. Trenor, Andrew, 
 and Fury are very snug in Merrion-row. He was wretchedly 
 ill in a poor, cold lodging at Richmond, and could not afford to 
 be in Dublin, but for your goodness. I want him to ride out, 
 for he is indeed in a bad way; but he says he cannot afford to 
 buy a horse. Mary, Valentina, and Minny send the usual in- 
 junctions, which they always think I omit. I suppose you have 
 seen her brother by this time. Poor Captain Manby is, I hear 
 from the Lees, still in Norfolk attending his dying sister. 
 What selfish beings we are ! I am always wishing him in Lon- 
 don, as his seeing you so often was an inexpressible comfort to 
 me. Mr. Reeves has not written me his bulletin for some 
 weeks. I suppose he has not been with you. 
 
 Adieu, my love, your 
 
 CHA.
 
 93 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 18001801. 
 
 Continued Imprisonment Accession to the Peerage Communication of the 
 fact of my Detention to the Irish House of Lords Their Apathy Precau- 
 tions of the Government to prevent the Exertions of my Friends Letters ; 
 from my Sister to Lord Cornwallis Colonel Littlehales' Replies Disgust 
 at the Treachery of the Government Letters; from my Sister to Lord 
 Moira Rigours of my Prison Life Comparison of the Treatment of Con- 
 victed and Untried Prisoners Intrusions of my Enemies Ingenious Attempt 
 to Rob me Letter from my Sister Complaints Letters; from the Duke 
 of Portland, from Mr. Reeves Death of my Affianced Bride Correspon- 
 dence between my Sister, Mr. Burne, and the Duke of Portland Renewed 
 Impatience of Confinement Letters to Mr. Foulkes and Mr. Burne Peti- 
 tion to the House of Commons Letters; from Colonel Smith, from Mr. 
 Foulkes Confirmed Madness of George the Third Impossibility of Renew- 
 ing the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act Liberation Letter from 
 Lord Castlereagh Proceed against the Ministers for False Imprisonment 
 Met by an Act of Indemnity My Fellow-sufferer, Mr. Bonham Letter 
 from him Return to Ireland The Miserable Triumph by which it was 
 celebrated Letter from Lord Holland. 
 
 WITH the opening of the fatal year 1800, the character 
 of my persecution became marked with a new feature. 
 Hitherto, the violence of the government had been 
 directed against a private individual ; henceforward, an 
 insult was offered to a branch of the legislature of Ire- 
 land by the arbitrary imprisonment of one of its mem- 
 bers, without cause being shown or trial or inquiry per- 
 mitted. The change of circumstances was pointed out 
 by the constitutional necessity which existed for the 
 communication of the fact of my detention to the House 
 of Peers, at the commencement of its dying session. 
 Had a spark of spirit remained in that assembly, so 
 flagrant a breach of its privileges would not have been 
 passed over without investigation, and, as a necessary 
 consequence of investigation, punishment ; but a market
 
 94 MY DETENTION COMMUNICATED 
 
 had been held, during the preceding twelvemonth, fof 
 the purchase and sale of Irish honour, spirit, and decency, 
 and the majority of my noble compeers had been dealers 
 in that traffic. Every particle of the commodities re- 
 ferred to, that could be dealt in, had been bought by 
 Lord Castlereagh and his accomplices, in the course of 
 those infamous barterings which have been recently ex- 
 hibited to the public gaze, and, I trust, to the public 
 contempt, by the imperfect but unquestionably authentic 
 publication of the private memoranda of the deceased 
 corruptionist. Men who had sold their country and 
 their own honour, some for hard cash, some for bishoprics 
 for their sons, some for the peppercorn price of advance- 
 ment in that shadowy peerage from which they were 
 themselves cutting away all reality and substance such 
 men, were not likely to trouble themselves or the minis- 
 ter, by the exhibition of any indiscreet attention to their 
 short-lived privileges, and still less by any tenderness 
 for the sufferings of an absent member. Honest and 
 highminded men had retired from the market-place of 
 corruption and dishonour, in disgust ; and so there was 
 little chance that any notice of the communication of the 
 fact of my confinement would be taken by the House. 
 It would appear, nevertheless, from the following letters, 
 that this result was not left to cbance : care seems to 
 have been taken that any exertions which my friends 
 might have been disposed to make upon the occasion, 
 should be effectually frustrated : 
 
 The Hon. Cliarlotte Lawless to Lord Cornwallis. 
 
 Blackrock, December 22nd. 
 
 My Lord My father, the late Lord Cloncurry, who felt the 
 most sincere respect for your Excellency, upon the arrest of his 
 son in London, conceived that by waiting upon you to explain, 
 as far as he knew, the causes of so painful an event, he could not 
 fail to convince you, that the imprudent conversation of a very 
 young man who keenly felt for the horrible situation of this 
 country at the period your Excellency arrived here, was his 
 only fault, and that such an explanation would interest you in
 
 TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 95 
 
 his favour. Unhappily he was dissuaded from his intention; 
 friends, whom he believed acquainted with the business, lulled 
 his anxiety with hopes that his son's confinement would be of 
 short duration, and assured him that nothing criminal or dis- 
 honourable was or could be alleged. Delay proved the fallacy 
 of these hopes ; a sudden decline of health prevented any exer- 
 tion, and soon deprived his son of his best friend. My sisters 
 and I then found ourselves alone interested and authorized to 
 interfere for a brother, whose good sense and excellent disposi- 
 tion left not a doubt on our minds but that some misrepresen- 
 tation had made his Majesty's ministers detain him in confine- 
 ment ; those who we thought could inform us here, say it did 
 not come from this country; to every inquiry we have made in 
 London, we have been answered that it depends entirely on 
 persons here to procure his freedom; we have good reason to 
 believe this is the truth. There are, indeed, many circumstances 
 which it would be impossible to enumerate on paper, but which 
 would prove that the violent party-prejudice so prevalent, and, 
 no doubt, clearly perceived by your Excellency, on your first 
 coming to Ireland, allowing no distinction between the infatuated 
 persons who encouraged rebellion and those who openly cen- 
 sured some measures pursued here, has not only injured my 
 brother's fame in private, by ascribing to him opinions he never 
 entertained and designs he holds in abhorrence, but has also 
 so misconstrued his sentiments written and spoken, as to make 
 it appear wise and necessary to prevent his liberation. From 
 the moment of his arrest he has requested an investigation of 
 whatever he is accused of, of which he is still ignorant, and now 
 that nine months' deprivation of air and exercise has much 
 injured his health, he offers the security of his whole property, to 
 be at liberty in any part of England, or elsewhere. He con- 
 veyed a message to me by a friend permitted to see him, desir- 
 ing me to acquaint your Excellency with every circumstance 
 concerning him, and to entreat your interference. Not having 
 the honour of being known to your Excellency prevented my 
 wishing to solicit an interview, and obliged me to adopt this 
 method of submitting to your consideration the very melancholy 
 situation of a brother deservedly dear to me. I understand that 
 his detention must be communicated to the House of Peers, and 
 think it probable he will expect some friends to notice that com- 
 munication; but it would be mine and my sisters' wish that no 
 public discussion should be necessary, and we are, therefore, the
 
 96 MANAGEMENT o* 1 
 
 more anxious to press the subject on your Excellency's atten- 
 tion, feeling confident that your justice and humanity would, 
 upon examination, befriend us. 
 
 With great respect, your Excellency's very humble servant, 
 
 CHARLOTTE LAWLESS. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Littlekales to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 Dublin Castle, December 23rd, 1799, Monday Night. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales presents his compliments to 
 Miss Charlotte Lawless, and, in answer to the honour of her 
 note of this day's date, Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales begs to 
 assure Miss Charlotte Lawless, that he will seize the first leisure 
 moment which may offer, to deliver to Lord Cornwallis the letter 
 to his Excellency that Miss Charlotte Lawless has intrusted to 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales' care. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 Dublin Castle, January 16th, 1800. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales presents his compliments to 
 Miss Charlotte Lawless, and begs leave to assure her, that until 
 this morning he was totally unacquainted with the message 
 which has appeared in the newspapers, relative to Lord 
 Cloncurry. 
 
 It seems that Mr. Basilico, a messenger, arrived at Dublin 
 Castle on the 14th instant, or very early yesterday morning, 
 and brought over the message in question from the Duke of 
 Portland to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales is convinced that Miss C. 
 Lawless will be satisfied with this explanation as far as relates 
 to himself, without which Miss C. Lawless must have thought 
 the verbal assurance that Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales gave to 
 her on this occasion, must have appeared in a very extraordi- 
 nary point of view. 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to Lord Cornwallis. 
 
 Blackrock, Monday, Jan. 20th, 1800. 
 
 My Lord When I first addressed your Excellency, I had 
 two objects in view to interest your humanity in behalf of my 
 brother, Lord Cloncurry, and to ascertain whether (as I had 
 been informed) any notification of his situation was to be made 
 from authority, to the House of Lords. Your Excellency was 
 pleased to send me an answer to that letter by Lieutenant-
 
 THE GOVERNMENT. 97 
 
 Colonel Littlehales, in very kind and gracious terms, for which 
 I beg leave to return my sincere thanks. Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Littlehales fully explained the reasons which must prevent your 
 Excellency's interference for my brother, unless some official 
 mention of him gave you an opportunity. As to any message 
 to the House of Peers, he told me that part of my letter had 
 not been understood by your Excellency, but that he could 
 assure me it was not in the speech from the throne, nor did he 
 think there was to be any such from his Majesty, as in that case 
 your Excellency must know of it. Fully satisfied with this assur- 
 ance, I went to Dublin to entreat the friends of my brother not 
 to mention his name at all in the House. Judge, my Lord, of 
 my surprise and mortification when I read in the public papers 
 of the next day, the message delivered by your Excellency's 
 command. It was, certainly, so worded as to leave the fairest 
 and best open for a moderate and respectful recommendation 
 from the House when they thanked his Majesty for the communi- 
 cation ; and I cannot wonder at the reproaches I now suffer for 
 having prevented the kind friends of my brother from availing 
 themselves of this only opportunity of serving him, at least, by 
 doing justice to his character. Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehalcs 
 has informed me that the directions relative to the message did 
 not arrive from England until the night of the fourteenth instant. 
 Would that I had known it but one hour before the meeting of 
 the House ! But it is now too late : the opportunity I have lost 
 can never be regained. I must relinquish all hopes of alleviat- 
 ing the sufferings of my persecuted and unfortunate brother. 
 All my solicitations in his behalf are unavailing, and all my 
 exertions baffled, unless your Lordship's good sense, and the 
 innate rectitude of your heart, lead you to perceive the injustice 
 that has been done him, and suggest to your humanity some 
 way in which you could be useful to him, and relieve the pain- 
 ful sensations I must ever feel from having erroneously restrained 
 the good intentions of his friends. 
 
 With the utmost respect, &c. &c. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Litthliales to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 Dublin Castle, January 22nd, 1800. 
 
 Madam My Lord Lieutenant has received the honour of 
 your letter of the 20th instant, relative to your brother, Lord 
 Cloncurry, and directs me to signify to you that his Excellency 
 
 F
 
 98 DISGUST AT THE 
 
 was not aware of the message respecting his situation until a 
 short period before he delivered his speech from the throne. 
 
 Had the message in regard to Lord Cloncurry arrived sooner, 
 his Majesty's commands would have been equally imperative 
 upon his Excellency; nor can he persuade himself, that bring- 
 ing the subject into discussion, on the part of his Lordship's 
 friends, could have been attended with any good consequences 
 whatsoever. 
 
 His Excellency enjoins me to repeat to you his concern that 
 it is not in his power to interfere in any degree respecting the 
 situation of Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 In consequence of the interview which I had the honour of 
 holding with you on this occasion, I beg leave to assure you, 
 that had I received the slightest intimation that the message in 
 question had reached my Lord Lieutenant, I should immediately 
 have considered myself fully authorized in communicating it to 
 you ; but I was totally unacquainted with it until, to my great 
 astonishment, I read it in the newspapers. I have the honour 
 to be, Madam, 
 
 Your most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 E. B. LlTTLEHALES. 
 
 It would be a work of supererogation to attempt to 
 guide the judgment of an impartial reader in reference 
 to this transaction. The only regret I feel in bringing 
 it to light is, that a portion of the dirt exposed in the 
 operation seems to lie upon a worthy man. Lord Corn- 
 wallis, however, like most others in his position before 
 and since, was but the humble tool of an English faction. 
 He had a viceroy over him in the person of the arch- 
 enemy of Ireland the too notorious Viscount Castle- 
 reagh. I will therefore willingly believe the statement 
 of Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales, and think that the 
 falsehood, treachery, and deceit, manifested in the affair 
 referred to in the foregoing letters, was certainly not 
 chargeable to the lieutenant-colonel who repudiated it 
 with becoming and manifestly sincere indignation, and 
 possibly might not have been known to Lord Cornwallis, 
 in such a sense as to have made his Excellency a partner 
 in the meanness. To use a Dublin-Castle phrase, I will
 
 TREACHERY. 99 
 
 set it down that " the whole matter was arranged on the 
 other side." 
 
 An act of extraordinary meanness and treachery it, 
 nevertheless, was, whoever performed it ; and as such it 
 naturally excited much irritation and disgust, not only in 
 my own mind, but in the minds of the most prudent and 
 patient of my friends. The vehemence of these feelings 
 was increased by the renewal of the act for suspending 
 the writ of Habeas Corpus, by means of which alone the 
 imprisonment of a man against whom it was confessed 
 that no crime could be proved, was continued. It had 
 all along been my anxious wish to provoke a trial, and 
 to do so, if needful, by exasperating my persecutors. 
 The urgent entreaties of my friends had hitherto turned 
 me from this course ; but now, (it would appear from the 
 following documents,) even the kindest and most patient, 
 as well as the most generous and earnest among them, 
 thought that forbearance had been pushed to its utmost 
 limits. Copies of the following letters I find in the hand- 
 writing of my sister ; the person to whom they were 
 addressed was, I believe, the Earl of Moira : 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to Lord 
 
 My Lord Amongst the painful consequences of my brother's 
 confinement, that of not having the means of communicating 
 any thing to him which should be private, is one of the most 
 injurious to him. 
 
 I have not been able to make him understand the kind inten- 
 tions of your Lordship in respect to the petition. In the im- 
 patience natural in his situation, he imagines that his sisters and 
 friends, in mistaken tenderness, refuse consent to the various 
 modes he suggests, at every opportunity, either to vindicate his 
 fame or publish his wrongs. In a packet he contrived to send 
 me lately, he desired that the enclosed letter to Mr. Pitt, and 
 another to the public, should be sent and published; and a 
 memorial, nearly as hostile, be presented to the Commons, on 
 the event of the renewing the Act of Suspension; declaring, 
 that if we prevented this being done, he would authorize a 
 person in London to have his wishes fulfilled. Alarmed, lest 
 
 F 2
 
 100 RENEWED 
 
 he should do any thing rash, we consulted those here whom we 
 thought best capable of advising, what might, with safety, be 
 done. A very moderate petition to the House of Commons 
 being approved of by every one, Mr. G. Ponsonby, who is so 
 good as to be the bearer of this letter, has undertaken the con- 
 duct of it. In the present seemingly distracted state of politics, 
 I fear the complaint of an individual is not likely to be attended 
 to. The same cause has probably prevented your Lordship from 
 putting in practice your most kind and friendly intention. As 
 I wish your Lordship to be informed of whatever steps we take 
 in this business, I have taken the liberty to inform you of what 
 is now proposed, and also of enclosing the letter to Mr. Pitt, 
 which will show your Lordship, better than any thing I can say, 
 the situation of my beloved brother's mind, under his cruel per- 
 secution. I have the honour to remain, 
 
 Your Lordship's obliged and very humble servant, 
 
 C. LAWLESS. 
 
 I must again entreat to be excused for this repeated intrusion 
 on your Lordship's attention. 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to Lord 
 
 Blackrock, Saturday, January 17th. 
 
 My Lord I had the honour to receive your Lordship's letter 
 on Thursday last, and cannot sufficiently express my obligation 
 for the contents. The construction your Lordship has had the 
 goodness to point out as liable to be given to the part of the 
 petition relative to residing in another country during the war, 
 is now very obvious to me; though I had not, when I adopted 
 that idea, considered it in any other light, than that, in the pre- 
 sent state of the country, it could not be very desirable to reside 
 here; and that my brother's health is so far injured by his con- 
 finement, as to make some change absolutely necessary ; whilst 
 his having uniformly demanded trial or liberation, and having 
 spurned with indignation, at any thing like concession, I too 
 hastily conceived as sufficient to prevent any attempt to class 
 him with " men who acknowledged criminality, and compounded 
 for the penalty of expatriation." I see that I was wrong; and 
 now enclose the petition without that objectionable proposal. 
 
 The best hope I have yet indulged of having my brother 
 restored to rne, arises from the interest your Lordship has so 
 kindly evinced; for, however anxious his just pride and con-
 
 RIGOURS OF MY PRISON LIFE. 101 
 
 scions innocence may render him to force, if possible, a public 
 investigation, I must own that, in conjunction with some of his 
 best friends, it is my wish to prevent his taking any step that 
 may make it the interest of those who have already trampled 
 on justice in their conduct towards him, to go a little further, 
 in order to justify what they have done. An appeal, by peti- 
 tion, to both houses of parliament, is a measure my brother has 
 been particularly urgent with us to adopt; but this is more 
 hostile than any thing we have yet done; and should it leave 
 no alternative but to liberate him or grant him a trial, I have 
 seen too much of what misrepresentation and perjury can do, 
 to risk pushing them so far, without much deliberation. 
 
 A petition to the Privy Council has been advised; but though 
 that could have no bad consequence, I rather hope it has been 
 deferred until the result of that your Lordship has so kindly 
 consented to present, is known. Should it not be successful, I 
 must again intrude, to have your Lordship's opinion as to the 
 propriety of a petition to parliament. 
 
 With the most sincere, <fcc. 
 
 With the foregoing I found the original, in ray own 
 handwriting, of the letter to Mr. Pitt, referred to in the 
 first. My address to the minister was not very compli- 
 mentary ; but he had earned scant courtesy from me, and 
 as he had the key of my prison door in his pocket, his 
 was the best of the battle. It is unnecessary now to 
 publish this letter ; but there is one matter referred to 
 in it which is of present interest I allude to the scan- 
 dalous system of corruption, by means of which Ireland 
 has been, and to this hour is, governed. The traffic in 
 peerages, whether as matter of sale or of purchase, is not 
 indeed now carried on to the same extent as formerly ; 
 that article, in fact, is scarcely in the market, Irishmen 
 being too poor either to buy, or be bought by it ; and so, 
 the circulating medium, by the use of which the country 
 is bought and sold, is no longer made up of earldoms, vis- 
 counties, or baronies ; but of stipendiary magistracies, vice- 
 guardianships, and retired sinecures in the Four Courts. 
 
 Meanwhile, during the course of all these ineffectual 
 efforts of my friends to stir the hearts of the authorities
 
 102 A CONTRAST. 
 
 with emotions either of justice or mercy, I was still suf- 
 fering under the unrelaxed rigours of my imprisonment. 
 Two warders (not the cleanliest of human creatures) 
 slept nightly in my small cell, which served me for re- 
 fectory and dormitory, as well as for dressing and recep- 
 tion rooms. Its windows looked upon the Tower ditch, 
 and at the door, night and day, stood an armed sentry, 
 while at each relief the whole guard entered my apart- 
 ment, and made themselves acquainted with my personal 
 appearance. Companions or associates I had none. 
 Whatever air or exercise I took was upon the leads over 
 my prison, as the shouts of " Bloody Irishman," which 
 greeted me from the mob allowed to assemble upon the 
 parade when I was brought there for exercise in custody 
 of my guards, obliged me to decline that indulgence. 
 Newspapers and books were capriciously granted, or at 
 times withheld altogether. Even a physician w r as not 
 allowed to visit me, without a special warrant from his 
 Grace of Portland. All these extremities of prison dis- 
 cipline, be it recollected, were applied to an untried and 
 innocent man ; while at the same time, and within the 
 ramparts of the same fortress in which I was thus tor- 
 tured, the Earl of Thanet, who had been convicted of an 
 attempt to rescue Arthur O'Connor, and sentenced to a 
 year's imprisonment, was suffered to enjoy all the con- 
 veniences, and luxuries, and society which his fortune 
 and rank enabled him to procure. I entertained no 
 jealousy, even at the time, of the noble earl (who was a 
 worthy, excellent man), on the score of his better treat- 
 ment ; but I mention the circumstance on account of the 
 contrast it affords to my own sufferings. 
 
 In the midst of all this rigour of seclusion, however, 
 and while the access of friends was either prohibited or 
 jealously watched, my cell was still open to enemies. 
 The visits of Mr. Cooke, having for their object (as I 
 believe) to betray me into unguarded admissions, have 
 been already mentioned.* I was also subjected to 
 
 * See page 61.
 
 INTRUSIONS OF ENEMIES. 103 
 
 another very curious intrusion. This was a visit from 
 
 Mrs. J - and Mrs. P , both at the time pretty 
 
 notorious in Ireland, and the former nearly related to a 
 learned and still more notorious lord. To my great 
 surprise, these ladies broke the solitude of my cell one 
 morning, and after many expressions of commiseration 
 and condolence, they confidentially informed me that 
 they had been enabled to visit me through the kind per- 
 mission of a friend of theirs who filled the place of chere 
 amie to the Duke of Portland, and who, they had no 
 doubt, could be induced to interfere still more effectu- 
 ally in my behalf. In short, all that was wanting to begin 
 a proceeding for my liberation, through that channel, was 
 
 a deposit of 500 in the hands of Mesdames J and 
 
 P . I declined the offer, being persuaded at the 
 
 moment that all the three ladies were engaged in a plot 
 to rob me. My two visitors, however, were not so easily 
 turned from the scent of prey ; and no sooner had they 
 left me than they waited upon one of my sisters, who 
 was at the time in London, and repeated the offer to 
 her, producing a pencil writing purporting to be from 
 myself, and authorizing my sister to advance the money. 
 She detected the forgery, and so the matter fell to the 
 ground. The light in which the ladies looked upon the 
 affair is referred to in the following letter from another 
 of my sisters : 
 
 The Hon. Cliarlotte Lawless to Lord Cloncur-ry. 
 
 Maretimo, January 6th. 
 
 If any thing could afford me a moment's pleasure, whilst your 
 persecution continues, it was the sight of a letter written by 
 you. 0, my Val., do not let your admirable fortitude forsake 
 you. Something must something shall be done, ere long, 
 depend on it. Whilst we had good reason to think that open 
 and hostile means of seeking redress would only prolong your 
 sufferings, we have forborne to use them; but think not, from 
 thence, that we could possibly be passive or unoccupied about 
 you. If our efforts have been unavailing, they have been con- 
 stant aa various, and have, I trust, at last made that impression 
 in your favour, which must be useful, now that the cruel length
 
 104 COMPLAINTS. 
 
 of your confinement, and the renewed power to prolong it, de- 
 termine us to more public exertions. Since Mr. Burne's return 
 from England, Lord Moira, whom I had requested to present a 
 memorial to the king, sent to desire every particular in regard 
 to your arrest, &c., <fec., which we could give; he has now in 
 his hands a full statement of all the proceedings of government 
 towards you, and also our well-founded suspicions of the foulest 
 private treachery. I expect daily an account of the result of 
 his presenting the memorial, which was shorter than your own, 
 but much to the same purport, and signed by me in your name. 
 Lady Clare, before she went to England, promised me that she 
 would make the Chancellor see Mr. Pitt on the subject; and 
 Mary had a conversation with Lord Clare, in which he pro- 
 mised not to be against our wishes, so that, at any rate, we 
 may, I think, depend on his not opposing what we are now 
 about to do. 1 think, with you, the memorial should go to the 
 Privy Council first, and if not immediately attended to, then 
 to parliament; and previous to being presented there, we shall, 
 without delay, enclose it to all whose support we can expect. 
 
 Mrs. P must have mistaken your character strangely, or 
 
 have been in great want of a little cash, which is much the 
 most likely. Far from acquainting me, as she told you, with 
 her manoeuvres, she cautiously concealed them ; and the first I 
 heard of her was by a report she circulated that you might 
 have been liberated if your sisters had been generous ! 
 
 God protect and enable you to get through your unexampled 
 persecution. How can I express my feelings for you, and my 
 gratitude for being once more allowed to address you. Mary 
 is here with us, and tolerably well ; she and Valentina demand, 
 with me, that you take care of yourself. 
 
 Adieu, most truly adored brother, 
 
 CHARLOTTE. 
 
 The petition to parliament shall be sent very soon. Mr. 
 Burne wished to have Grattan's opinion, that there may be 
 nothing unparliamentary objected, and goes to him, in the 
 country, for that purpose, this week. 
 
 As time wore on, the petty annoyances of my jailer 
 became intolerable, and I complained to what sort of 
 tribunal, and with what chance of success, will appear 
 in the following letters from the Prime Minister :
 
 COMPLAINTS. 105" 
 
 Tlie Duke of Portland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Whitehall, 18th February, 1800. 
 
 My Lord I have received your Lordship's letter of yester- 
 day's date, and am sorry to be under the necessity of informing 
 you that your application to be released from confinement can- 
 not possibly be complied with. 
 
 Your Lordship may be assured that what you have stated 
 with regard to the treatment you receive shall meet with due 
 attention; but, in justice to the character of Colonel Smith, I 
 cannot refrain from expressing the confidence I feel that he 
 would not suffer any unnecessary rigour to be exercised towards 
 your Lordship, nor withhold from you any accommodation that 
 the nature of your situation will admit of. 
 
 The letter which your Lordship requested me to forward to 
 your sister was despatched last night. I am, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 The Dulce of Portland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Whitehall, 16th June, 1800. 
 
 My Lord I have had the honour to receive your Lordship's 
 letter of the 13th instant, in which you express your wish that 
 the joy you feel upon his Majesty's providential deliverance 
 from demoniac wickedness may be made known to his Majesty; 
 and requiring to know why an inquiry has not been made into 
 the insults which you state to have received since your im- 
 prisonment. 
 
 With respect to the wish your Lordship has communicated 
 to me, you may depend upon my taking the earliest opportunity 
 of fulfilling it; and as to the inquiry which you state me to 
 have promised you to have made, it was made without any 
 delay; and on the result of the investigation, it did not appear 
 that the conduct of the officers in the Tower, under whose im- 
 mediate care your Lordship is placed, had been wanting in that 
 respect which is due to your Lordship, or that they had ex- 
 ceeded the duty imposed upon them by the warrant under 
 which your Lordship is committed.* 
 I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 * The truth of the latter portion of this statement was subsequently 
 confirmed to me by Colonel Smith himself, whom I chanced to meet at 
 
 F3
 
 106 COMPLAINTS. 
 
 John Reeves, Esq., to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 Tuesday, 10th June, 1800. 
 
 My dear Madam Since I received your obliging letter, I 
 made a visit to your brother, and I found him in the same good 
 health and spirits that he has enjoyed of late. He is not, 
 however, without expressing the soreness he feels from his long 
 confinement, which, indeed, is not to be wondered at. I heard, 
 some weeks ago, that there was some movement at Whitehall 
 towards a reconsideration of the cases of confinement, among 
 which your brother's would have been one ; but I do not hear 
 that any thing has been resolved upon. I should have been 
 glad to communicate this to him, but there are always persons 
 in the room when I am there, who convey to persons they like 
 to gratify every thing I should say that looks a little interest- 
 ing. Upon that point of repeating what is said and done, your 
 brother, the last time I was with him, expressed some resent- 
 ment, and mentioned the name of a person who will hear of it, 
 and, of course, not let it pass unnoticed. 
 
 He told me he had a wish to send up to his Majesty an ad- 
 dress of congratulation, but he had no pen and ink. Pen and 
 ink he certainly might have for such a purpose ; but, I suppose, 
 as it is not allowed him generally in the way he likes, and as 
 he seems to persist in his first design of not asking for, or, 
 indeed, accepting any accommodation, this design is postponed 
 till his attorney comes to town to do this for him, which, how- 
 ever, seems an odd method. 
 
 the house of Lord Moira a few days after my liberation. I happened 
 to be at breakfast with his Lordship, who was governor of the Tower, 
 when Colonel Smith came in to make his official report, and although 
 we had not parted very good friends, we then fell into conversation, in 
 the course of which the Colonel assured me that the strictness of my 
 imprisonment fell short of the point to which he was enjoined to 
 bring it. 
 
 In connexion with the scene of this accidental meeting I may men- 
 tion a curious circumstance in the history of my excellent host. Upon 
 my entering the hall of Lord Moira's house, in St. James'-place, that 
 morning, I found it filled with packages, and tradesmen with various 
 articles for inspection. There were state liveries, full dress hats, and 
 other paraphernalia suitable to the household of a Lord Lieutenant, 
 designate, of Ireland, which Lord Moira actually was at the time. He 
 did not, however, long enjoy the honour; for, before we rose from the 
 breakfast table, Lord Hutchinson came in to inform his Lordship that 
 the Prince Regent declined to carry out his engagements with his Whig 
 friends, and would not make any changes in the ministry. The cocked 
 hats and laced coats were accordingly unneeded.
 
 DEATH OF MY AFFIANCED BRIDE. 107 
 
 But with all these signs of ill -humour and resentment for 
 which, I confess, I see an excuse I repeat that he seems in 
 good health and better spirits than he used to be in. 
 
 You do me, my dear Madam, great kindness in thus laying 
 your commands upon me; and if I am to be reminded by such 
 obliging notice under your own hand, I shall have an interest 
 in being, perhaps, negligent in acquainting you regularly of our 
 friend's health. Pray make my remembrance to your sister 
 the only one, I suppose, who is now with you arid to Lady 
 Clonmel, whom I beg you to acquaint that I have been at 
 Richmond, and seen his lordship well; and that he and Dr. 
 Daltrey made me a visit. Pray tell her that, in addition to the 
 mortification I felt at going out of town without seeing her, I 
 learnt at Richmond that his lordship stayed three or four days 
 after my return. If you ever see the Lees, pray acquaint them 
 I am in the land of the living. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Madam, 
 
 Yours, ever most sincerely, 
 
 JOHN REEVES. 
 
 A circumstance now occurred that filled the cup of 
 my sufferings to overflowing, the tale of which I will tell 
 in words not my own : 
 
 The Hon. Charlotte Lawless to the Duke of Portland. 
 [Draft in my sister's handwriting.] 
 
 August 16th. 
 
 My Lord Mr. Burne, the gentleman who, by your Grace's 
 permission, was admitted to my brother, Lord Cloncurry, last 
 September, is now going to London for the purpose of trans- 
 acting some matters relative to his private business. I shall 
 be much obliged to your Grace to grant Mr. Burne the order 
 for seeing my brother, which he will solicit on his arrival in 
 London. 
 
 Seventeen months' severe confinement must surely plead my 
 brother's cause as strongly as any representation the feelings of 
 his friends could dictate. One circumstance, however, has such 
 immediate and pressing claim on the humanity of those who 
 could intercede for his release, that I cannot resist mentioning 
 it to your Grace. The amiable, interesting girl to whom my 
 brother was to have been married on the eve of his arrest, and 
 who, from that day, has declined in health, is now pronounced 
 almost past recovery. Her friends still hope some benefit from
 
 108 DEATH OF MY AFFIANCED BRIDE. 
 
 change of air. It is scarce necessary to suggest that seeing my 
 brother at liberty would be much more likely to save her life. 
 We have not ventured to hint her alarming situation to my 
 brother as yet ; but there is now a fatal necessity to prepare 
 him for the worst. Strongly attached as he is, we tremble to 
 think what he will suffer if prevented following her wherever 
 she may be advised to go. Nothing but the very urgent coca- 
 s' on could force me to mention such a subject. May I suppli- 
 cate your Grace's consideration of it, and your pardon for this 
 unavoidable intrusion. 
 
 With the utmost respect, &c., <fcc. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 London, September 1st, 1800. 
 
 My dear Miss Charlotte Immediately upon my arrival in 
 London, I wrote to the Duke of Portland to request permission 
 to see your brother; but having waited for an answer two days 
 without receiving it, I wrote again to his Grace, in terms of 
 great politeness, but some little asperity, which I thought the 
 occasion required. Very soon after, I received an answer, inti- 
 mating that an order had been issued to admit me to the Tower. 
 I went there the next morning, which was last Saturday, and 
 had the pleasure of seeing your brother as well as I remember 
 to have ever seen him before. His whole appearance indicates 
 perfect health, and his spirits retain all their former cheerfulness 
 and vivacity. I remained with him near three hours, and read 
 to him all the papers you gave me; but he declined keeping any 
 of them, for if he had, they must have been inspected by the 
 governor, with whom he is much displeased. He told me, 
 among a variety of other things, that he has now perfectly made 
 up his mind to his confinement, and that he would rather remain 
 in prison for life, than be indebted for his liberty to the inter- 
 ference of certain persons whom I shall mention when we meet. 
 He was much pleased with the account of what is doing at 
 Lyons; and, in every other respect, seemed satisfied with the 
 conduct of those who act for him. I mentioned the indisposi- 
 tion as delicately as I could, and also read the part of your 
 letter relative to her. When you write, inform me particularly 
 how she is, and what I should communicate to him relative to 
 her. As the Duke of Portland's order was merely for one inter- 
 view, I have been obliged to make another application, and hope 
 to obtain a general order as last year. I must give your brother
 
 DEATH OF MY AFFIANCED BRIDE. 109 
 
 30 out of your money, as he has immediate occasion for it. 
 We purpose going out of town on Wednesday morning to Tun- 
 bridge, where we shall stay about two or three weeks, and then 
 return to London. Direct your letters to No. 39, St. James's- 
 street, and they will be forwarded. The post is just going out, 
 so must conclude sooner than I intended. Mrs. B. joins me in 
 affectionate regards to you, Mrs. W., Miss V., &c., and believe 
 ine, most sincerely yours, 
 
 J. BURNE. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 London, September 26th, 1800. 
 
 My dear Miss Charlotte Upon receiving your letter contain- 
 ing the sad intelligence of Miss R.'s death, I was so circum- 
 stanced as to be unable to leave Tunbridge for some days, and 
 therefore, thought the most advisable thing 1 could do was to 
 write to Mr. Foulkes (who has constant access to the Tower), 
 and desire him to communicate to your brother, in the most 
 delicate manner possible, that Miss R. was most alarmingly ill 
 of a disorder with which she had been long troubled. Foulkes 
 answered my letter the next post, acquainting me that he had 
 done as I directed, and that he had written to you by your 
 brother's directions. I then wrote another letter to Foulkes, 
 informing him of Miss R.'s death, and desiring him to com- 
 municate it with all the caution and delicacy he was master of; 
 and I even suggested the terms in which he should mention it. 
 I have reason to believe my directions were accurately followed; 
 and upon my arrival in town, I went yesterday to the Tower 
 (having obtained a permanent order for admission), and had 
 the pleasure of seeing our poor friend infinitely better than I 
 could have expected, though still much depressed by his recent 
 misfortune. I sat with him near two hours, and we had a great 
 deal of conversation; but as he declined touching upon the 
 melancholy subject, I studiously avoided it. He repeatedly 
 expressed his most implicit confidence in you, and his wish that 
 you should, in every instance relative to his affairs, act accord- 
 ing to your own discretion, without consulting him. As to 
 Lyons, he approves highly of what has been done, and wishes 
 you to go on exactly in the same manner. As to the house in 
 Merrion-row, he thinks it should be sold, if the value can be 
 obtained, but not otherwise, as he is not very anxious about 
 selling it at present. He wishes you would be particular in
 
 1 1 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 inquiring whether Colonel Ryal, when here, applied for liberty 
 to see him, and was refused ? He seems highly incensed against 
 the governor; and I found it in vain to endeavour to soften his 
 resentment. He gave me orders to send him some books, and 
 seems now perfectly reconciled to his confinement, insomuch 
 that he desired me not to make any application for his enlarge- 
 ment, and declared that if he were sure of obtaining his liberty 
 by applying for it, he would not apply. Reading is his grand 
 resource, and he seems to take great pleasure in it. I am the 
 only visitor he permits to see him, and he has given positive 
 orders that all others should be excluded ; he has even desired 
 me to write to Mr. Reeves to acquaint him that he could not be 
 admitted. I shall make it my business to see him as often as 
 possible while in London. Jane desires to be remembered to 
 you, Miss V., &c. She has seen Lady C.., who goes to Rams- 
 gate to-morrow. Most truly yours, &c. 
 
 J. B. 
 
 John Burne, Esq.., to the Duke of Portland. 
 [Draft in Mr. Burne's handwriting.] 
 
 My Lord It is now upwards of a year since I first troubled 
 your Grace on the subject of Lord -Cloncurry's imprisonment; 
 and though my application was unsuccessful, I was persuaded 
 his sufferings would long since have atoned for his offences, 
 whatever they were; but I find he was doomed to experience 
 a calamity which has recently befallen him, and which infinitely 
 surpasses every thing he had previously endured. 
 
 His affections had been long engaged to a young lady pos- 
 sessed of every amiable qualification and accomplishment, who 
 had consented to become his wife; and the day for their mar- 
 riage was nearly fixed when he was arrested under your Grace's 
 warrant. This unfortunate event preyed upon the spirits of the 
 young lady, gradually undermined her health, and at length 
 she died of a broken heart about ten days ago. 
 
 It is not easy to conceive a situation so truly pitiable as that 
 of the wretched young man who has sustained this irreparable 
 loss, embittered as it is by the reflection that he was the invo- 
 luntary cause of all. Had I consulted his wishes, I should not 
 have communicated this to your Grace, because he is not now 
 anxious to be released from a confinement which corresponds 
 with the melancholy state of his mind; but foreseeing the con- 
 sequence that may arise from his present situation, even worse
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. Ill 
 
 than death, I thought it my duty to mention these circumstances, 
 and it will be for your Grace to decide whether any thing can be 
 done for the relief of this unfortunate nobleman, who has now 
 sustained a degree of punishment for any offence he may have 
 committed, infinitely greater than any human lawa ever inflicted 
 on the most atrocious offender. So far as a regard for the 
 public safety might interfere with his liberation, I think that 
 if your Grace would allow me the honour of an interview with 
 you for a very few minutes, I could suggest a mode by which 
 every ground of apprehension on that account might be effec- 
 tually removed. 
 
 The Duke of Portland to John Burne, Esq. 
 
 London, Friday evening, 3rd October, 1800. 
 
 Sir I should have returned an immediate answer to the 
 letter you wrote me on the 29th of last month, had I not been 
 desirous, in consideration of the melancholy circumstances with 
 which you acquainted me respecting Lord Cloncurry, of finding 
 my own opinion erroneous, and that I might be advised that I 
 could be enabled to accede to your wishes. I therefore commu- 
 nicated your letter to his Majesty's law servants (whose absence 
 from town prevented my receiving an answer from them till 
 to-day), and I am very sorry to acquaint you that it contains 
 an unqualified confirmation of the opinion I had formed, that a 
 Secretary of State has not the power of bailing on commitment 
 for that species of offence which is the cause of Lord Cloncurry'a 
 confinement in the Tower*. I therefore will not give you the 
 trouble of calling upon me. 
 
 I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND, 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Duke of Portland. 
 [Draft in Mr. B.'s handwriting.] 
 
 My Lord I have been honoured by your Grace's obliging 
 answer, acquainting me with the opinion of his Majesty's law 
 servants " that a Secretary of State has not the power of bail- 
 ing on commitment for that species of offence which is the cause 
 of Lord Cloncurry's confinement in the Tower." I return your 
 
 ' His Grace does not specify what that offence was. His silence 
 was prudent ; as the offence of being obnoxious to the servants of the 
 crown could not readily have been found in the statute-book, even in 
 those days.
 
 112 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Grace my sincere thanks for this polite communication, but 
 though it is not so favourable as I expected, I think I can per- 
 ceive the natural humanity of your heart appearing through 
 your letter; and, therefore, I venture, with the most profound 
 respect, to ask your Grace, whether there be any other channel 
 through which a similar application might be made with any 
 probability of success, or whether there be any mode in which 
 this unfortunate young man can be relieved 1 His sufferings are 
 now so acute that some intercourse with his friends seems essen- 
 tial to his preservation; and yet I, who am almost his only 
 friend in England, must leave this country in the course of two 
 or three days; my distracting anxiety for his fate, when I can 
 no longer afford him any consolation, will, I am sure, induce 
 your Grace to pardon me for troubling you so often. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Duke of Portland. 
 [Draft in Mr. B.'s handwriting.] 
 
 8th October, 1800. 
 
 My Lord I cannot recollect that any letter which I have 
 had the honour of addressing to your Grace, deviated in the 
 least from that degree of respect to which your rank and situa- 
 tion entitles you; and yet I must presume that some uninten- 
 tional impropriety has escaped me, and prevented your Grace 
 from noticing my last application on behalf of Lord Cloncurry. 
 Contrary to the wishes expressed by his Lordship, I ventured to 
 acquaint your Grace with a misfortune of the most afflicting 
 kind, which he had sustained in consequence of his confinement, 
 and which I conceived amply sufficient to fill up the measure of 
 his sufferings. I also took the liberty of mentioning, that I 
 could suggest an effectual mode by which the rigour of his con- 
 finement might be mitigated, without any possible risk as to 
 the security of his person or the public safety; and as the only 
 objects of his confinement must be to punish for past and to 
 guard against future offences, and as the former of these objects 
 had been already so fatally fulfilled, and I was ready to point 
 out a mode of fulfilling the other, I confess I entertained the 
 most sanguine hopes of receiving a favourable answer; but I 
 have the double mortification of being unable to obtain any 
 relief for my unfortunate friend, and of experiencing a degree 
 of neglect to myself, which I assure your Grace, I am utterly 
 unused to, and never intentionally merited.
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 113 
 
 The Duke of Portland to John Burne, Esq. 
 
 Bustrode, Thursday, 9th October, 1800. 
 
 Sir I am extremely sorry to find by the letter I have 
 received from you this morning, that my answer to yours of 
 the 29th September has never reached you, and that it has been 
 owing to some inadvertence of which, though I was not aware, 
 I must acknowledge that I am wholly to blame. However, after 
 long search having recovered my letter, I send it to you exactly 
 in the same state in which I put it out of my hands, by which 
 you will be convinced that every attention was paid to your 
 representation, with which it depended upon me to treat it. 
 I am, sir, your very humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 The Duke of Portland to John Burne, Esq. 
 
 Bustrode, Sunday, 12th October, 1800. 
 
 Sir As I should not be justified in giving you any encou- 
 ragement to expect that there is any channel through which an 
 application for the liberation of Lord Cloncurry can be made 
 with any probability of success, I think it most becoming to 
 avow the opinion, and to dissuade you from the attempt. I am 
 not aware that Lord Cloncurry has ever been denied the relief 
 which the intercourse of his friends could afford him, and you 
 may depend upon my being disposed to allow him every indul- 
 gence which the cause of his confinement will admit of being 
 shown to him. 
 
 I am, sir, your most obedient and humble servant, 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to the Hon. Charlotte Lawless. 
 
 My dear Miss Charlotte I have seen your poor brother two 
 or three times since my last letter, and he still continues to pre- 
 serve that firmness under his accumulated sufferings which was 
 scarcely to be expected. I have spoken very little to him on 
 the late event; but as Colonel Cockburn enclosed to me an 
 extract from Miss R.'s will, I thought it advisable to communi- 
 cate it to him, but in such a manner as not to shock his feelings. 
 He listened with all the composure which great sensibility, 
 governed by an excellent understanding, would permit. I urged 
 him, as strongly as I could, to take care of his health, and used 
 every topic of consolation that occurred to me ; but I was happy
 
 114 RENEWED IMPATIENCE 
 
 to find my advice unnecessary; for he assured me, that the more 
 he suffered the more anxious he would be to take care of his 
 health, in order that he might be able, at a future day, to assert 
 his innocence, and show his resentment. I encouraged this sen- 
 timent, and thimk it will be the means of preserving him. He 
 never looked better than at present, and I think you need not 
 be uneasy about his health ; but he sees nobody except me, and 
 has given orders that all other visitors, of whatever description, 
 should be refused admission. Soon after my return to town, 
 I wrote to the Duke of Portland, mentioning, among other 
 matters, the death of Miss R., the cause of it, and the dreadful 
 addition such a misfortune must make to the sufferings of our 
 poor friend. I waited a week without receiving any answer, and 
 then determined to write again to his Grace, complaining, in 
 pointed terms, of the contemptuous silence with which he had 
 treated me. In answer to this letter I received two letters from 
 his Grace, written in his own hand, and enclosed under one 
 cover. In the first he apologises for not noticing my letter 
 sooner, but assures me it was owing to some inadvertence in not 
 sending the answer, which he had written several days before. 
 The other enclosure was that answer, in which he mentions that 
 he had laid my letter before his Majesty's law servants, and that 
 they were of opinion " a Secretary of State could not bail for 
 the offence for which Lord Cloncurry was committed;" and, there- 
 fore, he says, it is useless to give me the trouble of the interview 
 Avhich I had solicited. All this appears manifest fabrication and 
 evasion ; but still I wrote him a polite answer, thanking him for 
 his communication, and requesting he would tell me was there 
 any other mode by which I could obtain relief for my injured 
 friend? To this I expect an answer to-morrow; but, at all 
 events, as he has alluded to the law affairs, I intend waiting on 
 the attorney-general next Monday, with little hope, however, 
 of doing any good. I ordered the Courier and Review to be 
 sent, and hope you have received them before this. Jane has 
 just received your letter, and all your commissions shall be 
 attended to. I am to see your brother on Tuesday, and shall 
 mention every thing you desire. I also intend to make some 
 arrangements for hearing of him regularly. We are to leave 
 this on Wednesday night, if nothing important prevent us. 
 Remember us to Miss V., and believe me, dear Miss Charlotte, 
 
 Every truly yours, 
 
 J. BCRNE.
 
 OF CONFINEMENT. 115 
 
 Four weary months of suffering succeeded the event 
 to which the foregoing letters refer ; but not until the 
 date of the following do I find among my papers any 
 evidence of renewed exertions for the attainment of my 
 liberty : 
 
 Lord Cloncurry to John Foulkes, Esq. 
 
 Tower, January 1st, 1801. 
 
 My dear Mr. Foulkes The papers I now send you, and those 
 I before troubled you with, contain a rough sketch of pretty 
 nearly all I can think of relative to my unfortunate situation, 
 my sufferings, and their causes. I am now convinced that no 
 other means of relief is in my power than the chance of pro- 
 voking an examination, or a trial, by declaring all those truths 
 which ministers hoped to bury in my prison and my grave. 
 You know well how to proceed; but I fear my good friend Mr. 
 Burne, may be fearful of taking those decided steps I am now 
 determined upon. I must, therefore, request that you will have 
 my petition to parliament printed and presented as soon after 
 the meeting as possible; if it is unsuccessful, you will then have 
 it published in the papers and magazines; and as soon as they 
 introduce the bill to renew the suspension of the Habeas Corpus 
 Act, you must publish my letters to Mr. W. Dundas, Mr. Pitt, 
 and the Public : you may then follow it up as you can, for I 
 shall not have an opportunity of writing to you again; but if 
 nothing else can be done, I may be removed, at least, to country 
 air. I have prepared a short memorial for the Privy Council, 
 which, whenever you can call, I shall have written out, and 
 presented, as a last effort in that way. The following adver- 
 tisement, if it can legally be published in the papers, would 
 serve me much. 
 
 " Whereas, I have received several letters from unknown 
 
 writers, stating that one , of the public office in Bow-street, 
 
 had endeavoured to prevail on the writers, and on others, to 
 commit perjury, by offering them large rewards if they would 
 charge me with certain political crimes, and falsely swear to 
 the same. Now, being actuated by a desire of public justice 
 and of self-preservation, I hereby offer a reward of 200 to any 
 
 person who will prosecute the said , or the writers of the 
 
 above-mentioned letters to conviction. 
 
 " CLONCTJRRY. 
 
 " London, January 1st, 1801,''
 
 116 RENEWED IMPATIENCE OF CONFINEMENT. 
 
 You will be so good as to send copies of all the papers to 
 Mr. Burne; for, as I scrawl them in my bed, they may be made 
 much more perfect; and after they are printed in the news- 
 papers, they may be put all together in a pamphlet; and they 
 must be followed by several spirited paragraphs, which I will 
 pay for. I could send you a long account of the ill-treatment 
 all the prisoners receive here, but I think it better to say no 
 more at present. 
 
 I was very sorry to hear you were ill, but hope soon to see 
 you well and strong ; for you are my right hand now. Pray 
 have every thing ready for the meeting of parliament. Do not 
 be fearful of publishing. Keep duplicates of every thing you 
 send me, or bring for signature. Tell Mr. Burne what I have 
 said, as I cannot write again; if you have nothing from him, 
 tell the bearer when you expect it, for yours truly, 
 
 C. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry to John Burne, Esq. 
 
 My dear Burne I declare to you, in the most solemn man- 
 ner (what I hoped you never had doubted), that I am as totally 
 innocent of all political crime or treason as the child in the 
 womb. No charge ever was made against me; and I, myself, 
 read the warrant which committed me to the Tower on sus- 
 picion. In '98, I was arrested merely by advice from Ireland; 
 and the only questions put to me by the Lord Chancellor 
 Loughbo rough were "If I was a United Irishman?" and 
 "Why I subscribed to defend Coigly at Maidstone?" No 
 papers on politics were found on me, for I never had such. 
 In '99, when I was again arrested, I was questioned by Mr. 
 Pitt, who said he had positive information that I had been at 
 a meeting where a plan was laid for making United Irish 
 Societies in London. I answered, it was not so; but that I 
 would answer no questions whilst in custody. You know, my 
 dear B., that if I was at such a meeting, it was not a crime. 
 But ministers know well I had no secret politics. I pray you, 
 therefore, do not let my friends alone deem me guilty, and 
 stoop to ask favours, where the plan I have proposed is so much 
 nobler. But if they prefer the begging system, I must desire 
 Foulkes to act without further consultation. 
 
 C. 
 
 Send me the 50 I wrote for.
 
 PETITION TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 117 
 
 Petition of Lord Cloncurry to the House of Commons. 
 
 To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of 
 Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, the hum- 
 ble petition of Valentine Lord Cloncurry sheweth 
 
 That your petitioner was arrested on the 30th day of April, 
 
 1798, by virtue of a warrant signed by the Duke of Portland, 
 one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state, on a charge 
 of suspicion of high treason. That some days after, he was 
 brought before several of his Majesty's ministers, where many 
 questions were put to him by the Lord Chancellor, which he 
 refused to answer. Some days after, whilst petitioner was yet 
 in confinement, John Reeves, Esq., a friend of petitioner's, came 
 to inform him that his Majesty's ministers would liberate him 
 on bail; which, however, petitioner refused, saying, that besides 
 the injustice of demanding bail from a person who could not be 
 accused of crime, he had a large fortune depending on his 
 father's good opinion, and could not submit to any thing which 
 could leave a doubt of his innocence and loyalty. This your 
 petitioner repeated to his Majesty's ministers, when he was 
 brought before them the latter end of June, in the same year. 
 But Mr. Reeves, who was then in an adjoining room, being 
 called in, he, at the suggestion of the Lord Chancellor, volun- 
 teered himself as bail for petitioner; who, immediately on his 
 being liberated, offered, of his own accord, to answer all ques- 
 tions his Majesty's ministers could put to him, relative to his 
 conduct; and, accordingly, he had an explanation with the 
 Lord Chancellor, which he hoped would have removed all the 
 unjust suspicions of his Majesty's ministers. 
 
 And so confident was your petitioner of the innocence and 
 rectitude of his own conduct, that when he afterwards went to 
 Harrowgate for the recovery of his health, he did not hesitate 
 to enter into matrimonial engagements, which, with his father's 
 consent, were to have taken place the following year. But how 
 cruelly was he disappointed, when, on the 14th day of April, 
 
 1799, he was dragged from his bed, on a warrant from the Duke 
 of Portland, for suspicion of treason, because, as Mr. Pitt told 
 him, some days after, when brought before the Privy Council, 
 there was information that petitionerwas incompany with United 
 Irishmen, in February, 1797. This your petitioner declared his 
 total ignorance of; but he prayed to be confronted with his 
 accusers, or liberated, as his prospects in life would be ruined
 
 118 LETTER FROM COLONEL SMITH. 
 
 if he did not fulfil the engagements he was then under. Peti- 
 tioner then expressed his respect for government, hut declined 
 answering questions which might be so twisted as to injure him. 
 He was then remanded, and afterwards brought before Messrs. 
 
 and , of Bow-street ; but refused to speak with such 
 
 gentry, especially as petitioner had reason to suspect of 
 
 robbery and subornation of perjury. Petitioner was then (May 
 8th, '99) committed to the Tower, and thrown into the room 
 belonging to the lamplighter of that fortress, whence he was 
 afterwards removed, by the humanity of the governor, into a 
 somewhat better apartment, but still very unfit for a prison, 
 being a low garret, admitting the heat of summer, and the 
 winter's rain. In this room he has been confined, with two 
 other persons, for near two years, and treated with greater 
 severity than any prisoner in the Tower ever has been. The 
 walk which other prisoners used is debarred him, and he cannot 
 have the use of his limbs, unless he submit to be exhibited and 
 insulted on the public parade. His rest is hourly disturbed, at 
 night, by a sentry placed within two yards of his bed; and 
 though he has repeatedly complained to his Majesty's minis- 
 ters of his unprecedented ill-treatment, he could obtain no 
 redress. Petitioner, however, feels confident that the humanity 
 of this House will put an end to his cruel (and, he hopes to 
 prove, unjustifiable) sufferings sufferings so great, that if his 
 mind did not revolt at the name, he would prefer the death of 
 a traitor a thousand times before them. A very large part of 
 his landed property is out of lease, and uncultivated; his con- 
 finement has cost him above one hundred thousand pounds ster- 
 ling, the life of a kind and beloved father, and of a betrothed 
 wife. In short, life would be no longer supportable to him, if 
 he did not hope for an opportunity to vindicate his character, 
 and to prove his wrongs, which he firmly hopes from the justice 
 and humanity of this honourable House. And he will ever 
 pray, &c. 
 
 Colonel Smith to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Tower, 17th January, 1801. 
 
 Colonel Smith has the honour to acquaint Lord Cloncurry, 
 that he this day put into Mr. Falkener's hand his Lordship's 
 letter, having first obtained authority from Mr. King (in the 
 absence of the Duke of Portland) so to do. 
 
 Colonel Smith is desired by Mr. Falkener, to present Mr.
 
 LETTER FROM JOHN FOULKES. 119 
 
 Falkener's compliments to Lord Cloncurry, and to say, as every 
 prisoner now confined in the Tower was committed under the 
 warrant of his Majesty's Secretary of State, and not hy any 
 order of the Privy Council, Mr. Falkener cannot take any other 
 cognizance of it, than by putting his Lordship's letter, as deli- 
 vered to him, into the hands of the Duke of Portland; and that 
 as soon as Mr. Falkener receives his Grace's sentiments upon,, 
 it, Mr. Falkener will have the honour to transmit to Lord 
 Cloncurry his answer. 
 
 John Foulkes, Esq., to the Hon. Miss Lawless. 
 
 London, 14th February, 1801. 
 
 Madam I flatter myself you will pardon my having so long 
 delayed answering the letter I had the honour of receiving from 
 you at the close of last month, when I say it has not been from 
 forgetfulness or inattention that I have done so, but from the 
 daily hope of being able to send a more satisfactory answer 
 than I yet can do. A day or two before the receipt of your 
 letter, Lord Cloncurry had received one from Mr. Falkener, 
 the Clerk of the Privy Council, the contents of which led me 
 to expect that early attention would be paid to his Lordship's 
 memorial. This expectation induced me to put off my answer 
 to your letter from day to day; but no further notice having 
 yet been taken of the memorial, and the distracted state of his 
 Majesty's councils at this time rendering it improbable that it 
 should immediately be attended to, I will not longer delay my 
 answer to your letter. Indeed I would not so long have suf- 
 fered you to remain in the anxious suspense you must have 
 felt, had I not sent a private packet to Mr. Burne, which was 
 calculated to relieve that anxiety, and, in some measure, to 
 answer the queries contained in your letter. 
 
 With regard to the change of ministry, I will just observe, 
 that, although it may delay the answer to the memorial, it can- 
 not, I think, be ultimately unfavourable to it. Undoubtedly we 
 are not to expect a change of system; but I cannot persuade 
 myself that a case of individual oppression will be more likely 
 to find supporters in the new administration than the old, or 
 that the new will take upon themselves the odium of following 
 up an oppressive measure merely to vindicate their predecessors 
 in that measure. If, therefore, the memorial we have presented 
 to the Privy Council is not answered speedily after the new
 
 120 LIBERATION. 
 
 ministry is formed, and Lord Moira's is unsuccessful with liia 
 Majesty, I think it may be useful to present others to the new 
 Secretary of State, Privy Council, and Parliament; still keep- 
 ing aloof from all asperity and accusation ; the new ministry 
 being little else than an emanation from the old. 
 
 My answer to the queries contained in your letter, be assured, 
 shall be given candidly, and without disguise. 
 
 I do not think your brother's health or spirits have suffered 
 so far from his confinement, as to make his liberation desirable 
 on any terms that shall either derogate from his honour, or 
 injure his fortune; but certainly his spirits, and the impatience 
 f his sufferings, appear to be such (as he has himself described 
 them), that if the terms upon which you seem to think his 
 liberty might be obtained are of a description that will neither 
 affect his honour nor his fortune (with regard to the former of 
 which, in particular, I know the feelings of his friends are in 
 perfect unison with his own) if the terms are of that descrip- 
 tion, I think they should be accepted. 
 
 From all I have learnt from his Lordship, and know from 
 other quarters, I will add, I have but little apprehension from 
 the result of a trial in England; but his discharge upon any 
 tolerable terms without a trial, would, nevertheless, be preferable. 
 In my opinion, therefore, the pushing a trial is a thing not to 
 be resorted to, until all other means to vindicate his character, 
 and obtain his freedom, have been tried in vain. I am, with 
 great respect, Madam, 
 
 Your obliged and very obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN FOULKES. 
 
 About this period the madness of George III. had 
 assumed a character which rendered it impossible longer 
 to delay the adoption of special arrangements for the 
 carrying on of the government. To this subject the 
 attention of ministers and the legislature was of course 
 exclusively turned, and in the meantime it was found 
 impossible to procure another renewal of the act for 
 suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus. The result was 
 rny enlargement on the 3rd of March, 1801. I was set 
 at liberty, after nearly two years' confinement, without 
 the slightest alteration of circumstances in reference to 
 the charges or suspicions against me, having taken place
 
 INDEMNITY OF MINISTERS. 121 
 
 between the time of my arrest and that of my discharge. 
 Uncondemned, untried, my case uninvestigated, I had 
 been imprisoned during that period with cruel rigour. 
 At the end, I was dismissed from my cell without form 
 or ceremony, beyond the entering into my own recog- 
 nizances to be forthcoming when called upon. The fol- 
 lowing note was the closing of the ministerial account 
 with the subject of their persecution : 
 
 Lord Castlereagh to Lord Clvncurry. 
 
 Cleveland-square, 9th March, 1801. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh presents his compliments to Lord Clon- 
 curry, and takes the earliest opportunity of informing his 
 Lordship, that there is no impediment whatever to his return 
 to Ireland, whenever it may suit his Lordship to go thither. 
 
 No sooner did I find myself free, than I directed my 
 solicitor to commence proceedings against the authors 
 of my misfortunes, less with a view to attaining com- 
 pensation for wrongs which could not be balanced by 
 money damages, than for the purpose of bringing the 
 whole affair before the public, and relieving my charac- 
 ter from the stain which a punishment so severe as that 
 inflicted would naturally attach to it, in the minds of 
 persons unacquainted with all the circumstances. Here 
 again, however, I was struggling with a too powerful 
 enemy. My actions for false imprisonment, against the 
 Duke of Portland and Mr. Pitt, were stopped by a 
 bill indemnifying those persons from all the conse- 
 quences of their arbitrary acts ; and this bill was passed 
 through both Houses of Parliament (I think) in a single 
 night. 
 
 Mr. Bonham, whose name was so often mentioned in 
 connexion with the attempt made to fix a shadow of a 
 crime upon me, was set at liberty along with myself. 
 He was, I believe, throughout, equally innocent as myself 
 of any crime beyond those to which I have confessed. 
 He was in the habit, as far as his means permitted, of 
 relieving our destitute fellow-countrymen who applied
 
 122 LETTER FROM JOHN BONHAM. 
 
 to him in London during the years 1797-8 ; he also had 
 listened to a ribald song or two at the " Free and Easy " 
 club in Furnival's Inn. This, I sincerely believe, was 
 the head and front of his offending ; but for this he 
 was, at the time of my second arrest in 1799, dragged 
 from his temporary home in the Isle of Man, and im- 
 prisoned in the Tower with equal rigour as myself. The 
 lesson had an effect upon him that it did not produce 
 upon me he left prison, I suppose, a wiser man, for he 
 shortly afterwards embraced Tory tenets with great 
 ardour, and in after years paid me many visits at Lyons, 
 with the express purpose of converting me to that faith, 
 which he firmly held to the hour of his death. He was 
 a kind-hearted, simple-minded man, upon whose tem- 
 perament Tower discipline was calculated to make a 
 lasting impression. How he felt seven or eight months 
 after his escape into the free air, may be judged of from 
 the following letter : 
 
 John Bonham, Esq., to Lord Cloncui'ry. 
 
 Bath, 6, Sion Hill, 18th October, 1801. 
 
 My dear Lord Many thanks for your truly kind and gene- 
 rous letter; but thanks so long deferred, that you must have 
 but a slight opinion of my gratitude. I can only say that my 
 feelings were then, as they ever will be, of the warmest kind 
 towards you, and the few I know like you. But, alas ! I am 
 compelled to own I was afraid to correspond with you. Is it 
 possible, then, that fear should have had such an effect on a 
 mind once not the weakest 1 
 
 Not fear of death; for death I have suffered a thousand 
 times: but fear of what must ever be unintelligible but to those 
 who have suffered the tortures of "that many chambered 
 tomb." 
 
 In such a state of miserable despondency and broken spirit, 
 resolving to live only for my family, I took a pleasant little 
 box and garden in the environs of Bath, and engaged it for a 
 year. Here I have gradually recovered my health; and a sea 
 excursion to Tenby, where we have passed six weeks, with 
 constant bathing, had almost completed my renovation, when
 
 RETURN TO IRELAND. 123 
 
 the glad tidings of peace sounded in my ears ; that would alone 
 have healed in a moment the wounds of an age of woe. 
 
 Man is now man again ; he has for nine years been worse 
 than demon, or whatever else can be imagined of evil. 
 
 The change it will make in your Lordship's situation, must 
 be incalculable. Insult upon insult must have been your lot in 
 these countries. And for what cause? The suspicion of being 
 a friend to freedom. All is now otherwise. Happiness, the 
 most exalted, is now within your reach; and in that of the 
 poorest wretch who lately crawled upon the earth. * 
 
 After sighing so long for a blessing now within my grasp, I 
 cannot bear to lose a moment of enjoyment. My whole 
 thoughts are, therefore, now turned to the means of being 
 amongst the foremost to set foot on the land of freedom. 
 
 The recognizances, I believe, must be discharged before I 
 can move. I wish for your opinion on that subject; and shall 
 write to Foulkes for his advice. I cannot conceive that any 
 difficulty will be made about that, or about passports, or any 
 other impediment, after the definitive treaty shall be signed. 
 
 Adieu for the present; answer me when you think proper, 
 with the same frankness I have used, and believe me, under all 
 circumstances, most unchangeably, 
 
 Your devoted friend and humble servant, 
 
 JOHN BONHAM. 
 
 My futile attempt to obtain redress having been made 
 and frustrated, I returned to Ireland after a few months, 
 and arrived in Dublin upon the day of Lord Chancellor 
 Clare's funeral, when a curious circumstance occurred. 
 The mob, irritable from their recollection of the atroci- 
 ties of the rebellion and the treacheries of the Union, 
 had shown indications of a disposition to wreak their 
 vengeance upon the corpse of one whom they esteemed 
 among the chief of their enemies ; and, from hooting 
 and throwing dead cats at the hearse of the deceased 
 Chancellor, it was feared they would proceed to a more 
 mischievous assault upon his house in Ely-place, within 
 a few yards of my own residence. Under these circum- 
 stances the Countess of Clare no sooner heard of my 
 arrival than she appealed to me for assistance, and en- 
 treated that I would protect her house by my presence, 
 
 G 2
 
 124 LETTER FROM 
 
 It was by a triumph so miserable as this that my return 
 to my country, after an imprisonment of two years in a 
 strange land, was celebrated. A more agreeable occur- 
 rence marked the occasion of my first visit at this time 
 to Maretimo. The news of my expected arrival had 
 spread through the neighbouring village of Blackrock, 
 and, when the carriage appeared, a large concourse of 
 people crowded after it into the court-yard, where a 
 strange, affecting scene was witnessed by them. The 
 Duke of Leinster was standing on the door-steps waiting 
 to receive me. It was our first meeting since we had 
 been arrested together, at my lodgings, in London, in 
 the spring of 1798, and in the interval poor Edward 
 Fitzgerald had passed through the last tragic act of his 
 life. The Duke had come to greet me with a cheerful 
 and joyous welcome. When the time came he fell 
 upon my neck and wept aloud before all the people. 
 
 In closing the account of my imprisonment, I cannot 
 deny myself the pleasure of citing opinions respecting it 
 and other minor persecutions to which I was afterwards 
 subjected, uttered long after the events by one whose 
 knowledge of the British constitution will be no more 
 doubted than the manly candour and simplicity of his 
 personal character : 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Brussels, July 8, 1817. 
 
 My dear Lord Your letter, which had followed me to 
 Dover, did not reach rne till yesterday. 
 
 Your kind expressions are very gratifying to me, and, cer- 
 tainly, are much beyond the very slight services, if such they 
 were in any sense, which it was ever in my power to render you. 
 
 I recollect very distinctly your imprisonment and persecution 
 in 1798 and 1799, and I think that a temperate and guarded 
 account of the whole of that transaction, if you do not feel any 
 personal objections to reviving the subject, might make some 
 impression on the public, because, if I am not much mistaken, 
 your case, especially in the latter part of your imprisonment, 
 approached more nearly to those of the lettres de cachet, in old 
 France, than any that occurred under Pitt's suspension of the
 
 LORD HOLLAND. 125 
 
 Habeas Corpus. Am I not right in thinking that whatever 
 were the motives or the pretexts of your original arrest, your 
 long detention was owing to private suggestions of convenience ; 
 and that during the latter period of your confinement, there was 
 not even the affectation of suspecting you of treason, much less 
 the profession of any intention of ever bringing you to trial ? 
 In short, I should feel very much obliged to you, if, on my 
 return to England next October or November, you would fur- 
 nish me with a detailed account of the whole transaction, stating 
 to me if there is any part of it which you would not like to be 
 mentioned in public. 
 
 With respect to the refusal of your son-in-law's application 
 in favour of his sister, it seems a very ungracious one in sub- 
 stance, and by your account of it, a still more unjustifiable one 
 in form, as it amounts nearly to a breach of promise; but the 
 grant of a title of courtesy is certainly a mere matter of favour 
 and grace, and, therefore, neither in parliament nor in public, 
 can the reasons of withholding it be with any propriety or any 
 effect canvassed or censured. The exercise of a prerogative 
 may, indeed, be canvassed, but even then one must have a very 
 strong case to make any impression; to censure the crown for 
 not conferring a favour would, with some reason, be argued to 
 be taking the prerogative of conferring those favours from the 
 crown, and giving it to parliament. With respect, too, to the 
 removal of magistrates, it is so completely in the Chancellor's 
 discretion, that though he may, and I dare say has exercised 
 it injudiciously, and even harshly, nothing, I conceive, but the 
 proof of corrupt motives would justify the interference of par- 
 liament, 
 
 Yours, ever truly, 
 
 YASSALL HOLLAND.
 
 126 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Changes observable on my Return to Ireland Reminiscences of Friends Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald His Affectionate and Enthusiastic Character The 
 Earlier and the Later Designs of his Patriotism Separation from England 
 an Afterthought Its Foundation in the hopelessness of Prosperity co-exist- 
 ing -with Political and Social Dependence Neither Individual Men nor 
 Nations grow to Maturity without Self-reliance Why not adopt Lord Dur- 
 ham's Colonial Policy? Lord Edward's Religious Sentiments His Bravery 
 Refuge of Lady Edward in my Father's House Seizure of her Effects 
 there Capture of the supposed Great Seal of the Irish Republic The True 
 History of that Instrument Curious Error in Treasonmongering and in Co- 
 temporary History Reversal of Lord Edward's Attainder, and my Trustee- 
 ship of his Estate William Duke of Leinster His Political Views Efforts 
 of the Government to drive him into War Outrages committed on him. and 
 their Favourable Effects upon his Fortune Arthur O'Connor Character of 
 the Movement of which he and Edward Fitzgerald were Types Patriots of 
 those Days Men of Substance and Independence Archibald Hamilton 
 Rowan His Personal Characteristics His Chivalry Letters from Pe- 
 destrian Tour in company with him and Sir Thomas Frankland An Inter- 
 view with Sir Richard Arkwright Rowan's Social Position His Means of 
 Livelihood in America Our Last Interview Thomas Addis Emmett 
 M'Nevln Bond Sampson Robert Emmett General Lawless His Nar- 
 row Escape His Success in France Letters ; from Chancellor Ponsonby ; 
 from General Lawless The Rebel General Aylmer His eventful History 
 Curran His brilliant Social Qualities His Decline after the Union 
 Misunderstanding between him and George Ponsonby Monument to Amelia 
 Curran Grattan His Transplantation to the English House of Commons 
 His Opinion of the Union Political Lesson deducible from that Measure 
 Letter from Grattan Patrick Lattin Wogan Browne His Dismissal 
 from the Magistracy for kicking Football His Narrow Escape from being 
 Hanged Characteristic of Irish Misfortune exhibited at his Funeral Mr. 
 Henry A led Captain. 
 
 MANY sad events had occurred in Ireland during my 
 lengthened absence. Upon my return, many a gap was 
 visible in the ranks of my friends and associates. Of 
 those whom I had left, in 1797, full of hope for the 
 future of their country, some had been roughly cut off 
 in mid-career; others were in exile or captivity; the
 
 CHANGES. 127 
 
 remnant were sunk into despair and apathy. I had left 
 Ireland a nation containing within her society, it is true, 
 the germs of corruption and dissolution, but yet not 
 altogether destitute of seeds of better promise ; I found 
 her a miserable province, her social system a mass of 
 rottenness and decay, from which it was scarcely pos* 
 sible for the most ardent fancy to conceive that aught 
 good could spring. Those who sold the public cause 
 had either sunk into the collapse of shame and remorse 
 which ever supervenes upon a dishonest bargain, or had 
 fled from the scene of their perfidy and dishonour. The 
 Protestants of the middle classes were furious against ^ 
 their Catholic fellows for the share they had taken in 
 promoting the Union ; the Catholics were disgusted at 
 the withholding of the price for which they had sold 
 themselves to that anti-national part the clergy had not 
 been paid their promised* stipends; the laity heard 
 nothing further on their expected emancipation ; the 
 peasantry, smarting under military execution, were sullen 
 and vindictive. 
 
 There was little in such a home to soothe feelings out- 
 raged as mine had been, and accordingly I determined, 
 very soon after my arrival in Ireland, to leave it again 
 for a few years, the moment I could place my disordered 
 affairs in a working condition. Before, however, I enter 
 upon the recollections of the next period of my life, 
 which I spent abroad, I will pause for a little, and en- 
 deavour to call to mind a few traits of some of those to 
 whom I have alluded, as having passed from the scene 
 during the preceding three years, or as still lingering 
 upon it, rather as memorials of former action than as 
 participators in passing events. 
 
 In the first category is included the name of my dear 
 friend, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, than whom I have not 
 known a more high-spirited or single-minded man. In - 
 poor Edward there was united the most tender and affec- 
 tionate heart, with the firmest courage and the most 
 * See Castlereagh Memoirs, passim.
 
 128 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 
 
 disinterested patriotism. His love of country was a 
 principle, which he strove to carry into practice with 
 that earnestness which actuates a thoroughly conscien- 
 tious man, when he fights in a war of opinion for the 
 cause he believes to be right. It was no prompting of a 
 vulgar ambition that impelled Edward Fitzgerald, but at 
 first a strong conviction that Ireland could neither be free 
 nor prosperous unless her legislature was purified and 
 her people all made equal in the eye of the law ; and 
 afterwards, when the hope of effecting these reforms 
 vanished, a belief that no remedy remained but a sepa- 
 ration from England and a committal of her destinies to 
 her own guidance, for good or for evil. As I have 
 already said, I shared at the time, fully and ardently, in 
 his first-formed conviction, though in his more mature 
 conclusion I did not then participate. After half a cen- 
 tury of vain watching for the signs of regeneration after 
 hope upon hope for better times having been extinguished 
 in my breast after witnessing and aiding in a long suc- 
 cession of convulsive struggles, each weaker and less 
 effectual than the last, I often ask myself was Edward 
 Fitzgerald right or wrong in his conviction, and the 
 answer is forced with irresistible power upon my mind, 
 that there is no remedy for the increasing feebleness and 
 imbecility of Ireland no chance for her people of emer- 
 gence from the slough of placehunting, and sycophancy, 
 and base subserviency, in which they are plunged no 
 means of restoring self-reliance and mutual confidence to 
 Irishmen, save in a measure which should lessen her de- 
 pendence for support upon a parasitic connexion with 
 a greater political body, and force her to put forth 
 roots and branches sufficient for her own sustenance. 
 Who that has known an Irish squirearch family, has 
 not seen a brother or uncle, a Master Tom or a Master 
 Dick, who, for sixty years of solar time, has been an 
 occupant of the Hall or Castle, yet, in the estimation of 
 himself and all around, is still a frolicsome or stupid boy, 
 whom no one would think of trusting with any duty
 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 129 
 
 more important than that of mixing punch, or purveying 
 game for the family table? Would those ancient and 
 indiscreet youths have continued in their state of feeble 
 nonage, had the severance of their parasitic connexion 
 with the parent stem forced them to exert their energies 
 in the battle of life ? The whole Irish nation, great and 
 small, seems to me but an aggregate of Master Toms and 
 Master Dicks, whom political and social dependence 
 hand-feeding to-day, and snubbing and whipping to-mor- 
 row has kept in a condition of boyish immaturity and 
 feebleness. There are in the dark caverns of the Styrian 
 mountains, animals that have grown and grown in their 
 embryo state, until they have far overpassed the ordinary 
 standard of their size ; but, wanting the maturing ope- 
 ration of the sun's rays, they have never become deve- 
 loped into the perfection of their kind. So it is with 
 the Irish people : they have grown into gigantic chil- 
 dren ; but, deprived of the wholesome stimulus of self- 
 government, they have never become men. The experi- 
 ence of half a century has brought me to concur in the 
 conclusion of Edward Fitzgerald, that nothing short of a 
 virtual separation between the governments of England 
 and Ireland, as complete as that between Canada and 
 Britain, can afford the smallest relief to those miseries 
 into which the ill-arranged connexion has plunged both. 
 Many signs indicate an approaching disruption of the 
 crazy fabric of the British empire. Would to God ! that 
 the statesmanlike policy recommended by Lord Durham, 
 in reference to our transatlantic colonies, could be under-, 
 stood and more generally applied by our public men. A. 
 separation of the British provinces there will and must, 
 be sooner or later probably much sooner than, any one 
 dreams of. Why should it not be made by friendly 
 hands ? Why should it not be a partition among breth- 
 ren, rather than a furious and bloody scramble among 
 incensed co-parceners in a spoil ? 
 
 Among the remarkable features in Lord Edward's 
 character was a very strong religious belief. He was a 
 
 o3
 
 130 CAPTURE OF THE GREAT SEAL 
 
 sincere and devout Christian, and a steadfast member of 
 the Protestant Church, in which he had been brought 
 up. I have had opportunities of witnessing attempts, 
 persevering and repeated, to shake his convictions on 
 these matters, but they were always unattended with 
 success, although manifestly productive of much pain to 
 his affectionate heart. These religious feelings, acting 
 in combination with his strong love of country and 
 anxious desire to relieve the sufferings of his fellow- 
 countrymen, impressed upon his patriotism a character 
 of solemn enthusiasm that supplied the place of com- 
 manding talent, and well fitted him for influencing men. 
 It is to this peculiarity, perhaps, that the veneration 
 which still attaches to his name in Ireland, is, in a great 
 degree, to be attributed. 
 
 One other popular quality was also possessed by Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, in a remarkable degree : he was 
 brave to a fault. The events of his early military life, 
 as well as those of his closing scene, sufficiently establish 
 his courage and spirit : but I may mention an occurrence 
 which I recollect showed those qualities off to the great 
 admiration of the populace. He happened, on one 
 occasion, while troops were encamped upon the Curragh 
 of Kildare, to ride across the field dressed in a green 
 neckcloth. This obnoxious garment was noticed by four 
 or five officers, who approached the wearer, and ordered 
 him in an insulting manner to remove it. Lord Edward 
 replied by inviting the whole party together, or singly, 
 to come and take the handkerchief from his neck, if they 
 dared. The invitation was respectfully declined, and 
 the parties slunk back into their mess-tent, before which 
 his lordship rode back and forward several times. 
 
 At' the time of Lord Edward's arrest, his wife (the 
 well-known Pamela) had taken refuge with my sisters ; 
 and was, at the time, in my father's house in Merrion- 
 street, though without his knowledge. She was pursued 
 there by the police in search of papers ; and some which 
 she had concealed in her bedroom were discovered and
 
 OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC. 131 
 
 seized. Among other prizes taken, I believe, upon this 
 occasion, was a seal, pronounced by the quid-nuncs of 
 the Castle to be the intended great seal of the Irish re- 
 
 gublic. In Appendix, No. 23, of the Report of the 
 ecret Committee of the Irish House of Commons, 
 printed in 1799, there is an engraving of the impression 
 of this seal "found in the custody of Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald, when he was apprehended,"* together with 
 the following description : " In a circle, Hibernia hold- 
 ing in her right hand an imperial crown over a shield. 
 On her left hand is an Irish harp, over it a dagger, and 
 at its foot lie two hogs." 
 
 It was but lately that this engraving, and its descrip- 
 tion, fell under my notice, when in the former, much to 
 my surprise, I recognised an old acquaintance, the little 
 history of which may be amusing now, when the treason- 
 mongering mistake it discloses is no longer likely to open 
 a path to the scaffold. 
 
 The seal which the Committee of Secrecy looked upon 
 with so much horror, was a cast from an original cut 
 for me by Strongitharm, the celebrated gem engraver, 
 during one of my earliest visits to London. The device 
 is a harp, from which Britannia (not Hibernia) has re- 
 moved with the right hand, not an imperial but an Irish 
 crown, and planted a dagger in its stead. Her left hand 
 is represented as breaking the strings of the harp ; at 
 the foot of which lie, not two hogs, but two Irish wolf- 
 dogs sleeping at their post. All this is very plain to be 
 seen, even in the vignette of the Secret Committee.. 
 Britannia is arrayed in her ordinary helmet ; and her 
 shield, bearing the cross of St. George, lies beside her ; 
 the crown in her hand is as unlike the imperial crown as 
 can well be imagined; it is manifestly the old Irish 
 pointed diadem. The seal itself was not designed for 
 the broad seal of the Irish, or of any other republic ; but 
 was simply a fancy emblem which I chose to illustrate 
 my patriotic enthusiasm ; just as the oak tree, with its 
 * Report from Committee of Secrecy, pp. 32 and 94.
 
 132 
 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 
 
 motto of "Quiet good sense," which I hare already 
 described, was selected for the device of his seal, by my 
 friend John Reeves, in ty pin* cation of his ultra-toryism. 
 From the original, which is a fine cornelian, and is still 
 in my possession, I had a few casts made in glass, by 
 Tassie of Leicester-square a well-known artist of the 
 day. One of these casts, given to me by Lord Edw r ard 
 Fitzgerald, became renowned in story under the impri- 
 matur of the Committee of Secrecy. In order to relieve 
 poor Strongitharm's memory from the stain of having his 
 Britannia mistaken for Hibernia, and his dogs for hogs, 
 I have had the engraving of the Committee copied in 
 the annexed vignette. Of the identity of the two seals 
 the curious reader may satisfy himself, by comparing the 
 vignette on this page with that at the end of the chapter, 
 
 which exhibits my original design. It will serve to 
 commemorate a curious instance of a foregone conclusion, 
 and to express, not inaptly even now, my own views of 
 the dealings of Britannia with her sister. 
 
 Of the dying moments of Edward Fitzgerald, I, of 
 course, had no personal knowledge ; but when he was 
 subsequently attainted, I wrote to the tenants upon his 
 small estate, and, as the result, not a farthing of rent was 
 ever paid by them to the crown. This barren acquisi- 
 tion was subsequently relinquished : the attainder was 
 reversed, through the exertions of the present Duke of 
 Leinster, and the estate vested in myself, as trustee for 
 Lord Edward's children.
 
 ARTHUR O'CONNOR. 133 
 
 In connexion with this slight notice of Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald, I may say a word or two of his brother, 
 William Duke of Leinster. This nobleman, although 
 deeply imbued with the liberal and patriotic feelings 
 which have ever distinguished his family, was in no way 
 connected with any of the secret projects of the national 
 party. He was, upon every occasion) ready to take his 
 constitutional place, as the first of the Irish nobility, in 
 fighting the battle of the country in parliament, but was 
 not driven, by the unconstitutional triumphs of venality 
 and corruption in that arena, to change the scene of con- 
 flict. Yet, every thing that could be done was done to 
 force him to the adoption of that alternative. When 
 Lord Edward became obnoxious to the law, Leinster 
 House was ransacked in the most insulting manner, in a 
 search for criminatory documents ; and when the rebel- 
 lion broke out, a number of the houses in the Duke's 
 town of Kildare were wantonly burned, and several of 
 his tenants hung upon the elm trees in the avenue 
 leading to his house at Carton. It is a curious fact, that 
 both these brutal outrages involved incidents productive 
 of very considerable advantages to the subject of them. 
 By the burning of the houses in Kildare, a wholesale 
 clearance of an idle and mischievous tenantry was 
 effected, much to the benefit of the property, but which 
 his Grace's kindness of heart prevented him from accom- 
 plishing. Among the tenants hanged, to annoy the <^' 
 landlord rather than to punish the immediate sufferers, 
 was, I believe, a man upon the fall of whose life a num- 
 ber of leases expired, and a considerable addition to the 
 Duke's income immediately accrued. So shortsighted 
 do men often show themselves, in doing the bidding of 
 their evil passions, no less than in their attempts to ac- 
 complish good. 
 
 My old friend, Arthur O'Connor, is, I am happy to 
 say, not only alive, but actively engaged in the prepara- 
 tion of memoirs of his long and eventful life. He will 
 tell his own tale ; but I cannot write his name upon the
 
 134 ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN, 
 
 same page with that of Edward Fitzgerald without re- 
 flecting upon the peculiar character of the national 
 movement of which these two men were types as well 
 as leaders. In casting in their lot with those who de- 
 sired to reform and regenerate their country, and who, 
 in pursuit of that end, went the extreme length of trea- 
 son, both O'Connor and Fitzgerald proved their sincerity 
 by putting in jeopardy the most enviable positions which 
 men could attain to in Irish society. To both, the road 
 to high station and wealth was open ; both unhesitatingly 
 struck off into a narrower path tbat seemed to lead them 
 towards the good service of Ireland, but that eventually 
 conducted the one to exile and disinheritance, and the 
 other to a violent death. Arthur O'Connor would have 
 inherited the estate, and, in all probability, the title of 
 his uncle, Lord Longueville, whose borough he repre- 
 sented in parliament, had he followed his lordship in 
 supporting the government : his sincere conviction was, 
 that to do so would be to oppose the cause of his coun- 
 try, and he acted in accordance with that conviction. 
 
 I have said that O'Connor and Fitzgerald were types 
 of the movement in which they led ; and so it was, in 
 fact. The Irish patriot leaders of those days were, 
 almost without exception, men of substance and station. 
 Pro patrid mori did not then mean an apotheosis to a 
 secretary's office, or to a seat on the bench, or to a poor- 
 law vice-guardianship. Men staked on the cause of their 
 country, property, and liberty, and life : the cry of 
 "Places, Places" for poor patriots had not then pre- 
 occupied the public ear. 
 
 An instance strongly in point to the observation I 
 have just made, was afforded by another of my early 
 friends, If ever knight-errantry was realized in ancient 
 or modern days, it wa,s embodied in Archibald Hamilton 
 Rowan. Endowed with a figure of the grandest pro- 
 portions, he possessed a mind guileless and romantic to 
 a degree that, if depicted in a novel, would be looked 
 upon as forced and incredible. Confident in his great
 
 ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN. 135 
 
 strength and courage, and prompted by his generous 
 feelings, he was always ready to undertake the redressal 
 of the wrongs of distressed damsels or of the needy and 
 oppressed of either sex; it was not, therefore, matter 
 of wonder that he should have devoted himself with a 
 hearty enthusiasm to the cause of the relief of his 
 suffering country. He did so in the purest spirit of 
 patriotism, and with the most entire disregard of his 
 personal interests; and, up to his last moments, like 
 feelings continued to influence him. The following 
 letters show how he still felt towards the close of his 
 long career, even though the signs of the working of 
 time are manifest upon them : 
 
 Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Killyleagh, 13th November, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord In my eightieth year, and retired, as well 
 as forgotten by the busy world, except by a few like yourself, 
 it was with pride and pleasure I received your letter [in answer] 
 to Mr. Murphy's circular letter, because it seems to me that we 
 agree, that the question of the principle of every country being 
 governed by its natives, who can best know its wants, nor the 
 necessity of the legislative union being dissolved [will not be 
 compromised], by waiting to see the effects of Sir H. Har- 
 dinge's motions. I therefore send you (the only copy I have 
 given) of a letter I wrote to him this week. 
 
 I am, my dear friend, your sincere friend, 
 
 ARCH. HAMILTON ROWAN. 
 
 Copy of a Letter to Sir Henry Hardinge. 
 
 Castle of Killyleagh, County Down, Ireland, 
 
 10th Nov., 1830. 
 
 Sir Having the nomination of the seneschal of this manor, 
 I yesterday signed a notice, to be posted in the news-room of 
 this town, advising the inhabitants to invite the seneschal to 
 call a meeting of those in his district who might be of opinion 
 that parliament, constituted as it is, would assuage the present 
 ferment, by passing some laws, and repealing others, which 
 press upon the people, and are, in reality, a disgrace to a coun- 
 try, enjoying the same constitution, the same laws, and the 
 game king, from which may we never be separated.
 
 136 AftCHIBAiD HAMILTON ROWAN. 
 
 But, by the papers of this day, I- find that- you have given- 
 notice of your intention of pursuing that course in parliament. 
 I have this day withdrawn the notice I alluded to, and remain, 
 very respectfully, 
 
 Tour obedient servant, 
 
 A. HAMILTON ROWAN. 
 
 Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Rathcoffey, 2nd May, 1834. 
 
 My Lord I send you a copy of the original charter of the 
 borough of Killyleagh ; from it you will perceive that all the 
 inhabitants of that town are freemen, but, by the purchase of 
 government from Mr. Blackwood, are deprived of that invalu- 
 able right, of being represented in the imperial parliament. 
 
 It is in their favour alone I wish for your interference (should 
 their petition be presented, and you be in the house), without 
 any reference to my claim, except as a friend of those who are 
 thus disfranchised. Scarcely able to hold a pen, 
 I remain yours, most sincerely, 
 
 AKCH. HAMILTON ROWAN. 
 
 Those who remember the streets of Dublin thirty 
 years since, can scarcely have forgotten that gigantic 
 old man, in his old-fashioned dress, and with his follow- 
 ing of the- two last of the race of Irish wolf-dogs.* His 
 appearance then, however, could scarcely convey a notion 
 of what he was some five-aud-twenty years earlier, when 
 he and I made a pedestrian tour of England together, 
 and when, as I well remember, his practice at starting 
 from our inn, of a wet morning, was to roll himself into 
 the first pool he met, in order that he might be before- 
 hand with the rain.t The laurels were then fresh which 
 
 * I have been reminded that Rowan's dogs were of a Danish breed, 
 though called by him and generally supposed to be Irish wolf-dogs. 
 The last existing specimen,of the true Irish wolf-dog was, I believe, 
 in the possession of the first Marquis of Sligo. 
 
 + Rowan and I were accompanied upon this pedestrian tour by Sir 
 Thomas Frankland, and a pleasant party we made. Frankland was a 
 man of very considerable ability ; but what he chiefly valued himself 
 upon, was his lineal descent from Oliver Cromwell, a fact with which 
 he assailed Sir Richard Arkwright, much to the astonishment of that 
 ingenious knight. In passing through Derbyshire, we were desirous
 
 ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN. 137 
 
 he had won by the performance of a grand feat, under 
 the eyes of Marie Antoinette, and of which he was not 
 a little proud. He had run a foot race, in presence of 
 the whole French court, in jack-boots, against an officer 
 of the Garde du Corps, dressed in light shoes and silk 
 stockings, and had won with ease, to the great admira- 
 tion of the queen, who honoured him with special marks 
 of her regard. 
 
 When I first knew Rowan, he was master of a fortune 
 of full 5.000 a-year, upon which, however, his philan- 
 thropic escapades caused heavy drafts. He had always 
 some adventure upon hands ; and two or three of these, 
 in which he rescued distressed damsels from the snares 
 and force of ravishers of rank, made a good deal of noise 
 at the time ; the particulars being made known by means 
 of a private printing-press, which he kept in his house, 
 ready for such occasions. During the period when he 
 was obliged to take- refuge in America, he was frequently 
 in pecuniary distress, owing to the uncertainty with 
 which remittances reached him from home ; and I recol- 
 lect his telling me, that he was for a good part of the 
 time indebted for a livelihood to his mechanical know- 
 ledge, which was very considerable, and enabled him to 
 take charge of a cotton factory in New York. The last 
 time I saw him was at his house of Rathcoffey, in the 
 county of Kildare, where I went for the purpose of intro- 
 ducing to him Lady CampbeH, the daughter of Lord 
 
 of visiting Sir Richard's factory, and accordingly presented ourselves 
 at his door, and sent in our names, requesting permission to see the 
 works. The old gentleman was not, I believe, very willing to submit 
 the niceties of his machinery to the public gaze, and he certainly showed 
 us no particular courtesy. We were kept waiting in the hall for a con- 
 siderable time ; and when, at length, Sir Richard made his appearance, 
 in his morning gown and nightcap, the permission he gave us to enter 
 his factory was a very gruff and unwilling one. We, nevertheless, 
 made use of it ; but not before Frankland had read Sir Richard a lecture 
 upon his discourtesy and failure in the respect that was proper to be 
 shown by a person in his position to a gentleman who, like himself, 
 was a descendant of the great Protector. The old barber treated the 
 house of Cromwell with great contempt but he did not withdraw the 
 leave he had granted to us to see his looms.
 
 138 GENERAL LAWLESS. 
 
 Edward Fitzgerald, who was on a visit at Lyons. He 
 was unable to leave his room, and but the mummy of the 
 former Archibald Hamilton Rowan ; yet that the spirit 
 of the preux chevalier, who had won the smiles of the 
 Queen of France, still lived in that skeleton, was abund- 
 antly manifested in the affectionate gallantry with which 
 he received and greeted the daughter of his early asso- 
 ciate and friend. 
 
 With both the Emmetts, and with M'Nevin, Bond, and 
 Sampson, I was familiarly acquainted ; and I can say of 
 them all, with equal truth, that they were altogether 
 uninfluenced by mean or sordid motives ; and that, by 
 the part they took, they made sacrifices of property and 
 station not inferior to those of the leaders whose names 
 I have already mentioned, although their different posi- 
 tion in life rendered the circumstance less remarkable. 
 Thomas Addis Emmett was a barrister, with good pros- 
 pects ; Dr. M'Nevin was a physician in considerable prac- 
 tice ; and Bond and Sampson were, the former a merchant, 
 and the latter a respectable member of the bar. When 
 I left Ireland, in 1797, Robert Emmett was a mere boy, 
 but full of talent, enthusiasm, and kind feeling. Both 
 brothers dined with me in Paris the day before Robert 
 returned to Ireland for the last time previous to his fatal 
 outbreak ; and although that catastrophe was not then 
 thought of, I remember the most urgent entreaties being 
 vainly used by his friends, to dissuade him from a visit 
 which all felt to be full of danger to him, and the sad 
 consummation of which so fully justified those gloomy 
 forebodings. 
 
 To some of those Irishmen who were forced to fly from 
 their country by the events of '97 and '98, their exile 
 was but the opening of a career more brilliant than that 
 from which they had been removed, and in the fortunate 
 list I may, perhaps, include General William Lawless. This 
 gentleman, who was a distant relative of my own, was a 
 medical man, in good practice in Dublin, and a professor 
 in the College of Surgeons. He, however, fell very early
 
 GENERAL LAWLESS, 139 
 
 Tinder the suspicion of the government, and with great 
 difficulty made his escape, getting, as I have heard, on 
 board a vessel, in the disguise of a butcher's man and 
 carrying a side of beef upon his shoulder. He did, 
 nevertheless, get safely to France, and having entered 
 the army, in due time rose to the rank of major-general. 
 The blot in his fortune was the loss of a leg in battle, 
 but he lived many years after that occurrence, and was 
 in good consideration with Bonaparte and his soldier- 
 noblesse. 
 
 In connexion with his name, the following letters 
 may, even at this distance of time, not be devoid of 
 interest : 
 
 Chancellor Ponsonby to Lord Cloncurry. 
 [Private and Confidential. ] 
 
 Ely-place, January 21st, 1807. 
 
 My clear Lord I trust you need not be assured how happy 
 I shall always feel in being able to comply with any wish of 
 yours, and I shall therefore do all in my power to serve Mr. 
 Lawless in the way you desire, but I must at the same time 
 apprize you, that I have already interested myself for Mr. 
 Jackson and for Mr. Sweetman, and therefore, in justice to 
 them, cannot allow my application for Mr. Lawless to interfere ; 
 but if I can also serve him I will, for my own opinion is, that 
 where the person applying to be restored to his country is one 
 of irreproachable private character, and the sincerity of his pro- 
 fessions of attachment to its government can be depended on, 
 he ought to be allowed to return. I am, my dear Lord, with 
 great respect and regard, 
 
 Your faithful, humble servant, 
 
 GEO. PONSONBY, C. 
 
 General Lawless to Lord Cloncurry. 
 [Extract.] 
 
 Paris, 15th August, 1815. 
 
 I have to acknowledge the letters confided to Sir Charles 
 Morgan and Mr. Nolan. I profit of the latter to send this, 
 and will again write by Lady Morgan. I like extremely this 
 lady : she is agreeable, witty, and with as little conceit as can be
 
 140 THE REBEL GENERAL AYLMER. 
 
 found in a woman of her merit. I think of her husband just as 
 your Lordship. From Mr. Nolan I learned much details that 
 interested me; he is a frank, honest fellow, and he gave me a 
 full account of the improvements and beauties of Lyons, the 
 good consideration and respect in which the owner is held, and 
 with how much wisdom and real philosophy he walks the rugged 
 paths of this insignificant world. Your Lordship does not 
 seem to have known that I enjoy the rank of mareschal-de- 
 camp, equivalent to major-general in the English service. Mr. 
 Nolan was surprised to find me only with one leg. I thought 
 I had communicated, long since, all these details. The English 
 papers which I saw were very much vexed with the king for 
 promoting me; the truth is, my commission was in Bonaparte's 
 portfeuille at the period of his first dethronement. If I had not 
 had the misfortune to lose my leg, I should have been now 
 lieutenant-general ; however, I must not complain. If ever the 
 common saying, " Things might be worse," carried with it con- 
 solation for disappointment, it is in the present state of the 
 world. I hope the accounts we have here from the other side 
 are exaggerated ; if we are to believe the half, it is bad enough. 
 The situation of the United Kingdom must strike every [one] 
 as not to stay as it is it must be worse or better. The com- 
 munications are now so frequent that it deprives us of the 
 pleasure of giving news, yet I apprehend those who come see 
 things through a very false medium. I mean to profit of Lady 
 Morgan's departure, and write a long letter. I must conclude 
 this, by soliciting once more your Lordship's patience for a 
 very short time, and I trust I will make amends for delays and 
 disappointments. I remain, my dear Lord, with great respect, 
 and the truest sense of obligation, 
 
 Your servant and friend, 
 
 W. LAWLESS. 
 
 A still more curious romance of real life was the his- 
 tory of the r ; ebel General Aylmer, whose adventures 
 deserve a short record. He belonged to an ancient and 
 respectable family in Kildare ; his father, who was a 
 tenant of Mr. Wogan Browne, possessing a small here- 
 ditary estate not far from my house of Lyons. In the 
 year 1796, William Aylmer was a lieutenant in the Kil- 
 dare Militia, and was. quartered, with his. regiment in the
 
 THE REBEL GENERAL AYLMER. 141 
 
 cainp at Loughlinatown, near Bray, to which I was in 
 the frequent habit of going, to dine with the Duke of 
 Leinster, then colonel of the Kildare regiment, and, also, 
 to visit General Crosbie, the chief in command. Upon 
 one of those occasions I was accompanied by Mr. Samp- 
 son, who was at the time in the full blossom of his 
 United-Irish sins ; and then Aylmer and Sampson became 
 acquainted, and an intimacy was begun> which ended in 
 a full conversion of the former to the political opinions 
 of his new friend. On the occasion alluded to, Sampson 
 illustrated the reckless character of his zeal by privately 
 scattering political tracts and patriotic songs, among 
 the huts, as he walked through the camp after dinner. 
 Nevertheless, he was able to influence Aylmer, who, in 
 the course of a year afterwards, was promoted from his 
 lieutenancy in the Royal Militia, to a general's command 
 in the rebel army. In that position he maintained a 
 struggle for a considerable time in the county of Kildare, 
 and, finally, fought the battle of Ovidstown with so much 
 skill, as to be able to make a capitulation with the King's 
 troops, under the terms of which his life was spared. 
 His career at the head of his little army, during this 
 campaign was a bijou of valour and enterprise ; but was 
 chiefly distinguished in the estimation of the country 
 people by the chivalrous generosity with which, when 
 in great distress for provisions, he spared the smaller 
 farmers but levied his forced contributions, with an 
 unsparing hand, upon the herds and flocks and granaries 
 of his own father. After some time, Aylmer was allowed 
 to leave the country, and I observe among the Castle- 
 reagh papers, a letter complaining of his being permitted 
 to be at large about the streets of London. Eventually 
 he entered the Austrian service, in which he distinguished 
 himself so much, that he was appointed to command the 
 escort that attended Maria Louisa, on her return from 
 Paris to Vienna, after the fall of Napoleon. One of the 
 spoils of this expedition, a fowling-piece, from the Ex- 
 Imperial Armoury, was afterwards presented to me by
 
 142 CURRAN AND GRATTAN. 
 
 Aylmer, and is at present at Lyons. When the allied 
 sovereigns visited London in 1814, Aylmer accompanied 
 the Emperor of Austria, and, upon the request of the 
 Prince Regent, he was selected and left in England to 
 teach the sword exercise to the British army. His im- 
 mediate pupils were the 1 Oth Dragoons, and he conducted 
 himself so satisfactorily in his task, that he received a 
 free pardon, and was presented with a handsome sword 
 by the prince. After this, Aylmer settled in his native 
 county, where his constitutional activity led him into a 
 quarrel with the Duke of Leinster's gamekeepers. Much 
 mortified at being interrupted in some of his sporting 
 excursions over the Duke's preserves, he complained to 
 me, and I brought him to Carton to negotiate a peace. 
 This visit he thought it right to make, attired in his full 
 Austrian uniform, with sabre and helmet, a display that 
 somewhat surprised his Grace. The pursuit of hares 
 and partridge, however, soon ceased to interest Aylmer's 
 stirring mind, and he joined General Devereux in head- 
 ing an expedition of Irish sympathisers, designed to aid 
 the South American patriots, then in the beginning of 
 their struggle under Bolivar. He fought, as I have 
 heard, bravely at the battle of Rio de la Hache, where 
 he received a wound that caused his death, shortly after- 
 wards, at Jamaica, whither he and several others were 
 conveyed in a small vessel during the heats of a tropical 
 summer. 
 
 Among those devoted friends of Ireland, whom her 
 enemies failed to destroy or banish, but whose sun set 
 together with that of their country, in the fatal Union, 
 the most considerable were certainly Curran and Grattan, 
 with both of whom I was for many years upon terms of 
 the closest intimacy. Those great men have already 
 found fitting biographers ; and it is not in my power to 
 add much to the interesting memorials of their lives, 
 that have been given to the world by those whom nature 
 pointed out as the most proper undertakers of such a 
 task. The more brilliant the hours of social intercourse,
 
 CURRAN. 143 
 
 the less fixed are the traces they leave upon the memory; 
 and, pleasant as are my recollections of days and nights 
 enlivened by the continued flashing of Curran's exhaust- 
 less wit, or brightened by the warm glow of G rattan's 
 eloquence, yet feeling the entire vanity of any attempt 
 to convey a notion of these cheering remembrances to 
 another mind, I place the venerated names upon my page, 
 rather as a record of friendship, than with any hope of 
 being able to add to the light that surrounds them. 
 
 I have said that the sun of Curran's career set with 
 the Union ; and such was the fact, although it was sub- 
 sequently to that event that he attained his highest pro- 
 fessional position. He then, indeed, became Master of 
 the Rolls ; but the spirit of hope for his country, that 
 had formerly sustained him through many a hard strug- 
 gle, no longer lived within him, or animated his political 
 exertions. In former times he was wont to say that he 
 " could fight for Ireland even though cut down to his 
 jurymasts" by the persevering enmity of Lord Clare, 
 which drove him from the Court of Chancery, and forced 
 him into the more popular, though less profitable, chan- 
 nel of nisi prim practice. Those times had now gone 
 by, and with them had passed away much of that lofty 
 ambition which had raised Curran to the highest point 
 in the affections and admiration of his fellow-country- 
 men. After the Union, though he never compromised a 
 particle of political principle, yet, even to him, the idea 
 of simple unplaced patriotism ceased to seem tenable, 
 and he sank by what other word can I describe Curran's 
 approach towards office ? without further struggle, into 
 the ranks of an English political faction. 
 
 As the consequence of this new direction of Curran's 
 views, an agreement was entered into between him and 
 George Ponsonby, to the effect that the former would 
 take the second Irish law appointment under a Whig 
 ministry, in which the latter was to have the first that 
 is to say, that Curran should be Attorney-General when- 
 ever Ponsonby should be Chancellor. When the time
 
 144 CURRAN. 
 
 arrived, however, this arrangement was rendered null 
 and void by the obstinate refusal of Lord Ellenborough 
 to act in a cabinet which should sanction the appoint- 
 ment of Curran as Attorney-General for Ireland. Of 
 this circumstance no mention was made at the time by 
 Ponsonby, nor did he communicate at all on the matter 
 with Curran, until, at the instance of .the latter, who 
 was then on a visit at my house, a mutual friend, Mr. 
 John Burne, wrote a letter of expostulation and inquiry 
 to the new Chancellor. This led to an explanation, in 
 the course of which Ponsonby told Curran that he had 
 secured for him the Mastership of the Rolls, as a better 
 place than the Attorney-Generalship ; but that he should 
 settle a retiring pension, I think of 500 a-year, upon 
 the person who was then Deputy-Master of the Rolls. 
 This Curran refused to do, declining to be a party to 
 any transaction bearing a resemblance to the purchase 
 of an office. After the matter had been productive of a 
 good deal of unpleasantness, it was finally concluded by 
 Curran's becoming Master of the Rolls, and George 
 Ponsonby himself settling the pension upon the retiring 
 deputy from his own resources a contingency which he 
 ever afterwards made the subject of complaint, though 
 unreasonably, as the original bargain, as 1 have stated 
 it, was a precise and definite one, binding each party 
 to protect the interests of the other in any negotia- 
 tion for the acceptance of office. I can speak from 
 positive knowledge that Curran's own wish was to 
 reject the compromise of the Attorney-Generalship for 
 the Mastership of the Rolls, and that he only agreed 
 to accept the latter place at the urgent instance of 
 his family, and, from the beginning, positively refused 
 to undertake the payment of a shilling, in the shape 
 of compensation money, out of the proceeds of the 
 office. 
 
 Restrained within the narrow routine of judicial duties,, 
 even Curran's early patriotic ardour could scarcely have 
 survived ; damped, as it already was, by the prostration
 
 GRATTAN. 145 
 
 of his country, it thenceforward showed no signs of 
 vitality, save in the low mutterings of habitual com- 
 plaint. 
 
 My friendship with Curran and his family was for 
 many years of the closest and heartiest kind. During 
 the past year (1848) I had the melancholy satisfaction of 
 marking my recollection of it, by causing a memorial of 
 her own worth and of my continued esteem, to be placed 
 near the final resting-place of the eldest of his daugh- 
 ters. A tablet, designed and executed by Hogan, and 
 bearing the following inscription, has been erected in 
 the Church of St. Isidore, at Rome, within the last few 
 months : 
 
 " AMELIA CURRAN WAS THE MOST 
 TALENTED AND VIRTUOUS DAUGHTER OF 
 
 JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN, 
 
 WHO FEARLESSLY PLEADED THE CAUSE OF HIS COUNTRY AND HIS 
 OPPRESSED FELLOW-CITIZENS, BEFORE CORRUPT JUDGES AND HOSTILE JURIES. 
 
 THEY WERE TRUE PATRIOTS. 
 
 TO THEIR MEMORY THIS TABLET IS INSCRIBED BY 
 
 THEIR SURVIVING FRIEND, VALENTINE, SECOND 
 
 LORD CLONCURRY." 
 
 The setting of Grattan's sun in the clouds of the 
 Union, although not less complete, was yet marked by 
 a more prolonged twilight than that which attended the 
 closure of the course of his great colleague and friend. 
 Grattan was transplanted into the English legislature, 
 and his reputation as an orator and a statesman outlived 
 the change, but in a condition of languid vitality, inca- 
 pable of effecting more than the preservation from decay 
 of the relics of that name and genius, under whose in- 
 fluence Ireland had, for a short space of time, been raised 
 into the place of a nation. That he was, himself, con- 
 scious of this fatal change in his position, was often 
 made manifest to me in the progress of our intercourse, 
 and that he still hoped for a renaissance for his country 
 and himself was pretty plainly shown in a few words of 
 his answer to a deputation (of which I was a member, 
 
 H
 
 
 146 LESSON DEDUCIBLE FROM THE UNION. 
 
 together with the late Sir George Cockburn and one or 
 two others), which waited upon him for the purpose of 
 inviting him to stand for the city of Dublin : " Gentle- 
 men," he said, " the best advice I can give my fellow- 
 citizens upon every occasion is, to keep knocking at the 
 Union." 
 
 The advice, however, was all that the liberator of the 
 legislation and commerce of his country could then give 
 to Ireland ; the corruption of the English government, 
 and the venality of Irishmen had broken his spirit, as 
 they had demolished the structure of freedom and 
 national independence he had raised at so great a cost 
 of talent and labour. Grattan did not, with his own 
 hand, "Knock at the Union;" and when his advice 
 seemed to be acted upon, the blows given were but run- 
 away knocks the feeble efforts of idle disturbers or of 
 passing place-beggars. That his advice was as sound as 
 I know it was sincere, the state of Ireland, after half a 
 century of Union with England, is sufficient proof torn 
 and distracted by civil and religious strife, and yet sunk 
 into a slough of despondence and political apathy, from 
 which the physical suffering of all classes, from the peer 
 to the peasant, cannot rouse her, our unhappy country 
 presents a spectacle of warning to the world ; showing 
 to the nations the folly of purchasing even existence at 
 the cost of national independence, and, more instructive 
 still, teaching the strong, in a lesson that cannot be mis- 
 understood, how heavy a punishment surely attends the 
 crime of national oppression. Ireland sinks into a des- 
 pair that may be the forerunner of desperate activity, as 
 the result of the sale of her independence and the 
 attendant abrogation of her responsibility as a nation ; 
 England groans and faints under the load of obligations 
 which her dishonest purchase of the liberties of Ireland 
 has entailed upon her. For political as for moral sin 
 there is but one mode of honourable expiation a peni- 
 tent and ample restitution. In the matter of the Poyn- 
 ings' sin, and of those committed in the commercial
 
 PAT LATTIN. 147 
 
 legislation of the parliament of William III., Grattan 
 officiated as grand penitentiary unhappily for Ireland 
 there has not yet arisen a successor in the office. 
 
 The following note is the only autograph of Grattan 
 I can find among my papers. It was written in reply to 
 a letter of mine sympathizing with him upon his escape 
 from a savage attack made upon him in the streets of 
 the capital of the country for which he had done so 
 much, upon the occasion of his being chaired, after his 
 election as one of the representatives for the city of 
 Dublin in the imperial parliament : 
 
 The Eight Hon. Henry Grattan to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Tinnehinch, July 24, 1818. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I should have thanked you before, but 
 was forbidden to write. My eye is now recovered, and lives to 
 see my friends, and to thank them, among whom I am proud 
 to count my old friend, though a young man, Cloncurry. It 
 was an odd event, but to me singularly fortunate. Hemember 
 me to Lady Cloncurry, and to Douglas when you see him. 
 Yours, most truly, 
 
 H. GRATTAN. 
 
 While recalling recollections of early friends, I must 
 not omit the names of two of the earliest Patrick 
 Lattin and Wogan Browne. 
 
 Of the story of the former, I have already mentioned 
 a few particulars. When he quitted the Irish Brigade, 
 after the murder of le beau Dillon, he settled at his 
 house of Morristown-Lattin, and was thenceforward, to 
 the close of his life, almost constantly a near neighbour 
 and a frequent guest of mine at Lyons. He was one of 
 a race now, I believe, extinct. A genuine Irishman in 
 heart and person, his service in France, as an officer of 
 the Irish Brigade, had added to his natural gaiety and 
 warmth of feeling the polish and gallantry of a French 
 gentleman, while his manly figure was set off in full 
 perfection by the air and habits of a soldier of the old 
 school. Light-hearted and joyous, the brilliancy of his 
 
 H 2
 
 148 PAT LATTIN. 
 
 wit was never clouded, nor his enjoyment of present 
 mirth ever damped, by thoughts of the morrow. When 
 his purse was full, he drew upon it without scruple, to 
 gratify his taste for pleasure, or to help a friend ; when 
 it was empty, I have known him to sit down, and, in 
 three months' work, to complete a translation of the 
 Henriade, in order that he might relieve the necessities 
 of an emigre friend with the proceeds of its publication. 
 In the one case and in the other, he was equally blithe, 
 and victorious over care. 
 
 What a sparkling collision of wit marked the meet- 
 ings of Lattin and Curran ; and yet his amusing powers 
 seemed still more striking when, at his own house in 
 Paris (where I met him in 1805), he told his tales and 
 launched his repartees alternately in French and English, 
 to the mixed audiences which he used there to assemble 
 round him. No thing, and no person, capable of being 
 made the subject of pleasantry, ever escaped ; and yet 
 when a blow was given, it was with a skill and lightness 
 that rendered it harmless to the object. Upon one of 
 those occasions, I recollect a M. de Montmorency, whose 
 Christian name was Anne, making his appearance, and 
 announcing that he was enabled to return to France, in 
 consequence of the First Consul having scratched his 
 name on the list of emigres. " A present done,," obsen-ed 
 
 Lattin, " mon cher Anne, tu es un zebre un ane 
 
 rayee." 
 
 In one of his hours of industrial activity, Lattin wrote 
 a pamphlet in support of the Catholic claims, which 
 brought him into collision with the notorious Dr. Patrick 
 Duigenan. That zealous partisan replied to Lattin's 
 brochure with so much of his wonted brutal ferocity, as 
 to place himself within the reach of the law as a libeller. 
 Lattin brought an action against him in Westminster 
 Hall, and was awarded damages to the amount (I think) 
 of 500, by an English jury. This result was the basis 
 of a standing joke between Lattin and me. When he 
 had written the original pamphlet, and shown it to me,.
 
 WOGAN BROWNE. 149 
 
 he had said he was not then in funds to publish it, which 
 I undertook to do, jestingly conditioning my outlay with 
 a claim for half the profits. I used, accordingly, to de- 
 mand from him a moiety of the damages, as being part 
 of the proceeds of the venture. 
 
 Lattin died in Paris about ten years since. 
 
 Wogan Browne, whom I have also already mentioned, 
 as having been associated with me in an attempt to con- 
 vene a public meeting in opposition to the Union, was a 
 gentleman of good fortune in the county of Kildare, and 
 the builder and owner of Castle Browne, now occupied as 
 a Jesuit seminary, and known by the name of Clongowes 
 Wood. He was a man of an extremely amiable disposi- 
 tion, and filled with the most ardent love for his country, 
 and the most earnest desire to do his duty in all the 
 relations of life. To what base uses such qualities might 
 bring their possessor in Ireland in those days, will appear 
 from the following anecdotes. 
 
 Living on the borders of Kildare, Meath, and Dublin, 
 and fully qualified by his property and position, Wogan 
 Browne was a magistrate for the three counties, and was 
 at once highly popular and irreproachable in the per^ 
 formance of his magisterial duties. It happened, never- 
 theless, some time about the beginning of the year 1797, 
 that he was, one Sunday, riding past a field where the 
 country people were about to hold a football match. The 
 whole assembly, of course, recognised, and paid their 
 respects to him; and, at their request, he got off his 
 horse, and opened the sports by giving the ball the first 
 kick a sort of friendly sanctioning of the amusements of 
 their neighbours, which was then not unusual among the 
 gentry in Ireland. The custom, however, was not ap- 
 proved of by the government; and Lord Chancellor 
 Clare, upon being informed of what Wogan Browne had 
 done, at once superseded him from the commission of the 
 peace. He was afterwards restored by Chancellor Pon- 
 gonby, upon the accession of the ministry of "All the
 
 150 WOGAN BROWNE. 
 
 Talents :" but was again, without further cause, deprived 
 of his commission for two of the counties, by Lord Chan- 
 cellor Manners. This stupid insult, both to the indivi- 
 dual and to the body of magistrates for if Mr. Browne 
 was unfit to be a justice of the peace for two counties, it 
 was an insult to associate him with the magistrates of a 
 third was warmly resented by the gentry of Kildare, a 
 large number of whom were only prevented from resign- 
 ing their commissions by the earnest entreaties of Browne 
 himself. 
 
 The facts of this case, though trifling in themselves, 
 are highly significant of the relations that subsisted be- 
 tween the government and the magistracy, as well as of 
 those which the former wished to subsist between the 
 magistracy and the people. They show how frail was 
 an independent gentleman's tenure of honours revocable 
 by the government. Another occurrence in the history 
 of Wogan Browne shows how precarious was the hold 
 which in those days such a man enjoyed of his life. He 
 was, in the same year of '98, seized as a rebel, in the 
 street of Naas, his county town, by some hostile soldiers, 
 and a rope placed about his neck, for the purpose of 
 hanging him, when the accidental arrival of a dragoon, 
 with a letter addressed to him by the Lord Lieutenant, 
 on public business, interrupted his captors in their work 
 of murder. 
 
 Wogan Browne died at Castle Browne, about twenty 
 years ago ; and the final scene was again an illustration 
 of a miserable phase of Irish society. He had been him- 
 self a Protestant ; but his brother, who was a general 
 in the Saxon service, and his sister, who, indeed, was a 
 nun, were Roman Catholics. Upon these respective 
 grounds, the two parties among his neighbours claimed 
 the right of interring his body according to their particular 
 customs ; and they fought out the quarrel in the church- 
 yard, over his coffin. Which party prevailed, I now for- 
 get ; but this I know, that no man ever was buried, who,
 
 MR. HENRY. 
 
 151 
 
 during life, exhibited or entertained less of sectarian, 
 rancour, or whose living feelings were less in unison with 
 the passions that signalized his funeral. 
 
 I have mentioned the name of Mr. Henry of Straffan, 
 in connexion with the story of my sympathy with 
 O'Coigly, which was the proximate cause of my first 
 arrest, and as the name is of traditional notoriety in 
 Ireland, a word or two in commemoration of its owner 
 may not he misplaced. John Joseph Henry inherited a 
 considerable estate in the county of Kildare, with an 
 accumulation in money that amounted, at the period of 
 his majority, to not less than 80,000. Long before his 
 death all this money and a good half of the estate were 
 gone spent in a manner that will be sufficiently ex- 
 plained by recounting one or two items. When Henry 
 became of age, Straffan was one of the best old-fashioned 
 houses in the country, well furnished, and well supplied 
 in chamber and cellar in a word, wanting nothing. 
 This house, nevertheless, the owner turned out of win- 
 dow at an enormous expense, and so completely, that 
 when Mr. Barton purchased the estate, a few years after- 
 wards, he found it to be in danger of tumbling about his 
 ears, and w r as obliged to pull it down and rebuild. The 
 alterations w r ere made upon no settled plan or design, 
 but, partly according to Henry's daily whim, and, partly, 
 from a medley of designs drawn by some half-dozen of 
 his friends (myself among the number) whom he set to 
 work as amateur architects, one wet day when we hap- 
 pened to be visiting at Straffan. My own design, made 
 on that occasion, so took my fancy that I had it corrected 
 and properly drawn out by an architect, but without the 
 result of securing for it any preference over the crudest 
 imaginings of any of the rest of the party. Henry most 
 impartially mixed up all together in his practical altera- 
 tions and then modified the hodge-podge, as it was worked 
 out, according to his own taste. Of course all this was 
 done at monstrous cost, and every detail of housekeeping 
 was carried out upon a similar model. There were two 
 
 j. 
 
 * i 
 
 s. p 
 
 N 
 
 'S
 
 152 MR. HENRY. 
 
 packs of hounds in the kennel, though Henry never 
 hunted ; a numerous stud in the stable, though he 
 seldom rode, and withal a boundless and profuse hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 Among his strange freaks was one in which it was 
 intended that I should have gone halves, had not Mr. 
 Pitt, at the time, provided otherwise for me. Shortly 
 before I was placed in the Tower, Henry and I had 
 agreed to join in purchasing a yacht, in which we pro- 
 posed to make several voyages, and in the course of them 
 to visit the islands of the Pacific Ocean. When I was 
 arrested he determined to carry on the project himself, 
 and, accordingly, he bought a large vessel, and having 
 provided himself with letters of marque, proceeded upon 
 an experimental cruise in the North Sea. There he soon 
 captured a Danish merchantman and brought her into 
 port, but it unfortunately happened that there was at 
 the time no sufficient casus belli between him and the 
 Dane, and so the result was an action for damages in 
 which my poor friend was heavily mulcted. 
 
 Another characteristic incident marked this unlucky 
 voyage. When Henry was about to embark, he happened 
 to fall into conversation with a gentleman who was 
 walking upon the pier, and who was literally a walking 
 
 gentleman, O'H by name. The chat ended in Mr. 
 
 O'H being invited on board the yacht, and though it 
 
 was lost while bringing a cargo of slates from Wales, for 
 
 the buildings at Straffan, O'H never quitted the owner 
 
 until the latter married Lady Emily Fitzgerald, when he 
 was got rid of at the cost of buying him a commission in 
 the army. 
 
 This reminiscence of Henry's led captain reminds me 
 of a somewhat similar occurrence that happened to 
 
 another of my neighbours. Sir chancing to 
 
 walk out in his demesne, one morning, met a respectable 
 looking man strolling about, with whom he fell into some 
 slight conversation after a courteous salutation. As Sir 
 was going in to breakfast he invited the stranger
 
 A LED CAPTAIN. 153 
 
 to join him, which he did, and remained his guest until 
 he died some twenty years after. The man was a Dublin 
 tradesman who, having fallen into difficulties, was keep- 
 ing out of the way of his creditors when he had the good 
 
 fortune to meet Sir . Both host and guest were 
 
 remarkably silent men, so much so that the communi- 
 cations which passed between them were characterized 
 in the country by a recital of the conversation that filled 
 up the time of dinner one day when the baronet enter- 
 tained company. When the first bottle had passed round, 
 
 D , who sat at the foot of the table, for the first time 
 
 found his speech and used it to call out, " Sir , who 
 
 is your wine merchant ?" " So and so," replied Sir . 
 
 "Then, by my sowl, he don't use you well," rejoined 
 
 D , and so ended the discourse. They suited one 
 
 another, however, and poor D fortunately died 
 
 a short time before his patron. 
 
 H 3
 
 154 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 18021805. 
 
 Effects of my Imprisonment upon my Health and Fortune Difficulties in Repair- 
 ing the Latter A Pugnacious Middleman Begin my Travels My Sisters 
 and their Husbands Jerusalem Whalley Paris Presentation to the First 
 Consul His Court Ceremonial on his Acceptance of the Consulate for Life 
 Bonaparte's Personal Appearance Curious Instance of his Ignorance Feel- 
 ings of the Republicans towards him The Corps d' Elite Kosciusko Helen 
 Maria Williams Parisian Society The Officials and the Financiers Ma- 
 dame Recamier Journey to Italy Nice Foreign and Irish Climates Gal- 
 ley Slaves Florence Friendly Warning from the Due de Feltre to evade 
 Verdun Rome The Palazzo Accaioli House-rent and accommodation in 
 Italy in 1803 Impoverished Condition of the Roman States Vertu-Market 
 The Earl-bishop of Deny His Eccentricities and Death Removal of 
 Antiquities History of the Pillars of the Golden House Roman Civiliza- 
 tion Mixture of Bigotry and Feebleness with Urbanity Trasteverini 
 The Jews Kindness to Strangers Weakness of the Fabric of Society The 
 Papal Fleet and its Admiral Apathy of the Upper Classes Their Epicu- 
 reanism Their Submission to the Popular Superstitions Prince Massimo 
 and his Shrine The King of Sardinia and his Cross Ignorance of the 
 Nobles The Prince Borghese Contrasted Vigour of the Artists Canova 
 His Statues of the King of Naples and of Napoleon Pius VII. His De- 
 parture to France The Cardinal York His Hospitalities at Frescati Es- 
 timation of English Manufactures in Italy Madame d' Albany Alfieri 
 Foreign Residents Duchess of Cumberland The Princes of Mecklenburg 
 Count Orloff Prince Potemkin Count Pahlen's Constitution of Russia 
 Father Concanen The Abbe Taylor Letter from him Travelling Com- 
 panions from Rome Madame de Stael United Irishmen in Vienna Prince 
 Xavier of Saxony Princely Hospitality Return through Denmark to 
 England. 
 
 THE lengthened confinement I had endured, and the 
 extreme severity with which all the restrictions of my 
 prison were enforced, had considerably weakened my 
 health, and entailed upon me a painful local complaint, 
 from which, although I subsequently recovered com- 
 pletely, I was suffering much at the time of my libera- 
 tion. These circumstances, combined with the delicacy
 
 EFFECTS OF MY IMPRISONMENT. 155 
 
 of health of one of my sisters, determined me to seek 
 relief from bodily and mental sufferings by a lengthened 
 tour. Before I was enabled to put this determination 
 in practice there was, however, much to be done. My 
 affairs, as might have been expected, were greatly de- 
 ranged. Some of my tenants and neighbours had tat en 
 advantage of the death of my father, and of what they 
 supposed to be my own desperate situation, to turn my 
 property, without scruple, to their own uses. They had 
 sub-let their farms contrary to the stipulations of their 
 leases, cut down woods, opened quarries, and converted 
 rich meadows into brick-fields. These breaches took 
 some time to repair, but, at length, I got them all 
 settled. The worst of my tenants, who were of the 
 class of magistrates and squireens, I bought out. "You 
 might go to law with these men," said my legal adviser, 
 "for breaking covenant, and sub-letting their holdings; 
 but if you do, you will in all probability have to plead 
 your cause against middlemen, before middlemen juries 
 and a middleman judge. The first loss is always the 
 least, so pay those who have thus broken their bargain 
 with you, to leave your lands quietly, or let them hold 
 on till their leases shall expire, without giving them an 
 opportunity of enhancing your losses by litigation," 
 
 I took this advice, which I still believe to have been 
 sound ; and, having got rid of the trespassers, re-let my 
 lands, in general, to occupiers who held the plough with 
 their own hands, and for so doing I scarcely ever had 
 occasion to lament.* Having finally arranged these 
 
 * Among the middle-tenants whose holdings I resumed and re-let to 
 the occupiers, was a widow lady, who, though the near relative of a 
 noble lord, made, what is called in Ireland, a very "poor mouth," when 
 the expiration of her lease deprived her of the profit-rent which her 
 husband had wrung from the under-tenants, by breaking his covenant 
 against sub-letting. I gave these occupying under-tenants leases of 
 their own holdings ; and, in consideration of the circumstances of the 
 distressed lady-middleman, I agreed to make her an allowance of fifty 
 pounds a-year, until her noble relative should come of age, and be able 
 to assist her. When, however, I stopped my bounty, on that contin- 
 gency taking place, her son, an Indian officer, who had just returned 
 home, sent me a hostile message, for having so wounded his feelings.
 
 156 JERUSALEM WHALLEY. 
 
 affairs, and settled upon a plan for enlarging my house 
 at Lyons, I left Ireland for the continent in the year 
 1802, immediately after the peace of Amiens had been 
 concluded. 
 
 I was accompanied by my two sisters,* then unmar- 
 ried, and our party from London to Paris was increased 
 by the company of John Philip Kemble and the late 
 Lord Holland. We arrived in the French capital in 
 time to witness the last celebration that ever took place 
 (July 14, 1802) of the anniversary of the taking of the 
 Bastile. 
 
 There was, however, another sight to be seen at that 
 time in Paris, more extraordinary than any public fete 
 or spectacle could possibly be ; and being anxious to 
 have an opportunity of forming a judgment for myself as 
 to the appearance and manners of the greatest man then 
 in the world, I asked the British minister, Mr. Merry, to 
 present me to the First Consul. As my residence in the 
 Tower had prevented me from paying my respects at 
 St. James's, Mr. Merry made some difficulty about 
 standing sponsor for me at the court of Napoleon, at the 
 same time assuring me that his refusal was occasioned 
 altogether by the necessity for complying with strict 
 regulations upon the subject of presentations, laid down 
 by the First Consul himself. The difficulty, however, 
 proved to be a trifling one, as when the subject was 
 
 * I had three sisters. The eldest had then recently become the 
 wido w of Thomas Whalley, known in Ireland as "Jerusalem Whalley," 
 from the circumstance of his having won a bet by performing a journey 
 to Jerusalem on foot, except so far as it was necessary to cross the sea, 
 and finishing the exploit by playing ball against the walls of that cele- 
 brated city. He was a perfect specimen of the Irish gentleman of the 
 olden time. Gallant, reckless, and profuse, he made no account of 
 money, limb, or life, when a bet was to be won, or a daring deed to be 
 attempted. He spent a fine fortune in pursuits not more profitable 
 than his expedition to play ball at Jerusalem ; and rendered himself a 
 cripple for life, by jumping from the drawing-room window of Daly's 
 club-house, in College-green, on to the roof of a hackney coach which 
 was passing. 
 
 My second sister was married to Sir Francis Burton, twin brother of 
 the late Marquis Conyngham ; and the third, to Colonel Edward Plun- 
 kett, afterwards fourteenth Lord Dunsany.
 
 BONAPARTE'S IGNORANCE. 157 
 
 mentioned to Bonaparte, by Marshal Berthier, with 
 whom I was made acquainted by General Lawless, he 
 not only permitted me to be presented to him, but ac- 
 companied the permission with an invitation to attend a 
 grand review, and to dine with him upon the day of 
 presentation. The occasion, at which Lord Holland was 
 also present, was a remarkable one. We were received 
 in the magnificent rooms of the Tuilleries, in great 
 state ; the stairs and ante-rooms being lined by men of 
 the corps oTelite, in their splendid uniforms, and bald- 
 ricks of buff leather edged with silver. Upon our intro- 
 duction refreshments were offered, and a circle was 
 formed as at a private entree. Napoleon entered freely 
 into conversation with Lord Holland and myself, in- 
 quiring, among other matters, respecting the meaning of 
 an Irish peerage, the peculiar character of which, and its 
 difference from an English peerage, I had some difficulty 
 in making him comprehend. While we were conversing, 
 three knocks were heard at the door, and a deputation 
 from the Conservative Senate presented itself, as if un- 
 expectedly, and was admitted. The leader of the depu- 
 tation addressed the First Consul in a set oration, ten- 
 dering him the Consulate for life, to which he responded 
 in an extempore speech, which, nevertheless, he read 
 from a paper concealed in the crown of his hat. 
 
 Bonaparte was at that time very slight and thin in 
 person, and, as far as I could judge, not possessed of 
 much more information upon general subjects than of 
 confidence in his own oratorical powers. Upon my ex- 
 pressing some surprise afterwards at the character of his 
 remarks, I recollect General Lawless telling me that he 
 and some other Irishmen (I believe Wolfe Tone was 
 among them) had a short time before been engaged in a 
 discussion with him respecting a project for the invasion 
 of Ireland, when, after making many inquiries, and 
 hearing their answers, he remarked that "it was a pity 
 so fine a country should be so horribly infested with 
 .wolves," Lawless and his companions assured him tha,t
 
 158 FEELIXG TOWARDS BONAPARTE. 
 
 such was not the case, to which he deigned no reply, but 
 a contemptuous "bah!" The promotion to the Consu- 
 late for life, which I had witnessed, occasioned much 
 displeasure among the true republicans, both civil and 
 military, and would, I think, have led to a serious emeute, 
 had not these men then thought Napoleon necessary to 
 their protection against^ and vengeance upon, the coali- 
 tion of European despots that had been organized against 
 the liberties of France. I was in a position to judge of 
 the strength of those feelings as I found myself amongst 
 a liberal minority of public men, who, having only just 
 escaped from the horrors of the revolution, were anxious 
 to preserve the liberty which had cost so dear, and w r ho, 
 while they admired and confided in the genius of Bona- 
 parte, yet distrusted his ambition, and foresaw its conse- 
 quences. Foremost in this category, I recollect, was 
 that very corps d' elite, which I have mentioned as form- 
 ing the bodyguard of the First Consul. I frequently 
 dined at their mess, to which I was introduced by 
 General Lawless, and heard a vast quantity of talk, 
 which, I have no doubt, Bonaparte would then have 
 looked upon as nothing short of high treason, and 
 which he would j in all probability, have dealt with ac- 
 cordingly, had he been aware of the extent to which it 
 was indulged in. 
 
 During my residence in Paris in 1802, I was also on 
 terms of intimate friendship with two persons through 
 whom I had considerable opportunity of learning the 
 set of the under current of public opinion. One of 
 these was Kosciusko, who brought me into acquaintance 
 with many distinguished officers of the French army, 
 and who, himself, formed a sort of centre of the repub- 
 lican party. The other was Helen Maria Williams, who 
 held regular assemblies at her apartments, at which the 
 society was chiefly composed of liberal republicans and 
 anti-Bonapartists, with a large sprinkling of Irish refu- 
 gees. In such company I could not fail to become 
 strongly impressed, not only with the general dislike of
 
 PARISIAN SOCIETY. 159 
 
 the new despotism entertained by liberal-minded French- 
 men, but, also, with the disgust entertained by my own 
 countrymen, at the selfish and heartless manner in which 
 they had been used and cast off by the various French 
 governments, according as it suited their own temporary 
 purposes. 
 
 The highest society of Paris at that time was not 
 very agreeable. It was composed almost entirely of 
 public officers, civil and military, and of persons con- 
 nected with the government, as financiers and money 
 contractors. Few of the former class derived much 
 advantage from early habits of refinement, and the pecu- 
 liarity of their suddenly elevated position did not tend 
 to make them particularly agreeable members of the 
 social circle. If, however, the latter laboured under any 
 deficiencies of that sort, they covered them over by a 
 profuse expenditure, and the most lavish employment 
 of all the appliances of luxury. Remarkable among them 
 was the banker, Recamier, at whose house at Rambou- 
 illet I was very hospitably entertained with a degree of 
 luxury and magnificence that could scarcely be exceeded. 
 Among the curiosities of the place were his wife's dress- 
 ing and bath rooms ; the latter of which was completely 
 lined with mirrors, and, certainly, mirrors seldom re- 
 flected a more beautiful image than that of Madame 
 Recamier, who was then acknowledged to be the hand- 
 somest woman in Paris. She was a blooming beauty, of 
 the allegro caste " buxom, blithe, and debonaire," yet 
 not devoid of a certain distinction of manner. The 
 practical quality of her mirth may be judged of from a 
 specimen which I had an opportunity of witnessing, and 
 which may be taken as illustrative of the tone of the 
 Parisian society of the day : Madame invited her guests, 
 including a crowd of the principal ladies of the consular 
 court, to visit a large conservatory, and when they were 
 all engaged admiring the plants, she set a-going among 
 them some dozen or two of concealed fountains, which 
 spouted water in innumerable fine jets upwards from the
 
 166 JOURNEY TO ITALY. 
 
 floor to the height of two or three feet, the consternation 
 of the guests furnishing ample enjoyment to the fair 
 hostess. 
 
 The approach of the winter of 1802-3 drove us from 
 Paris to seek a more southerly climate, and we accord- 
 ingly moved on to Nice. We took Switzerland in our 
 way, and visited Lyons, Nismes, Montpelier, Cette, 
 Avignon, Vaucluse, Marseilles, Toulon (where I passed 
 some days very pleasantly with Admiral Gantheaume), 
 Cannes, &c. At that time travelling was difficult in 
 France. The roads were execrable, and infested with 
 banditti. We were often placed in much danger, espe- 
 cially from the former of these causes ; and I recollect 
 that in the beautiful forest of L'Esterelle, between Toulon 
 and Cannes, we were obliged to procure a number of 
 men to hold the carriage upright, while it was dragged 
 by several horses, with great difficulty, over the rough 
 and rocky way. Nevertheless, we escaped without acci- 
 dent, and passed the winter at Nice, where we found a 
 mild climate that year, and, by chance, a tolerably good 
 society. Our comforts were, however, not without draw- 
 backs. During November and December it hardly ceased 
 from raining; and in March, the heat and the gnats 
 already began to be troublesome. 
 
 I have had a good deal of experience of foreign cli- 
 mates, and opportunity, too, of observing their effects 
 upon invalids ; and as the result, I must record my tes- 
 timony against the futility of Irish invalids seeking more 
 healthful skies abroad than they have at home. Travel- 
 ling is, no doubt, itself a powerful and most agreeable 
 agent in the restoration of health ; but in cases of serious 
 illness, I have never known the injury occasioned by 
 separation from friends and loss of home comforts, to be 
 compensated for by any of the vaunted climates of the 
 invalid resorts of the continent. In Ireland there is, 
 perhaps, somewhat of an excess of humidity ; but still 
 few days occur in the year during which exercise cannot 
 Jbe taken in the open air ; and we have neither bise, nor
 
 FOREIGN AND IRISH CLIMATES. 161 
 
 sirocco, nor malaria ; no coups de soleil, no agues, no 
 mosquitoes. The spot where I am now writing is within 
 two hundred yards of the water of the Bay of Dublin, 
 and the time is midwinter, yet the grass is as green as 
 it was in April ; myrtles are flourishing down to the very 
 edge of the sea, and the honeysuckle is putting out fresh 
 leaves. My recollection of the place now extends over 
 seventy years, and I never, during that time, remember 
 snow to have lain upon it for three consecutive days. On 
 the other hand, I have found it necessary to have fires 
 at Florence in July ; and yet how many Irishmen make 
 " the variable climate " of their native land an excuse 
 for hiding from their duties under the pretence of seek- 
 ing health under foreign skies. 
 
 From Nice we passed on through the little state of 
 Monaco, St. Remo, and Savona, to Genoa, and thence to 
 Leghorn. The via Cornice was not then made, and the 
 greater part of this journey was performed upon the 
 backs of mules, over a miserable road running close to 
 the coast. We were attended by a pink that followed 
 our movements and on board of which we usually slept. 
 When disembarking from this vessel at Leghorn, I wit- 
 nessed a little occurrence which did more to convince 
 my mind of the brutalizing operation of cruel punish- 
 ments than could have been accomplished by the reason- 
 ings of a dozen of prison disciplinarians and philanthro- 
 pists. In working into the harbour, we chanced to ap- 
 proach a hulk occupied by galley slaves, so closely that 
 an unfortunate cat belonging to the pink w r as able to 
 jump on board. No sooner had she done so than she 
 was seized by the prisoners and, in less time than I have 
 taken in describing the event, she was skinned, devoured, 
 and her entrails hung up to dry in the rigging of the 
 hulk. 
 
 From Leghorn we proceeded to Florence, where 
 Clarke, afterwards Due de Feltre, was at that time am- 
 bassador from France at the court of the newly-made 
 King of Etruria, who died during our stay, and was, I
 
 162 THE PALAZZO ACCAIOLI. 
 
 recollect, honoured with a funeral of extraordinary mag- 
 nificence. About this period, however, the crazy nature 
 of the peace of Amiens began to make itself evident ; 
 and Clarke, to whom I had been introduced by Berthier, 
 privately warned me of the coming storm, and advised 
 me to avoid placing him under the necessity of sending 
 me to take a place among the English detenus at Verdun, 
 by getting at once within the bounds of the Roman 
 States, the neutrality of which would, probably, be re- 
 spected by Napoleon. 
 
 We, accordingly, moved on to Rome, where I resided 
 more than two years in great happiness, in the excel- 
 lent native and foreign society of that city, and in a most 
 agreeable domestic circle, which was, during the time, 
 enlarged by the union of my sister with Colonel Plunkett, 
 and my own marriage with the daughter of General 
 Morgan, whom I met in Italy. My brother-in-law and 
 I jointly rented the Palazzo Accaioli, close to the Quiri- 
 nal, popularly known as the Palazzo delle tre canelle, 
 where we kept house together, and exercised such hos- 
 pitality as was suitable to our position and rank. It 
 may be interesting, at this distance of time, to know the 
 rent of a palace at Rome in 1803, and some old memo- 
 randa enable me to give the information. The Palazzo 
 Accaioli contained fourteen or fifteen principal rooms, 
 eplendidly furnished ; there were extensive gardens and 
 orange grounds, with marble fountains, and other things 
 customary to correspond ; for all which we paid 400 
 dollars, or, at the current rate of exchange, about 90, 
 a-year. Such, however, was the state of civilization then, 
 that we were forced to purchase an old French sentry- 
 box, and exercise our ingenuity in anticipating that 
 Parisian invention, the use of which, and its name of 
 Cabinet, so often puzzle English visitors upon their first 
 promenades in the Champs Ely sees. In the time of 
 former occupants of the Palazzo, the worship of Cloacina 
 was celebrated on the flat roof, the altar being the funnel 
 of a chimney leading to some disused apartment. I am
 
 THE EARL-BISHOP. 163 
 
 quite certain there was not then to be seen in Europe, 
 south of Lyons, any, even the most uncouth substitute 
 for those conveniences which are to be found in the 
 meanest houses of England. 
 
 The condition of the Roman States about the -period 
 of my arrival in the Eternal City was, in many respects, ; 
 very strange. A short time previous, the French had 
 been driven out by the Russians and English ; and the 
 1 2th British Light Dragoons acted as a bodyguard to the 
 Pope. Massena had been French governor of the city, 
 and had levied contributions upon it with so much seve- 
 rity as to disgust even his own officers, who had exhibited 
 their dislike at the unnecessary harshness of his proceed- 
 ings by placing him in a sort of Coventry. The effect 
 of those exactions had, of course, been to involve the 
 Roman citizens of the upper classes in extreme pecu- 
 niary difficulties, which obliged them to sell their pic- 
 tures, statues, and other works of art, and made Rome 
 a very favourable market for the virtuoso. Among those 
 who dealt largely in that traffic, was the noted Hervey, 
 Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Deny, who was in the 
 habit of receiving regular remittances from home of 
 upwards of 5,000 quarterly, which he immediately 
 expended in the purchase of every article of vertu that 
 came within his reach. In this, as in most other cases, 
 however, the proverb came true wilful waste made 
 woeful want ; and towards the end of the quarter, the 
 noble prelate used to find his purse absolutely empty, 
 and his credit so low as to be insufficient to procure him 
 a bottle of Orvieto. Then followed a dispersion of his 
 collection, as rapidly as it was gathered, but, as might 
 be expected, at a heavy discount.* I was sometimes a 
 
 * I have seen the eccentric Earl-Bishop ride about the streets of 
 Rome, dressed in red plush breeches and a broad-brimmed white or 
 straw hat, and was often asked if that was the canonical costume of an 
 Irish prelate. His irregularities were so strange, as to render any 
 story that might be told about him credible, and, of course, to cause 
 the invention of many, that in reference to any other person would be 
 incredible. I recollect Colonel Plunkett making a bargain with a
 
 164 THE PILLARS OF THE GOLDEN HOUSE. 
 
 purchaser upon these occasions ; and being also, by the 
 kindness of the Pope, permitted to make excavations, I 
 accumulated a collection of considerable value, a part of 
 which is now at Lyons, although the largest and most 
 valuable portion was lost by shipwreck in Killiney Bay, 
 within two hours' sail of Dublin. It "was in vain that 
 legal difficulties were thrown in the way of this extensive 
 sale of the monuments of ancient splendour. A law, 
 with very stringent provisions, forbade the removal of 
 antiquities from Rome ; but the poverty of the owners, 
 or of the authorities, always opened a way to evade it. 
 Thus, among the most unmanageable of my acquisitions 
 was that of four pillars of polished red granite, which I 
 was formally forbidden to remove from Rome, although 
 it was conceded that I might deal with them as I pleased 
 within the bounds of the city. Nevertheless, a little 
 management, and a threat that I might take advantage 
 of my ownership, to cut the columns into blocks, shortly 
 removed all obstacles, and they now form the support of 
 the portico of Lyons House. 
 
 These pillars had a strange history. Three of them 
 had been taken from the Golden house of Nero, and 
 used by Raifaelle* in ornamenting the Farnesine Palace, 
 from which, with a fourth, apparently similar, they were 
 bought by the Baron Von Humboldt, who was then at 
 Rome, engaged in collecting works of art for the King 
 of Prussia. The baron, however, declined to complete 
 
 carriage-keeper for the services of a vehicle, and upon his remonstrating 
 against a demand of fourteen instead of twelve crowns a-month asked 
 by another, being told that it was easy for the competitor to work 
 cheap, as his wife had an arnica, who was a farmer and sold the com- 
 plaisant husband oats and hay cheap ; while he himself was, on the 
 contrary, obliged to raise his charges in consequence of his wife being 
 thrown back upon his hands by the death of Milor il Vcscovo. The 
 bishop was taken suddenly ill, on a journey from Albano to Home, and 
 died in the outhouse of a cottage, to which he was carried, in conse- 
 quence of the unwillingness of the peasants to admit a heretic prelate 
 to die under their roof. I took charge of the wreck of his property at 
 liome, and was enabled to save it for his heirs. 
 
 It will be recollected that Raffaelle was an architect as well as a 
 painter.
 
 ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 165 
 
 the purchase, upon finding that the fourth pillar was of 
 grey granite, and had been painted red by Kaffaelle, in 
 order to match the others. As I was upon terms of 
 intimacy with him, he told me the history of the pillars, 
 into which he had inquired, and I bought them upon his 
 certificate of their origin. Some time afterwards, in 
 excavating in the ruins of the baths of Titus, I found a 
 fourth, but much larger, red column, which I had chiselled 
 down and polished to match the other three, and, as 
 soon as I had extorted the permission to remove them, I 
 shipped the whole for Ireland. 
 
 Now that (while I write) the descendants of the ancient 
 masters of the world are apparently about to enter, with 
 somewhat of the spirit of their forefathers, upon a deadly 
 struggle for freedom and progress, it must needs seem 
 strange to me to look back upon that odd mixture of 
 bigotry, feebleness and despotism, with extreme kind- 
 ness and urbanity, which formed the Roman civilization 
 of the commencement of the present century. Nothing 
 could exceed the attention and friendship shown to myself 
 -by the government and people of all classes, and yet I 
 recollect upon several occasions attending funerals to the 
 English burying-ground, when, the moment the heretical 
 body approached the bank of the Tiber, it was saluted 
 by the Trasteverini, with the cry of " al fiume," not, I 
 believe, with any intention of mischief, but, rather, as a 
 formal protest against heresy. When also a flood, at one 
 time, rose into the Ghetto, the sentries at the gates 
 drove back the poor Jews into their dwellings, without 
 appearing to entertain the least compassion for those 
 unfortunate outcasts, although they did not interfere with 
 my brother-in-law and myself, when we brought a boat 
 and picked numbers of them off the roofs, and from the 
 windows of their houses. At that very time my requests 
 for permission to excavate, and, indeed, any other favours 
 I asked, were granted in the most gracious manner ; nay, 
 the complacency of the authorities was carried so far, 
 that when a servant whom I had been obliged to put
 
 166 WEAKNESS OF THE 
 
 away for misconduct, attempted to revenge himself by 
 going to law, his first step was met by a message being 
 sent to me to inquire what amount of punishment I would 
 wish to have awarded for that act of insolence. 
 
 The fabric of society seemed to have lost all strength 
 and power of cohesion, and yet to retain the outward 
 form and shape of a community. The government, 
 altogether at the mercy of any enemy or ally that chose 
 to attack or protect it, still affected to maintain a sort of 
 army ; and a Papal fleet the two frigates, St. Peter and 
 St. Paul lay in ordinary at Civita Vecchia, and was 
 commanded by the Marquis del Specchio, who filled the 
 office of Italian teacher to my sisters, and constantly 
 came to the performance of his functions in full admiral's 
 uniform. The people were sunk in bigotry and super- 
 stition, which permitted no access to their minds of ideas 
 of liberty or national independence. The nobility des- 
 v paired for their country, or thought not of her, and 
 diverted themselves, as best they could, with passing 
 amusements. I have often spent a whole morning at a 
 whist table, placed between the beds of a prince and 
 princess, with a cardinal for my partner, and their Excel- 
 lencies, comfortably reclining under their bedclothes, 
 for our adversaries. On we played until dinner-time ; 
 none of the party, except myself, probably ever spending 
 a thought upon the fallen state of the great city. Yet, 
 many of those who thus trifled away their time from day 
 to day, were the reputed descendants of the ancient 
 Romans, and the natural leaders of their fellow-citizens, 
 who then lived and were made the sport of English, 
 French, and Russian soldiery, as the chances of war and 
 their own feebleness gave occasion. 
 
 Let us hope that this apathy has passed away, and that 
 the sons of the Romans of 1803 will show that they pos- 
 sess the sterner virtues of their more remote progenitors 
 but in addition to, not to the exclusion of, the many 
 amiable qualities of their fathers. 
 
 In those days, it would have been impossible to have
 
 FABRIC OF SOCIETY. 167 
 
 found a more polished kindliness than generally existed 
 among the Italian nobility, or a frame of mind more 
 accurately formed upon the Epicurean model, in so far as 
 related to their conception of political and social duties. 
 The highest nobles shrank from the cares and troubles 
 of government, and laughed at the pretensions of the 
 ambitious ecclesiastics, who took upon themselves the 
 charge of their bodies and souls ; yet those same men 
 were themselves so influenced by the desire of letting 
 things go on in the old way, as to submit, without mur- 
 muring, but with a strange inconsistency, to grave annoy- 
 ances, or even to active exertion, in connexion with 
 matters in which the popular superstitions were involved. 
 Thus, my friend Prince Massimo (who, by the way, 
 traced his descent from Fabius Maximus) happening to 
 have, in the upper story of his palace, a shrine of the 
 Virgin of peculiar sanctity, he submitted patiently to the 
 continual passage through his house, of every beggar 
 who chose to make that shrine the object of his devotion. 
 I have seen, too, the King of Sardinia march through 
 the streets of Rome in a procession of Frati, bearing a 
 cross, large enough to be used as an instrument of execu- 
 tion, and which an observer would have supposed to be 
 too heavy for the muscular powers of a stout coalporter, 
 not to speak of those of a very feeble king. In relation 
 to this particular occurrence, however, I am bound to 
 admit, that his Majesty tempered his pious zeal with 
 discretion, as I found when happening to visit him, on 
 the day of this exhibition, I saw, in an ante-room, the 
 identical cross under which he had been toiling in the 
 morning ; and, upon examining it, discovered that it was 
 composed of bark merely, and did not weigh more than 
 a few pounds. 
 
 In accounting for such compliances as these, however, 
 credit must be given to the Italian nobles for a degree 
 of ignorance which it is scarcely possible to conceive. It 
 was then generally said and believed at Rome, that when 
 the Prince Borghese, the brother-in-law of Napoleon,
 
 168 MY OPINION OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE. 
 
 was nominated to some public office, it became necessary 
 to have a stamp made, for the purpose of affixing his 
 mark to public documents, as he was incapable of signing 
 his name. Nor was the ignorance of this Prince one 
 of the wealthiest nobles in Rome to be attributed, as 
 that of our fox-hunting squires used to be, to immoderate 
 cultivation of the physical powers, for I have seen his 
 Excellency, during our rides together, tumble off his 
 horse upon very slight provocation ; nevertheless, neither 
 physical nor intellectual deficiencies prevented him from 
 becoming a general, through the influence of his imperial 
 brother-in-law. 
 
 While stating these opinions, I need scarcely say, that 
 it is very far from my wish to undervalue the abilities of 
 many of the nobility and ecclesiastical dignitaries of that 
 day. As men conspicuous for talent or good feeling I 
 might mention, among the former, my most respected 
 and valued friends the Princes Massimo, del Drago, and 
 Altieri, and among the latter the Cardinals Caprara, 
 della Genga, Pacca, and my friends Erskine and Gon- 
 salvi. Most of those eminent persons have gone to their 
 account ; but they well knew the admiration I felt for 
 the good qualities of their countrymen of high and low 
 degree, and how strong the resemblance between them 
 and my own loved countrymen seemed to my mind in 
 both I recognised the noblest and best natures perverted 
 by bad government. Nor must I omit to say a word in 
 favour of the common people of Rome, who, stigmatized 
 as they have been by language-masters and valets de 
 place, as assassins, are really to be classed among the 
 kindliest and best hearted people in Europe. "M' cssas- 
 sinato" is the common exclamation when they receive a 
 blow or a slight knife-wound in their vintage quarrels ; 
 but I have seen these same assassinated victims amusing 
 themselves the next day in the yards of the hospital del 
 Spirito Santo as if nothing had happened, and during the 
 years I was at Rome I heard of but one real murder from 
 malice prepense. Yet I have seen three or four hundred
 
 VIGOUR OF THE ARTISTS. 169 
 
 of these poor people patiently waiting for hours before 
 a picture of the Virgin, to watch the opening and shutting 
 of her eyes, in token of some French aggression or other 
 expected calamity. 
 
 In striking contrast with the general intellectual fee- 
 bleness of the Italian aristocracy, appeared to me the 
 vigour of some of the class of artists, in which I was 
 fortunate enough to make an extensive acquaintance; 
 and, among the number, with Canova, with whom I tra- 
 velled for a part of the way on my journey from Rome 
 to Vienna, to which latter city he was going for the 
 purpose of erecting a monument to one of the Austrian 
 Archduchesses. I was a frequent visitor at his studio, 
 and was often favoured with his advice when making 
 purchases of works of art. Canova was a thorough liberal 
 and patriot ; though his devotion to art, and the modesty 
 of his nature, prevented him from expressing his feelings 
 respecting the condition of his country, in any public 
 manner. In private society, nevertheless, I had abundant 
 opportunities of observing and admiring the workings of 
 his grand, yet simple mind ; and when liberty and human 
 progress were the subjects of his thoughts, they were 
 not unworthy of an ancient Roman. During my residence 
 in Rome, I was commissioned by some parties in London 
 to engage Canova to execute a statue of Francis Duke 
 of Bedford, for which the subscribers were willing to 
 give a large price. He was, however, obliged to decline 
 the engagement, saying, that if he had another lease of 
 life, he would be unable to execute the works he had 
 been forced to undertake. In his studio there were, 
 then, statues, nearly finished, of the legitimate King of 
 Naples, in his robes of state, and of the usurping Emperor 
 Napoleon, unrobed, but with the rudder, globe, and 
 other emblems of imperial sovereignty; and, certainly, 
 the contrast was a strange one between those counterfeit 
 presentments of two brothers ; more characteristic alle- 
 gorical representations of hereditary succession and of 
 mental supremacy could scarcely be conceived. 
 
 l
 
 170 PIUS vn. 
 
 " See how fortunate he is in every thing," said Canova 
 to me, as he turned from looking at the image of the 
 stupid king, de jure, to contemplate the noble figure of 
 the monarch, de facto, of continental Europe " see how 
 fortunate he is : that block of marble is the only one I 
 ever got from Carrara undamaged by a single flaw." The 
 statue is now, I believe, in Apsley House.* 
 
 The proximity of my residence to the Quirinal, was the 
 groundwork of an acquaintance with the Pope, Pius the 
 Seventh, from whom I received much kindness. Among 
 his other civilities, he gave me a key for the Quirinal 
 gardens, and permission to use them when I pleased a 
 privilege which afforded me frequent opportunities of 
 conversing with his Holiness, as, when we met in the 
 garden, he was in the habit of inviting me to join him in 
 his walk. He was a kind-hearted, worthy man, not defi- 
 cient in shrewdness, and sufficiently tolerant in conver- 
 sation. His disposition in this latter respect, I recollect 
 frequently putting to the proof, by telling him that it was 
 in his power to effect two great reforms a moral and a 
 physical by a single decree, which should set the monks 
 
 * An excellent friend and neighbour tells me that in this portion of 
 my recollections I have been somewhat unjust towards the Roman 
 nobles who ' ' have been most active, most patriotic and most noble in 
 their generosity when the late events furnished them with the fitting 
 opportunity to act as members of their own government." I should, 
 indeed, be sorry to allow my readers to confound my opinion of Rome 
 at the dawn of this century with my later knowledge of it. When I 
 was there in 1840 the whole city mourned the premature death of a 
 Princess, of English birth, who was endeared to her adopted country 
 by her charities and virtues. This lady was the wife of aBorghese, who 
 was a man of enlarged and liberal mind, as were also other noble mem- 
 bers of the Aldobrandini branch of that family. These Princes, I have 
 heard, devoted their time and fortunes to the improvement of their 
 country. 
 
 In 1840, many of the nobles who were very poor in 1802-3 having 
 recovered their losses, opened their palaces to strangers with a splen- 
 did hospitality. I don't recollect having ever seen any thing more 
 magnificent than a ball given in the halls of the Capitol, the road to 
 which, through the Campo Vaccino (the ancient Forum) as well as 
 the noble ruins of that quarter, was brilliantly illuminated for the 
 occasion. This fete was truly unique, as any such use of the Capitol 
 was subsequently forbidden by the Pope.
 
 CARDINAL YORK. 171 
 
 of Rome at work in the cultivation of the Campagna, 
 thereby curing them of the moral plague of idleness, and 
 the land of the no less baneful physical evil of malaria. 
 He never denied the existence of either the one pest or 
 the other, although I never succeeded in prevailing upon 
 him to adopt my plan for their removal. 
 
 When Pius left Rome, on his way to France, to crown 
 Napoleon, Lord Mountcashel, Colonel Plunkett, and I 
 testified our respect and gratitude for his kindness by 
 accompanying him on horseback as far as Viterbo, where 
 he bade us farewell. 
 
 The cavalcade consisted of sixteen or eighteen car- 
 riages, only one of which was provided with springs; 
 and that was one sent from Paris for the express use of 
 his Holiness, which was quite a splendid affair, gorgeously 
 painted and gilt, and, as the weather was cold, furnished 
 with a false bottom of silver, to hold warm water. The 
 poor cardinals in the Pope's suite were jolted along in 
 vehicles not less inconvenient and rude than the ancient 
 biga, though profusely adorned with gilding, and lined 
 with velvet. 
 
 Among the prominent members of Roman society in 
 those days, was the last of the Stuarts, Cardinal York, 
 with whom I became somewhat of a favourite, probably 
 by virtue of addressing him as " Majesty," and thus going 
 a step farther than the Duke of Sussex, who was on fami- 
 liar terms with him, and always applied to him the style 
 of Royal Highness. 
 
 The Cardinal was in the receipt of an income of eight 
 or nine thousand pounds a-year, of which he received 
 4,000 from his royal rival, George III., and the remainder 
 from his ecclesiastical benefices. This revenue was then, 
 in Italy, equivalent at least to 20,000 ; and it enabled 
 his Eminence to assume somewhat of royal state. He 
 was waited upon with all suitable ceremony, and his 
 equipages were numerous and splendid, and freely placed 
 at the disposal of his guests. He was in the habit of 
 receiving visitors very hospitably at his villa, at Frescati, 
 
 i2
 
 172! CARDINAL YORK. 
 
 where I was often a guest, and was frequently amused 
 by a reproduction of the scenes between Sancho Panza 
 and his physician, during the reign of the squire in the 
 island of Barataria. His Eminence was an invalid, and 
 under a strict regimen ; but as he still retained his taste 
 for savoury meats, a contest usually took place between 
 him and his servants for the possession of each rich dish 
 which they formally set before him, and then endeavoured 
 to snatch away, while he, with greater eagerness, strove 
 to seize it in its transit. Among the Cardinal's most 
 favourite attendants, was a miserable cur dog, which, 
 having probably been cast off by its master, as being 
 neither useful nor ornamental, one day attached itself to 
 his Eminence at the gate of St. Peter's, an occurrence 
 to which he constantly referred, as a proof of his true 
 yfr royal blood the cur being, as he supposed, a King 
 Charles spaniel, and, therefore, endowed with an instinc- 
 tive, hereditary acquaintance with the house of Stuart. 
 Upon the occasion of my visit to Frescati, I presented 
 the Cardinal with a telescope, which he seemed to fancy, 
 and received from him, in return, the large medal struck 
 in honour of his accession to his unsubstantial throne. 
 Upon one side of this medal was the royal bust, with the 
 cardinal's hat, and the words, Henricus nonus Dei gratia 
 Rex, and upon the other, the arms of England, with the 
 motto : Hand desideriis hominum, sed voluntate^Dei.* 
 , While speaking of the debris of the house of Stuart, 
 
 * So trifling an article as a telescope will scarcely seem to be a present 
 worthy of the acceptance of aPrince of the Church, andKing, even though 
 his sovereignty was not de facto ; but it is scarcely possible, at the pre- 
 sent time, to bring home to the mind a conception of the value which 
 then, under the operation of the continental system, was set upon 
 articles of English manufacture in Italy. The Cardinal was in the 
 highest delight with my gift ; and an ordinary dressing-case, given by 
 my sister to Princess Massimo, was the admiration of all the Roman 
 ladies, to whom it was sometimes shown as a special favour. Many 
 English-made articles it was absolutely impossible to purchase. I recol- 
 lect the Prince Borghese, when he wished to decorate a chamber for 
 the reception of his wife, Pauline Bonaparte, was obliged to eke out a 
 small turkey carpet with pieces of baize, of different textures and shades 
 (<f colour.
 
 FOREIGN RESIDENTS. .173 
 
 I may mention Louisa de Stollberg, Madame D'Albany, 
 the widow of the Pretender, Charles Edward, and the 
 chere amie, or privately-married wife of Count Alfieri, 
 the celebrated poet. At the time of my first residence 
 in Italy, this lady lived in Florence, where, as well as in 
 Rome, she was one of the leaders of society. She paid 
 me a lengthened visit in the latter city, and I was fre- 
 quently a guest at her house in Florence. Upon those 
 occasions Alfieri was in the habit of sitting on a sofa, in 
 a sort of state, not mingling with the company, but con- 
 versing with those who came about him, always provided 
 there w r as no Frenchman among the number. For the 
 whole French nation he entertained the most cordial 
 hatred, and lost no opportunity of exhibiting his feelings 
 without disguise or modification. Excepting when he 
 was in special good humour, Alfieri's manners were 
 savage and repulsive, forming a strong contrast to those 
 of Madame D'Albany, who was highly informed and very 
 agreeable. At her receptions, while Alfieri thus sat 
 apart, in a kind of moody grandeur, she used to stand 
 at the tea-table, with an apron over her dress, with her 
 own hands serving tea to her guests. 
 
 Italy in 1803, 4, and 5, was comparatively but little 
 frequented by travellers ; and those foreigners who were 
 temporarily residing in the great cities were chiefly 
 English and Russians. They were mostly persons of 
 rank, and were, in general, freely admitted into the best 
 native society. Among the former was a personage who 
 somewhat perplexed the Papal master of the ceremonies, 
 as she had before disquieted the royal mind of England. 
 This was Anne, Duchess of Cumberland, sister-in-law of 
 George III., and sister to the Earl of Carhampton. It 
 was in consequence of the marriage of this kdy with the 
 Duke of Cumberland, and that of the Countess Walde- 
 grave with the Duke of Gloucester, that the Royal 
 Marriages Act was passed in England; and as some 
 rumours in relation to the effect of that measure had 
 reached Rome, I recollect being consulted by the autho^
 
 174 FOREIGN RESIDENTS. 
 
 rities, as to whether royal honours should or should not 
 be paid to the duchess. I, of course, took part with the 
 weakest ; and, upon my showing of the state of the case, 
 a guard of honour was regularly mounted at her Royal 
 Highness' residence. This piece of service raised me to 
 a very high place in the duchess' favour, and was re- 
 warded, in kind, by her becoming sponsor to my eldest 
 son, and insisting upon conferring upon him her own 
 name of Anne. 
 
 The circle also contained two other quasi royal mem- 
 bers Princes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Strelitz. 
 Upon these distinguished personages the Irish parlia- 
 ment had humbly begged to be allowed to confer pen- 
 sions, payable from the Irish exchequer, of 3,000 a-year 
 each ; and his Majesty George III. had graciously per- 
 mitted his faithful Commons to enjoy that high honour. 
 I recollect, nevertheless, that the difficulty of exciting 
 their Highnesses to a sense of the duty of hospitality was 
 a standing jest among us. After they had been succes- 
 sively entertained by the whole party of foreign residents, 
 they formally excused themselves from giving a dinner, 
 on the score of the want of guards of honour and other 
 appurtenances of regal state an excuse which, as soon 
 as the pinch of the case was seen, was generally voted 
 to be insufficient. Assurances poured in from all sides 
 that ceremony would be waived ; and at length, after 
 much laughing, we succeeded in forcing upon the princes 
 the desperate alternative of giving a dinner. 
 
 There were among the Russian residents two remark- 
 able characters : one was Orloff, the favourite of the 
 Empress Catherine, whom I frequently met at Naples ; 
 and the other, the Prince Potemkin, son of the more 
 celebrated owner of that name. The introduction of the 
 Muscovite element made a strange mixture in our so- 
 ciety, when, as sometimes happened, discussions arose 
 that brought the habitual, steady, English love of free- 
 dom in conflict of argument with the fierce, barbarian 
 vigour of the Russians ; and that, too, in presence of the
 
 THE ABBE TAYLOR. 1 75 
 
 polished feebleness of some, noble subject of the Church. 
 I shall never forget one of these occasions, when, the 
 comparative merits of democracy and despotism being 
 under debate, the risk of mischief at the hands of a 
 senseless, ill-conditioned tyrant was urged as more than 
 a counterpoise for the good that could be done by a 
 benevolent and wise autocrat. "Against that risk," ex- 
 claimed Count Pahlen, who was present, "we have a 
 safeguard. Here is the constitution of Russia!" and, 
 starting up, he closed the argument by drawing a dagger 
 from his pocket, and flinging it upon the table, with an 
 earnestness and energy that left no doubt of his personal 
 willingness to put that sharp, constitutional remedy in 
 operation, should a wrong requiring it arise within his 
 cognizance. 
 
 In calling up my recollections of Rome, I must not 
 omit to mention the names of two fellow-countrymen 
 from whom I received many marks of kindness. I 
 allude to the Inquisitor-General Concanen, and the Abbe 
 Taylor, head of the Irish monastery of St. Isidore. The 
 former was a very handsome man, and, in society at 
 least, quite free from any visible signs of the nature of 
 his office, or any indication that he wielded the terrors 
 of the Inquisition. The Abbe Taylor was generally sup- 
 posed to be the priest who married George IV. to Mrs. 
 Fitzherbert. He was a busy, little man, always ready to 
 serve his friends or do any act of kindness ; and, from 
 his ubiquitous movements, was somewhat irreverently 
 designated by his comperes, by the nickname of il spirito 
 santo. The following letter, half French, half English, 
 gives no bad picture of the man, while it contains some 
 Roman gossip of the day, illustrative, so far as it goes, of 
 the state of intelligence that then existed in the Eternal 
 City : 
 
 The Abbe Taylor to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Rome, St. Clements, Dec. y e 20th, 1805. 
 
 My worthy, good Lord A letter from your Lordship, dated 
 from London, November y* 2nd, found me at Frescati, where I
 
 176 THE ABBE TAYLOR. 
 
 had been on a visit for near five weeks. The pleasure I felt on 
 receiving it, no words can express. To hear of your Lordship 
 being so near home, and in good health and spirits, as well as 
 Lady Cloncurry and the dear little ones, was the most pleasing 
 intelligence I could wish to receive. The account you also 
 give of my respectable friends, Colonel and Mrs. Plunkett, and 
 sweet Edward, gives me infinite satisfaction ; and had I to wish 
 for any other information respecting the family, it would be to 
 hear that Madame Whalley was equally well and happy. Give 
 me leave now, my dear Lord, to congratulate your Lordship 
 on the safe arrival of all your Roman cargo a most fortunate 
 event, considerata consider andis. Mr. Wm. Moore, and Mr. 
 Gerna were highly delighted on hearing this agreeable piece 
 
 of news. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 On parle ici beaucoup de la paix ; puisse la divine Providence 
 nous 1'accorder a tons, et le bonheur qui vient a sa suite; c'est 
 a dire 1'harraonie et la bonne intelligence entre notre pauvre 
 patrie et 1'Angleterre. Puissent les deux nations se rappeller 
 qu'ils sont freres et depouillant tout esprit d'animosite et d'or- 
 gueil se rapprocher des loix sacrees de 1'humanite; et ne chercher 
 desormais la gloire et le bonheur que dans la pratique de la 
 justice et des loix sociales. Avant de finir cette lettre permet- 
 tez moi, my Lord, d'avoir 1'honneur de vous offrir les voeux 
 einceres que je fais bien cordialement pour la conservation de 
 votre chere persorme, pour celle de my Lady et des charmants 
 enfans, en tout terns, et particulierement dans les saintes fetes 
 de Noel et du jour de 1'an. Puisse le ciel vous accorder a tous, 
 les agremens et les jouissances les plus pures pendant une 
 longue suite d'annees. 
 
 All intercourse between this place and Venice has been 
 Btopped since the declaration of war against Germany, so that 
 we are here at a very great loss how to send our letters to 
 England; and as for the Exchange on that country, it is so low 
 (besides the bankers, in general, don't seem much inclined to 
 take bills on London), that I have put off till a more favourable 
 occasion, to draw for money. 
 
 Cardinal F h,* about six weeks ago, paid a visit to our 
 
 church, and after, came and sat with me, in my room, for better 
 
 than half an hour, and most graciously insisted on my dining 
 
 with him, and sent his carriage for me. At dinner, his Emi- 
 
 * Cardinal Fesch, Bonaparte's maternal unclev
 
 MADAME DE STAEL. 177 
 
 nence paid ine the greatest attention. The conversation never 
 touched on politics, and the company was very numerous. 
 Your Lordship may easily imagine that my having accepted 
 of this invitation, which I could not, sans etre impoli, refuse, 
 was condemned. By whom ? By those who would have 
 gladly accepted such an invitation, had it been made to them. 
 I wrote twice to Madame Plunkett since I received her 
 letter, but, as yet, have got no answer. The baglia's father 
 died in November last, and that suddenly. My best respects 
 to General and Mrs. Cockburn, as also to my worthy, good, 
 friend, Mr. Thomas Dillon. I shall be happy to hear often 
 from your Lordship, and receive your orders. 
 
 Believe me, with due respect and esteem, &c. 
 
 JOSEPH TAYLOR. 
 
 After a residence of more than two years in Rome, I 
 turned my steps homeward in the summer of 1805, and 
 as the war with France was then raging, I was obliged 
 to make the journey by a circuitous route. From Rome 
 I proceeded to Ancona, and thence to Pesaro, whence, 
 having made an excursion to Spalatro in Dalmatia, to 
 visit the ruins of the palace of Diocletian, I went on to 
 Venice, and so by Trieste, and through Carinthia to 
 Vienna. From Ancona to Venice I made the journey in 
 company with Madame de Stael, and I shall not easily 
 forget a scene in which I witnessed her acting upon our 
 arrival at the city of St. Mark. She made it a point 
 never to waive any of the ceremonial which she thought 
 properly belonged to her rank. She always took care 
 to have the guard of authors turned out, whenever she 
 approached a position, and never failed to accept all the 
 honours of literature. Following out her custom in this 
 respect she had written to announce her approach, to a 
 poet resident at Venice, whose name, which I now for- 
 get, happened to be identical with that of the principal 
 butcher of the city. By some blundering of the postal 
 authorities, Madame la Baronne's letter was delivered to 
 
 Signer , the butcher, instead of to Signor , the 
 
 poet, and the former, anxious to secure so distinguished 
 .a customer, carefully watched our arrival, and lost not a 
 
 i3
 
 178 PRINCELY HOSPITALITY. 
 
 minute in paying his respects to the baroness. She, of 
 course, was prepared to receive the homage of genius, 
 en cour pleniere, and we were all (including M. de Sis- 
 mondi, the historian of the Italian republics, who was in 
 the company) convened to witness the meeting. Neither 
 of the high saluting parties knew the person of the other, 
 and it was some time before an explanation came about, 
 the ridiculous character of which it is easier to conceive 
 than to describe. 
 
 Here, again, I came into contact with some of my 
 fellow-countrymen, and was fortunately enabled to do 
 them a bit of service. They were twelve or fourteen 
 poor United Irishmen, who had been handed over into a 
 kind of slavery to the King of Prussia, by the English 
 government, and who having got tired of their servitude, 
 had deserted from the army, and made their way into 
 Austria. Just at the time of my arrival, a demand for 
 their surrender had been made by their Prussian com- 
 mander, and was supported by two or three ultra-loyal 
 Irishmen who happened to be in Vienna. The Empe- 
 ror's confessor, also an Irishman, made what fight he 
 could for them, and I, having joined my force to his, 
 made an appeal on their behalf to Sir Arthur Paget, the 
 British ambassador, which was ultimately successful, and 
 instead of being returned to the Prussian service, the 
 poor fellows were allowed to proceed with me to Eng- 
 land, protected by a passport from Sir Arthur. As the 
 roads were very bad, they were able, though on foot, to 
 keep up with me in this long journey, and I had the 
 satisfaction, years afterwards, of hearing from some of 
 them from their comfortable settlements in the north of 
 Ireland. 
 
 From Vienna I passed on to Prague and Dresden, and 
 in the latter city made the acquaintance of Prince Xavier, 
 of Saxony, who being the father-in-law of my friend the 
 Prince Massimo, was profuse in his kindness and attention 
 to me and my party. We passed some days with the 
 prince at his Schloss of Zabelditz, a few miles distant from
 
 RETURN TO ENGLAND. 179 
 
 Dresden, and there partook of the old German princely 
 hospitality in its most unsophisticated shape. His High- 
 ness' household was regal in number, and the employ- 
 ments and amusements of its members were regulated 
 in ancient feudal fashion. When the weather permitted, 
 we hunted the boar in great force ; and, on one or two 
 occasions, when we were obliged to keep within doors, 
 I recollect, the tedium of the long afternoon was relieved 
 by the introduction of a couple of boar hounds (the 
 largest dogs I ever saw) into the dining-hall, to hunt a 
 bagged pole-cat the chief zest of the sport being the 
 terror of the ladies, and their efforts to avoid the enor- 
 mous dogs and their odoriferous quarry, by jumping 
 upon chairs and tables as they approached. 
 
 After visiting Berlin, I proceeded northwards to 
 Lubeck, and having made a short tour through Den- 
 mark, I embarked at a small port near Tonningen, the 
 name of which I now forget, and passing through Eng- 
 land, arrived at home, at the close of the year 1806, 
 after an absence of about three years.
 
 180 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1806. 
 
 Ireland after the Union Insincerity of the English Government Disappoint- 
 ment of the Catholics New Enlistment of the Protestant Garrison Obli- 
 teration of all traces of Union among Irishmen Elements of Strife 
 Operation of the Franchise of '93 Progress of the Power of the Catholics 
 Effect of the Penal Laws in driving them to Industrial Pursuits Effects of 
 Placehunting in crushing the spirit of the Protestants the Clare Election 
 Surrender of the Duke of Wellington Zenith of Catholic Power Social 
 Changes observable in 1806 Dublin Society before the Union Change in 
 Feeling between the Classes Settlement at Lyons Traces of the Con- 
 dition of Irish Society visible there Loyal Invasion and Robbery of my 
 House during my Absence' Kindness of Lord Hardwicke A Hint of what 
 I was to expect from the Powers that were Lord Redesdale's Refusal to 
 grant me the Commission of the Peace Letters ; from Mr. Burne, Lord 
 Redesdale, and Myself Intervention of Lord Hardwicke Submission of 
 the Chancellor Letters from him and Mr. Burne Accession of "all the 
 Talents" The Magistracy, and their Mode of doing Business Ancient and 
 Discreet Constables Their Protestant Qualification An Embarrassing In- 
 quiry Care taken of the King's Windfalls Kenny's Case The Dublin 
 Police Affair at Saggard Working out of the Policy of Discord and 
 Corruption. 
 
 THE Ireland to which I returned at the end of the year 
 1805, was, in many respects, so different from the 
 country I had left in 1797, that I must again pause in 
 my personal narrative, to reflect upon the nature of the 
 changes that had taken place. I have already sketched 
 the outlines of the national course from 1782 to the date 
 of the Union, and have marked the steps of the down- 
 ward progress of Ireland, during those eighteen years, 
 from legislative freedom to political annihilation. The 
 legislature was emancipated only that its members might 
 be free to sell their country. The rotten borough sys- 
 tem was preserved, and the Catholics were endowed 
 with the forty-shilling franchise, in order to make the
 
 IRELAND AFTER THE UNION. ' 181 
 
 sale practicable. A united national resistance to the 
 traffic was rendered impossible, by the skilful introduc- 
 tion of religious discord among the people ; and the 
 bargain was completed by a profuse exchange of English 
 gold, for the power of governing a nation, humiliated, 
 dissatisfied, and so broken in spirit, and destitute of self- 
 reliance, as to be, of necessity, a galling burden upon 
 the shoulders of the purchaser. 
 
 The Union was scarcely accomplished when the English 
 government began to exhibit very plain indications of 
 the insincerity of the professions, by the use of which 
 they had managed to carry it. The further relaxation 
 of the penal laws against Catholics was indefinitely post- 
 poned. The stipend which the clergy expected was not 
 forthcoming. The Catholics, accordingly, both lay and 
 clerical, became deeply and dangerously disaffected to 
 the new regime. The Catholics had been bought over, 
 by promises, to lend their weight to crush the Protestant 
 opposition to the Union. Protestant help to bear down 
 Catholic disaffection, was now secured by a more sub- 
 stantial consideration the country was delivered up to 
 the will of the Protestant yeomanry, who, drilled, and 
 armed, and paid by the state, were taught that they 
 were a garrison intrusted with the keeping of Ireland 
 for England ; and that the foes, against whom it was their 
 especial duty to hold out to the death, were their fellow- 
 countrymen. In the teaching of this doctrine no pains 
 were spared : it was preached from the pulpit, declared 
 from the bench of justice, talked over in the Castle 
 waiting-room, and made the subject of a course of mutual 
 instruction in the Orange lodges, which were founded 
 and fostered by government officials and hangers-on, of 
 every grade. All traces of that union among Irishmen, 
 which had been begun by the Volunteers at Dungannon, 
 and attempted to be permanently cemented by the 
 United Irish leaders, were, of course, speedily effaced 
 from society, and in their stead were to be seen, in the 
 two factions, the reopened wounds of '98, festering under
 
 182 THE FORTY-SHILLING FRANCHISE. 
 
 the irritating handling of the common enemy of both. 
 The unfortunate outbreak of Emmett followed in 1803, 
 and materially aided the English government in carrying 
 out their policy of division ; its suppression still left the 
 Irish people split into two factions, the fierceness of 
 whose mutual animosity has, perhaps, never been equalled 
 within a Christian community. On the one side were 
 the masses of the Catholic population, with the few 
 Protestants whose liberality outlived the shocks of the 
 rebellion and Union and withstood the blandishments of 
 the Castle ; on the other, the bulk of the Protestants, 
 supported and stimulated by all the influence that a 
 thoroughly corrupt and unscrupulous government could 
 exercise. The elements of strife were threefold the 
 spirit of the unnatural quarrel was compounded of the 
 hatred of race, the hatred of religious opinion, and the 
 hatred of a property dispute. The one party justified its 
 oppressions as being events in a war against barbarians, 
 idolaters, and outlaws ; the other felt its vengeance to 
 be sanctified by being directed against foreigners, here- 
 tics, and robbers. In such a conflict there was, of course, 
 little quarter. The government hung peasants in the 
 name of the law, and followed with vexatious persecu- 
 tions, against which no legal protection could be obtained, 
 all those who opposed or attempted to moderate that 
 exercise of their power. The peasants shot down govern- 
 ment officers and government men whenever and wher- 
 ever they could take them at an advantage. 
 
 Meanwhile the power given to the oppressed together 
 with the forty-shilling franchise, was entering upon a 
 course of growth which, in twenty-nine years from the 
 Union, became so formidable as to overcome the will of 
 the most despotic minister of his age, backed, though 
 he was, by the prejudices of the entire English nation. 
 The forty-shilling, Catholic freeholders, who had been 
 called into existence for the purpose of dividing and 
 baffling Irish parliamentary reformers, who had been 
 used by the Irish aristocracy to magnify their own
 
 PROGRESS OF THE POWER OF THE CATHOLICS. 183 
 
 power and importance, who had constituted the matter 
 of traffic in that gigantic market of corruption which 
 had been established within the fabric of the constitution 
 of '82 ; those same forty-shilling freeholders, in 1829, 
 forced the Duke of Wellington to confess that he feared 
 to engage with them in civil conflict ; and so fearing, he 
 capitulated almost at discretion to their leaders. In 
 that capitulation, as is often the case, the interests of the 
 fighting men were neglected the forty-shilling free- 
 holders were disbanded by beat of drum, and having 
 been, like the soldiers of former times, called away from 
 the tranquil pursuits of industry to fight the battles of 
 others, they were dismissed without provision for their 
 maintenance, after the course of their service had, in a 
 great degree, rendered them unfit to support themselves. 
 A more impolitic and reckless act of selfishness never 
 was perpetrated, than the enfranchisement, in 1 793, of 
 the lower classes of the Irish Catholics that knocking 
 from the limbs of the serfs of so much of their fetters 
 as to leave them at liberty to work for the profit of their 
 Protestant masters. A more cruel deed of ingratitude 
 never was done than the sudden disfranchisement of the 
 same serf-class, when they had finished the work of their 
 Catholic leaders, and, in the course of doing it, had 
 incurred the hostility of those upon whose soil they 
 were bound by the fatal facility of the potato-crop. I 
 have already adverted to this subject ; but as a historical 
 lesson, supplying in all its parts a warning against poli- 
 tical dishonesty and selfishness, its interest can never be 
 exhausted. 
 
 The gradations by which the power of the Irish 
 Catholics arrived at the height it attained in 1829, are 
 worthy of notice. The foundation and the main props 
 of the structure were certainly laid in the donation of 
 the electoral privilege to the very lowest class of the 
 Catholic population ; but it was also greatly strengthened 
 by other incidents. One of these was the rapid increase 
 of wealth among the middle and upper classes of the
 
 184 PROGRESS OF THE POWER OF THE CATHOLICS. 
 
 same creed, which accrued as a sort of indirect result of 
 the penal laws. By preventing Catholics from holding 
 real property, those statutes had forced such of the 
 more intelligent and better educated among them as 
 had no inclination to enter into the military service 
 of foreign countries, to engage in trade and mechanical 
 pursuits at home. Placehunting was then, happily for 
 them, a forbidden pursuit. Upon that manor the Pro- 
 testants, long after the Union, permitted no poaching. 
 The consequence was, that while the professors of the 
 state religion filled all places of profit and honour, from 
 the highest to the lowest, the believers in the prescribed 
 creed were acquiring wealth in trade, and by the prac- 
 tice of such of the professions as were open to them ; 
 and were taking advantage of the peculiar state of the 
 Irish law in reference to judgment debts, to invest their 
 savings in liens upon the land. The former thus natu- 
 rally fell into those habits of combined subserviency and 
 insolence, which always characterize a bureaucracy they 
 considered themselves, as a party, to be possessed of an 
 hereditary right to the profits and privileges of domina- 
 tion, while, with the decline of their actual political 
 power, they gradually lost that spirit of bold indepen- 
 dence which was the Protestantism of the Volunteers of 
 Dungannon. They became grovelling worshippers of the 
 Castle ; but they whined, and murmured, and sometimes 
 even threatened before the shrine, if a stray beam of the 
 favour of their divinity was seen to fall upon a worship- 
 per of the outer court. While such training as this was 
 working out its proper effects, enfeebling, denationaliz- 
 ing, and even (for placehunting is not a profitable calling) 
 impoverishing the Protestants, the Catholics, on the other 
 hand, were becoming vigorous under the stimulating 
 discipline of persecution; the wealth, and professional 
 and commercial standing many of them had obtained, 
 made them all the more anxious to attain to a position 
 of social equality with their oppressors. Their com- 
 mittees and associations became filled with rich mer-
 
 SOCIAL CHANGES. 185 
 
 chants and loud-voiced lawyers, who, having no favours 
 to expect from the government, hurled a noisy defiance 
 against it. The clamour pleased the people ; the clergy 
 joined in it ; the movement became by degrees more and 
 more real, until, at length, it carried Mr. O'Connell to 
 the doors of the House of Commons, at the Clare elec- 
 tion in 1828. It was then the Duke of Wellington beat 
 his chamade, and Catholic relief having been yielded 
 grudgingly and with a bad grace, yet upon terms much 
 worse than might have been obtained for England and 
 the Irish Protestants, a new phase of Irish society began 
 to exhibit itself, the character and progress of which 
 I shall probably have another opportunity of consider- 
 ing. 
 
 The social changes observable by one who returned to 
 live in Ireland in 1806, after an eight years' absence, 
 were not less remarkable than those political mutations 
 to which I have just now referred. Dublin in 1797 was, t ; 
 perhaps, one of the most agreeable places of residence 
 in Europe. There were no conveniences belonging to a 
 capital, at that time, which it did not possess. Society 
 in the upper classes was as brilliant and polished as that 
 of Paris in its best days, while social intercourse was 
 conducted with a conviviality that could not be equalled 
 in France, and which, though not always strictly in 
 accordance with modern notions of temperance, seldom 
 degenerated into coarseness. All persons of a certain 
 condition were acquainted with each other, and were in 
 the habit of meeting together in social circles both pri- 
 vate and public. Thus a pleasant familiarity grew up ; 
 but was prevented from passing into contempt by the 
 punctilious habits of personal respect belonging to the 
 time. It is true there was a duel now and then, as the 
 sequela of a ball or assembly ; but not more frequently 
 than in other countries at the time, and it was conducted 
 in a gallant manner, the adversaries being no worse 
 friends after it was over. The public sympathy also 
 generally went with the party in the right, and thus this
 
 186 CHANGE IN FEELING 
 
 exercise of the jus privatum (which, however, I do not 
 mean formally to defend) had the effect, in the upper 
 ranks of Irish society, of heightening the polish of its 
 members, and establishing well-defined lines of demar- 
 cation between ease and licence. Among the lower 
 classes, the extreme destitution of latter years was, 
 speaking generally, unknown. The rural population was 
 decidedly in a more prosperous state than it has ever 
 since been in ; and although the weavers of Dublin, like 
 the weavers of Spi tain elds, were frequently the objects 
 of public charity, still it needs but to look at the ruins 
 of the " Liberty " to be convinced that the manufactur- 
 ing population who built and dwelt in the houses still 
 existing there, though now in a state of dilapidation, 
 must have been very superior in wealth and numbers to 
 any similar class at present existing in Ireland. 
 
 At the period of my return all this was in course of 
 change. The rich were gradually moving off to England : 
 the middle and lower classes were daily growing poorer. 
 There was also another strongly-marked difference be- 
 tween the before and after of the Union, which is worthy 
 of notice, and which forcibly attracted my attention. I 
 had known the existence of a kindly feeling between the 
 upper and lower classes of society ; but I found, in its 
 place, the bitterest hatred. At the earlier period, there 
 were, indeed, unpopular lords and squires, but there 
 were, also, men of the highest rank, and many of them, 
 who were the idols of the people. The divisions then 
 existing were divisions of political parties, men of all 
 ranks being arrayed upon both sides : after the Union, the 
 lower classes were pitted against the upper, and the 
 appearance upon the side of the former of a partisan 
 of noble or gentle rank, was looked upon as a sort of 
 wonder. For a lord or squire to be popular was then a 
 rare exception. This could not but seem strange to me, 
 who remembered the splendour with which the magnates 
 were wont to exhibit themselves to the citizens of Dublin, 
 and the manifest enjoyment afforded by the spectacle to
 
 BETWEEN THE CLASSES. 187 
 
 the latter. It was the custom, on Sundays, for all the 
 great folk to rendezvous, in the afternoon, upon the North 
 Circular Road, just as, in latter times, the fashionables 
 of London did in Hyde Park ; and upon that magnificent 
 drive, I have frequently seen three or four coaches-and- 
 six, and eight or ten coaches-and-four, passing slowly 
 to and fro in a long procession of other carriages, and 
 between a double column of well-mounted horsemen. Of 
 course, the populace were there, too, and saluted with 
 friendly greetings, always cordially and kindly acknow- 
 ledged, the lords and gentlemen of the country party, 
 who were neither few in number nor insignificant in 
 station. The fact that those Sunday exhibitions were 
 countenanced at all, may possibly move some devout 
 moderns to thankfulness for the shadowy passage of 
 those days of vanity ; and such feelings will, no doubt, 
 be much strengthened when I mention, that the evenings 
 of those Sunday mornings were commonly passed by the 
 same parties in promenading at the Rotunda. I have 
 frequently seen there, of a Sunday evening, a third of the 
 members of the two houses of parliament. Nevertheless, 
 I must characterize those days as days of kindliness, and 
 good feeling, and national happiness, when compared 
 with those which have succeeded them. 
 
 Directly upon my return to Ireland I settled myself 
 at Lyons, where I afterwards constantly resided, and 
 endeavoured to discharge the duties of my station during 
 a period of more than thirty years. The condition of 
 affairs which I have just been describing, was then in 
 the height of its first stage, and I had abundant illustra- 
 tions of its progress at once presented to me : the traces 
 of one of these were, indeed, visible in my own house. 
 
 During my absence in Italy, in 1803, a Mr. C , a 
 
 tenant of my own, a gentleman boiling over with Protes- 
 tantism, and loyalty, and desire to show the Castle that 
 he was filled with a proper zeal in the cause, took it into 
 his head that to insult one whom the government had 
 delighted to persecute, would be a suitable mode of
 
 183 LOYAL INVASION 
 
 advancing his object. He, accordingly, pretended that 
 he had information, as a magistrate, to the effect that 
 some of Emmett's wounded rebels, and a quantity of 
 arms, were concealed in Lyons House ; and thither he 
 proceeded, at the head of a large military force, to make 
 searches. The house was, at the time, in the hands of 
 workmen, and every room open except the library, which 
 he forced and (he or his followers) robbed of a quantity 
 of papers, three or four fowling-pieces, some curious 
 ancient armour, and a silver tea-urn, that happened to 
 be too large to fit in the plate presses. Not satisfied 
 
 with this booty, the heat of Mr. C 's enthusiasm led 
 
 him to desire to taste my wine, and he ordered the cellar 
 to be broken open, which would have been done had not 
 the commanding officer interfered and declared that he 
 would not be a party to such an outrage, for which it 
 was obvious there could be no excuse. This gentleman 
 (Colonel Coleman, of the Guards, afterwards Serjeant- 
 at-Arms of the House of Commons), upon being pressed 
 to do what was called his duty, absolutely refused, but 
 placed his seal upon the cellar door, where I found it 
 unbroken, upon my return two years afterwards. Lord 
 Hardwicke was, at the time, Lord Lieutenant, and to him 
 I proceeded with my complaint, and \vith a request that 
 he would send some person to be present at the opening* 
 of the wine-cellar, in order to test the correctness of Mr. 
 
 C 's information. This his Excellency, in the kindest 
 
 manner, refused to do, declaring that he would receive 
 no report of the search but from myself. I did not, 
 however, obtain the restitution of my stolen goods, nor 
 any other redress except Lord Hardwicke's fair words. 
 Indeed, in those days, I doubt much if his Excellency 
 would have thought it prudent to have made known his 
 sympathy when it ran in any degree counter to the 
 ebullition of Protestant zeal, and I am quite certain that 
 in the existing state of the tribunals of law, it would have 
 been a wild-goose chase to have attempted to obtain a 
 legal remedy for my wrong.
 
 OF MY HOUSE. 
 
 This affair was but an outbreak of violence against a 
 person known to be friendly to the popular cause, per- 
 petrated by a squireen in pursuit of Castle favour. It 
 was, nevertheless, a type of the justice which was then 
 administered throughout the country by that class, and 
 illustrates the general tone of their feelings towards the 
 government and the people. Before I had been many 
 weeks at home, however, another hint was given to me, 
 from a very different quarter, as to what measure of 
 favour I was to expect from the powers that then were. 
 I had returned to my home full of the idea of devoting 
 the remainder of my life to the quiet discharge of my 
 duty as a country gentleman. I had personally suffered 
 much from being the subject of the suspicions of an 
 unscrupulous ministry, and I was well aware that Ireland 
 was not then in a state to be served by political agitation. 
 At this day it has been made evident, by the publication 
 of the Castlereagh correspondence, that ministers then 
 knew that no sustainable charge, not even a sustainable 
 suspicion, lay against my character as a good subject and 
 citizen. I had further given a pledge of my peaceful 
 intentions, by expending a large sum in building addi- 
 tions to my house, and I had eagerly set to work as an 
 agricultural improver. Under such circumstances, I trust 
 it will not be thought presumptuous in me to have fancied, 
 that neither my personal character and position, nor a 
 due regard to the welfare of the country, required that 
 persecutions, which I was willing to forget, should, after 
 a lapse of five years, be renewed by one of the two per- 
 sons who had the best possible reasons for knowing that 
 they never were justifiable. Lord Redesdale, who was 
 at the time Lord Chancellor of Ireland, had been 
 Solicitor-General, and afterwards Attorney-General of 
 England, at the time of my arrest and during my impri- 
 sonment in the Tower ; and that he had neither forgotten 
 any portion of his official enmity towards me, nor was 
 willing to learn any thing of my real character, will be 
 evident upon a perusal of the following correspondence.
 
 190 CORRESPONDENCE WITH 
 
 It was preceded by an intimation given to Lord Redes- 
 dale's secretary, by my friend Mr. John Burne (then a 
 King's counsel, and a most respectable Chancery bar- 
 rister), to the effect that I would be willing to accept 
 the commission of the peace : 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to Lord Redesdale. 
 
 My Lord Not having received any answer to a note which 
 I sent to Mr. Dwyer, some time since, I take the liberty of 
 troubling your Lordship with a few lines on the same subject. 
 Lord Cloncurry, who has lately returned to Ireland, informs me, 
 that in those parts of the counties of Kildare and Dublin in 
 which his estates are situate, there are at present, from various 
 causes, very few resident magistrates. He, therefore, thinks 
 by his becoming a magistrate he could be useful to the country. 
 But though I have reason to know that he entertains a very high 
 respect for your Lordship's character, yet not having the honour 
 of a personal acquaintance, delicacy has prevented him from 
 addressing your Lordship on the subject; and he has requested 
 that I should apply on his behalf. Permit me to assure your 
 Lordship, that I should not interfere were I not convinced that 
 no person is more anxious, and few are more interested, than 
 Lord Cloncurry, to preserve the peace and good order of the 
 country. 
 
 Lord Redesdale to John Burne, Esq. 
 
 Ardrinn, January 16, 1806. 
 
 Sir I have felt great difficulty in determining what it waa 
 proper for me to do with respect to your letter of the 13th 
 instant, and I have, therefore, delayed returning any answer 
 to it. The application, as well as the communications to me 
 through my secretary, are in a form so different from that in 
 which applications to insert the names of gentlemen in the com- 
 missions of the peace are commonly made, that if the person on 
 whose behalf you have applied had been wholly unknown to 
 me, I should have thought the mode of application a sufficient 
 reason for declining to comply with it. But having long held the 
 office of Solicitor-General, and afterwards of Attorney-General, 
 in England, where my duty, as a servant of the Crown, com- 
 pelled me particularly to attend to the conduct of Lord Clon- 
 curry, I feel that I cannot be warranted, upon a mere represen- 
 tation from a gentleman (whom whatever personal respect I
 
 LORD REDESDALE. 191 
 
 may have for him) I cannot consider as entitled, by office or 
 situation, generally to recommend persons to be inserted in the 
 commissions of the peace for the counties of Dublin and Kildare, 
 to insert Lord Cloncurry's name in those commissions. I am 
 not informed, even by you, that his Lordship feels, in any 
 degree, differently than he did when his conduct was thought 
 to warrant strong proceedings against him. If no change has 
 taken place in his opinions, I certainly cannot think myself 
 justified in putting any power into his hands. If he has seen 
 (what appeared to me) his errors, the proper application to me, 
 I conceive, would be immediately from himself, with an avowal 
 of the change in his sentiments ; and I should then think it my 
 duty to communicate the application to his Excellency, before 
 I could venture to act upon it. I trust that you, sir, will feel 
 that I mean every personal respect to you, which my duty to 
 his Majesty would warrant me in observing; and I can assure 
 you that it would be my wish to show every respect to Lord 
 Cloncurry, consistent with the same duty. I have the honour 
 to be, sir, 
 
 Your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 R.EDE9DALE. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry to Lord Redesdale. 
 
 Lyons, February 17th, 1806. 
 
 My Lord Last Wednesday evening I heard for the first time, 
 of the correspondence between your Lordship and my friend, 
 Mr. Burne. on the subject of the commission which I desired 
 him to take out for me. I never authorized him to write in 
 the manner he did to your Lordship; but supposed it a mere 
 matter of course for a peer to become an acting magistrate when 
 he pleased ; and if respect be no longer due to the Irish peerage, 
 my property in the country made it your duty to comply with 
 my desire, unless I had forfeited my rights by ill conduct, which, 
 I believe, you know I never did. 
 
 I think it necessary to state to your Lordship, that I have not 
 changed my sentiments, and I hope I never shall : they are, and 
 always were loyal and patriotic sentiments, full of abhorrence 
 for the men and the measures which, in '97 and '98, drove the 
 unfortunate people of this country into rebellion measures for 
 which the minister was indemnified by parliament, as well aa 
 for his treatment of me, the illegality and inhumanity of which 
 are not, I believe, unknown to your Lordship.
 
 192 CORRESPONDENCE WITH 
 
 . I shall say a few words on what you are pleased to call my 
 errors. I was living in London, a student, in 1798, associating 
 with other young men of opposition but not disloyal principles. 
 I was arrested in bed, dragged to Bow-street, and hence to a 
 messenger's, where I remained three days; after which I waa 
 taken before some persons of the cabinet of whom, perhaps, 
 your Lordship may have been one and was desired to answer 
 certain questions, provided I could do so without injuring my- 
 self. I replied that had I been questioned without the scandal 
 of imprisonment, I might have answered any question, as I 
 could have no fear; but that having been so grossly insulted, 
 I should hold my tongue till I could have legal redress. I was 
 remanded to confinement; and at the end of a month I was 
 again brought before the same persons, when my Lord Lough- 
 borough informed me that I was at liberty, saying he hoped I 
 would be more cautious in future, for that government had 
 information that I had been at a seditious meeting in '97, and 
 that I had allowed some Irish refugees to frequent my house. I 
 answered, that any Irish refugees who came to my house were 
 received from motives of humanity; but that I had never taken 
 the slightest part in any seditious meeting. His Lordship ad- 
 vised me to refrain from all interference in politics, and showed 
 me a letter of my father's, promising I should do so. / cer- 
 tainly made no promise; but from that day to this, now eight 
 years, I never, directly or indirectly, by word or act, said or did 
 any thing in opposition to the measures of government, whether 
 legal or illegal. What, then, must have been my feelings when 
 I was again arrested in '99, as I was informed by Mr. Pitt, for 
 the same reason as before, viz., that I had been present at a 
 seditious meeting in 1797, a year prior to my first arrest. I 
 said that I would submit to any punishment if a single credible 
 witness could prove me guilty of the smallest illegal act or 
 expression. I begged of his Majesty's ministers to observe, that 
 instead of thinking of politics, I had lived in the country ever 
 since my former arrest, and was on the point of being married. 
 This was of no avail; the entreaties of my father that I should 
 be brought to trial were of no avail: I was sent to the Tower, 
 and confined in the room belonging to the lamplighter of that 
 fortress, from which I was afterwards removed by the humanity 
 of the governor. Neither pen, ink, nor a common newspaper 
 was allowed me for more than six months ; I was denied the use 
 of a servant, or the sight of my friends, for two years; I was
 
 LORD REDESDALE. 193 
 
 cdnfined to one room, where I bad not even the pleasure of 
 solitude, being locked up with two warders, and a sentry at 
 the door, whose relief never allowed me more than two hours' 
 uninterrupted sleep. No interest, no entreaty, could procure 
 a relaxation from treatment never before experienced by any 
 state prisoner. The consequence of this was, the destruction 
 of my health, the murder of her to whom I was engaged, and 
 perhaps, the death of my father and grandfatber, the former of 
 whom, by a hasty alteration of his will, deprived me of above 
 50,000. All this because I refused to accuse myself or others 
 of crimes of which I was ignorant, and which I abhorred. But 
 God is merciful: by his Majesty's illness in 1801, the Habeas 
 Corpus came into force ; I regained my liberty, and the illegal 
 oppressor sought protection in an indemnity act. I returned to 
 my country : I found my family broken and unhappy on my 
 account, my property injured, and my character tarnished. I 
 could not obtain justice against my cold-blooded oppressors; 
 they were above all human law; but divine justice will surely 
 overtake them. 
 
 I went abroad for the re-establishment of my own and my 
 sisters' health; and when I return, after an absence of four 
 years, I find my house plundered by the military, the places 
 containing my title-deeds and valuables broken open and left 
 exposed. I waited on the Lord Lieutenant, who ordered the 
 restoration of my property, and showed that goodness of heart 
 and manner which so much endear him to the people of this 
 country. He expressed a wish that I should reside; I said I 
 should, and endeavour, as far as I could, to second his good 
 intentions. I was sincere; I desire my friend to take out the 
 commission of the peace, but it is refused. And by whom ? 
 By the man who, having no property of his own, is paid to 
 protect that of others the man who should know what is due 
 to the peerage to which he has been raised and the man who, 
 I believe, knows that there never was a shadow of criminality 
 in my conduct. 
 
 I should feel myself debased by thus entering into ex- 
 planation with your Lordship, did I not believe that your 
 power is near its end. The reign of bigotry and prejudice is 
 over. I shall remain in my country, from which you would 
 have driven me, and I shall cherish those sentiments you would 
 have me renounce. May your Lordship, in retiring from Ire- 
 land, leave no bad blood or party spirit behind you; and may 
 
 K
 
 194 SUBMISSION OF 
 
 you leave no person on whom your conduct has made more 
 impression than it could on me. With the consideration due 
 to the high office your Lordship holds, I remain 
 
 Your Lordship's obedient and very humble servant, 
 
 CLONCURRY. 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to Lord Redesdale. 
 
 My Lord I have had the honour of receiving your Lord- 
 ship's letter, in answer to one from me. Nothing could be 
 further from my thoughts, or more repugnant to my feelings, 
 than to adopt any mode of recommendation to your Lordship, 
 which could be deemed in the slightest degree disrespectful. 
 For me to recommend persons to commissions of the peace 
 would be a degree of arrogance and presumption of which I 
 am incapable. I merely meant to communicate to your Lord- 
 ship the wish of Lord Cloncurry as to the magistracy, without 
 supposing, for a moment, that the application could derive the 
 slightest aid from the recommendation of such an obscure indi- 
 vidual as I am. It is, however, but justice to myself to say, 
 that whatever Lord Cloncurvy's offences were, I am unac- 
 quainted with them; and that I believe him, at present, to be 
 as strongly attached to the constitution and tranquillity of the 
 country as any person in it. 
 
 The foregoing correspondence was followed by an 
 appeal, made without my knowledge, to Lord Hard- 
 wicke, by my brother-in-law, the Hon. Colonel Sir 
 Francis Burton ; and upon this occasion his Excellency 
 did not restrain himself from taking the course which his 
 own sense of justice and propriety pointed out to him. 
 He immediately ordered Lord Redesdale to insert my 
 name in the commission of the peace ; and reverting to 
 the grounds upon which that learned lord had based his 
 insult, his Excellency stated to myself, in the kindest 
 manner, that he was fully aware of the injustice that 
 had been done me by my imprisonment, and that he 
 would gladly do all that lay in his power to make 
 amends, as an earnest of which he offered at once to 
 recommend me for a viscounty. This offer I declined, 
 but with expressions of great gratitude, which I really 
 felt for the personal kindness of Lord Hardwicke, whose
 
 THE CHANCELLOR. 195 
 
 conduct, public and private, so far as I was acquainted 
 with it, was marked by tokens of good feeling that 
 tended very much to cool down any desire of opposition 
 I might have been disposed to feel towards his adminis- 
 tration. My conversation with his Excellency was imme- 
 diately followed by the receipt of the following note, 
 which will be admitted to form a curious counterpart to 
 that addressed to Mr. Burne by the same writer in the 
 preceding month : 
 
 Lord Redesdale to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Ely-place, Dublin, 24th Feb., 1806. 
 
 My Lord I have desired instructions with respect to the 
 insertion of your Lordship's name in the commissions of the 
 peace for the counties of Dublin and Kildare, and I have to 
 request that your Lordship would be pleased to apply to Mr. 
 Ponsonby, whom his Majesty has appointed Chancellor of Ire- 
 land, and to whom the great seal will be delivered as soon as 
 he shall arrive in this country. 
 
 I have the honour to be my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most humble servant, 
 
 REDESDALE. 
 
 My pride, however, was now up, and I would not 
 receive any favour at the hands of Lord Redesdale. A 
 copy of my letter rejecting his offer of the commission I 
 have not found among the other papers ; but the allu- 
 sion to it in the following letter leads to the inference 
 that it was not couched in holiday phrase. It was, I 
 recollect, concocted at a consultation between Curran, 
 George Ponsonby, and myself; but when written it was 
 considered to be so strong that it would be better not to 
 send it to the Chancellor, but that I should wait upon 
 him in company with a friend, and read it to him, which 
 I accordingly did. It was not "sent," as is implied in 
 Mr. Burne's observation upon it : 
 
 John Burne, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Feb. 27th, 1806. 
 
 My dear Lord There are some expressions in your letter to 
 the Chancellor which I should have advised to be omitted, had 
 
 K2
 
 196 LETTER FROM MR. BURNE. 
 
 I seen it before you sent it. But I don't consider it either as 
 too complaining or undignified. An unfounded imputation 
 ought to be repelled with a proper degree of resentment; but a 
 little less asperity of expression would, perhaps, have been 
 better. However, I am not surprised that your feelings should 
 be roused by a recollection of the treatment you have expe- 
 rienced; but I am extremely concerned that you should think 
 yourself obliged to disavow any part of my letters, as contain- 
 ing an admission of guilt on your part. Nothing could have 
 been further from my thoughts, and, surely, nothing could be 
 more inconsistent with the expressions 1 used : so far from 
 thinking you guilty of any crime, I am persuaded that you 
 drew on yourself the resentment of the worst ministers that 
 ever these countries saw, merely by avowing your just abhor- 
 rence of their abominable system of cruelty and oppression ; 
 and the only excuse I can suggest for Lord Redesdale is, that 
 he was the dupe of those ministers; and that being a very weak, 
 though, perhaps, well-meaning politician, he has imbibed pre- 
 judices which it is now too late to remove. I don't think that 
 you should take any further steps during the present govern- 
 ment here; but I think that you should see the Duke of Bed- 
 ford as soon as you can after his arrival, and state the tran- 
 saction to him. I am persuaded that the new government will 
 have a pleasure in contrasting their conduct with that of their 
 predecessors. Mr. Grattan, I understand, is favourable to a 
 partial, instead of a total change, in which, I think, he is much 
 mistaken,. I scarcely know any man at present in place in 
 this country who is not objectionable, as having obtained his 
 situation either by atrocities in the rebellion, by corruption on 
 the Union, or by a gross dereliction of party and principle. 
 What, then, can be expected from a government under which 
 such men are suffered to remain in place 1 If you write to 
 Grattan, you will serve the country essentially by remon- 
 strating with him on this subject. We can expect no useful 
 change of measures without a radical change of men. If any 
 of the old leaven be retained, the country will be disgusted, and 
 the present administration will become as unpopular as the 
 former. Mrs. B. joins in best regards to you and Lady Clon- 
 curry, to whom I request you will remember me in the kindest 
 manner; and believe me, my dear Lord, 
 
 Ever truly and sincerely yours, 
 
 J. BURNS.
 
 THE MAGISTRACY. 197 
 
 Very shortly after the date of this transaction Lord 
 Hardwicke left Ireland. The ministry of "all the 
 Talents" came in, and with them the Duke of Bedford, 
 from whom personally, and from his government, during 
 the short time it survived, I received every suitable civi- 
 lity and support in the performance of my local duties. 
 
 When appointments to the magistracy were dealt with 
 in the spirit evinced by Lord Chancellor Redesdale, it is 
 not difficult to imagine how the magistrates so appointed 
 were likely to exercise their authority, thus confessedly 
 delegated for party uses. Magisterial business was then 
 done privately and solitarily by each justice in his own 
 house, and acting at his own discretion, unchecked by 
 any public opinion. Before the separation which I have 
 described had taken place between the upper and lower 
 classes, the inconveniences and mischiefs of this system 
 were less felt by the latter, as a sort of rude, clownish 
 justice was administered, or. at all events, protection was 
 afforded by each landlord to his own tenants and de- 
 pendents against every one except himself; and where 
 the law failed to furnish the means of making such pro- 
 tection effectual, the magistrate not unfrequently ap- 
 pealed to his pistols in defence of his tenant it might 
 be from unprovoked injury, or it might be from the con- 
 sequences of some trespass against the laws. But now 
 this was all changed. The landlord no longer headed 
 his tenants, and the tenants no longer followed the land- 
 lord in a feud ; but the former arrayed himself with his 
 order, while the latter banded with their fellows, each 
 party pitted against the other in the ranks of a sort of 
 servile war. To obtain justice or magisterial interven- 
 tion was still a sort of favour and compliment, rather 
 than a right that could be practically enforced ; but 
 there remained little good feeling or kindliness between 
 those who sought for and those who had the power of 
 granting the favour. If a peasant or farmer had a com- 
 plaint to make to a justice, he might parade for hours, 
 sometimes for days, before his worship's door, before he
 
 198 ANCIENT AND DISCREET 
 
 could gain a hearing ; and if his complaint lay against a 
 neighbouring squire or squireen, no summons for the 
 latter could be procured, but, perhaps, a sealed note 
 inviting his attendance, to be humbly delivered to him 
 by the complainant with his own hands. A distant day 
 was then probably appointed for a hearing, when the 
 defendant was received with friendly courtesy, while the 
 plaintiff was suffered to resume his parade before the 
 door until it suited the convenience of the justice to call 
 him into the hall. If, then, his case was so clear, or so 
 feebly opposed, as to necessitate a decree in his favour, 
 the law provided another distant day for the settlement 
 of his claim, allowing no compensation for the three or 
 four days' time which, in all likelihood, he had lost in 
 prosecuting the suit. The law, thus administered in its 
 primary processes, was executed, when necessary, by a 
 barony constable, whose qualification for the duty was, 
 his having received the sacrament at the parish church, 
 and whose emoluments of office amounted to 4 a-year. 
 The natural disposition of this functionary was, of course, 
 to earn a shilling, or a glass of whiskey, or even a good 
 word from the party against whom he might be in- 
 trusted with a warrant, by noticing him to keep out of 
 his way. 
 
 The employment of those "ancient and discreet con- 
 stables," with their religious qualification, was but a part 
 of the system of subsidization of the Protestant garrison 
 of Ireland to which I have adverted. It had, however, 
 a specially injurious effect upon society, by the impedi- 
 ments it threw in the way of the administration of jus- 
 tice, and was, most beneficially, put an end to by the 
 establishment of the constabulary force. 
 
 For the first introduction of the changes that resulted 
 in the existing development of that system, the country 
 is greatly indebted to Sir Robert Peel, to whom I recol- 
 lect mentioning an illustration of the character of the 
 old barony constable, when I was pressing upon his 
 attention (which I did, urgently, at the time of his
 
 CONSTABLES. 1 99 
 
 official residence in Ireland) the necessity of a more 
 efficient executive police. A protege of a neighbouring 
 lady came to me to be sworn in as a barony constable, 
 the place and dignity of which had been obtained for 
 him by her ladyship. He was a sound Protestant: and 
 I, of course, administered to him the proper oath, ac- 
 companying the act with an exposition of the important 
 duties of the office. When I came to that of preventing 
 cattle from straying or grazing upon the public roads, 
 the aspirant Dogberry, ia much embarrassment, stopped 
 me with the question, "Ah, then, where am I to keep 
 my own little cow, my Lord ?" 
 
 It was usually like master like man, with justice and 
 constable ; and there was little generic difference betwen 
 the principle of action of either, and that of the highest 
 executive authority of the country. The inferior admi- 
 nistration of the law seldom received active support from 
 " the Castle," unless for party reasons ; and high autho- 
 rity usually fell into a paralysis when ite interference in 
 favour of the oppressed was called for. I will mention 
 a few instances in point, not restricting myself to the 
 particular date at which the wandering course of my 
 narrative has arrived. 
 
 I think I had not occasion more than twice, in a long 
 magisterial life, to call for military assistance, and one of 
 these occasions was under the following circumstances. 
 On a farm, about five miles from Lyons, the tenant had 
 a dispute with the landlord, who seized a large crop of 
 hay. The tenant replevined ; and during the litigation, 
 the hay remained upon the fields, when the country peo- 
 ple thinking it a pity to see so much good fodder spoiled, 
 began very freely to help themselves. I was informed 
 of the circumstance, and posted notices forbidding the 
 plunder. The priest also admonished them, but they 
 attended to neither justice nor priest ; and each night a 
 few cocks of the hay disappeared, in spite of the keepers 
 and constables. A military interference then became 
 necessary; and I accompanied the soldiers myself, at 
 night, to the fields. The rogues resisted and fired upon
 
 200 KENNY'S CASE. 
 
 us, and were fired upon in return by the military, whereby 
 a man was killed on a hay-cock. Re wore white stock- 
 ings, which made him a good mark ; and though thus 
 killed in the commission of a felony, turned out to be 
 the steward and bailiff of a neighbouring clergyman, 
 Dean Keatinge, formerly Chaplain to the Irish House of 
 Commons. The rest of the party ran away, leaving eight 
 or ten carts and horses, which I seized as theft boot. 
 A coroner's inquest was held upon the dead man, and 
 a verdict of justifiable homicide returned ; the derelict 
 horses and carts I sent to livery, to be kept for the 
 Crown. His Majesty, however, had but bad caretakers 
 of his windfalls ; and before they were sold, a consider- 
 able charge for livery was incurred. This Mr. Attorney- 
 General Saurin insisted I should pay ; and, after a length- 
 ened correspondence, it was only as the result of a 
 threat that the whole affair should be shown up in the 
 newspapers, that the Lord Lieutenant, Earl Talbot, paid 
 the costs out of his own pocket. 
 
 Upon another occasion, during the viceroyalty of my 
 late respected friend, the Marquis Wellesley, a district 
 not far from my house was proclaimed, under the Insur- 
 rection Act, although the immediate neighbourhood of 
 Lyons and the adjoining lands of Bishopscourt were 
 peaceable and unproclaimed. A respectable farmer, a 
 tenant of Lady Ponsonby's, upon the latter lands, a man 
 named Kenny, who paid 200 a-year rent, happened, 
 one evening, to want silver to pay a number of mowers, 
 and went to procure it to a public-house, which, though 
 but a few hundred yards from his farm, was within the 
 proclaimed district. Two of his labourers came into the 
 public-house while he was there, and he gave them 
 share of what he was drinking. The circumstance of 
 the house being within the proclaimed district, the man 
 forgot, or did not think of; but he was soon reminded 
 of it by a party of constables who were there drinking, 
 and who, the sun having set, made him prisoner. It was 
 in vain that he explained his business, and told who he 
 was ; his captors called him a " bloody papist i" and one
 
 KENNY'S CASE. 201 
 
 of them having rubbed a prayer-book to his mouth, 
 Kenny immediately knocked him down. He was brought 
 before me, and I took upon me to accept bail for his 
 attendance at the special sessions, which, under the 
 Insurrection Act was rather a stretch of authority. At 
 the sessions, all the magistrates, except the Duke of 
 Leinster, myself, and (I believe) Mr. Henry, found him 
 guilty under the letter of the Act, and sentenced him, 
 accordingly, to transportation. The particulars of the 
 case were, however, favourably represented by Mr. George 
 Bennett, the presiding barrister, to Lord Wellesley, who 
 pronounced the conduct of the majority of the magis- 
 trates to be most erroneous, and remitted the case to 
 them for reconsideration, with a view to a new finding. 
 They refused to go into the matter again ; and his Ex- 
 cellency's law advisers being unable to show him any 
 way of getting out of the dead lock, poor Kenny was 
 kept in prison for several months. At length, at the 
 urgent solicitation of Lady Ponsonby and Lord Fitz- 
 william, the Lord Lieutenant resolved to cut the knot, 
 by liberating the man upon his own authority ; but he 
 was discharged from jail only to find himself utterly 
 ruined : his affairs had fallen into confusion, and he him- 
 self had contracted habits of dissipation out of which he 
 never rose. 
 
 Even for the strength of Lord Wellesley 's will and 
 administrative genius, the power of the system under 
 which the dominant class had been created and sepa- 
 rated from the majority of the people, was too strong ; 
 and, in further illustration of this fact, I may relate the 
 particulars of another occurrence which fell within my 
 own knowledge : The city of Dublin, in those days, was 
 governed by its own magistrates, who appointed the 
 municipal police masters and men being all "good 
 Protestants." A party of the latter happened to be 
 employed on patrol duty at the fair of Saggard (a village 
 about eight miles from Dublin, but within the city juris- 
 diction), and riding carelessly through the crowd, were 
 
 K3
 
 202 AFFAIR AT SAGGARD. 
 
 made game of and laughed at. They took no notice of 
 this at the time, but five of them having subsequently 
 retired to a neighbouring public-house, their indignation 
 rose with the depth of their potations, and, at the close 
 of the day, they issued out into the fair with their swords 
 drawn, crying out " Five pounds for a Priest a shilling 
 for a Papist." A riot, of course, followed, and the result 
 was that an old man was killed by one of the police. 
 Informations were sworn at Celbridge, before the Duke 
 of Leinster and myself, and \\ e issued our warrant against 
 the five policemen. To render this instrument valid 
 within the city, it was, however, necessary that it should 
 be backed by a city justice, and all those functionaries 
 refused to add their authority to the warrant until the 
 parties were identified, although they had the most accu- 
 rate means of knowing what men were told off for patrol 
 in Saggard on the day of the murder, and the country 
 people were unable to identify the particular individuals 
 from among a number of men dressed in uniform, and 
 shown to them at a formal parade. The city magistrates 
 stood by their men like true comrades, and effectually 
 screened them, notwithstanding the interference of Lord 
 Wellesley, who, at the instance of the Duke of Leinster 
 and myself, did all in his power to forward the ends of 
 justice. All his Excellency could accomplish was a pri- 
 vate dismissal of the five men from the police force, and 
 one of them, a man named Hamilton, was reinstated 
 within the year. He waited upon me, on his reappoint- 
 ment, to deprecate my further interference, and to pro- 
 mise better conduct for the future. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the affections of a con- 
 quered people could be won for their conquerors under 
 a system of jurisprudence such, in its several parts, as 
 I have described. In coincidence with that system, the 
 various departments of administration worked most suc- 
 cessfully in furtherance of the policy of discord. The 
 tithe-proctor, the exciseman, the local rate collector, the 
 parish schoolmaster (when there was one), were chosen
 
 POLICY OF DISCORD AND CORRUPTION. 203 
 
 from those whom the people looked upon as their ene- 
 mies, and the selection was made upon the very ground 
 of that enmity the difference of religion the fact of 
 the aspirant officials being professors of the English- 
 garrison faith. The natural antipathies of men to tithes, 
 taxes, excise imposts, and, generally, to dogs in office of 
 every kind, were thus swelled into one common and 
 overwhelming hatred against the Englishman and the 
 Protestant, and these synonymes, with their Irish equiva- 
 lent Sassenach, came into use as words of power, which 
 every agitator, whether in a good or bad cause, might 
 employ to call the angry spirit of the mob to his service. 
 
 Meanwhile successful corruption was producing its 
 natural effects upon the dominant party. Confident in 
 their own strength, they were wantonly lavishing it, or 
 suffering it to waste away. Thus, the institution of the 
 yeomanry corps was a contrivance, and, for a time, a 
 successful one, for retaining for the English government 
 all those Protestants who could not be provided for as 
 trading justices, barony constables, gaugers, parish clerks 
 and schoolmasters, tithe-proctors, or city policemen. 
 Clothes, arms, a shilling a-day when on duty, and the 
 consideration attached to connexion with the govern- 
 ment, were found to be sufficient inducements to all 
 such to hold on upon their garrison duty, even after real 
 fear of the rebels had ceased to operate upon their minds. 
 Nevertheless, I have known a needy country gentleman 
 draw pay and allowances for a corps of a hundred and 
 fifty men in buckram, of which he was nominally cap- 
 tain, while, in reality, he had not upon his muster-roll 
 more than a dozen yeomen. 
 
 All these changes had been initiated during the eight 
 years that had elapsed from the period of my depar- 
 ture from Ireland in 1797, to that of my permanent 
 return to it at the close of 1805. I attempted to do 
 what my small power enabled me towards counterwork- 
 ing them, and some of what I did I will refer to in the 
 ensuing chapter.
 
 204 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Improvements in the Administration of Justice Petty Sessions Origin of the 
 System at Celbridge A Case of Appeal The Stipendiary Magistracy 
 Effects of the System ; in widening the Breach between the Classes ; in 
 stimulating Placehunting Letter from Lord Chancellor Manners Memo- 
 randum on required Changes in the Law Letters; from Sir John New- 
 port, from Sir William Gosset, from Mr. Peel, from Attorney-General 
 Ball, from Mr. Dmmmond Use of Petty Sessions to solve the Landlord 
 and Tenant Question The Constabulary Letter from Mr. O'Connell. 
 
 As my reminiscences led me in the last chapter to think 
 over the abuses prevalent in the administration of justice 
 in Ireland, I will shortly advert to some remedial mea- 
 sures, in the introduction of which I had a part. It was 
 many years subsequent to the period of my first under- 
 taking the duties of a country gentleman and magistrate 
 that those measures were brought into operation ; but 
 from the very commencement of that period I saw their 
 necessity, and lost no opportunity of urging their adop- 
 tion upon the government. 
 
 None of those abuses were more mischievous than the 
 custom of magistrates acting singly, in their own houses, 
 with all those incidents belonging to that practice to 
 which I have adverted. This custom has now been com- 
 pletely abolished ; and the system that has replaced it 
 was, I believe, commenced by myself at Celbridge, a 
 village near Lyons, whither I prevailed upon one or two 
 neighbouring magistrates to resort weekly, for the pur- 
 pose of hearing and adjudicating upon the complaints of 
 the people. This bench the present Duke of Leinster 
 joined as soon as he became of age, and continued to co- 
 operate in its labours with much assiduity and patience, 
 very seldom absenting himself from our Monday meet-
 
 THE PETTY SESSIONS* SYSTEM. 205 
 
 ings. This voluntary association of magistrates for the 
 administration of the law coram populo was the foun- 
 dation of the petty sessions' system, which has since been 
 regulated by many acts of parliament, and has been ex- 
 tended universally throughout Ireland. The originator 
 of the weekly meetings in my own district, I was looked 
 upon as a sort of permanent president of the court ; an I it 
 was a standing joke with the Duke to address his notes to 
 me as Lord Chief Justice of Celbridge. To myself it is 
 now matter of no small pride and satisfaction, that I can 
 look back upon a period of more than thirty years during 
 which I acted in that office amid many difficulties, yet, 
 I trust, without forfeiting the confidence that was reposed 
 in me by my neighbours, of every rank, grade, and party, 
 and without an appeal being made against our decisions, 
 upon more than one or two occasions, although often in 
 the face of the direct opposition of the government of 
 the day. Of one of these appeals I recollect the par- 
 ticulars, a detail of which may be interesting as illustra- 
 tive of the state of feeling that prevailed. It was in the 
 case of the same Mr. C , whom I have before men- 
 tioned as having taken advantage of my absence to make 
 an examination of the contents of my library and wine- 
 cellar. This gentleman was summoned before me at the 
 suit of some mowers who had a dispute with him about 
 wages. He was highly indignant at having received a 
 summons instead of a note politely requesting his appear- 
 ance, and accordingly refused to attend before me. He 
 was, nevertheless, decreed to pay the amount with costs 
 to the extent of some twenty or five-and-twenty shil- 
 lings ; and on his neglecting to pay, I issued a warrant, 
 under authority of which a cow of his was seized and 
 sold, and the balance tendered to him. He declined to 
 take it, and appealed to the quarter sessions. There 
 was a full attendance of Tory magistrates, to see justice 
 
 done upon a popular brother, and Mr. C had a 
 
 strong bar to take care of his interests. I acted as my 
 own counsel, and for once the adage went wrong. Mr.
 
 206 STIPENDIARY MAGISTRACY. 
 
 C accused me of being actuated by hostility towards 
 
 him on account of his former display of loyal zeal ; but, 
 upon cross-examination, he was obliged to admit that he 
 owed me four years' rent before I had recourse to a pro- 
 cess of ejectment. Ultimately the chairman (the present 
 Mr. Justice Torrens) acknowledged that he should not 
 have received the appeal, as the time for lodging it had 
 been suffered to elapse, and the appellant was defeated, 
 to the great joy of the audience. 
 
 Nothing could possibly work more satisfactorily than 
 those petty sessions; but, I think, the committal of the ma- 
 gisterial business of the country so much to the manage- 
 ment of stipendiary magistrates, as has since been done, 
 has been a considerable drawback upon their usefulness. 
 It has tended to widen the breach between the classes ; 
 and has had even a worse effect, in stimulating that pas- 
 sion for placehunting, which is one of the great snares of 
 Irishmen one of the devices most effectual in fixing 
 upon the active and energetic the yoke of an alien servi- 
 tude, and in turning them from the paths of honest 
 industry, through which alone lies the way to national 
 and individual independence. The magistracy should 
 have been held sacred from such pollution ; and it has 
 always seemed to me that by publicity, and by freely 
 admitting to the honours of the unpaid bench every 
 person qualified by position and property ; or even by 
 obliging such persons to act as magistrates during a cer- 
 tain portion of their life, sufficient impartiality and a due 
 administration of the laws could be insured. 
 
 Upon the subject of this amendment of the law and 
 its administration, and upon others of minor importance, 
 the following documents, which have remained among 
 my papers, will throw some light, as well as upon the 
 difficulties that stood in the way of reform, even in mat- 
 ters apparently so little connected with disputed party 
 questions :
 
 REQUIRED CHANGES IN THE LAW. 207 
 
 Lord Chancellor Manners to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, May 13th, 1816. 
 
 My Lord I beg your Lordship's pardon for not having 
 sooner acknowledged the receipt of your Lordship's letter of the 
 8th inst., complaining of the deficiency of magistrates in your 
 neighbourhood, and recommending several very respectable per- 
 sons. I do not know whether any of those gentlemen would 
 act in the commission of the peace; but if they would, the 
 regular course has been, and is, for any of them to apply through 
 a governor of the county, or a privy councillor, for the purpose. 
 In stating this to be the usual practice, 1 do not mean the 
 slightest incivility to your Lordship, for I really believe there 
 is not an objectional name in your list; but I think it material 
 to adhere to the practice transmitted to me by my predecessors 
 in office. 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 
 Your Lordship's obedient servant, 
 
 MANNERS. 
 
 Memorandum by Lord Cloncurry on some required Changes in 
 the Law regulating the Jurisdiction of Magistrates, 
 
 Lord Cloncurry having for many years acted as a Justice of 
 the Peace for counties near the city of Dublin, often found 
 great inconveniences from the difficulty of having warrants 
 executed in the city. Many offenders from the country took 
 refuge in the city; and persons living in Dublin, and either 
 holding land, or contracting for works in the vicinity, and 
 leaving their work-people or servants unpaid, set at defiance 
 the warrants of county magistrates, which the city magistrates 
 refused to back. 
 
 In civil matters the police magistrates would not act at all; 
 and in criminal they required copies of informations and other 
 documents, which the county magistrates did not think it right 
 or convenient always to give. 
 
 To remedy these impediments, Mr. Peel procured an act of 
 parliament (59 Geo. III., cap. 92), giving the necessary power 
 to the warrant of justices of the peace of counties, in cities and 
 towns, and in neighbouring counties. 
 
 Notwithstanding this law, the police magistrates frequently 
 refused aid to county constables in the execution of warrants,
 
 208 REQUIRED CHANGES 
 
 and the county justices are frequently obliged either to leave 
 complaints unredressed, or to send such force of county consta- 
 bles into the city as may tend to create riot or alarm. 
 
 The magistrates, in general sessions, on the 16th of January, 
 inst., made a representation to the Chief Secretary on the sub- 
 ject, as also on the following: 
 
 The constabulary are by law forbidden to take any fee or 
 reward other than their pay; and any portion of fines to which 
 they might be entitled as informers, inspectors of roads, public 
 houses, or otherwise, is to go to the credit of the public. The 
 police of Dublin, who act within eight miles of the city, are, by 
 a different regulation, allowed one-half of all fines recovered by 
 their instrumentality. The constabulary and police continually 
 act together in the neighbourhood of Dublin, particularly at 
 Kingstown, Blackrock, Howth, Rathfarnham, &c., and jealousies 
 arise, the constables complaining that the police have great 
 advantages over them. The county of Dublin constables are 
 altogether worse than those of any other county, partly from 
 this cause, and partly because their inspector, being an alder- 
 man, is unacquainted with discipline, and more attentive to the 
 politics than the conduct of the men. 
 
 The police should be well paid; but, like the new London 
 police, or the constables, they should have no other revenue but 
 their pay. The police and the constables when they had half 
 fines for road trespass, were often accused of driving cattle from 
 their pastures at night, in order to find them on the road, and 
 levy tlie fine on them. 
 
 The Right Hon. Sir John Newport, Bart., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 29th May. 
 
 I am favoured with your Lordship's very interesting letter, 
 and have to thank you for its valuable contents. I would gladly 
 avail myself of the information which it contains, and endea- 
 vour, as far as in my power, to recommend to parliament the 
 application of a remedy, although the nature of the bill which 
 I have introduced would not allow such remedy to be incorpo- 
 rated with it. That bill goes merely to assimilate the law of 
 England and Ireland, in certain cases therein named, particu- 
 larly as to magistrates resident in a county different from the 
 county for which they wish to act, being enabled so to do (this,
 
 IN THE LAW, 209 
 
 by-the-bye, is one of the cases your Lordship mentions) ; also 
 to allow constables to execute warrants, and sheriffs to couvey 
 offenders to jail through counties to which they do not belong. 
 This is law in England, and I hope will soon be so in Ireland, 
 which it is not at present. 
 
 As to the other very interesting points, I have committed the 
 letter (which I hope your Lordship will excuse) to the care of 
 Sir H. Parnell, on account of my immediately approaching 
 departure from London for Ireland. I am very reluctantly 
 compelled to do so. Sir H. P. has in contemplation some 
 further measures on this subject. I have the honour to be 
 Your Lordship's most obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN NEWPORT. 
 
 Sir William Gosset to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin Castle, 24th April, 1834. 
 
 My Lord With reference to that part of your Lordship's 
 letter of the 3rd instant, which relates to the recent orders 
 issued to the police, in regard to the extent of their interference 
 in cases of road nuisances, I have the honour to observe that 
 it is very far from the wish of the government to deprive the 
 magistracy of the services of the constabulary in suppressing 
 road nuisances. The difficulty lies in this; the police cannot, 
 as the law stands, summon the parties offending, the only mode 
 by which the police can proceed is, by impounding stray pigs, 
 &c., which it is impracticable to effect consistently with the 
 performance of their more important duties. It is, therefore, 
 intended to alter the law upon that point, by empowering the 
 constabulary to summon for road nuisances. I have the honour 
 to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 WM. GOSSET. 
 
 P.S. Your Lordship's suggestion in regard to the holding a 
 weekly session at llathcoole is under consideration. 
 
 Sir William Gosset to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin Castle, 10th May, 1834. 
 
 My Lord Adverting to Lhe latter part of your Lordship's 
 letter of the 3rd inst., I have the honour to state, that having 
 communicated with the magistrates of the Head Police Office, 
 with respect to your Lordship's suggestion that a Dublin Justice
 
 210 REQUIRED CHANGES 
 
 should attend at Rathcoole, in conjunction with Major Tandy, 
 for the purpose of forming a weekly sessions there : it appears 
 from the magistrates' report, that the place pointed out by your 
 Lordship, being on the verge of the police district, the jurisdic- 
 tion of any of the justices from the office of the division in 
 which it is situated, would not extend to that part of the county 
 of Dublin as to which you seem more particularly solicitous. 
 It is also observed, that, although a magistrate might occasion- 
 ally be detached from the second divisional office, without 
 inconvenience to the general routine of business in Dublin, cir- 
 cumstances often occur which would render any such regular 
 attendance as is contemplated by your Lordship quite impos- 
 sible; and under no circumstances could the proposed assistance 
 be afforded from the Head Office, the justices of which have, 
 alone, the extended jurisdiction necessary for the object in 
 view. The proposed arrangement would, moreover, create a 
 novel head of expenditure in the accounts of the establishment, 
 namely, the expense attending the conveyance of the magis- 
 trate to and from Rathcoole, being a distance of eight Irish miles 
 from the city. 
 
 The magistrates having, at the same time, brought under the 
 notice of government, the expediency of establishing a petty 
 sessions at Tallaght, in the neighbourhood of which a sufficient 
 number of country gentlemen would be found disposed to under- 
 take the duty; and which arrangement would be advantageous 
 to a very extensive district, including that part of your Lord- 
 ship's property most remote from Lucan sessions; I beg to 
 observe that this point, as well as your Lordship's wishes regard- 
 ing the formation of the Rathcoole sessions, will be brought 
 under the consideration of the Lieutenant of the county without 
 delay. I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 WM. GOSSET. 
 Mr. Peel to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Whitehall, April 16, 1822. 
 
 My Lord I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of 
 your Lordship's letter of the 13th instant, and request you to 
 accept my thanks for the communication. 
 
 I readily admit my belief, that the representations which you 
 made to me, when I was Chief Secretary of Ireland, on the 
 subject of its domestic affairs, were neither of a frivolous nature,
 
 IN THE LAW. 2 1 1 
 
 nor originating in interested motives; and that belief will always 
 induce me to consider, with attention and impartiality, any sug- 
 gestions you may offer with a view of improving the condition 
 of the people, or facilitating the just execution of the law. I 
 have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 The Right Hon. Nicholas Ball to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Stephen's-green, Dublin, December 18. 
 
 My dear Lord The proclamation about the Sabbath obser- 
 vance you will hear no more about; instructions will be for- 
 warded to the constabulary not to act upon it. In reference to 
 any of the matters of complaint to which you called my atten- 
 tion, I may tell you, in one word, that it was owing to a mistake 
 of the meaning of certain directions given for another purpose, 
 that the proclamation was issued. 
 
 As to the other matter which you mentioned, namely, the 
 expediency of the constabulary being empowered to act in 
 counties adjoining the one to which they belong, I have spoken 
 to Colonel M'Gregor, and also to Drummond, and they both con- 
 sider it very desirable that such a regulation should be made; 
 but it is suggested that an act of parliament will be necessary 
 for that purpose. I will look more into the subject. 
 I am, my dear Lord, yours very truly, 
 
 N. BALL. 
 
 Thomas Drummond, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin Castle, February 4, 1836. 
 
 My dear Lord I thank you for your memorandum respecting 
 the police. I believe that what you state is true as respects 
 the Dublin police; but certainly not in the other districts. 
 'Tis useless to attempt a change till the bill passes; we shall 
 then have the whole under one management, and all these 
 abuses will disappear in one month. 
 
 Pass the bill all who are interested in preserving peace, and 
 preventing outrage in Ireland. My dear Lord, 
 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 T. DRUMMOND. 
 
 P.S. I am happy to hear the good account you give of the 
 parliamentary prospects.
 
 212 PEOPOSED USE OF PETTY SESSIONS. 
 
 There is one purpose to which petty sessions might be 
 made subservient, that I am desirous of calling attention 
 to, and which I have often urged as a practical solution 
 of the landlord and tenant difficulty, now so much 
 thought and spoken of. I think that as servants were 
 formerly (and, indeed, I believe, still are in Scotland) 
 hired at public trysts and fairs, so contracts for the let- 
 ting of farms might be made before the magistrates at 
 petty sessions, in open court. If that practice were 
 adopted, I am convinced it would lead to a fairer esti- 
 mation of the value of land, and a better understanding 
 of the nature of the bargain between owner and occu- 
 pier, the want of which is the cause of so much misery 
 and so many crimes. The landlord would be ashamed 
 to ask an unreasonable rent in the presence of his 
 brother landowners and neighbours the tenant would 
 be ashamed to offer an insufficient or an exorbitant sum 
 (which latter, under the existing system, was often done 
 to the injury of both parties), vulgi circumstante corona. 
 It would also follow, as an incident in the course of a 
 public letting of land, that the condition of farms would 
 be canvassed, and the question of improvements, the 
 responsibility of making them, and the claims to the 
 profit and permanent ownership of them, would be 
 settled. These matters are now arranged first in the 
 landlord's private office, and subsequently re-discussed 
 and re-arranged at the nightly meetings of the secret 
 courts of the agrarian conspiracy that has so long vexed 
 the country. Would it not be better that the venue of 
 such processes should be changed to the court-house of 
 the district, and that the proceedings should take place 
 under the light of day ? Wherever we shall restore a 
 link in that chain of mutual dependence and friendship 
 that ought to hold the classes together, but that has 
 been rudely broken in Ireland, we may be sure of the 
 goodness of our work. 1 have no doubt that the plan I 
 propose would be the means, not only of binding to- 
 gether worthy men of every rank among the dealers in
 
 THE CONSTABULARY. 213 
 
 land, but also of breaking asunder those unlawful bonds 
 that have so unfortunately tied up the good and the bad 
 of the occupying class into a combination, formidable to 
 the prosperity of the country and to their own best 
 interests. 
 
 Among the measures of administrative reform to the 
 promotion of which I gave my attention, with an ear- 
 nestness that, no doubt, often made me a troublesome 
 correspondent to the members of the government, a very 
 important one was that for the establishment of an effi- 
 cient police. Of this I never lost sight; and I have 
 lived to see the old barony constable, such as I have 
 described him, superseded by a force as effective and 
 well-conducted as was ever enrolled for the preservation 
 of the peace of any country. Even in lawless Ireland, 
 as it is the English fashion to term our country, this 
 force is highly popular, through the character its mem- 
 bers have established for a firm, yet humane, perform- 
 ance of their duty; and it would now scarcely be 
 believed how difficult was the achievement of its estab- 
 lishment. Indeed, a better example of the obstacles 
 that stand in the way of every improvement could 
 scarcely be selected than is to be found in the history of 
 the rise and progress of the Irish constabulary. In ad- 
 dition to the natural enmity of the ill-disposed and tur- 
 bulent, this body had to encounter the hostility of all 
 who profited by the existing system, that is to say, 
 generally of the whole class of donors and donees under 
 the old Protestant rule for the appointment of the exe- 
 cutors of the law. The additional expense, too, thrown 
 upon land, and the withdrawal from the local magis- 
 trates of control over the police, raised up many enemies 
 against the new system, and, in the latter respect, per- 
 haps not without some colour of justice. Just as I 
 consider it to be impolitic to throw the greater portion 
 of the responsibility of the local administration of justice 
 upon stipendiary magistrates, so do I consider it to have 
 been unwise and unconstitutional to render the consta-
 
 214 THE CONSTABULARY. 
 
 bulary so entirely independent (as they are) of the con- 
 trol of the local magistrates : it is a practical deposition 
 of the natural leaders of the country from their place, 
 and a further widening of the breach between the classes. 
 It is certain, also, that the unconstitutional character of 
 the force has been enhanced by the recent change in 
 the mode of their payment, by which the burden is en- 
 tirely removed from the local, and thrown upon the im- 
 perial purse. It would be better, I think, if these things 
 were otherwise arranged, but still the institution is a 
 good and useful one; and this is a fact so generally 
 acknowledged, that, probably, some of my readers may 
 find it hard to comprehend the force of the reliance upon 
 " the horrors of the constabulary bill," as an engine for 
 agitation, exhibited in the following letter. There were, 
 however, few better judges of the proper elements of a 
 grievance than the writer : 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Merrion-square, 6th July, 1822. 
 
 My dear Lord I thought I could have the pleasure of 
 spending to-morrow with you, but I now find I cannot. I 
 must, very reluctantly, deprive myself of that honour. 1 do, 
 indeed, want very much to converse with you, and if the fol- 
 lowing Sunday be dry I will try and find you at home some- 
 time in the forenoon of it. I begin to think that it would be 
 possible to take a position favourable to reform before the next 
 sessions commence, especially if the Duke of Leinster could be 
 brought into action. The country gentlemen are now smarting, 
 and, between loss of rents, and the pressure of tithes, and the 
 horrors of the "constabulary bill," there are many who would 
 now come forward, that have been hitherto neutral or adverse. 
 It would, at all events, be right to try. Believe me to be, with 
 the most sincere respect and regard, 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 Your very faithful, 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL.
 
 215 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 18071828. 
 
 Viceroyalty of the Duke of Richmond My Second Marriage Domestic Circle 
 and Occupations Associates Mr. Kirwan, the Geologist Mr. Chenevix 
 Mr. Jephson Viceroyalty of Lord Whitworth A new Persecution on 
 the score of ray "d d Politics" Letters from Lord Whitworth Memo- 
 randum of Mrs. Douglas's Interview with Lord Chancellor Manners Let- 
 ters to and from Lord Manners Affidavit of Mrs. Douglas Letters ; from 
 the Earl of Donoughmore, from the Earl of Limerick Viceroyalty of Earl 
 Talhot Letter from him Lord Talbot's Private Kindness His Public 
 Policy Meeting at Kilmainham to address the King Its Conduct and 
 Dispersal A Characteristic Incident Letters ; from Sir Francis Burdett, 
 from the Duke of Leinster, from Mr. Murphy Mot of the Duke of Wel- 
 lington Visit of George IV. to Ireland Ebullition of Loyalty Renewal 
 of Discord The Lord Mayor's Dinner Recall of Lord Talbot Viceroyalty 
 of the Marquis Wellesley His intended Policy His Rupture with "the 
 Castle" Protestant War declared against him The Bottle Riot Stretching 
 of the Law Letters from Lord Holland Enlightened Opinions of Lord 
 Wellesley on the leading Irish Questions. 
 
 THE prospects of a liberal government, held out by the 
 accession of the ministry of "all the Talents," were soon 
 overcast. In 1807, the Duke of Bedford was succeeded 
 in the Viceroyalty by the Duke of Richmond, at whose 
 court I did not present myself, but who, notwithstand- 
 ing, with that unaffected bonhommie for which he was 
 noted, insisted upon making my acquaintance. I met 
 his Grace at Straffan (the seat of Mr. Henry), and he 
 did me the honour of visiting me at Lyons. During that 
 period, however, I had few relations with the govern- 
 ment, and passed my time entirely in the ordinary em- 
 ployments of a magistrate and country gentleman, until 
 my quiet was painfully disturbed by occurrences that 
 ended, in the year 1811, in a dissolution of my hasty 
 and imprudent marriage. Shortly afterwards 1 formed 
 another, and more fortunate connexion, with Emily
 
 216 MY DOMESTIC CIRCLE 
 
 Douglas, the widow of the Hon. Joseph Leeson, and 
 mother of Joseph, Earl of Milltown, with whom I lived 
 in uninterrupted happiness and affection for thirty years. 
 
 I had then, with my wife's three children and my own, 
 a large family at Lyons, and, in all that related to my 
 individual concerns, there were few happier or more con- 
 tented men. I was never idle ; the day was never long 
 enough for my various occupations of building, draining, 
 planting, and cultivating my groun.ds. In the course of 
 them I created a fine place, and employed an army of 
 men, at a cost, indeed, of at least 200, OCO, but with 
 the advantages of vastly improving my property, and of 
 surrounding myself with a prosperous and happy tenantry 
 who occasioned me no uneasiness and put the state to 
 but small cost for soldiers, police, or lawyers. My do- 
 mestic circle was ever a joyous one, and seldom failed to 
 be enlarged by the addition of four or five friends from 
 among those who sympathized, or bore with, my unfa- 
 shionable national politics. It was always my habit to 
 endeavour to draw around me whatever of talent, or 
 worth, or promise among my fellow-countrymen came 
 within the sphere of my influence, and to perform the 
 duties of hospitality to foreign sojourners. My visitors 
 were, therefore, numerous and various, and at Lyons 
 ennui was felt as little in our evenings in the drawing- 
 room, as in our mornings amid the labours of the fields. 
 Of some of my habitual visitors I have already spoken, 
 and I will now mention one or two others who were fre- 
 quent and honoured guests. 
 
 First on the list I must place Mr. Kirwan, the well- 
 known geologist and natural philosopher, who passed a 
 good deal of time at Lyons, and ultimately purchased a 
 residence in the neighbourhood. He was a man of 
 extreme simplicity of character, but had attained so emi- 
 nent a scientific reputation, that, even during the hottest 
 period of the war, his letters were suffered to pass 
 free from all parts of Europe. He was very social and 
 entertaining ; but in consequence of a convulsive affec-
 
 AND ASSOCIATES. 217* 
 
 tion of his throat, which rendered it disagreeable to him 
 to eat in presence of others, it was his habit to dine 
 alone, and not to join our party until dinner was over. 
 
 Another distinguished friend and neighbour, both of 
 mine and Mr. Kirwan's, was Mr. Chenevix, the chemist. 
 He and I were not at one in politics ; and he had been 
 one of those ultra-loyal Irishmen, of whom I have spoken 
 as having endeavoured to counteract my exertions, at 
 Vienna, in favour of the United Irish deserters from the 
 Prussian service. Nevertheless, we were not the worse 
 neighbours for that, and he frequently joined our party. 
 Nor can I forget the most brilliant, even of that circle 
 which included Curran, Grattan, and Lattin the Rev. 
 Robert Jephson. He, truly, was the life of our society, 
 until the splendour of his preaching and conversation so 
 dazzled Primate Stewart, that he removed him from 
 among us to the valuable living of Mullaghbrack, near 
 Armagh. It was his Grace's hope that those talents 
 would do good service in resisting an inroad of Method- 
 ism, which then threatened to lay waste his fold ; but 
 poor Jephson, like the soldier described by Horace, no 
 sooner found himself in possession of a zone, than he 
 withdrew from the war.* 
 
 Amid such occupations and amusements as these, 
 time, as I have said, passed lightly and pleasantly on. 
 
 In 1813, the Duke of Richmond was replaced by Lord 
 Whitworth, with whom I exchanged the usual civilities. 
 The spirit of party, however, prevailed at the court of 
 this viceroy, and it was not long until cause of offence 
 
 * Mr. Jephson was nephew to the well-known "Roman-Portrait 
 Jephson," (^author of the " Count of Narbonne,") who, like himself, was 
 endowed with an extraordinary brilliancy of wit. Mr. Jephson, the 
 elder, lived atBlackrock, in a house which still remains, nearly opposite 
 Maretimo, and was, for a considerable period, the poet laureate and 
 master of the horse of the viceregal court. He lost place and pension 
 by an untimely exercise of his wit, when dining one day at my father's 
 house. The dinner was given to the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquis of 
 Buckingham, who happened to observe, in an unlucky mirror, the 
 reflection of Jephson in the act of mimicking himself. The Marquis 
 immediately discharged him from the offices he held. 
 
 L
 
 218 MY D D POLITICS. 
 
 arose between us, and I was made to know that I was 
 not yet forgiven for the sufferings and persecutions that 
 had been inflicted upon me by the ministry whose 
 opinions and policy his Excellency inherited. 
 
 My step-son, Lord Milltown, had a brother and sister, 
 who, as their father had died before their grandfather, 
 did not inherit the honours of Earl's children. My wife 
 was anxious that this accident should be set right in the 
 usual way, by the customary grant from the King of per- 
 mission to these children to take their rightful place in 
 society, and with a view to obtaining that grant, I ap- 
 plied to Lord Whitworth. His Excellency seemed to 
 think the affair a matter of course, and as he was going 
 to England at the time, he promised to speak to the 
 Home Secretary on the subject ; but, upon his arrival at 
 the other side, he wrote to me to say that what I desired 
 could not be effected. Shortly after this, my neighbour, 
 Lord Mayo, spoke to Lord Liverpool, who said that 
 there would be no difficulty about obtaining the grant, 
 provided it was recommended in the usual way by the 
 Irish Executive, which he said had not been done. This 
 being in direct contradiction of Lord Whitworth's letter, 
 I made no further application; but my friend, Lord 
 Aylmer (a nephew of Lord Whitworth), who happened 
 to be at Lyons at the time, volunteered to undertake to 
 settle the matter with his uncle, and accordingly rode 
 over to Powerscourt to see him and to procure, as he 
 thought he could easily do, the necessary formal letter 
 to Lord Liverpool. He came back, however, much dis- 
 appointed, and told me that owing to my " d d poli- 
 tics" his mission had failed. The matter now became 
 one of feeling, and Mrs. Douglas, the grandmother of 
 the children, waited on Lord Chancellor Manners, their 
 legal guardian, to urge it upon his notice, when his Lord- 
 ship assured her that ministers would gladly confer any 
 compliment of the kind upon Lord Milltown, but that 
 under the circumstances it would appear as if done for 
 Lord Cloncurry, who was a Catholic emancipator and an
 
 LORD MANNERS. 219 
 
 enemy to the government. I have stated the facts of 
 this transaction shortly and correctly, but, as they throw 
 light upon the spirit of sound hatred to political oppo- 
 nents which animated the authorities of that day, I think 
 it right to substantiate my tale by producing the docu- 
 ments upon which it is founded : 
 
 His Excellency Lord Whitworth to Mrs- Douglas. 
 
 Phoenix-park, 12th March, 1815. 
 
 Madam I have the honour to acknowledge your letter of 
 the 6th instant, upon a subject concerning which Lord Clon- 
 curry did express to me his wishes some time ago. 
 
 I was lately under the necessity of informing his Lordship, 
 that my endeavours to give effect to those wishes had not been 
 effectual; it is true there are instances of such distinctions being 
 conferred, but never, I believe, unless under very peculiar cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 I will not fail, however, Madam, on my arrival in England, 
 to renew the subject, and should I be enabled to do so effec- 
 tually, it will be a source of gratification to Madam, 
 Your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 WHITWORTH. 
 
 Memorandum made "by Mrs. Douglas of her interview urith 
 Lord Chancellor Manners. 
 
 Mrs. Douglas waited on Lord Manners, accompanied by the 
 Dowager Countess of Milltown ; she requested his interference 
 in favour of the minor with the Lord Lieutenant, his Excel- 
 lency's approbation being alone necessary to confirm the kind 
 intentions of the government of England. 
 
 Lord Manners said " Madam, I can do nothing in the busi- 
 ness; Lord Cloncurry is a Catholic emancipator, an enemy to 
 the Protestant ascendancy, and a most violent opposer of the 
 government." Mrs. Douglas replied " My Lord, the favour is 
 not for Lord Cloncurry, but for the minor, Earl of Milltown." 
 "Lord Milltown is under Lord Cloncurry's protection, the 
 favour would, therefore, be granted to him, Madam." Mrs. 
 Douglas told him she did not think Lord Cloncurry would give 
 five shillings for the accomplishment of it, as it was natural he 
 should be sorry to see the children of his wife above his own. 
 Lord Manners answered, that "the public were not to know 
 
 L 2
 
 220 CORRESPONDENCE WITH 
 
 that; they would still imagine the favour was granted to Lord 
 Cloncurry, who was hostile to the government; and if Lady 
 Cloncurry had married to injure her children, she must abide 
 the consequences." His Lordship made use of some other very 
 strong expressions against Lord Cloncurry, and seemed so 
 offended, she left the room, not having been asked to sit down. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry to Lord Chancellor Manners. 
 
 My Lord I understand that you have lately taken a liberty 
 with my name, which I think very unwarrantable, and incom- 
 patible with that good sense and discretion which ought to ac- 
 company your high station. 
 
 My young friend, the Earl of Milltown, was anxious to 
 obtain for his brother and sister that rank in society of which 
 they were accidentally deprived by the premature death of 
 their father. In order to promote his wishes, I visited Lord 
 Whitworth shortly after his arrival in Ireland, went to his 
 court, and paid him the respect due to the representative of the 
 Sovereign, thinking that a man who had seen so much of the 
 world would be above the wretched party politics and miserable 
 bigotry which too often distinguish our provincial government. 
 In a conversation I had with his Excellency, I mentioned the 
 wish of Lord Milltown, and stated that I did so at his particu- 
 lar desire, as I, myself, would neither ask nor accept of any 
 favour from a government so constituted as was that of Ireland. 
 His Excellency said Lord Milltown's claim was natural, just, 
 and reasonable, and promised it his support; he afterwards 
 wrote to Mrs. Douglas, Earl Milltown's grandmother, stating 
 that his endeavours to give effect to Lord Milltown's wishes 
 had not been successful, in consequence of some impediment in 
 England, but promised to renew his exertions when he went 
 there himself. His Excellency soon after wrote to her from 
 London, stating that his endeavours were still unsuccessful. 
 
 In the beginning of this year a friend of Lord Milltown's 
 having made the necessary applications in England, succeeded 
 in removing all obstacles there, and having the matter, merely 
 pro forma, referred to the Lord Lieutenant for his sanction. I 
 was astonished to hear that his Excellency had determined to 
 oppose what he had previously promised to support, and that 
 his opposition arose from hostility to me. This his Excellency 
 has denied, under his hand, in the most explicit terms; so, also, 
 has Mr. Peel; but your Lordship, in a recent interview with
 
 LORD MANNERS. 221 
 
 Mrs. Douglas, had the offensive and indiscreet candour to de- 
 clare that, however favourably you were disposed towards Lord 
 Milltown, yet, he being under my protection, the request could 
 not be granted, nor would you do anything in the business be- 
 cause I was an emancipator, an enemy to the Protestant ascen- 
 dancy, and a violent opposer of the government. And in 
 relation to Lady Cloncurry you added, that when a woman 
 marries to injure her children, she must submit to the conse- 
 quence. Now, my Lord, I forbear to dwell upon the indelicacy 
 of mixing up political prejudices with the duties of your high 
 station; I forbear to enter into any justification of my opinions 
 or principles, but permit me to ask your Lordship, where is the 
 justice or equity of making them the ground for counteracting 
 the laudable wishes of a young nobleman, who, as a ward of 
 your court, is peculiarly under your guardianship and protec- 
 tion, and why should you use my name in a manner calculated 
 to excite his prejudices and the prejudices of his family against 
 me, by attributing to me the disappointment of his hopes. 
 
 I am never ashamed to avow my political principles, and do 
 not think them the less respectable for differing from those of 
 your Lordship. I am deeply interested in the prosperity and 
 happiness of my native country, and detest that narrow-minded 
 bigotry which destroys both. If you think you are authorized 
 to punish me for this, you should confine that punishment to 
 myself, and not visit it on an unoffending person. 
 
 Your hostility to me seems to have commenced from the fol- 
 lowing circumstances : Soon after your appointment to the 
 seals in Ireland, you removed Mr. Wogan Browne, my neigh- 
 bour and friend, from the magistracy of two counties, leaving 
 him in that of a third, so that you either insulted him gratui- 
 tously, or you knowingly left an improper person in the com- 
 mission. That he was undeserving such treatment everybody 
 who knew him will allow he was the best magistrate, country 
 gentleman, grand juror, and landlord whose loss we had to de- 
 plore for many years. An accomplished scholar, kind-hearted 
 and liberal, he injured a large fortune by a profuse and almost 
 indiscriminating hospitality which we have not since seen in 
 Kildare. His good sense and moderation checked the indigna- 
 tion which such an insult excited in every man of property in 
 the country. The circumstance, however, was alluded to at a 
 county meeting, and I could not help condemning such a pro- 
 deeding of a stranger, without property in the country, towards
 
 222 CORRESPONDENCE WITH 
 
 such a man as Mr. Browne. To this I attribute your marked 
 hostility to me in every little matter where you have the power 
 to show it; if confined to myself I should treat it with utter 
 indifference, but when brought to bear on others who happen 
 to be connected with me, I feel myself called upon to remon- 
 strate against such injustice. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Manners to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, June 27, 1817. 
 
 My Lord Your letter, which I have this instant read, so far 
 as it relates to Lord Milltown, and to any thing I have said or 
 done upon that subject, is in the matter of it so utterly un- 
 founded, and in the manner of it so extremely offensive, that I 
 do not feel it incumbent upon me to take any further notice of 
 it than by saying that it is a gross misrepresentation. 
 
 As to the removal of the late Mr. Wogan Browne from the 
 magistracy, I never, to the best of my recollection, heard, until 
 I read your Lordship's letter, that you had expressed any 
 opinion upon it; and I do assure your Lordship, that your 
 style of writing to me makes me perfectly indifferent to any 
 opinion you may form or express upon my conduct on that or 
 :any other occasion. 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 MANNERS. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry to Lord Chancellor Manners. 
 
 My Lord Having left home for some days before the arrival 
 of your Lordship's communication of the 27th ult., I had it only 
 in my power to desire that a copy of Mrs. Douglas's informa- 
 tion should be forwarded to you. 
 
 I hope your Lordship will acknowledge that what she affirms 
 may have excused any hastiness in a person so peculiarly cir- 
 cumstanced as I am; and that, as I can safely affirm that I 
 should be most sorry to give offence to your Lordship or any 
 other person, you will feel I owe it to my character and to the 
 happiness of my domestic circle, to seek a further explanation, 
 or, if possible, a remedy for what Mrs. Douglas has deposed to. 
 
 Affidavit of Mrs. Douglas, Daughter of Sir Paul Crosbie, 
 
 Bart., and Mother to Lady Cloncurry.* 
 I waited on the Chancellor, accompanied by Lady Milltown, 
 
 Jof * The history of this family contains an incident lamentably charac- 
 teristic of the English model of justice in Ireland. The son of Sir Paul
 
 LORD MANNERS. 223 
 
 who, after introducing me to his Lordship, quitted the room. 
 On my mentioning to him that the government in England 
 (and showing some documents I brought with me to prove it) 
 were favourably disposed towards Lord Milltown's claim for his 
 brother and sister, provided Lord Whitworth approved of it, I 
 therefore waited on him to entreat his influence with his Excel"- 
 lency, he said immediately, "Madam, I can do nothing in the 
 business. Lord Cloncurry is a Catholic emancipator, and an 
 enemy to the Protestant ascendancy, the most violent opposer 
 of the government." I replied, "My Lord, the favour is not to 
 Lord Cloncurry, but to Lord Milltown." His answer was, 
 "Lord Milltown is under Lord Cloncurry's protection; the 
 favour would, therefore, be granted to him." I said, "I don't 
 believe Lord Cloncurry would give five shillings to accomplish 
 it; on the contrary, it is natural he would dislike to see those 
 children above his own." He replied, "the world are not to 
 know that : the favour would still appear as granted to him. 
 The government would be happy to oblige Lord Milltown, but, 
 living under the protection of Lord Cloncurry, it would be 
 obliging him." I named to him the Thomond family, a colla- 
 teral succession. He replied, "You forget, madam, they all 
 got it through Mr. Saurin's interest, who is the strong support of 
 the Protestant ascendancy, whereas Lord Cloncurry is hostile 
 to us." I then stated the situation I had left Lady Cloncurry 
 in, from illness brought on through anxiety of mind on her 
 hopes being blasted for her children. He said, "When a wo- 
 man marries to injure her children's prospects for life, she must 
 submit to the consequences." 
 
 M. E. DOUGLAS. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Manners to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, July 12th, 1817. 
 
 My Lord Your Lordship's letter, which I yesterday re- 
 ceived, is entitled to an answer from me. I stated, in reply to 
 your former letter (which was couched in terms calculated, and 
 I must suppose intended, to irritate and insult me), that the 
 language imputed to me, in a conversation with Mrs. Douglas, 
 
 Crosbie and brother of Mrs. Douglas, Sir Edward Crosbie, Baronet of 
 Nova Scotia, a gentleman of liberal opinions, but altogether innocent 
 of treasonable or other criminal designs or acts, was arrested in Carlow 
 in 1798, tried by a court-martial, sentenced to death, and executed, by 
 torchlight, a few hours before the arrival of an order from the Lord 
 Lieutenant for his transmission to Dublin.
 
 224 FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 was a gross misrepresentation; and I persist in that assertion, 
 notwithstanding the affidavit made before your Lordship, as a 
 magistrate, by Mrs. Douglas. Your Lordship says that Mrs. 
 Douglas is a most respectable lady. I do not mean to contro- 
 vert that fact; but I am very sorry she forgot that character, 
 and your Lordship did not remind her of it, when she made the 
 supposed substance of a conversation pressed upon me in my 
 study the subject of an affidavit. If Mrs. Douglas conceived 
 that I had said any thing injurious to your feelings or charac- 
 ter, she ought to have apprized me of it, and to have given me 
 an opportunity of explaining myself and disabusing her. As 
 to calling you an emancipator and an enemy to the Protestant 
 ascendancy and government, I profess I never knew, and do not 
 at this moment know, and little do I care, what are your senti- 
 ments upon that subject whether you agree with Lord Liver- 
 pool or Lord Castlereagh ; but I am perfectly sure I never used 
 any such expression; and the rest of this garbled conversation 
 is, I am convinced, equally misrepresented. And now, my 
 Lord, I wish you to understand that I am taking this trouble, 
 not to satisfy your Lordship for I think you have no claim 
 upon me whatever nor te prevent your having recourse to any 
 measure you may think proper, but to complain how abomin- 
 ably I am treated by your Lordship and Mrs. Douglas, by sup- 
 posing me so disqualified for the situation and office I hold in 
 this country, as to be capable, wantonly and unprovoked, of 
 insulting any gentleman. 
 
 I am your Lordship's humble servant, 
 
 MANNERS. 
 
 The Earl of Donoughmore to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Bulstrode-street, London, 5th July, 1817. 
 
 Dear Cloncurry You will not doubt the interest with which 
 I perused your letter, nor, as I trust, the indignation which 
 your statements excited in my mind. To have an opportunity 
 of giving vent to those feelings in my place in parliament, 
 would have been to me a most gratifying exercise of my pri- 
 vilege as a member of that body. But it was fitting that I 
 should ask myself this obvious question Cui bono 1 Not being 
 able to give to this any other but a negative answer, and being 
 fully persuaded that, in this high prerogative time, it is a worse 
 than fruitless task to venture to kick against power, I am bound 
 to give it to you, as my best advice, upon the fullest considera-
 
 FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE. 225 
 
 tion, not to attempt the fruitless labour of striving to interest 
 parliament in any case of individual oppression, where the 
 party playing the tyrant, or the mis-administrator of justice, 
 happens to be an Orangeman, and a member of the faction who 
 have so long held the reins of power in their hands. 
 
 Could there have been presented to parliament a more flagrant 
 case of oppression and cruel injustice than that of Mr. O'Hanlon? 
 and yet, taken up as it was, even by Lord Grey himself, see 
 what it has ended in nothing but a mere statement of unre- 
 dressed grievances. If, indeed, the oppressor had your feelings 
 or mine, the mere exposure of such conduct on his part would 
 operate as a strong penalty. But under all the circumstances, 
 I am quite sure it would rather be considered as a triumph 
 the proof of a vigour beyond the law, humbly bowed to by the 
 parliament and the public. 
 
 You have thus my candid opinion given without the sha- 
 dow of a doubt and in which my brother, with whom I did 
 not fail to talk the matter over, agrees with me altogether. 
 Believe me to be 
 
 Yours always, dear Cloncurry, and ever truly, 
 
 DONOUGHMORE. 
 
 The Earl of Limerick to Lord Cloncurry. 
 [Private.] 
 
 Mansfield-street, July 8, 1817. 
 
 My dear Lord I have this day received your Lordship's very 
 kind note, with the accompanying affidavit, which I now return. 
 You ask my advice whether you should commence an action 
 on the ground of the statement in the affidavits. I shall frankly 
 answer your question, at the same time assuring you, that I am 
 guided in giving it by the warmest friendship, and the most 
 sincere regard to your interest. 
 
 I am decidedly against your commencing any action, as I am 
 persuaded it would answer no good purpose whatsoever. Your 
 character stands too high to need any justification; and a dif- 
 ference of opinion upon an important subject, on which even 
 the ministers are not agreed, cannot surely be considered cri- 
 minal in any one. 
 
 I beg you will present my best respects to Lady Cloncurry, 
 and that you will believe me to be 
 
 Your sincerely attached friend, 
 
 LIMERICK. 
 L3
 
 226 VICEROYALTY OF EARL TALBOT. 
 
 The late Earl Talbot succeeded Lord Whitworth very 
 hortly after the date of these letters, and the following 
 communication from him concludes the story. The empty 
 compliment was conceded immediately upon his Excel- 
 lency's recommendation to that effect : 
 
 His Excellency Earl Talbot to the Earl of Milltown. 
 
 Dublin Castle, August 3rd, 1818. 
 
 My Lord I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of 
 your Lordship's letter and its enclosure, and to inform you that 
 I have this day written to Lord Sidmouth upon the subject of 
 your memorial. I can have no doubt but that your wishes will 
 l>e speedily carried into effect. I have the honour to be, my 
 Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's faithful, humble servant, 
 
 TALBOT. 
 
 To the memory of Lord Talbot I must do the justice 
 of saying, that although he was not able to keep himself 
 free from the trammels of party prejudice, and did not 
 always succeed in extending his sphere of vision beyond 
 the limits set to it by the Castle retainers and hangers- 
 on, still the policy of his government was based upon 
 principles of honest economy and detestation of jobbing, 
 and he was not influenced by those narrow partisan views 
 that regulated the conduct of his predecessor. As his 
 Excellency was a friend and relative of the Duke of 
 Leinster, I frequently met him at Carton, and there, as 
 well as in my other intercourse with him, I had an oppor- 
 tunity of observing that in his case the spirit of party 
 hatred was not suffered to poison the courtesies of pri- 
 vate life. It never occurred to Lord Talbot all Tory 
 as he was to execute vengeance for my political sins 
 upon a boy and girl who happened to be my step-children. 
 Nevertheless, the public rule of the government con- 
 tinued the same as before, and of this a remarkable 
 example, quorum pars fui, occurred during the vice- 
 royalty of the noble Earl. 
 
 At the close of the year 1820, the high sheriff of the
 
 THE KILMAINHAM MEETING. 227 
 
 county of Dublin, Sir Richard Steele, called a meeting 
 of his bailiwick for the purpose of addressing George 
 the Fourth, at that moment unpopular on account of the 
 recent prosecution of Queen Caroline. The intention of 
 the originators of the meeting was to compliment his 
 Majesty ; but a counter movement was determined upon 
 by the popular party, with the view of bringing under 
 the King's notice certain wholesome truths which they 
 conceived it to be of importance to the nation that he 
 should be made acquainted with. The attendance was 
 very numerous, and among the leaders of the opposition 
 were Mr. TV. H. Curran, Mr. John Burne, and Mr. O'Con- 
 nell. Considerable trouble had been taken by the high 
 sheriff to fill the court-house with his friends ; but the 
 opposition was equally active, and when an address pre- 
 pared for the occasion was moved, a counter-address was 
 proposed by Mr. Burne, expressing " most dutiful, loyal, 
 and affectionate attachment to his Majesty's person and 
 family, and unaltered fidelity and allegiance to that ines- 
 timable constitution which placed his Majesty's illustrious 
 house on the throne of this realm," and submitting that 
 such sentiments deserved the greater consideration from 
 his Majesty, inasmuch as they were not diminished by 
 the multiplied distress and aggravated miseries of his 
 faithful people of Ireland since the measure of the 
 Union " distress and misery," it continued, " the con- 
 summation of which we trace to the misconduct .and evil 
 councils of your Majesty's present ministers, who have 
 endeavoured to deceive your royal mind into a belief, that 
 the honest expression of feelings, excited by sufferings on 
 the one hand, and unconstitutional proceedings on the 
 other, have arisen from disaffection and disloyalty." The 
 document concluded with an assurance of " inexpressible 
 satisfaction at the termination of the late proceedings in 
 the House of Lords, sincerely hoping that proceedings 
 so dangerous and unconstitutional never will be revived 
 in any shape." 
 
 The remainder of the proceedings I will tell in the
 
 228 THE K1LMAINHAM MEETING. 
 
 words, somewhat abridged, of a newspaper of the 
 day : 
 
 The sheriff interrupted Mr. Burne, and said he would hear 
 no more from him, and that he would put the question upon 
 the address, which he held in his hand, and dissolve the 
 meeting. 
 
 Mr. Burne insisted upon his right to be heard. 
 
 Mr. O'Gonnell, and several other gentlemen, declared their 
 intention to address the meeting before the question could be put. 
 
 The sheriff persevered, and exclaimed in a loud voice, " As 
 many as are of opinion that this address do pass, say aye." A 
 few voices exclaimed " aye, aye," and they were instantly 
 replied to by one hundred noes for every aye. The question, 
 however, was not put by the sheriff in the alternative at all, 
 and he declared the meeting to be dissolved. He then said he 
 hoped that the loyalists would retire accordingly. " The party" 
 withdrew, and demonstrated what a trivial portion they com- 
 posed of the meeting : with the exception of the bench, which 
 was thinned, the rest of the meeting apparently suffered no 
 diminution. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell then addressed the meeting; he declared that 
 the chairman had abdicated the chair, but that he had no right 
 to dissolve the meeting until they had completed the business 
 for which they were convened; for that purpose he should 
 move that Lord Cloncurry do take the chair. The motion was 
 immediately seconded, and put and carried by acclamation. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry came forward to take the chair amidst the 
 enthusiastic plaudits of the freeholders. 
 
 The sheriff said he would oppose Lord Cloncurry's taking 
 the chair. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry The freeholders of the county of Dublin 
 have done me the honour to call me to the chair, and I will 
 cheerfully obey their commands. I most solemnly protest 
 against the illegal and unconstitutional conduct of the sheriff 
 this day; he has assumed to himself the control of the meet- 
 ing at which he was merely ministerial; he has endeavoured 
 to stifle the public voice and public opinion; his conduct is in- 
 consistent with every notion of law or liberty; and I am 
 happy to obey the call which directs me to give all the resist- 
 ance in my power to proceedings so arbitrary and unconsti- 
 tutional.
 
 THE KILMAINHAM MEETING. 229 
 
 Here the sheriff was understood to threaten to commit Lord 
 Cloncurry if he persisted in keeping the chair. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell Prepare your prison then if it be large 
 enough to contain us all we will all accompany him there. 
 More freeholders will accompany him there, than were found 
 to vote at the last election ; nor will they regret the absence of 
 their representatives, though they may have an opportunity of 
 reminding them of that absence. 
 
 The sheriff then said that he would call in the military. He 
 called upon Lord Cloncurry immediately to withdraw. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry I will not withdraw; this is the freeholders' 
 house, built with the freeholders' money; at their call have I 
 taken the chair; I am a magistrate of this county; no man 
 shall use illegal violence in my presence, unless he has a force 
 superior to the law. In support of the law I am ready to perish 
 in this chair, and nothing but force shall tear me from it. 
 
 The sheriff said that the meeting was an illegal meeting, and 
 that he would disperse it. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell The meeting is a perfectly legal meeting; 
 let every freeholder, who values his rights, remain ; and if any 
 man is prosecuted for remaining here, let me be that man, for 
 I have, and shall everywhere avow that I have, advised and 
 counselled you to continue the meeting. 
 
 The sheriff here withdrew; the most perfect order and deco- 
 rum still prevailed. The court-house then exhibited one of 
 the most crowded and respectable meetings we have ever wit- 
 nessed. 
 
 Mr. Burne addressed the chair, and proceeded to discuss the 
 topics which he thought ought to be comprised in a loyal 
 address, such as would be creditable to the independent free- 
 holders of the metropolitan county, respectful to the royal per- 
 son, and serviceable to the stability of the throne. He had not 
 tittered many sentences, when a side-door was thrown in with 
 a violent crash. Soldiers commanded by one officer entered, 
 and were soon seen at every side of the meeting. They com- 
 manded the freeholders, in the most peremptory manner, to 
 withdraw. Some violence was offered to individuals, but, 
 certainly, not much, as the privates conducted themselves with 
 good temper, and the freeholders dispersed. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry kept hia seat ; Mr. Curran placed himself by 
 his side; two soldiers, with bayonets in their hands, ascended 
 the bench close to Mr. Curran, who, good humouredly, but
 
 230 THE KILMATNHAM MEETING. 
 
 firmly, put the weapons aside. The officer, standing on the 
 table, ordered Lord Cloncurry to withdraw. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry replied that he was a magistrate, presiding 
 over a legal meeting of the King's subjects; that he would 
 remain until the proceedings were regularly brought to a close, 
 unless he was removed by actual force. 
 
 The officer said he must use force, and he drew, or was in the 
 act of drawing his sword, and force was actually applied to 
 Lord Cloncurry 's person before lie left the chair. 
 
 The freeholders being thus dispersed by open violence, as- 
 sembled in immense numbers at the opposite public-house. A 
 chair was procured for Lord Cloncurry in the passage. Mr. 
 Burne moved the address, which was read and seconded by Mr. 
 O'Connell. The question was then put upon it, by Lord Clon- 
 curry, when it was adopted amidst the acclamations of the free- 
 holders that filled and surrounded the house. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell then moved that a committee should be ap- 
 pointed to lay before the Lord Lieutenant the outrageous and 
 illegal conduct of the sheriff on that day. He prefaced the 
 motion in a short and animated speech, in which he congratu- 
 lated the freeholders upon their triumph, which the very vio- 
 lence of their opponents was the strongest proof of their having 
 obtained. He said, that he felt happy in the hope that all that 
 were honest, and manly, and constitutional in England, would 
 sympathize with the inhabitants of this trampled land. The 
 people of England would now see that the Irish, however 
 attached to liberty, could attend a meeting convened by a 
 sheriff only at the peril of their lives. Let the people of 
 England learn from the events of this day the fate that is re- 
 served for them, if they do not, while there is yet time, one 
 and all resist the machinations of a ministry, of which the 
 leading personage is the very man who extinguished the liber- 
 ties of his native land and laid her prostrate under the hoof of 
 every illegal violence. Mr. O'Connell's motion was seconded 
 and carried unanimously. 
 
 It was then moved that Counsellor Burne, King's Counsel, 
 should take the chair, and the thanks of the meeting were 
 voted, amidst the most enthusiastic cheering, to Lord Cloncurry, 
 for his resolute, manly, constitutional conduct that day, and for 
 the uniform and undeviating patriotism of his whole life. The 
 meeting then broke up. 
 
 As Lord Cloncurry was departing, there was an universal
 
 THE KILMAINHAM MEETING. 231 
 
 cry to chair him into town, and he was surrounded for that 
 purpose by a large group of gentlemen near the gate of the Old 
 Man's Hospital, but his Lordship succeeded in preventing them 
 from carrying their intention into execution, by addressing them 
 in a short speech. 
 
 He entreated them to forbear. They owed him no compli- 
 ment, or, if they did, their thanks amply repaid him. The 
 approbation they had uniformly bestowed upon his conduct 
 was, to his mind, a reward superior to any monarchs could 
 bestow. He would always live in Ireland. He was early 
 attached to the principles of liberty, the foundation of the 
 British constitution. The miseries of his native land only ren- 
 dered those principles more dear to him, and the events of that 
 day served but the more to convince him of the value of law 
 and liberty, by showing how abject was the state of man when 
 deprived of those blessings; a chairing, however innocent, might 
 be construed into a riot, and that construction might be written 
 in blood. " Let us," said his Lordship, " by our orderly conduct, 
 furnish the strongest contrast to our opponents, and not tarnish 
 the victory we have gained this day, by affording them the 
 slightest pretence for censure. Let us, my friends, depart in 
 peace, and not give a handle to your enemies for any additional 
 act of violence." The people then gave his Lordship three 
 cheers and retired, exclaiming "your advice shall ever be con- 
 sidered by us as a command." 
 
 A characteristic incident occurred at the second meet- 
 ing, which will not occupy much time in the telling. In 
 the confusion of the expulsion from the court-house, 
 Mr. Burne mislaid his counter-address, and when he was 
 searching his pockets for it, after he had finished his 
 speech, Mr. O'Connell, who was standing near, said, 
 " Here it is," and put a paper into his hand, which was 
 moved and adopted, as described above, and duly for- 
 warded to the King. It was, however, a composition of 
 Mr. O'Connell's own, very much stronger than Mr.Burne's 
 dutiful and loyal effusion. 
 
 The outrage committed by the high sheriff made a 
 good deal of noise at the time. Resolutions were passed 
 at public meetings, condemnatory of that functionary's
 
 232 THE KILMAINHAM MEETING. 
 
 conduct, and formal complaint was made to Lord Talbot 
 upon the subject. His Excellency, however, would do 
 nothing in the premises, and gravely advised me to bring 
 an action against the sheriff, a recommendation which I 
 declined following, on proverbially obvious grounds. The 
 following letters, referring to the matter, have remained 
 among my papers : 
 
 Sir Francis Burdett to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Bath, Jamiary 10, 1821. 
 
 Dear Lord Cloncurry How often nave I taken up the pen 
 to write to you ! but I am a sad, idle penman. Seeing, how- 
 ever, what has lately taken place at Kilmainham, I cannot defer 
 expressing to you how much we are all beholden to you for 
 your conduct, which also holds out a hope that poor cast-down 
 Ireland may still aid the cause of liberty by her exertions, and 
 not think it concerns only Englishmen; but call to mind that 
 her enemies are ours, that those who have inflicted her injuries, 
 have done the same for us, and that she should not confound 
 English domination with the English nation; in short, that 
 there is every reason for union none for enmity between 
 the people of the two countries. Wholesome doctrines these, 
 which, I fear, Ireland has great need of having preached ; and 
 I don't know any one so able, on all accounts, to do it as 
 yourself. 
 
 So much for public matters. It remains for me to make 
 inquiries after your most amiable lady; and, as this is the 
 season of wishes, to request of you to make mine for her happi- 
 ness, and yours, and family's, acceptable; and be assured no 
 one more sincerely sends, both all the compliments of the season, 
 and many happy returns of them, than 
 
 Yours, very sincerely, 
 
 F. BtfBDETT. 
 
 The Duke of Leinster to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Harrington House, January 12, 1821. 
 
 Dear Lord Cloncurry I am not so much surprised, knowing 
 the system of government in Ireland, at Lord Talbot's refusing 
 to attend to the application of the freeholders. I recommend 
 you to advise them to petition both Houses, stating the fact 
 rather under, and very mildly; also, that the government have
 
 THE KILMAINHAM MEETING. 233 
 
 refused to inquire into it; and praying that they will do so. 
 My brother, I am certain, will present the one, and I will the 
 other, as it is shameful conduct. Let them be moderate, as the 
 conduct of the freeholders has been admirable, and you have 
 justice at your side. 
 
 1 went, yesterday, with Leicester Stanhope (who, by-the-bye, 
 is a fine fellow, and great liberale), to the Common Council of 
 London, and was much pleased at the independent spirit that 
 prevailed throughout. They all declared their attachment to 
 the King; but deprecated the idea of disloyalty, on account of 
 differing with his ministers. I think I shall be able to stir up 
 some friends in the Houses of Lords and Commons, to assist 
 
 the freeholders of Dublin. I am sorry T has lost himself. 
 
 The Duchess and boy are as well as possible. Most kind 
 remembrances to Lady C. 
 
 Yours, sincerely, 
 
 LEINSTEB, 
 
 The names attached to the two foregoing letters tell 
 their own tale. The following is from my venerable 
 friend, whom it would be superfluous, in Ireland, to 
 describe in any other terms than by his simple appella- 
 tion of " Billy Murphy," but whom I may characterize as 
 one of the most sensible, honest, and independent, and 
 in his private affairs, I am happy to be able to add, suc- 
 cessful Irishmen I have known during my long life : 
 
 William Murphy, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, January 9, 1821. 
 
 My Lord I had the honour of receiving your Lordship's 
 letters of the 4th and 8th instant the former stating a report 
 made to Mr. Bagot of my having advised Colonel Talbot, through 
 Mr. James Bagot, not to attend the Kilmainham meeting. I 
 never gave it as an opinion that Mr, Talbot should not attend 
 that meeting. On the contrary, I thought the people's repre- 
 sentative of the county should have attended a meeting of free- 
 holders called by the sheriff, and there give his opinion on any 
 subject that might be introduced. But as Mr. Talbot did not 
 attend the county meeting, I doubt that he should attend a 
 meeting, on Thursday next, at the Corn Exchange ; for there 
 it will not be a meeting of freeholders of the county, but of idle
 
 234 VISIT OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 and curious persons, who are ever ready to attend public meet- 
 ings. In my opinion, the committee appointed by the county 
 freeholders should, without any aggregate or public meeting, 
 prepare petitions for parliament, complaining of the illegal 
 conduct of the sheriff, Sir Richard Steele ; put the petitions, into 
 the hands of Lord Grey and Mr. Plunket, or any other mem- 
 bers that your Lordship might prefer and think more likely to 
 succeed in procuring parliamentary redress for the outrage 
 committed on your Lordship and on the independent freeholders 
 of the county. This, in my humble opinion, should be looked 
 for in the way most likely to obtain redress. But if reform 
 and radicalism is to be trumpeted forth from next Thursday's 
 meeting of county freeholders, as it is intended to be called, the 
 victory must thereby be given over to the sheriff, who, I other- 
 wise hope, should be punished by parliament for the outrage 
 he has committed, by calling in the military to disperse a 
 meeting convened by himself. If the petitioners confine them- 
 selves to the mere matter of fact, and which a county and a 
 city member must prove, if called on, I should hope Sir Richard 
 is now in a trap, on any side of which I would not be disposed 
 to make the smallest opening, lest he should escape. We should 
 not lose our game, if possible; and, if lost to us, make the 
 parliament prove, by refusing redress to the county of Dublin 
 freeholders, that no justice is to be had, or can be expected from 
 them, until reformed. 
 
 If the county freeholders are now to be refused, they may 
 afterwards look for reform indeed, they must do so. I should 
 not have taken the liberty of troubling your Lordship on this 
 subject, were it not that you requested my opinion. I have the 
 honour to remain, with the highest respect, 
 
 Your Lordship's most faithful and obliged servant, 
 
 WM. MURPHY. 
 
 It was apropos to this county of Dublin meeting, that 
 the celebrated mot of the Duke of Wellington was uttered 
 in the House of Lords : " County meetings," said his 
 Grace, " are farces." " On this occasion," retorted the 
 Duke of Leinster, " it was not the fault of the authorities 
 that the farce did not turn out a tragedy." 
 
 The viceroyalty of Earl Talbot was signalized by the 
 visit of George the Fourth to Ireland, in the year 1821 ;
 
 RENEWAL OF DISCORD. 235 
 
 and in the general peace-making that then took place, I 
 was included. Overtures for a reconciliation were made 
 to me through Lord Bloomfield, and I was invited to the 
 royal table, where I was complimented most graciously 
 by his Majesty. I was also present at all the public 
 entertainments given to the King, with the exception of 
 that of the Corporation of Dublin. 
 
 A strange madness seemed at that conjuncture to seize 
 people of all ranks in Ireland. Men and women of all 
 classes and opinions joined in a shout of gladness. There 
 was nothing thought of but processions, and feasting, 
 and loyalty boiling-over loyalty and I was carried on 
 by the stream so buoyantly, that I gave a pledge of the 
 sincerity of my own unconditional waiver of all bygones, 
 by inviting his Majesty to honour my house by his pre- 
 sence ; an invitation which he declined in the most 
 gracious terms, on the ground of the shortness of his 
 stay and the determination he had made to refuse all 
 invitations of the kind. The noise of the shout of 
 welcome had, however, scarcely ceased to sound in men's 
 ears, when matters fell back into their former state, and, 
 notwithstanding the King's parting admonition, conveyed 
 in the letter of Lord Sidmouth, the ensuing city feast 
 was made the scene of a new party conflict. The Lord 
 Mayor of the day (Sir John Kingston James) happening 
 to be a fellow-director with me upon the board of the 
 Grand Canal Company, I accepted an invitation to his 
 inauguration dinner, where, notwithstanding the presence 
 of several Roman Catholics, his invited guests, he felt 
 himself constrained by corporate custom, to give the 
 toast of the " Glorious, pious, and immortal memory," 
 which was the signal for battle. On this occasion I 
 turned down my glass and remained seated, for reasons 
 which I stated in a letter written at the time in the fol- 
 lowing terms : 
 
 Individually I have a respect for the memory of King 
 William the Third. He was a liberal Dutchman, and intended 
 more good to Ireland than any King I ever heard of, except hia
 
 236 LORD WELLESLEY. 
 
 present Majesty; but as mayors and corporators are not neces- 
 sarily historians, they generally give this toast from party 
 motives, and it has long become a kind of password among 
 those who desire, by the insult and exclusion of their more 
 worthy fellow-citizens, to arrogate to themselves those petty 
 honours and emoluments which want of industry or talent 
 render so necessary to them. Bad taste and bad feeling received 
 a mortal wound from the hand of his Majesty; and if for one 
 moment they may raise their heads, public opinion and the 
 march of events must put them down. The King commands, 
 and the tunes require, benevolence and union. 
 
 My friend Lord Talbot de Malahide, who sat near me, 
 also turned down his glass. Earl Talbot drank the toast, 
 and was directly afterwards recalled, and replaced by 
 Lord Wellesley. The dismissal of the noble Earl was so 
 sudden, that he was unable to leave the country with the 
 honours usually paid to a parting Lord Lieutenant. He 
 retired from the Castle to Carton, where I met him, and 
 some days afterwards he departed privately, much re- 
 gretted, as an honest, high-minded gentleman, whose 
 lapse into the mire of party feeling was but an incident 
 of his position as a party minister. 
 
 The first appointment of Lord Wellesley, to the Lord 
 Lieutenancy, was, professedly, a sort of experiment upon 
 the possibility of governing Ireland without reliance upon 
 the factious support of a party. " I have come to admin- 
 ister, not to alter the laws," was the form of expression 
 in which the noble Marquis himself announced this to be 
 the principle upon which he had undertaken the difficult 
 task of presiding impartially between two bitter con- 
 tending factions ; and I sincerely believe that he was 
 anxiously desirous of carrying out the experiment fairly. 
 His words were, at first, assumed to mean that he would 
 lend no countenance to the party then actively working 
 for the great political object of the day the abolition of 
 the civil disabilities imposed by the penal laws upon 
 professors of the Roman Catholic religion and, so inter- 
 preted, they were consoling to the ultra-Protestants, who
 
 THE BOTTLE RIOT. 237 
 
 were then the managers of the " Castle," where they 
 were represented by the Attorney-General Saurin, and 
 the Chief and Under Secretaries, Messrs. Goulburn and 
 Gregory. It was not long, however, before a rupture 
 took place. The habits of dominion acquired by his 
 Excellency during his Eastern life, did not tally with the 
 Viceroy-over-him-system which the officials I have men- 
 tioned were accustomed to carry out ; nor could they 
 easily brook the fair administration of the law, when 
 fairness implied any countenance to liberal opinions. 
 Lord Wellesley and Mr. Saurin, therefore, very soon 
 separated, and the retirement of the latter from office at 
 once alarmed and incensed his party. A war then com- 
 menced between the Viceroy and the Protestants, in the 
 course of which his Excellency was forced into a sort of 
 leadership of the opposite faction, which, though scarcely 
 avoidable by him, was productive of much evil to the 
 country. In the course of this war, Lord Wellesley was 
 violently attacked in the theatre by Protestant partisans, 
 and the riot was made the occasion for a marshalling of 
 forces upon both sides, that was eagerly seized on by the 
 leaders, and that tended much to embitter, and, perhaps, 
 to prolong the struggle between the parties. 
 
 The bottle-riot (as the attack upon Lord Wellesley at 
 the theatre was called) gave occasion to numerous ad- , 
 dresses of condolence and congratulation on his Excel- 
 lency's providential escape, as well as to many lampoons 
 and satires upon the alleged unreality of the danger, 
 proceeding from those whose sympathies went rather 
 with the rioters than Avith the object of their attack. It 
 also led to a step of very doubtful propriety being taken 
 by the law officers of the government, to the evil ten- 
 dency of which nothing but the blindness of party fury 
 could have rendered men of liberal principles insensible. 
 I allude to the filing of an ex-officio information by the 
 Attorney-General, against the rioters, after bills of indict- 
 ment had been ignored by a grand jury. I had fully 
 sympathized with Lord Wellesley in my opinion as to
 
 238 STRETCHING OF THE LAW. 
 
 the brutal violence of the attack made upon him, and 
 had expressed my sympathy by carrying up an address 
 on the subject, as one of a deputation from a meeting of 
 the inhabitants of the county of Kildare ; but, I confess, 
 I felt no disposition to countenance any stretching of the 
 law for the punishment of political offences, even though 
 these were committed by opponents of my own political 
 views. I presume it was the statement of my feelings on 
 this matter that drew out the following interesting letter : 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 March 7, 1823. 
 
 My dear Lord Never, I entreat you, apologize for your 
 letters; they are always full of information and interest, and 
 I am always gratified by the marks of confidence which they 
 convey. 
 
 Your description of the conduct of the Irish government is 
 but too true; but yet, Lord Wellesley's worst enemies are our 
 enemies, too ; and his discomfiture would furnish a triumph to 
 the most malignant and oppressive faction in your country. 
 My old frieud, Stanhope, used to say of the French Convention, 
 " When they do right I praise them ; when wrong, I say nothing; 
 and that, you know, is candid" Now, though I am not quite 
 prepared to go the full length of that candour in favour of the 
 Irish government, I think something in the spirit of it should 
 be found in the language and conduct of the friends to a change 
 of system in Ireland, towards Lord Wellesley and his govern- 
 ment. The tithe measure, and the abandonment of the Orange 
 Lodges, are great admissions, in principle, and may effect some 
 practical good. I am, however, afraid that the great measure 
 of admitting the body of the people to some share in the manage- 
 ment of their own concerns is as far off as ever. 
 
 The imprudence and omissions which you so justly animad- 
 vert upon, in the late legal proceedings, are, I think, to be 
 ascribed to the professional advisers, rather than to the Viceroy 
 himself. Their experience should have made them the best 
 judges of the public temper, and their learning and practice 
 should have rendered them masters of the constitutional ques- 
 tion. It seems, however, to me, that a great part of your rea- 
 soning applies to the petty, not the grand jury to the latter, 
 I apprehend, no challenges are admitted. The fact is, that if
 
 LORD WELLESLEY'S INTENDED POLICY. 239 
 
 the offence was such as called for an ex-officio information, the 
 Attorney-General should have proceeded in that way at first; 
 and nothing, certainly, but an enormity of danger (which has 
 not been made out), could justify so unusual and indecorous a 
 step, as an ex-officio information, after a grand jury had thrown 
 out the bill. Remember me to Robeck. My son, who is in 
 the Fifteenth, is on the point of going to Ireland. I hope you 
 will allow him to pay his respects to you, and bear my thanks 
 for your valuable communications. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND. 
 You must not grudge us Leinster for a few months. 
 
 I add, as a sort of contrast to the foregoing, another 
 letter from the same able hand, but of earlier date, 
 showing that Lord Wellesley's liberal friends were, at 
 the outset, scarcely satisfied with his displays of vigour 
 in the popular cause, a feeling which would, very possibly, 
 have increased, had he been left unstimulated by personal 
 opposition : 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Holland House, 27th June, 1822. 
 
 My dear Lord I am quite ashamed of having so long deferred 
 my acknowledgments for your kind, interesting, and important 
 letter. Your good opinion gives me sincere pleasure. It is 
 quite clear that conduct like yours, if adopted by other Irish 
 noblemen and gentlemen, would do more to tranquillize the 
 country, and promote the happiness of the inhabitants, than a 
 hundred police bills. I have not hitherto read the bill, nor do 
 I intend to read it till it has passed the Commons, and been 
 modified and altered there, as it no doubt will be, very materi- 
 ally. Other and very different measures are no doubt neces- 
 sary. We are not a little indignant, and somewhat disappointed 
 too, at the great question of commutation of tithes being evaded, 
 or, at least, postponed ; and I am afraid the government on your 
 side of the water is not exempt from the blame which you 
 attach to it. At the same time, idleness may be roused, and 
 vanity may take a good direction; and I cannot but indulge 
 some hopes that there is at least a desire in the quarter you 
 mention, to distinguish himself by some signal alteration of 
 system. It is, I think, the interest of those who wish well to 
 Ireland, to strengthen, as much as they can, any party in the
 
 240 LORD WELLESLEY. 
 
 government which is particularly obnoxious to the ruling, or 
 rather, misruling faction in Ireland, and to do their utmost to 
 encourage them to do their duty. 
 
 Ever truly your obliged and obedient, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND. 
 
 Upon the whole, however, Lord Wellesley's adminis- 
 tration was productive of a favourable effect upon the 
 liberal cause in Ireland. Upon many of the questions 
 then in agitation, he entertained enlarged views, and he 
 did much to break down the underworks of the subor- 
 dinate Castle influence that rendered the largest and 
 most enlightened policy of a viceroy impracticable. Had 
 his way been prepared by a previous removal of those 
 barriers, he wculd have settled many moot points, at a 
 time when they might have been settled in a way that 
 would have left behind as little of bitterness as could 
 have been expected to attend upon a crisis of party con- 
 tests much less than attended upon subsequent more 
 violent, though, perhaps, less complete dealings with 
 them. The Church, the Education, and the Catholic 
 questions, all engaged his attention ; and, in reference 
 to each of them, he held enlightened opinions, and pro- 
 jected plans that would, I believe, have been productive 
 of a more permanent quieting than has been attained by 
 the measures of his successors. To these questions it 
 is my intention again to refer, as I took a considerable 
 part in the discussion of all of them, and was acquainted 
 with most of the details of their progress. 
 
 Lord Wellesley had been an old friend of my father's, 
 and I was, consequently, upon terms of familiar inter- 
 course with him during his viceroyalty. He was fond of 
 passing a day or two with me in the quiet of my villa of 
 Maretimo, and I preserve the pleasantest recollections 
 of the charms of his conversation, drawn, as it was, from 
 a boundless store of political and literary knowledge, 
 and pointed by his long and varied acquaintance with 
 the world. Of his correspondence with me, which was 
 extensive, I regret much that I can find no traces in the 
 confused mass of my papers.
 
 241 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Waifs and Strays of Memory A pregnant Question from Sir Francis Burdett 
 Letter from Sir Francis His visit to Ireland Mr. Peel's Opinions on Irish 
 Distress and Government Interference in 1817 Ditto in 1826 Ship-Canal 
 from Dublin to Gahvay Efforts to advance that Project Letter from Mr. 
 Killaly Ireland, the Natural Centre of Commerce between the Hemis- 
 pheres Letters from Dr. Drennan The Ex-Judge Johnson ; Authorship of 
 Juverna ; his turn for Military Affairs Letters from him Letter from Baron 
 Smith Letter from Dr. Doyle, on Saints' Days and Holydays. 
 
 WHILE looking over papers relating to the portion of my 
 life alluded to in the last chapter, a number of letters 
 came under my eye which did not naturally fall into any 
 particular place in these Recollections, but which, aa 
 they possess some features of interest derived either 
 from the subjects to which they relate or from the names 
 of the writers, may be worthy of preservation. 1 will, 
 therefore, bundle a few of them together with that view, 
 leaving them to be read or passed by, as the taste of my 
 readers may guide them. From out of this chaos, a 
 stray beam of light may, perhaps, be elicited, here and 
 there, and shed upon a question of importance, or upon 
 a character in the right understanding of which the 
 public is interested. I will begin with a note, which, 
 though short, and without a date, includes within it the 
 germ of volumes of matter : 
 
 Sir Francis Burdett to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dear Lord Cloncurry I should like to know what you think 
 would allay Irish agitation Yours truly, 
 
 F. B. 
 Sir Francis Burdett to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 [Franked July 30, 1818.] 
 
 Eamsbury Manor. 
 
 Dear Lord Cloncurry I have a heavy sin upon my conscience 
 in not long since sending you a line; but 1 trust you will 
 impute it to the true reason, the want of time. I assure myself 
 you will not attribute it to any want of recollection of the 
 
 H
 
 242 SIR FRANCIS BURDETT. 
 
 many happy hours we passed together in dear Ireland. I am 
 at length got into shade and retirement; and the first use I 
 make of it is to call to mind my happy days in Ireland, and to 
 endeavour to again bring myself into the recollection of my 
 friends there, amongst whom, I flatter myself, I may count on 
 you as one. 
 
 I hope this will find Lady Cloncurry, Lord Milltown, and all 
 your amiable family, not forgetting our young traveller, well 
 and happy. I never was able to get to Eton, as I resolved day 
 after day, to see him ; but you know, in the midst of hurry and 
 bustle, how it happens that one puts off, from day to day, what 
 one ought and always intends to do. He will think this, I fear, 
 a shabby excuse, and yet it is quite true; but when he returns 
 I hope you will let me know. I had cherished hopes of being 
 able to return to Ireland this summer; but that, owing to the 
 dissolution, was absolutely impossible. The Duke of Leinster 
 will bring you over a charming and most accomplished and 
 agreeable Duchess. I dined with them at Lord Tayistock's a 
 few days before his marriage; so Carton will now be completely 
 furnished. I saw, by the paper, Sir C. and Lady Morgan were 
 come to town ; but it did not say where they were, or I should 
 send them a line to ask them here. Can you tell me any thing 
 about the enclosed. It is said I subscribed by your recommen- 
 dation. I settled with Ridgeway. 
 
 Lady Burdett begs her compliments may be made acceptable 
 to Lady Cloncurry, and to say she has found the cloak most 
 comfortable. As I shall now, for a few months, be at leisure, I 
 shall be happy to attend to any commands you may favour me 
 with. As to politics, I will only say and that is saying all 
 the cause of reform of parliament makes great progress; I am 
 satisfied it alone can give important relief either to England 
 or Ireland. With kind remembrances to all, believe me, dear 
 Lord Cloncurry, yours, very sincerely, 
 
 F. BURDETT. 
 
 The foregoing letter was written by Sir Francis Burdett, 
 after his visit to Ireland to give evidence upon the trial 
 of Mr. Roger O'Connor. Upon that occasion Sir Francis, 
 following, I believe, the recommendation of some casual 
 fellow-passenger, took up his abode at a fifth or sixth 
 rate inn, in a back street in Dublin ; and must have been 
 a little amazed at the state of civilization in Ireland, so
 
 MR. PEEL ON IRISH DISTRESS. 245 
 
 far as related to the accommodation afforded to strangers 
 in the metropolis. I recollect being a good deal amused 
 at receiving a note from him announcing his arrival, and 
 bearing date from the Queen's Head, Bride-street, from 
 which, of course, I lost no time in dislodging him. HQ 
 subsequently made a tour through the country on horse- 
 back; and, on his departure, brought away with him 
 several articles of dress, made of Irish frieze, as mementos 
 of his visit. The cloak for Lady Burdett, to which he 
 alludes in his letter, was one of these. 
 
 Th6 Eight Hon. (now Sir) Robert Peel to Lord Cloncurry. 
 Dublin Castle, September 4th, 1817. 
 
 My Lord I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 Lordship's letter of the 20th ult., and cannot but feel obliged 
 to your Lordship for communicating to me your observations 
 upon matters connected with the welfare of this country. 
 
 There can be but one opinion upon the extent and severity 
 of the distress which has been suffered for some time past. It 
 has been, generally speaking, submitted to with a degree of for- 
 bearance and fortitude very creditable to that numerous body 
 who have been exposed to it. I fear, with your Lordship, that 
 it would be vain to expect any immediate or general remedy of 
 the evil which results from the want of employment for a vast 
 population. 
 
 I doubt whether the benefits arising from such an extensive 
 interference on the part of government as that which your 
 Lordship suggests, in respect to the encouragement of public 
 works, would be sufficient to outweigh the evils of it. The 
 public works of this country the canals, the roads, the county 
 buildings are on a scale quite commensurate with its wants; 
 and the undertaking and completion of them has been, at least 
 I think, as much encouraged by the intervention of the govern- 
 ment in making advances of public money, as it was politic 
 to encourage them. If new works, suck as the embankment 
 of rivers, &c., kc., would repay the undertakers of them, they 
 should be, and (as money can be easily had on good security) 
 probably will be undertaken by private speculators. If they 
 will not repay the private speculator, I doubt the policy of 
 encouraging them. 
 
 To a certain extent, parliament has acted on the principle to 
 
 M2
 
 244 MR. PEEL ON IRISH DISTRESS. 
 
 which your Lordship adverts, and applied it to this country as 
 well as England. As you may not, probably, have seen a copy 
 of the Act which passed last session, authorizing the advance 
 of public money for the encouragement of public works on 
 adequate security, I have the honour to enclose a copy of it. 
 Commissioners have been appointed, and are now acting under 
 the provisions of this Act, and several applications have been 
 made for advances under it ; but many of the applicants, I fear, 
 will find it difficult to give the security required. I have the 
 honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 The Right Hon. Robert Peel to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Whitehall, September 7, 1826. 
 
 My Lord I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Lord- 
 ship's letter of the 1st instant. 
 
 I regret to learn that you take so gloomy a view of the 
 prospects of Ireland, with regard to the employment and sub- 
 sistence of the people. 
 
 I have recently maintained an extensive correspondence 
 upon those points with well-informed persons in many parts of 
 Ireland. The accounts thus transmitted to me are far from 
 being satisfactory, but they certainly are not so extremely unfa- 
 vourable as those which appear to have reached your Lordship. 
 
 You observe that something is due to Ireland; and that 
 England owes it to justice, as well as to her own interest, to 
 save Ireland from the horrors of pestilence and famine. 
 
 This is true: and England has, in my opinion, given abundant 
 proof that she admits it to be true. 
 
 If reference be had to the grants of public money which 
 have been made for the execution of useful works, and the 
 consequent encouragement of industry in Ireland; and to the 
 generous zeal with which the people of England lent their 
 voluntary aid to the succour of Ireland, when she was last 
 exposed to pestilence and famine, no man can, with justice, 
 impute either to the parliament or to the people of this country 
 indifference to the sufferings of the Irish poor. They certainly 
 ought not to carry and I, for one, hope they never will carry 
 their sympathy so far as to take upon themselves the discharge 
 of those obligations (obligations of justice and moral duty, if 
 not of strict law) to which the landed proprietors of Ireland,
 
 SHIP-CANAL TO OALWAY. 245 
 
 resident and non-resident, are subject. I have the honour to 
 be, my Lord, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 P.S. So far as I can form a judgment of the particular 
 project to which you refer, a ship-canal between Dublin and 
 Galway, I see, at present, ample grounds for doubting its prac- 
 ticability. 
 
 Of the history of the project for a ship-canal alluded 
 to in Mr. Peel's postscript, I may as well here give a brief 
 sketch, although it is probable that all such projects 
 have received their quietus from the success of railroads : 
 at least they must await some new turn in the rapidly 
 changing art of locomotion. Nevertheless, in the year 
 1827, matters bore a different aspect ; and, holding in 
 view the desirability of devising some plan for laying a 
 foundation for the permanent, profitable employment of 
 the people, I addressed to several Irishmen of influence 
 a letter containing the following passage : 
 
 " I know nothing so likely to be a great national benefit 
 as the formation of a ship-canal from Galway to Dublin. It 
 would give a new and great stimulus to the trade of England ; 
 it would shorten, by one-third, the duration of an American or 
 West Indian voyage ; it would put an end to the dangers of the 
 Channel (whether arising from storms or from steam privateers), 
 in conjunction with the projected canals from Portsmouth to 
 London, and from the Bristol to the British Channel; it would 
 make the finest system of internal navigation in the world, if 
 made on a permanent, uniform, and grand scale. Ireland affords 
 peculiar and very remarkable facilities for such an undertaking; 
 though mountainous to the north and to the south, the centre 
 is an extensive plain, nowhere more than 270 feet above tide- 
 water; the soil of easy excavation, the land of small value in 
 its present state, though the very cutting of the canal would 
 drain and improve near half a million of acres, growing food for 
 and giving employment to as many persons, and securing repay- 
 ment of the capital expended. I have known similar land in 
 Ireland to have advanced from one penny to five pounds, in less 
 than ten years, by the formation of a canal,"
 
 246 SHIP-CANAL TO GALWAY. 
 
 To a requisition calling a public meeting to consider 
 the advantages of the project, a large number of names 
 were immediately signed, including those of dukes, mar- 
 quises, earls, lords, baronets, and members of parliament, 
 of all parties and opinions. 
 
 The meeting, thus sanctioned, was accordingly held, 
 and the advantages of the measure resolved upon, 
 nemine contradicente ; but nothing further was accom- 
 plished beyond an outlay from my pocket of a few 
 hundred pounds, in procuring a plan and maps, towards 
 the cost of which the only contribution I received was 
 fifty pounds from the Duke of Leinster. The engineer 
 I employed was the late Mr. Killaly, a gentleman who 
 liad been very extensively engaged in the construction 
 of works for inland navigation in Ireland. His prelimi- 
 nary letter upon the subject may, perhaps, interest some 
 readers : 
 
 John Killaly, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Tullamore, )8th September, 1827. 
 
 My Lord A great press of business, principally connected 
 with the interests of the Grand Canal, prevented me earlier 
 communicating with your Lordship on the subject of your great 
 project for carrying a ship-canal across this kingdom, the mag- 
 nitude of which would be considered by most people as an 
 insurmountable barrier to even an investigation of its practica- 
 bility. I, however, have not been unmindful of your wishes, 
 having looked generally into my papers with the view of 
 ascertaining the probable course, and also the probable expense 
 of this great design. I have done this to prepare your Lord- 
 ship to speak on the subject; but do not pledge myself, except 
 generally, as to the accuracy of my deductions. 
 
 I am of opinion the best line for this great undertaking lies 
 between the two existing canals; and that after it crosses the 
 Liffey, in the neighbourhood of Celbridge, it should proceed by 
 Cloncurry, Kinuegad, Tyrrellspass, Kilbeggan, Clara, Bally- 
 cumber, Ferbane, and enter the Shannon a little to the north- 
 ward of Shannon Harbour; continue in the bed of that river, 
 and of the river Suck, to near Ballinasloe; pass from thence by 
 Aughrim, Athenry, and Oranmore, into the harbour of Galway, 
 near to the town.
 
 SHIP-CAXAL TO GALWAY. 247 
 
 The scale I would recommend is as follows : The canal to 
 oe eighty feet wide at the bottom, and one hundred and fifty at 
 water surface, and to have twenty feet depth of water on the 
 sills of the locks ; the locks to be forty feet wide between the 
 quoins, and one hundred and eighty feet in length from sill to 
 sill; the rises or falls not to exceed ten feet; 
 
 You are aware there must be two summits on this canal 
 one between the Bay of Dublin and the Shannon, another be- 
 tween the Shannon and the Bay of Galway. From Dublin 
 Bay to the Shannon there will be twenty-four ascending, and 
 fourteen descending locks; and from the Shannon to the Bay 
 of Galway there will be twelve ascending, and twenty-two 
 descending locks. The following is an estimate of the probable 
 cost of the work, on the scale already mentioned : 
 
 104 Irish miles of excavation and embankment, 
 
 averaging 70 per perch, or 22,400 per mile, . 2,329,600 
 
 72 Locks, lock-gates, and machinery, sinking foun- 
 dations, backing, &c., complete, at 13,000 each, 936,000 
 
 200 Bridges, at 1,800 each, . . . 360,000 
 
 Aqueducts, tunnels of different kinds, regulators, 
 
 &c., say ..... 66,000 
 
 Purchase of water, also making supply courses, 
 
 &c., say ..... 600,000 
 
 Purchase of lands and houses, quarries, &c., say . 200,000 
 
 4,491,600 
 Incidents, superintendence, &c., fifteen per cent. . 673,240 
 
 Total, . . 5,164,840 
 
 I have to observe, in answer to your question, that the locks 
 on the Grand Canal are fifteen feet wide and seventy feet long; 
 the canal, in cutting, twenty feet six inches at bottom, and forty 
 feet at water surface; depth on sills of locks, five feet. 
 
 Trusting the foregoing may prove satisfactory, I beg leave 
 to assure your Lordship that I shall feel pleasure in affording 
 gratuitously, the present or any further general information 
 you may require. My charge, when professionally employed, 
 is three guineas per diem and my expenses. I remain, my 
 Lord, with high respect, your very obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN KILLALY.
 
 248 DR. DRENNAN. 
 
 The project of a ship-canal between the eastern, and 
 western or south-western coasts of Ireland, never came 
 to maturity; yet the mention of it can scarcely fail of 
 suggesting to a reflective mind a consideration of the 
 persisting soundness of a policy that would make Ire- 
 land the commercial centre between the old and new 
 worlds. No man can for a moment doubt that if this 
 island were a barren rock, unincumbered with inhabi- 
 tants, its southern and western seaboards would certainly 
 have been made the frontier of British commerce. The 
 British merchant would not have incurred treble risks 
 from storm and war nor a treble rate of insurance upon 
 his ships, had he been able to load and unload them at 
 Galway or Limerick, Berehaven or Cork, in harbours not 
 de-Anglicised by the presence of an Irish population. 
 Nay, the natural course of trading speculation would 
 have led to the same results, had the union between the 
 two kingdoms been complete, and the natural progress 
 of the interests of their inhabitants undisturbed by na- 
 tional jealousies. It requires but a narrow confidence 
 in the force of human improvement, to foresee that the 
 consummation pointed out by nature will sooner or later 
 be arrived at. 
 
 The following two letters are from the pen of one of 
 the most consistent, high-minded, and philosophical of 
 the old Irish patriots Dr. Drennan, president of the 
 Academical Institution of Belfast : 
 
 Dr* Drennan to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Belfast, January 29, 1819. 
 
 My Lord I am impelled by a sense of duty to my country, 
 as well as regard to an individual who has already done good 
 service to that country, and promises to do still more, to ad- 
 dress your Lordship on the means of enabling Mr. John Lawless 
 to accomplish his purpose of establishing a newspaper in the 
 town of Belfast, to be conducted on the principles of civil and 
 religious liberty of liberty in religion, co-extensive with the 
 Irish population, and of political liberty, in the advocacy of 
 such a reform as may be practicable in the present condition of
 
 DR. DRENNAN. 249 
 
 society, and by enlarging the basis of election, and shortening 
 the duration of parliament, may satisfy the pressing wants and 
 reasonable wishes of a vast majority of the people, both here 
 and in Great Britain. 
 
 Your Lordship well knows that the periodical press has been, 
 and may continue to be, the grand lever of the public mind; 
 but that this lever is counteracted, not merely by the vis 
 inertice and passive resistance of the mass to be raised, but by 
 the constant, unremitting agency, direct and indirect, of the 
 government, or semi-government, or professedly neutral, public 
 prints, to repress the expansion and development of general 
 opinion upon political topics. 
 
 If they have failed in this object, and particularly of late, in 
 the North of Ireland (and the polar star of patriotism is there 
 in its natural station), it has been, mainly, through the activity, 
 zeal, and intelligence of Mr. Lawless, who has done much for 
 several years, but particularly of late, in re-animating and 
 fixing the attention of this portion of the public upon their true 
 personal, as well as national interests. The late Protestant 
 meeting in Belfast is a striking proof of his personal and public 
 activity; and the friends of a free press in that town have, even 
 under the pressure of times bearing heavily on us, contributed 
 to the amount of 500, the half of a sum which would enable 
 the editor of a public print to accomplish the undertaking with 
 a security and permanency unlike to many such individual 
 attempts, as appear, like the sparks in burnt paper, and are as 
 quickly extinguished. 
 
 I have heard that, in his late visit to Dublin, Mr. Lawless 
 displayed an alacrity and an ability which may, perhaps, have 
 proved a much better claim to your Lordship's patronage and 
 encouragement than any which I and others, in this place, 
 could give. But, if the object and the agent be agreeable, I 
 should presume to suggest that a small sum, subscribed by 
 several persons, would answer the purpose best, by diffusing a 
 wider interest in the publication, without discouraging any 
 individual friendly to the scheme. 
 
 If fifty names could be set to a subscription of 20 each, the 
 thing would be done; and it is supposed that, in addition to 
 the sum already advanced in Belfast, a like sum might be col- 
 lected in Dublin; but, especially, if noblemen or gentlemen of 
 high distinction would give their sanction, in any manner which 
 to them would seem most suitable to the end, which they must 
 
 M3
 
 250 DR. DRENNAN. 
 
 desire in common with the middling ranks of life, the renova- 
 tion of a social intercourse, a good understanding, and a joint 
 exertion for common good among Irishmen of all denominations 
 of religion. 
 
 Nothing but the motives I have mentioned in the beginning 
 of this letter would have emboldened me to address your Lord- 
 ship on a subject as to which I must conclude by remarking 
 that example is every thing. I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 Your Lordship's most obedient servant, 
 
 W. DKENNAN. 
 
 Dr. Drennan to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 October 28, 1819. 
 
 I received and transmitted the enclosure. 
 
 Nothing appeared to me more opposite than the concise yet 
 comprehensive summary of the sufferings and deserts of Poland, 
 which was published by Lord C. Whether the remedy fitted 
 for the people of England be the radical reform contained in 
 Cartwright's bill, or such a reform as was proposed by our 
 countryman, Flood, is a question : and still a more doubtful 
 one, whether the former of the plans be suited to the state of 
 society in Ireland; but certain it is, that all other plans are but 
 an approximation to the truth, whereas this one (of Cartwright's) 
 is truth itself. The difficulties attending it are greatest at first 
 sight : they disappear on closer inspection ; and the plan most 
 perfect in theory would, perhaps, turn out most easy and effec- 
 tual in practice. But still, many, in both countries, are hostile 
 to what is called such extremes; and an union of reformers is 
 to be desired on whatever procedure may attain a full, fair, free, 
 and frequent representation of the whole people of every reli- 
 gious denomination. 
 
 In the present state of public affairs, Ireland has, hitherto, 
 kept silent wisely, as I presume to think, for the past, what- 
 ever may be the line she will take in future. There is a digni- 
 fied, emphatic, and, if I may so express it, an eloquent silence, 
 more intelligent and impressive than a hundred tongues. The 
 apathy of the country is more apparent than real the river is 
 covered with ice, but the current moves quickly underneath. 
 The sufferings of our fellow-subjects are felt with the most 
 sincere sympathy and cordial commiseration ; but it is wise for 
 Ireland to restrain the impetuosity of her national character; 
 and the progress of events is so rapid, that it is highly prudent
 
 DR. DRENNAN. 251 
 
 and becoming in a country which has already suffered so deeply 
 to wait for a fuller development. If there be a tendency to 
 rebellion in England, let us not hasten to shake hands with 
 insurrection. Let us not squander our breath, far less our 
 blood, to little or no purpose; but, in maintaining a stern 
 silence, contribute to puzzle and confound administration. In 
 this attitude, fixed and firm, we are, in many points of view, 
 the most powerful auxiliaries of reform. In short, seeing what 
 I have seen in my dear native land, on both sides, I earnestly 
 wish that we may allow England to work out her own political 
 salvation, satisfied that Ireland will follow in her wake, as a 
 necessary consequence, with or without our agency. Ireland 
 has played her part unsuccessfully, and therefore without the 
 plaudit of fame; yet the example has not been lost, to imitate 
 what was worthy of imitation, to avoid her errors, and, above 
 all, her criminal credulity. To excite, at present, politico- 
 religious animosities by challenging, as it were, counter-meet- 
 ings and hostile declarations, would serve no purpose but a bad 
 one, for, in the event of a reform taking place in England, the 
 domineering faction here would quickly sink to their natural 
 level, without any commotion ; but if the opposite parties be 
 now roused to exasperation, the consequences may be fatal to 
 the peace of the country, whatever be the event. It will par- 
 take of the nature of a battle, and the victors may extend 
 mercy to the vanquished, or they may not. I deprecate a 
 Catholic upper and heavy hand as much as I do a Protestant, 
 and the situation of this country is such, in respect to the fear 
 of not only recrimination, but retaliation, that I wish it to be, 
 as long as possible, a looker-on, a spectator of the drama and 
 not an actor. I say, as possible, for I am sensible the time 
 must arrive for declaration, and then the more general, the 
 more simultaneous, the more concise, yet comprehensive, the 
 more explicit and unequivocal, this exposition of the public 
 opinion, so much the better; and, in my poor opinion, prepara- 
 tory steps ought to be taken in different parts for the simul- 
 taneous promulgation of such a document of reform, adhering 
 to the principle, adopting the plan most conciliatory if adequate 
 to the end, and putting into practice all the peaceable means 
 for attaining it. Of these means, the exposition of the public 
 voice, so as absolutely to ascertain an unquestionable majority, 
 is one measure in great progress in England, and accelerated by 
 the outrage at Manchester. Whether the non-consumption of
 
 252 DR. DRENNAN. 
 
 those articles of indirect taxation would not be tantamount to 
 what was often successful in our Irish parliament, by forming a 
 short money bill on the part of the people, thus contributing to 
 a defalcation of revenue, which is the most operative agent of 
 a change both of men and measures, may be a subject of con- 
 sideration to those who wish no measures but those of passive 
 resistance, perhaps the most effectual. But a change of men 
 will not now satisfy not such a change as, I fear, a powerful 
 set of men in this country contemplate as the grand remedy of 
 all ills, if they can accompany it with the placebo of Catholic 
 emancipation. No I hope in their good sense (that human 
 providence) the Catholics of Ireland have a nobler motive for 
 their present silence than the hope, by this means, of stealing 
 into the confidence of the present, or the future administration, 
 and thus securing a pledge (pledge upon pledge) of gaining 
 their selfish suit at the expense of the common cause of reform. 
 If so, they once more connive at the sale of their country; and 
 may they be once more cajoled, cheated, and choused in their 
 base bargain. " 0, I do fear thee, Claudio, and I quake, lest 
 thou a servile life should'st entertain, and a broad-bottomed 
 Grenville more respect than a perpetual honour." Most strange 
 it is, the excessive shyness of this body, even the democratical 
 portion of it, respecting reform, for many years past, and even 
 now, when the Whigs the temporizing Whigs are, at York, 
 mingling their shouts with the people, and splitting the vault 
 of heaven. Under that canopy, only, the genuine people ought 
 to meet there, alone, millions can meet in England, peaceably 
 on their part, unless broken ([ suspect, not merely by ministe- 
 rial connivance, but secret authority). In Ireland, whatever 
 now may be the case, such meetings would, probably, have had 
 a similar interruption without exciting such remark. But let 
 not the procedure at Manchester be considered separately from 
 reform; the matters are indissolubly connected in cause and 
 consequence. Hostility to reform was the cause, reform itself 
 will be the consequence, most unforeseen by the agents. The 
 Whigs, in England, wish to separate the subjects, but they are 
 one; and there are now striking symptoms of a coalition, not 
 like that of North and Fox, but of the Whigs with the people 
 of landholders, who have been liberty-holders in sacrificing 
 their monopolisms at the altar of the public good. Success to 
 the dinner, in a close steaming room, not yet under tbe ample 
 dome ! Large be our loaves, and extended be our liberties !
 
 EX-JUDGE ROBERT JOHNSON. 253 
 
 such is my wish for the people. I, as to my insignificant self, 
 have lost all locomotive inclination, and am descending fast, 
 as to my body, through the three kingdoms of nature, verging 
 from animal to vegetable existence, and soon to become of the 
 fossil order. 
 
 W. D. 
 
 No observer of passing events, or reader of news- 
 papers, during the early part of the present century, 
 will require to be told the history of the Ex-Judge 
 Robert Johnson, the author of Colonel Roche Fermoy's 
 letters on the defence of Ireland, and the subject of 
 prosecution for a seditious libel, under the strange cir- 
 cumstances of his holding, at the time, a seat upon the 
 bench, and of there being absolutely no evidence of his 
 authorship, beyond a sort of general conviction that he 
 was a likely person to do an act of the kind. The 
 article alleged to be libellous was an attack upon Lord 
 Hardwicke, in his capacity of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 It was published in Cobbett's Register, under the signa- 
 ture of Juverna, and was, in fact, composed by the 
 Judge. Nevertheless, the manuscript, although sworn 
 by a crown witness to be in Mr. Johnson's handwriting, 
 was actually written by his daughter. This circumstance 
 he might have proved ; but as he could not do so with- 
 out compromising his amanuensis, the jury were obliged 
 to return a verdict of guilty. Between the termination 
 of the trial, however, and the time for pronouncing 
 judgment, there was a change of ministry, as a result of 
 which a nolle prosequi was entered, in the year 1806, 
 and Mr. Johnson was allowed to retire from the bench, 
 with a pension. The manuscript of the obnoxious article 
 was given up by Mr. Cobbett, in order that he might 
 escape the consequences of a verdict of guilty found 
 against himself for the publication. 
 
 The ex-judge had a most unprofessional turn for mili- 
 tary affairs, in connexion with which he held some theories 
 that would probably startle modern professors of the art 
 of war. Among them was a notion, which he lost no 
 

 
 254 EX-JUDGE ROBERT JOHNSON. 
 
 opportunity of putting forward, that pikes and arrows 
 were much better weapons than muskets and bayonets ; 
 and he prided himself greatly upon the invention of a 
 pike, provided with a hollow staff, capable of containing 
 arrows, and having a leg to support the weapon, and 
 side-braces to unite it with others, so as to form a 
 chevaux-de-frise. One of the following letters is only 
 a fragment, but both are highly characteristic of the 
 writer : 
 
 Ex-Judge Robert Johnson to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 22nd December. 
 
 My dear Lord I send a volume of Lord Dillon's Commen- 
 tary on Military Establishments, &c. Though the book be on 
 military subjects, yet it contains some civil information as to 
 the state of Ireland, which the papers your Lordship was so 
 good as to read to me recalled to my memory. The part 
 towards which I wish to call your Lordship's attention will be 
 found at page 154, ch. xi., " On the Defence of Ireland," and 
 the five tables referred to (page 171), and placed, as an appen- 
 dix, to the end of the volume. It seems to me as if the infor- 
 mation given by Lord Dillon would form a confirmation and 
 illustration of your Lordship's paper. I enclose, also, a new 
 pamphlet " War in Greece." 
 
 Though it be anonymous, I can conjecture something of the 
 writer. In the pamphlet it is not difficult to perceive an 
 underplot. If, where the words " Greece," and " Greeks," 
 occur, the words Ireland and Irish be substituted, a variety of 
 allusions will force themselves into the mind. The mode of 
 defending the Isthmus of Corinth the Pass at Enniskillen, 
 and many other positions will be found typified. The character 
 of the Greeks, and the changes they have undergone the con- 
 sequences of their divisions tally. He even ventures openly 
 to recommend the pike and that with a hollow staff luckily 
 he goes no further. The allusion to Greece (with a sincere 
 desire, at the same time, to serve the cause of Greece) arose 
 from Lord Byron having called the Irish " Western Helots." 
 
 However, the arrow shot by this archer will fall short of the 
 butt, as scarcely any one in Ireland will read such a book. If 
 it were thought prudent to draw it into notice here (of which I 
 very much doubt), it might be done by writing a letter from
 
 EX-JUDGE ROBERT JOHNSON. 255 
 
 the ghost of Doctor Duigenan to Sir H L , denouncing 
 
 the book as a traitorous endeavour, by a most nefarious villain, 
 tc rouse the unprincipled Irish Papists into a desperate action 
 against our " Glorious Constitution in CHURCH and State," giving 
 copious extracts from the pamphlet, with proper inuendos, &c. 
 dating it from the Doctor's retirement at Orangefield post- 
 town Pandemonium; despatching it per the steam-packet with 
 which Charon (on a principle of infernal economy, from the 
 great plenty of fuel on the Doctor's side of the shore), has been, 
 lately furnished. But I doubt much of the prudence of draw- 
 ing it into notice here. 
 
 Your Lordship's contrivance of my passage by the boat was 
 capital. I arrived snugly at Monasterevan at nearly half-past 
 five ; the darkness, storm, and rain was an excuse for not going 
 further dining, sleeping, &c., at Cassidy's. So that I was two 
 days and two nights on my journey from Dublin eating, drink- 
 ing, and sleeping every stage at the expense of my friends 
 this is capital. 
 
 Ever, my dear Lord, yours, 
 
 ROBERT JOHNSON. 
 
 Ex-Judge Robert Johnson to Lord Cloncurry. 
 [The first sheet missing.] 
 
 17th September, 1628. 
 they have done so, with a perfect 
 
 knowledge that the dice on the board had been previously 
 loaded by their opponents, who had also secured to their own 
 hands the time, the mode, and the lead in the game. While 
 they provoke violence, both civil and military, they know 
 nothing of an organization, the very sight of which might cause 
 violence to pause before it raised its hand : they know nothing 
 of an organization sufficient for their security, and not exposed 
 by any breach of municipal law. If (which God forbid !) their 
 ill-judged and too-powerful stimulants should drive their too- 
 susceptible countrymen into a contest, tending to a suicide of 
 their country, do they know any thing of the policy by which 
 the defence of that country could be maintained] To any sug- 
 gestion hinting to them such wants, and the means by which 
 they might be supplied, they would probably reply, as the 
 cotemporaries of Columbus did, when he insisted that he had, in 
 his closet, discovered the means and the application of instru- 
 ments by which they could traverse in safety the path to an
 
 256 EX-JUDGE ROBERT JOHNSON. 
 
 unknown world; they scoffed at Columbus, and said he was a 
 theorist it was all theory. Columbus spent more years before 
 he could conquer this scoff, than he afterwards did in carrying 
 his theory into a bolder and more successful practice than ever 
 the head of man had before the genius to conceive, or the heart 
 of man had the courage to execute. But I have as little of the 
 passive, as I have of the active courage, or the genius of 
 Columbus. I should fear to expose myself to scoffs. Yet to 
 you, although not to them, I may venture to quote the obser- 
 vation of a man who acted in many scenes of military prac- 
 tice : "The observation is a truth, that whoever would acquit 
 himself upon the theatre of war with approbation, must form a 
 proper theory of the part he has to act. Theory is nothing 
 more than the collection of the principles by which men are to 
 act, in order to be fortunate. Without it, all is accidental; all 
 success ought to astonish; no misfortune ought to raise our wonder. 
 By theory we learn discernment of possibilities, and discover 
 the means most efficacious for their execution; we penetrate 
 our enemy's intentions; we foresee and we prevent his mea- 
 sures ; or we determine, when it may be prudent to abandon 
 our designs. How can any one form a plan of operations, if he 
 is unacquainted with the theory of war? This, and this only, 
 can raise him to the height whence his eye can survey the wide 
 field, can trace the paths on which he ought to tread, and 
 point to the position of approach, by which, with the greatest 
 certainty and expedition, he may attain the object of his 
 hopes." 
 
 Again "Experience teaches us through the means of errors, 
 which we commit ourselves, what theory points out to us, at the 
 expense of others." 
 
 To these authorities I may add, that Frederic of Prussia was 
 of the same opinion; so was Washington and Franklin, and 
 their opinions have been lately and wisely followed up in the 
 institutions of their country. Of the same opinion was Napo- 
 leon, whose most triumphant campaign sprung instantly from 
 his school-boy theory from what the Benedictine monks had 
 taught him at Brienne. Of the same opinion is Jomini and 
 Bulow (the real victor at Waterloo), whose slender little 
 volume would give to the listeners attendant on these orators 
 more useful knowledge as to the real power, and, consequently, 
 as to the safety and the peace of their country, than all their 
 gaping mouths could swallow from those cascades of eloquence,
 
 BARON SMITH. 257 
 
 sometimes bright, and sometimes muddy, at the frothy torrents 
 of which they gaze with such untired eyes. 
 
 I have now, my dear Lord, troubled you with giving my 
 reasons, and reasons which I hope will, in your mind, justify 
 me for not interfering, or, at least, interfering with great 
 caution, both as to opinions, and as to persons to whom they 
 may be communicated. I have, you know, joined one society 
 in Ireland. I did so because it appeared to me to be the only 
 one in the country acting upon principles of common sense. 
 The conduct of the rest, on both sides, seems to spring from 
 insanity, or worse than insanity. 
 
 Their desire, judging from their "overt acts," appears to be, 
 at all events, to embroil the country bleeding and hot water 
 was the universal remedy of Dr. Sangrado. My means tend to 
 attain our rights, and avoid a contest. 
 
 Yours, most trulv, 
 
 R. J. 
 
 In contrast to the effusions of this warlike disciple of 
 Themis, I may place the letter of another Irish judge, 
 also distinguished beyond the pale of his profession, 
 though he chose his course in the peaceful paths of 
 literature instead of in the rude ways of war. 
 
 Baron Sir William Cusack Smith to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Naas, March 27, 1834. 
 
 My dear Lord Though my being, or not being, a guest at 
 Lyons could be of very little consequence to your Lordship, 
 yet, allow me to say, it was to me. Accordingly, I waited to 
 the last moment before I gave up the hope, and, in doing so, 
 waited beyond the time for sending my apology, if this, under 
 the circumstances, was necessary. I had got into a crown case, 
 not entered upon at a late hour, but which was unexpectedly 
 protracted. 
 
 We came into this county under a threat of very heavy 
 criminal business, indeed; and I the more felt that assistance 
 was due from me to Torrens, because at Carlow he had been 
 unwell, and has always been very ready to assist me. The 
 alarm appears to have been, in some degree, a false one ; but 
 not so much so but that, I believe, the little assistance I have 
 been able to give him has not been superfluous. 
 
 I was told, though perhaps the fact was not so, that your
 
 258 DR. DOYLE. 
 
 Lordship was in town on Wednesday; and was thinking it 
 likely I should have seen you, and have an opportunity for per- 
 sonal communication. This also caused me, in modern phrase, 
 to "wait a while." 
 
 Let me again express the gratification which your kind letter 
 to me at Maryborough gave me, and the value which I set 
 on your Lordship's good opinion and good will; and this on 
 grounds more substantial and independent than any connected 
 merely with your Lordship's rank. 
 
 I am no politician; I not only do not desire to be one, but I 
 desire not to be one. To be one, I think inconsistent with the 
 duties and character of the station which I hold. If there be 
 any thing of a political halo for a time about my name (I don't 
 know whether there is), I have nothing to say to it. It is my 
 atmosphere, not myself, nor am I conscious that my conduct has 
 contributed to exhale it. I wish to be known in no capacities 
 (nor to have any to be known in) but those of private gentle- 
 man and of judge; and in those two characters I would be am- 
 bitious of your Lordship's good opinion. I have the honour to 
 be, my dear Lord, 
 
 Faithfully, your obliged 
 
 W. C. SMITH. 
 
 The following is from a no less remarkable man than 
 either of the judges to whom I have just referred. I 
 shall again have occasion to cite from my correspondence 
 with the celebrated J.K.L., but insert this letter here as 
 relating to a special subject, to which I may not again 
 find an opportunity of referring : 
 
 Dr. Doyle, R.C. Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, to Lord 
 Cloncurry. 
 
 Carlow, December 11, 1829. 
 
 f My Lord I read this morning, in the Evening Post of yes- 
 terday, a letter addressed by your Lordship to the secretary 
 of the Society for the Improvement of Ireland, wherein your 
 Lordship takes occasion to suggest to the heads of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, that "the saints' days and holydays observed 
 by our people, in greater number than in any other country, 
 are a great loss to the country, and a great cause of one of our 
 besetting evils, drunkenness;" your Lordship adds, "a reform 
 on that subject i in their (the C. bishops) sole power."
 
 DR. DOYLE. 259 
 
 Your Lordship and the Society you address are certainly 
 entitled to take cognizance of whatever impedes or might ad- 
 vance the improvement of Ireland, and the prelate should be 
 very fastidious who would complain of the appeal made by your 
 Lordship on the subject of holydays, or of the manner in which 
 it is made. The object of my writing to your Lordship is solely 
 to let in some additional light upon this matter, which you have 
 only touched incidentally, and, first of all, to inform your Lord- 
 ship, that "a reform on that subject is not in the sole power" 
 of the heads of the Catholic Church in Ireland; also, that 
 "holydays are not observed in greater number by our people 
 than in any other country." The whole number of holydays 
 (not Sundays) could not hitherto, in Ireland, exceed eleven, they 
 were generally only ten, of these ten, two or three have been 
 reduced this year; so that, henceforth, the number of our holy- 
 days cannot exceed eight or nine; and of these eight or nine, 
 two (the Circumcision and Epiphany of our Lord) occur within 
 what are called the Christmas holydays, a season of the 
 year when, I believe, the Society itself, for the Improvement 
 of Ireland, rests from its labours; so that, in fact, the sum 
 total of our holydays, which interfere in any way with public 
 industry, are reduced to six or seven in each year. 
 
 Perhaps your Lordship is of opinion that there should be no 
 holydays, though such days were instituted by the heads of the 
 Synagogue and the heads of the Church, and observed under 
 both covenants through all the time of their existence. It is 
 difficult, my Lord, and it is often unwise, to get rid suddenly of 
 old institutions, especially when connected with religion ; but 
 this, even if wished for, cannot be done. The Established 
 Church, by her rubrick and the laws of the land passed in the 
 time of Edward the Sixth, and of Elizabeth, prescribes the 
 observances of several holydays; but that rubrick anJ. these 
 laws have gone into disuse; they are every day violated. This 
 same cannot happen with us: the heads of the Catholic Church 
 in Ireland must observe, and do observe, as far as in their 
 power, the laws or usages respecting holydays, until the same 
 are abrogated or repealed. I certainly wish, with your Lord- 
 ship, that the number of holydays was still farther reduced; 
 but I wish it, not because I think such reduction good, but be- 
 cause I see it called for by the evils of the times; as Christ 
 said to the Jews, speaking of the law of divorce, "Moses, on 
 account of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to put
 
 260 DR. DOYLE. 
 
 away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so." 
 Amongst a religious people, and where the laws of the State 
 accord with those of the Church, holydays contribute to the 
 exercise of piety, and of every good work; when these laws 
 clash, or when a spirit of irreligion prevails, the effects are 
 other : and it is therefore that I agree with your Lordship in 
 wishing for a further reduction in the number, though small, of 
 our holydays. 
 
 I do not think that drunkenness, our besetting sin our per- 
 manent plague would be materially lessened by the abolition 
 of all the holydays: for drunkards will drink at all times; and 
 when they do not find a holyday ready made, they, themselves, 
 make one for the purpose. Witness Saint-Monday, which an 
 impious, and besotted, and abominable race of tradesmen add 
 to the Lord's day, for the purpose of indulging in their horrid 
 excesses. Look, also, to the Presbyterians of the North. 
 
 Nor do I think that an obligation of resting from servile 
 works on six days, besides the Sundays throughout the year, 
 can be any loss whatever in a country where the market is 
 always overstocked with labour, and in which a man's labour is 
 not worth, at an average, more than threepence a-day. Add 
 to this, that in cases of great necessity or public utility, every 
 person is permitted to work upon holydays. The truth is, my 
 Lord, that when idlers were few and labourers many, and when 
 Lolydays were more numerous than they now are, the peasantry 
 were better fed and better clothed than they are at present; 
 besides which, frequent holydays, or days of prayer for some, 
 and of rest and amusement for all, contributed not a little to 
 produce and to preserve that gay, cheerful, friendly, strong, and 
 athletic race of men, which, by-and-by, will be nowhere to be 
 found in Ireland. It is not the peasant now who gains by his 
 labour, or loses, I might say, by his rest it is the employer, 
 or the driver, of the slave. Are our peasants not broken down 
 and withered at forty or fifty years of age ? Are they not 
 everywhere badly fed and overworked ? And we, who idle 
 six days, and do not labour one, would, when we have made 
 them vicious and miserable, bind them down, even in their few 
 holydays, like a slave to the oar. I have the honour to be, my 
 .Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant, 
 
 $4 J. DOYLE.
 
 261 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Three Irish Political Questions of the Nineteenth Century Their real Value 
 The Catholic Question Kildare Meeting in 1811 Wariness of its Pro- 
 moters Absence of Professional Agitators from the early Catholic Meetings 
 Growth of Violence Its effects upon Protestant Sympathizers Evidence 
 of the early existence of Good Feeling Letters; from Mr. O'Connell, from 
 the Marquis of Downshire, from the Earl of Fingall The Rotunda "Tin- 
 Case" Meeting Letters from Mr. O'Connell Indications of the Workings of 
 Professional Agitation Refusal of Messrs. O'Connell and Sheil to merge 
 their Sectarian Grievances in the common cause of Ireland Pressure on 
 the Catholics of Rank Letters; from the Earl of Donoughmore, from Mr. 
 O'Connell Arrival of Lord Anglesey in Ireland Policy of the Govern- 
 ment in appointing him to the Viceroyalty Its Effects My own Connexion 
 with Lord Anglesey His Recall Progress of the Catholic Question 
 Letters Illustrative of the Time ; from Lord Anglesey Position of the Duke 
 of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel in 1829 Triumph over their Fears 
 Their spiteful Treatment of Mr. O'Connell Its Evil Effects Perpetuation 
 of Religious Discord Effects upon the Country Letters; from Father 
 L' Estrange, from Lord Holland, from Lord Melbourne. 
 
 As soon as Ireland began to awaken from the torpor 
 into which she was thrown by the lamentable events 
 that marked the close of the eighteenth and commence- 
 ment of the nineteenth centuries, three important poli- 
 tical questions began to agitate the public mind, and are, 
 even at this day, but in course of settlement. Every 
 Irish reader will know that I allude to the Catholic, the 
 Church, and the Education questions the first-named 
 being, in fact, that which included and rendered difficult 
 the arrangement of the other two. To my mind these 
 questions always appeared but as elements of the great 
 subject of the social advancement of the Irish commu- 
 nity, and I looked to their solution chiefly as means 
 towards the end of the tranquillization and enlighten- 
 ment of the people ; steps to the development of phy- 
 sical prosperity, and the attainment of civil and moral 
 freedom. They were, however, necessary steps on the
 
 262 THE CATHOLIC QUESTION. 
 
 way to that consummation ; and, as such, I never failed 
 to take a part in them, when my doing so seemed likely 
 to be of service. 
 
 I have already touched upon the miserable story of 
 the creation of dissension among the Irish people, by 
 their English rulers, when the glorious occurrences of 
 1782 showed to these the necessary results of Irish 
 union. I have sketched out slightly, but I trust intel- 
 ligibly, the fatal success of the policy which dictated the 
 partial enfranchisement of 1793 and its employment in 
 resisting parliamentary reform, and which proceeded, 
 by playing upon the hopes of Catholic helots and the 
 cupidity of Protestant masters, to re-divide the nation 
 into two hostile factions, and to govern both through the 
 agency of their fear and hatred of each other. I have 
 also alluded to the operation of this system upon the 
 two sections of the Irish people ; its strengthening effect 
 upon the oppressed its corruption and enfeeblement of 
 the oppressors. The Catholics having had their bonds 
 loosened sufficiently to enable them to do mischief to 
 their tyrants, every day grew stronger and stronger, 
 until at length they acquired a degree of electoral and 
 agitation power that rendered their support of import- 
 ance in the struggle of English parties. Then Ireland 
 became the battle-field of those parties; and at the 
 rallying cries of " Catholic Emancipation " and " Pro- 
 testant Ascendancy," the Irish people arrayed them- 
 selves under the banners of two rival English factions. 
 
 The first Catholic emancipation movement of any im- 
 portance in which I took a part was a meeting of the 
 Catholic inhabitants of the county of Kildare, held at 
 Naas, in the year 1811. Just then a considerable stir 
 had begun in the Catholic Body, and some strong counter 
 steps had been taken by the Government. The deter- 
 mination of the former to establish a representative body 
 for the furtherance of their objects was met by an inti- 
 mation from the law-officers of the Crown, that they 
 would meet any such attempt by a strict enforcement of
 
 KILDARE MEETING. 263 
 
 the provisions of the Convention Act against any person 
 who should be concerned in a society or committee 
 framed upon the principle of delegation. The Crown, 
 however, had a prudent foe to contend with. Long ex- 
 perience of the penal power of the law had made the 
 Catholics sage, and every precaution was taken and 
 with success to enable them to accomplish their pur- 
 pose of agitating for the redress of their grievances, 
 without bringing themselves under the letter of the 
 statute. At the meeting to which I allude, several Pro- 
 testant gentlemen resolved to attend, in order to give 
 the sanction of their presence, as magistrates, to its 
 legality ; and so cautious I might almost say, pusillani- 
 mous were some of the leaders, that my attendance 
 (I having been a noted object of English persecution) 
 threw the gentleman who was to take the chair into an 
 agony of fear : a circumstance which was communicated 
 to me in a deprecatory manner by my agent, a Roman 
 Catholic gentleman, who was one of the committee for the 
 arrangement of the meeting. Nevertheless, I attended 
 and spoke, as did also Mr. Wogan Browne, Mr. John 
 Joseph Henry, and Mr. Kobert La Touche, member for 
 the county. The resolutions were of the very mildest 
 kind, consisting merely of a declaration "that the in- 
 terests of the Protestant and the Catholic are connected 
 and inseparable, and that to benefit the latter is to serve 
 both;" and of the assertion of a determination to per- 
 severe in a "decorous exercise of the right of petitioning." 
 The point upon which I thought it necessary to speak 
 was an objection raised by Mr. Henry to Mr. Browne's use 
 of the word " restoration," instead of " concession," of 
 the rights of subjects, to the Roman Catholics, and to a 
 slight allusion made by that gentleman to the conduct 
 of Lord Chancellor Manners, in having arbitrarily dis- 
 missed him from the commission of the peace. Without 
 protesting against these lapses of his respected friend, 
 Mr. Henry said, " he thought he could not discharge his 
 duty to his God and his country." I need not say that
 
 264 KILDARE MEETING. 
 
 I supported the stronger phrase ; and, as I find by the 
 report of my words in a newspaper of the day, I thought 
 it necessary to justify my loyalty in so doing : " True 
 loyalty (I said) consists in an endeavour to defend the 
 throne, and to secure the rights of the people. I hope 
 that my heart cannot be exceeded in that spirit of genuine 
 loyalty. But what is now called loyalty is the seeking 
 after places, to satiate avarice the attaining office to 
 tyrannize over fellow-citizens ; that is loyalty, to pillage 
 our neighbours." The phrase " restoration of rights " 
 was preferred to that of " concession;" but surely it is 
 impossible to recall to mind the puny spirit of this move- 
 ment and not to reflect with interest upon the little 
 cloud, " scarcely the bigness of a man's hand," out of 
 which proceeded the storm that, eighteen years later, 
 prostrated the great Captain of the age in abject sub- 
 mission. They who, in 1811, trembled while they peti- 
 tioned in faltering accents for a participation in the pri- 
 vileges of the constitution, in 1829 raised their armed 
 hands to knock at the door of the English senate-house, 
 and wrung, from the avowed fears of its occupants, con- 
 cessions which the minister declared it would cost a civil 
 war to withhold. At the meeting to which I allude there 
 was not present a single professional agitator ; but I find 
 the names of seventeen of the principal of the nobility 
 and gentry of the county (amongst them those of three 
 Protestant clergymen) included in the vote of thanks 
 to Protestants for their attendance and support. This 
 was but a type of other similar meetings of the day, the 
 proceedings of which are now before me. Justice was 
 delayed ; and when it was at length granted, it was a 
 capitulation to a standing army of demagogues, who, like 
 other old soldiers, regarded their trade less as a means 
 than as an end. As the corps of agitators came to be 
 formed, a different tone began to show itself in the agi- 
 tation. It became more polemical, and less courteous and 
 tolerant. No one can doubt that the change from the 
 argumentum ad misericordiam to the argumentum bacu-
 
 LETTER FROM MR. o'CONNELL. 265 
 
 linum, was that which suited best with the nature of the 
 party upon whom it was designed to act. Neither the 
 heart nor the understanding of the Duke of Wellington 
 were such as to render him accessible to the claims of 
 pity, or to the teachings of sound political argument; 
 but he well understood the signs of danger, and had 
 seen enough of civil war to render his dread of its con- 
 sequences paramount over other considerations. The 
 violence of the demagogues certainly carried the Catholic 
 Relief Bill ; but it drove away from the general cause 
 of Irish independence many sensitive men, and greatly 
 widened the breach between differing religionists. Here 
 again, under the perverse and selfish management of 
 English factions, the Catholic question, for a second 
 time in a half-century, was made the means of splitting 
 Irish interests and enabling English ministers to bear 
 rule thereby. 
 
 Nevertheless, for many years after the period to which 
 I refer, the efforts in furtherance of the Catholic claims 
 continued to be distinguished by strong marks of a 
 desire to conciliate Protestants as well as the more timid 
 professors of the persecuted faith. One of the earliest 
 letters, in the handwriting of Mr. O'Connell (the great 
 organizer of systematic agitation), which I have found 
 among my papers, does indeed relate to a celebration 
 of Protestant and Catholic sympathy, and is dated in 
 the year 1819. It was written upon the occasion of a 
 dinner given to Sir Thomas M' Kenny (a Protestant 
 Alderman of Dublin), in return for services rendered 
 to the Catholic cause during his mayoralty, just then 
 expired : 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Merrion-square, 4th Nov., 1819. 
 
 My Lord I suppose you heard of the adjournment of the 
 meeting at Humphries' until the 1st of December. A pail of 
 cold water could not have been half so chilly. Peter Burrowes, 
 the mover, is just gone off, I am told, to London, on a poli- 
 
 N
 
 266 EARLY EXISTENCE OF GOOD FEELING. 
 
 tical mission. I suspect but may be wrong wheels within a 
 wheel. 
 
 But it will not do. The people insist on an immediate din- 
 ner. Instead of retarding the subscription, it will much pro- 
 mote it. In fact, if the dinner be not got up properly, it will 
 be got up badly; for there is no restraining public feeling on 
 the subject. I wish I had the favour of ten minutes' conver- 
 sation with you. I see that the Duke of Leinster is in town; 
 let me but be able to procure his assistance and yours, and 
 every thing will be as you could wish it. I repeat that the 
 dinner should be one of the stimulants to the subscription, 
 because I know that it would be the most powerful in its 
 effects. The committee for the subscription at Humphries' are 
 Protestants. The dinner should be given by Catholics and 
 Protestants (oh, how I hate these distinctions !) that is, by 
 Irishmen. 
 
 We want also a parish meeting in this most loyal parish, to 
 thank and address M'Kenny. I will leave the requisition at 
 your house in town, for your signature, and for any other you 
 can procure. I do entreat of you to step out about the dinner, 
 as the very best source of promulgating generous and patriotic 
 sentiments. 
 
 There was a handsome sword bought for General Devereux 
 with the surplus produce of the tickets for his dinner, after 
 paying for the entertainment. I know that it would be taken 
 very kindly if you would have the goodness to present it, when 
 he arrives. 
 
 Let me return you my most hearty thanks for your letter 
 to Hunt. Perhaps the thanks you receive from the honest 
 will be almost as flattering as the abuse of the venal and the 
 servile. 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 
 Your very faithful and obedient, 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 Of the good feeling that then existed among the 
 leading men of both religions, the following letters, 
 written upon the same occasion, the one by a Protestant 
 marquis, who afterwards took a prominent part in oppo- 
 sition to Mr. O'Connell, and the other by a Roman 
 Catholic earl, are fair examples :
 
 LETTER FROM THE MARQUIS OF DOWNSHIRE. 26 7 
 
 The Marquis of Downshire to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Hillsborough, 21st October, 1819. 
 
 My Lord I have had the honour of receiving your Lord- 
 ship's letter, on the subject of a compliment which has been 
 proposed to be paid to Alderman M'Kenny, on his going out of 
 the office of Lord Mayor. 
 
 Approving as I do of that individual's conduct in the line 
 he adopted relative to the unhappy religious distinctions which 
 have hitherto so seriously injured this country, I shall with 
 pleasure join the Duke of Leinster and your Lordship in testi- 
 fying our approbation of the Alderman during his mayoralty. 
 From my residence in this part of Ireland, I have necessarily 
 little to do with Dublin; but upon the principle of encouraging 
 upright and disinterested conduct in public men, I shall always 
 feel happy in contributing my share in instances such as the 
 one to which your Lordship has in such obliging terms called 
 my attention. I shall not be able to attend the dinner you 
 mention the Duke means to be present at; but I shall be ready 
 to subscribe my proportion, upon my being informed what his 
 Grace, your Lordship, and other public-spirited men intend 
 giving. 
 
 I am sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing your Lordship in 
 Dublin, and hope to have the pleasure of doing so on some future 
 occasion. 
 
 The Farming and Dublin Societies, which your Lordship 
 mentions, require strict inquiry. The gross mismanagement of 
 the first has excited the attention of the Lord Lieutenant, and 
 the indignation of the subscribers at Ballinasloe, where I 
 attended. Of the latter Society I know little, except that I 
 have been told the directors have been giving a pension, which, 
 is stated, did not come within the intentions of parliament. 
 There is, I fear, a tendency in Ireland to misapply public grants ; 
 and if Mr. Stevens' late publication on the charter-schools ia 
 correct, the loss to the country, the injury to our religion, and 
 the encouragement of dishonesty has been unparalleled. I have 
 the honour to remain, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 DOWNSHIRE. 
 
 N2
 
 268 THE " TIN-CASE " MEETING. 
 
 The Earl of Fingall to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Killeen Castle, November 13th, 1819. 
 
 My dear Lord I shall be very happy to have the honour of 
 attending his Grace the Duke of Leinster and your Lordship 
 at the dinner intended to be given to Alderman M'Kenny. In 
 every tribute of respect which can be paid to this gentleman, 
 were I not heartily to join, I should be guilty of a crime which 
 I trust will never with reason be imputed to me ingratitude; 
 for to him and to those who with him supported, with such 
 effect, the liberal and enlightened policy of allowing their fellow- 
 subjects to participate in the privileges they enjoy themselves, 
 surely the excluded must look with every sentiment of acknow- 
 ledgment and gratitude. 
 
 I had not the honour to receive your Lordship's letter till 
 yesterday, when Colonel Plunkett was so good as to send it 
 to me. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Lord, most faithfully yours, 
 
 FINGALL. 
 
 The particular act for which this tribute of gratitude 
 was paid to Alderman M'Kenny. was his convening and 
 presiding at a meeting held in the Rotunda, for the pur- 
 pose of petitioning in favour of Catholic Emancipation, 
 and which was rendered remarkable by the laconic reply 
 given by the Duke of Wellington to the Duke of Leinster, 
 when the latter forwarded to the minister the petition 
 adopted by the meeting. " I have received," wrote the 
 noble Duke, " your Grace's letter, accompanied by a tin- 
 case." It was in those days an act of extraordinary 
 courage in a Lord Mayor of Dublin to countenance a 
 liberal movement ; and I recollect the worthy alderman's 
 courage being put to a severe test upon the occasion. 
 There was a strong opposition offered to the proceedings, 
 under the leadership of Mr. Ellis, then a Master in 
 Chancery ; and such was the violence of the storm that 
 ensued, as to render the persistence of the Lord Mayor 
 in occupying the chair up to the end of the meeting, 
 highly creditable to his fortitude. 
 
 The following letters are characteristic of the writer,
 
 LETTER FROM MR. o'CONNELL. 269 
 
 and tend to illustrate the view I have put forward as to 
 the course events were then taking : 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Merrion-square, 14th May, 1820. 
 
 My dear Lord I am so delighted that you had an oppor- 
 tunity at the dinner of seeing the manner the people cherish you 
 because you are honest. It really is better to be so than to take 
 part with the enemy. But now you see that you owe us a debt 
 in return ; and I call on you to pay it on the double. 
 
 In the first place, there is the " Irish National Society for 
 Education." I enclose you a prospectus first, for your own 
 advice and correction ; and then, when you have made it con- 
 form to your sentiments, to entreat that you will lay it before 
 his Grace the Duke of Leinster, for his approbation and sanction. 
 I am winding up the Roman Catholic prelates, and making every 
 arrangement to have a public meeting as quickly as possible. 
 We have not an hour to lose, because we should be before par- 
 liament if possible to share the grant. I pray your most speedy 
 attention to this subject. If we can have the Duke as patron, 
 and you as one of the presidents, we shall get on rapidly. I 
 mean to solicit your vote for the office of secretary. But time 
 presses. 
 
 The second thing I would submit to you is our " Society for 
 Parliamentary Information." Let us, if you please, begin it. If 
 you will put your name to it, and get me one half-dozen Protes- 
 tants, I pledge myself to get you a batch of Papists of the first 
 water. If it were once on foot, it would accumulate rapidly; 
 and when we were strong enough, we would call in the aid of the 
 excellent Duke the finest fellow that ever bore "the noble 
 name of Fitzgerald." Let us not postpone making some efforts 
 for Ireland. We may be calumniated; but do we not deserve 
 reproach if we tamely crouch beneath our miseries, and leave 
 this " loveliest land on the face of the earth" a prey to faction, 
 and the victim of unopposed oppression 1 Reflect on this, and 
 let us make an attempt to combine good and honest men in an 
 exertion for the country. Believe me to me, with the most 
 sincere respect and regard, my dear Lord, 
 
 Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL.
 
 270 THE WORKINGS OF 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Merrion-square, 16th Nov., 1820. 
 
 My dear Lord I want a place, and what is more, I want you 
 to help me to get it; but it is a place fit for a Radical, which I 
 am, and ever shall remain. 
 
 Will you allow me to ask you, whether you deem it wrong 
 to write for me to the Duke of Leinster, to solicit his influence 
 with the Queen to appoint me her Attorney-General in Ireland? 
 She certainly has a right to such an officer; and I have a right 
 to fill the office, if she condescends to appoint me. There is not 
 one shilling of public money attached to it ; nor is it in any 
 sense inconsistent with my principles, which are, and ever shall 
 be, favourable decidedly to a complete say a radical reform. 
 
 I feel I am taking a liberty with you in asking your assist- 
 ance ; but I do hope you know me too well not to believe I 
 would not, for any consideration, ask you to do any thing which 
 I was conscious was in any respect inconsistent with your feel- 
 ings. If I be wrong in my request, pray excuse me, and do 
 not think the worse of me. I know of no event which would 
 afflict me more than to lose any way in your good opinion. 
 
 The truth is, that my leading motive in looking for this office 
 is to annoy some of the greatest scoundrels in society, and, of 
 course, the bitterest enemies of Ireland. I have the honour to 
 be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient faithful servant, 
 
 DANIEL O'CoNNELL. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Merrion-square, Sunday. 
 
 Her Majesty's Attorney-General will have the honour of 
 accepting Lord Cloncurry's kind invitation for to-morrow. If 
 he has delayed his written answer until he could call himself by 
 that name, he has not forgotten for one moment, and never will 
 forget, the respectful and very sincere attachment and regard 
 he bears to his Lordship. 
 
 " The finest fellow that ever bore the noble name of 
 Fitzgerald," applied for and procured the shortlived 
 honour desired by my correspondent ; but it was not very 
 long afterwards when his Grace was denounced from the 
 same quarter, as a recreant absentee and traitor to his
 
 PROFESSIONAL AGITATION. 271 
 
 country, for having built a house in London, and that 
 at a time when the petty-sessions books showed that 
 scarcely a single Monday in the year passed without the 
 Duke taking his seat upon the bench at Celbridge, except 
 during his unavoidable absence in the discharge of his 
 parliamentary duties. 
 
 The earliest indication I have found among my papers 
 of the effects of the working of the system of professional 
 agitation in creating distrust, is a letter written by my- 
 self in November, 1824, and which, after a lucubration 
 of seven years, was made the subject of a series of 
 philippics from the pen of Mr. O'Connell. In this letter, 
 which enclosed a subscription to the Catholic fund, I 
 ventured, though certainly with what now seems to me 
 to have been great caution, to express a " hope that the 
 Catholic rent and Catholic Association would be employed 
 in giving equal liberty and happiness to the Protestant 
 and the Catholic to the liberal and enlightened Dis- 
 senter and even to the often honest, but ever mistaken 
 Orangeman." 
 
 " Whilst (I continued) I love my Catholic countrymen, 
 I feel that I owe it to them and to myself to preserve that 
 candour which I have made my guide, in all the varied 
 circumstances of my life. If the Catholic Association 
 has no other view than what is called Catholic Emanci- 
 pation, I acknowledge their right ; but I feel compara- 
 tively little interest in their success. If, on the other 
 hand, they seek any thing farther, they should say what 
 that is ; they will neither disarm an enemy, secure a 
 friend, nor gain a timid neutral, by a contrary line of 
 conduct. The reformers in England weakened their 
 cause, and distracted their friends by their indefinite 
 pursuits. Short parliaments, extended suffrage, election 
 by ballot all good, all desirable ; but though any of 
 them would annihilate corruption, she gained strength 
 by the disunion of her opponents. My object is, if pos- 
 sible, to prevent future disunion amongst the friends of 
 Ireland. It is for them to demand, temperately, but
 
 272 THE WORKINGS OF 
 
 firmly, the adoption of measures necessary for the relief 
 of Ireland, and the safety of the empire ; they will have 
 the support of every wise, and of every good man, of 
 every religious or political opinion, but above all, they 
 will secure what is alone wanted to Ireland, domestic 
 unanimity. The last wish I ever heard from Grattan 
 was for the repeal of the Union. If all Ireland was 
 polled, I do not believe that, out of the seven millions, 
 one hundred votes would be against the repeal of that 
 finishing act of Ireland's degradation. In that repeal 
 I place my best, my almost only, hope of her regene- 
 ration. 
 
 " To the Union is due that Emancipation was not long 
 since carried that tithes were not modified that the 
 country has been deprived of the millions which would 
 otherwise have been devoted to her improvement, and 
 that, instead of a wealthy proprietary to employ, protect, 
 and inform the people, we have been left to a needy, 
 speculating magistracy, and to the agents of absentees. 
 To the Union is due the poverty and decay of our beau- 
 tiful metropolis ; and to our consequent poverty and 
 dependent state may be traced the very violence of party 
 feeling, and the anxiety to fill every petty office to the 
 exclusion of others ; for in no instance will you find a 
 man of independent means enrolled in the legion of in- 
 tolerance ; but the same desolating cause which deprives 
 the hardy labourer of employment, is felt through every 
 branch of society, and leaves the youth of the upper 
 classes without occupation or pursuit. 
 
 " In conclusion, sir, though a constant and ardent 
 friend to Catholic Emancipation, as one great right of 
 my countrymen, I still feel that the emancipation of Ire- 
 land depends on the repeal of the Union ; that measure 
 would at once give us a reformed parliament, for there 
 could be no idea of restoring the disfranchised and 
 purchased boroughs. The first session of such a parlia- 
 ment would restore life and peace to the capital and 
 the country would annihilate party feeling would ex-
 
 PROFESSIONAL AGITATION. 273 
 
 change tithe for a moderate and respectable provision 
 for the clergy of every denomination, according to their 
 services. It would induce Irishmen to remain in their 
 country (so superior to any other) ; it would bring 
 Englishmen amongst us, and it would secure to the 
 country that wealth which is now daily and hourly drawn 
 from it." 
 
 Seven years later, as I have said, when I again had 
 occasion to withhold my confidence from the professional 
 agitators, it was discovered that these expressions con- 
 tained matter of grave offence. At the time, however, 
 they were not viewed in this light, although my proposi- 
 tion that a common cause should be made among Irish- 
 men was not assented to by Mr. O'Connell. It was also 
 declined by Mr. Sheil, who happened about the time to 
 be on a visit at Lyons, and to whom I mentioned my 
 views. " They were in principle quite right," he said, 
 " but the Catholics could not afford to do what was 
 abstractedly right ; they were poor beggars, who must 
 take what they could get, and endeavour to get what 
 they could." So the separate Catholic agitation went 
 on, becoming daily more separate.* The following let- 
 
 * According as the ardour of Protestant sympathy declined, so, in 
 an immense proportion, did the urgency of the claims of the Catholic 
 party upon their own chief men increase, until the subjection of these 
 latter must, at length, have become very irksome. An Irish Roman 
 Catholic of rank, in those days, had to count upon a troubled life, if he 
 gave any sign of a disposition to cast in his lot with his co-religionists. 
 In season and out of season he was expected to be always at the com- 
 mand of the working leaders, and ready to do their bidding without 
 much regard to his own ease or to his scruples upon points of etiquette 
 or decorum. The advancement of the cause was the object held con- 
 stantly in view, and the mode in which that object was to be sought 
 having been despotically determined upon by the generals, was required 
 to be worked out without hesitation or murmur by subordinates of 
 all grades. Many a pleasant little dinner party have I known to be 
 spoiled at Killeen by the arrival, at the critical hour, of two or three 
 hackney coaches full of deputies from the Association, charged with an 
 undeniable request that Lord Fingall would preside at an aggregate 
 meeting, or perhaps start for London on the following morning to pre- 
 sent a petition, or to grace a deputation. I must do my late noble 
 friend the justice to say, that he was ever ready to take his part in the 
 service, either of his party or his country. 
 
 N 3
 
 274 SEPARATE CATHOLIC AGITATION. 
 
 ters show plainly enough, how the leaven of mischief was 
 working : 
 
 The Earl of Donougkmore (General Lord Hutchinson) to 
 Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Knocklofty, September 1, 1828. - 
 [Private.] 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I have received your letter of the 29th 
 of last month, and should be very glad to co-operate with you 
 in any thing, and particularly to act with you in endeavouring 
 to settle the Catholic question, because it is the foundation on 
 which the permanent tranquillity of Ireland can alone be erected. 
 In my estimation the Protestant, or Brunswick Clubs, I mean 
 the associations at whose head Lord Longford is placed, are 
 very formidable. We ought not to conceal from ourselves that 
 there is a great deal of rank and fortune, and even some talent, 
 included amongst them. I should despair of getting signatures 
 amongst the Irish liberal Protestants, which could at all compete 
 in number, property, or respectability with that association. 
 The fact is, that the violence of O'Conuell and his associates, at 
 least in this part of Ireland, has done the Catholic cause much 
 mischief; and it would be impossible here, and in the city and 
 county of Cork, to get any considerable number of Protestants 
 to affix their signatures to any document similar to that which 
 you have in contemplation. In the county and city of Cork 
 they are much more violent than in Tipperary; but even in 
 this county, where more of the principal gentlemen are disposed 
 to be liberal, the late proceedings of the Catholics have irritated 
 them very much. About three years ago, there was a very 
 
 strong declaration signed by * peers, to which both 
 
 your name and mine were affixed. I have already sounded 
 eome of my friends. They do not seem willing to make any 
 declaration of their sentiments. Just at present I am very 
 apprehensive that an attempt would end in failure, and I am 
 clearly of opinion that if we cannot procure numerous signatures, 
 it would be much more prudent not to make any effort at all. 
 If we could display our strength among the Protestants, I should 
 agree with you in sentiment, but I am apprehensive that the 
 result would be different, and our failure might be complete, 
 
 * The number is illegible.
 
 SEPARATE CATHOLIC AGITATION. 275 
 
 which would probably injure a cause which, at the present 
 moment, is placed in a most critical position. Believe me to 
 be, my dear Cloncurry, with great regard, 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 DONOUGHMOKE. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Darrynane Abbey, near Caherciveen, 
 4th September, 1828. 
 
 My dear Lord I know you will excuse me for writing to you 
 any thing I think useful to Ireland. If you agree with me you 
 will zealously assist, if not, you will forgive the trouble I give 
 you, out of regard for my motives. 
 
 The Orange faction is endeavouring to beard the govern- 
 ment that seems quite plain. Their ostentatious display of 
 their peerage strength in the Brunswick Club, is manifestly 
 made in order to terrify the government of Lord Anglesey, and ' 
 to encourage the friends of bigotry in England, where there are 
 many, and some in the highest station. It would be, indeed, 
 quite idle to conceal from ourselves that the great enemy of the 
 people of Ireland is his most sacred Majesty ! ! It is but too 
 obvious that the pimps and parasites who surround the throne 
 have an idea that their power is connected with the continua- 
 tion of abuses in Ireland. They are miserably mistaken, and 
 they would be much more secure by doing us justice; but it is 
 with the fact we have to do, not with the theory. The fact, 
 then, is most unfavourable, and the Saurins and Lefroys are 
 only struggling to give their friends in the ministry, and men 
 near the throne, a notion that their party in Ireland is strong 
 enough to continue misgovernment with impunity. This is 
 obviously the object of the recent and continued display of 
 Orange aristocracy. 
 
 In the meantime, what are our friends doing? Alas, nothing ! 
 They, the Orangeists, have their peers coming forward with ala- 
 crity, openly, and with ostentation. They have their marquis 
 at their head more than one marquis. We have scarcely any 
 symptom of sympathy from the higher order of Protestants. 
 There is, indeed, a duke, who you say, and I believe you, 
 means well; but allow me mournfully, but not reproachfully, 
 to ask you, of what value are his intentions 1 What a glorious 
 opportunity is he not letting slip to serve Ireland and to exalt 
 himself but above all things, to serve Ireland. I know that
 
 276 SEPARATE CATHOLIC AGITATION. 
 
 there is a declaration being signed in favour of Emancipation 
 a paltry declaration it is just enough to serve as an excuse for 
 doing nothing. I want to see something done. The Orangeists 
 are doing and so are the Catholic Association ; and we are doing 
 so well, that we can afford, after all, to go on without being 
 encumbered with other aid. But, although we can afford it, we 
 should much desire not to let things remain as they are. The 
 assistance of Protestants generates so much good feeling, and 
 such a national community of sentiment, that I deem it more 
 valuable than even Emancipation itself. I tell you frankly 
 what I think ought to be done, but what I fear will not. I 
 think the Duke of Leinster, and every other Protestant peer 
 friendly to the principle of freedom of conscience, should avail 
 themselves at once of the formation of the Brunswick Club, and 
 come forward and join the Catholic Association. There is in 
 Ireland no neutral ground whatever is not with us, is, in 
 reality, against us. The time is come to take an active part in 
 struggling to preserve the country from the bigots. 
 [The remainder of this letter has been lost.] 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Darrynane Abbey, 24th September, 1828. 
 
 My dear Lord I am not going to inflict another long letter 
 upon you; but since I wrote and sent off my last letter, I saw 
 a speech of Shell's at the Association, in which he calls on the 
 Duke, Lord Charlemont, and on you by name, to join us for 
 Ireland. I wish to clear from your mind all suspicion that he 
 and I are thus acting in conjunction. I do assure you, solemnly, 
 we are not; and his having concurred with me is only another 
 evidence of the deep conviction the Catholics now entertain 
 that they are either opposed or deserted by the Irish Protes- 
 tants. This is to me a most painful subject. Why should I not 
 grieve, and grieve to my heart's core, when I see Lord Rossmore 
 active and Lord Cloncurry dormant ? when I see Lord Ross- 
 more the most popular of the Irish peerage, and the Duke of 
 Leinster the least so. It is vain to accuse the people of rash 
 judgments. They know their friends, not from the wishes and 
 intentions of those friends, but from their actions and exertions. 
 It would be easy, indeed, for the Duke to resume his natural 
 station. He would be received with the loudest acclaim. He 
 is, however, in principle, or from want of thought, a unionist;
 
 ARRIVAL OF LORD ANGLESEY. 277 
 
 and the time is come when every honest and sensible Irish- 
 man should be preparing to compel the repeal of that mea- 
 sure. But we must do this alone. Protestant assistance will 
 be given us when the difficulties are over, and that success is 
 approaching. 
 
 I do not ask you for a declaration of your concurrence in the 
 opinion that Protestant patriotism in Ireland is at the lowest 
 ebb. You would have long since done much for Ireland, if 
 you could have found Protestant co-operators. This defection 
 is the more to be regretted, because it leaves so much alive the 
 religious prejudices of the people those fatal prejudices which 
 have been so long the destruction of this wretched country. 
 For my part, the only sensation which remains in my mind is 
 that which creates the determination to exert myself doubly for 
 " Old Ireland." I have the honour to be, with the most sincere 
 respect, my dear Lord, 
 
 Your very faithful and sincere servant, 
 
 DANIEL O'CoNNELL. 
 
 [This letter is remarkable, as being franked "Daniel O'Connell," and 
 bearing the post mark ' ' Free." It was written after Mr. O'ConnelTs 
 return for Clare, and before the Relief Measure of 1829 enabled him 
 to take his seat in the House of Commons.] 
 
 During the early part of the year in which the fore- 
 going three letters were written, the Marquis of Angle- 
 sey had been appointed to the viceroyalty of Ireland by 
 the Tory ministry then in power. The policy (if so it 
 can be called) that guided them in their partisan resist- 
 ance to the enlightened plans of Mr. Canning, had not 
 yet been overborne by their fears. The Duke of Wel- 
 lington still thought it possible to govern by the terrors 
 of the bayonet, and no man knew better than his Grace 
 that whatever might be accomplished by the aid of high 
 military qualities, an aristocratic bearing, and a deter- 
 mined will, might be done by Lord Anglesey. Upon 
 the mind of the Marquis, at that time, the professional 
 violence of the leading agitators had produced effects 
 similar to those to which I have referred, as having been 
 occasioned by it in the minds of many liberal Irishmen : 
 he had just then said in the House of Lords, that "if the 
 Irish wished for war, the sooner they drew the sword
 
 278 MY CONNEXION WITH 
 
 the better." It was upon these grounds that the selec- 
 tion of Lord Anglesey, as the Wellington Lieutenant, 
 was based; but it turned out to be a reckoning without 
 the host. His Excellency had not, indeed, previously 
 applied his thoughts to the Irish question ; but he had a 
 strong and inquiring mind, and when it became his duty 
 to make himself acquainted with the position of Irish 
 politics and parties, he set about the work in a candid 
 and straightforward spirit, that soon cleared the way for 
 a full enlightenment of his judgment. With regard to 
 him the saying of Caesar might have been reversed : he 
 might have said veni, vidi, et victus fid, so speedily did 
 his sense of justice triumph over his prejudices. 
 
 It was my good fortune to make the acquaintance of 
 this noble soldier very shortly after his first assumption 
 of the office of Lord Lieutenant. We met, I think, at 
 the table of my neighbour and friend, though political 
 opposite, Lord Mayo, and there began an intimacy 
 which, during his second viceroyalty, ripened into a 
 cordial friendship that has continued without interrup- 
 tion to the present moment. In one respect I was a 
 eafe companion, for I wanted nothing either for myself 
 or others, and had no interest that was not in common 
 with that of the country. I was so circumstanced as to 
 be free from any inducement either to blind the viceroy, 
 that I might profit by his errors, or to seek an opportu- 
 nity for prey in the continuance of confusion and discord 
 among my fellow-countrymen. Lord Anglesey gave me 
 credit for being influenced by these circumstances, and 
 not less, I believe, for being sincerely desirous of pro- 
 moting the prosperity and well-founded peace of Ireland; 
 and I was, accordingly, so far honoured by his confidence, 
 as to be permitted to form a sort of private friendly 
 cabinet, to which he frequently referred for counsel and 
 assistance. In this extra-official council, of which, I con- 
 fess, I was not at first a very willing member, were in- 
 cluded Mr. George Villiers (now Earl of Clarendon), the 
 late Right Honourable Anthony Blake, and Mr. William
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 279 
 
 Henry Currant (now a judge of the Insolvent Debtors' 
 Court). We met very frequently at dinner, as well as 
 at other periods, when matters occurred respecting 
 which Lord Anglesey wished for information and advice 
 which we afforded, I helieve often usefully and I am 
 sure always honestly. It was, as I have already inti- 
 mated, no long time until Lord Anglesey formed his own 
 opinions in reference to Irish politics ; and, in accordance 
 with his new views, he declared himself friendly to 
 Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform. The 
 result was, his recall, in a year from the date of his ap- 
 pointment, and his departure with the honours of an 
 ovation: he was escorted from Dublin to the water's 
 edge by the entire population of the city ; and having 
 thus voluntarily failed in the performance of the service 
 expected from him by his colleagues, his conscientious 
 change of opinion became the means of hastening the 
 advent of that crisis which, twelve months before, he 
 had been commissioned for the very purpose of retarding. 
 The first year passed by Lord Anglesey in Ireland, 
 although it ended in a triumph of his popularity, was 
 yet a season of much difficulty and annoyance. During 
 its course, the agitation for Emancipation reached its 
 height, and the violence of the professional agitators 
 culminated in the climax of the Clare election. It be- 
 came obvious to the multitude that the exhibition of 
 physical force was doing its work. The ministers were 
 seen to falter, and both the people and their leaders per- 
 ceived that it was time to press upon a wavering foe. 
 The time had nearly passed when concession could be 
 made without loss of honour. Under the management 
 of Lord Anglesey it might, perhaps, have been possible 
 to have concluded a decent peace ; but, even in his hands, 
 it would have been more than difficult to have prevented 
 the defeat of the army of the oppressors from being con- 
 verted into that scandalous rout to which the mingled 
 obstinacy, panic, and perfidy of Wellington and Peel 
 conducted them.
 
 280 LETTERS FROM 
 
 This position of affairs naturally rendered the course 
 of Lord Anglesey a thorny one. To-day he was sub- 
 jected to the abuse of the Protestant-ascendancy men 
 to-morrow, to the distrust of the Catholic Association. 
 The former laid upon his shoulders the responsibility for 
 the violence of O'Connell and his followers while the 
 latter suspected him of insincerity in his avowed sym- 
 pathy with their cause, and, at the same time, by their 
 intemperance, rendered it impossible for him to hesitate 
 in the stringent enforcement of the law, which, however 
 oppressive upon them, it became his duty to execute. 
 The following letters may throw a little light upon the 
 character of the time ; they will, at all events, illustrate 
 the generous and high-minded feeling towards Ireland 
 which, from an early period of his viceregal career, actu- 
 ated Lord Anglesey : 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix-park, December 5, 1828. 
 
 My dear Lord I thank you for your letter, and for the me- 
 moir which accompanies it. I shall read this document with 
 great interest. 
 
 I do assure your Lordship that I am too well convinced of 
 your loyalty and love of country to believe that you could have 
 sanctioned the expressions which were used regarding you by 
 Mr. O'Connell at the Association; and if there are those who 
 could have entertained such an opinion, your manly disavowal 
 at Lord Morpeth's dinner of being a party to the sentiment 
 expressed, ought to have removed every doubt. 
 
 In respect to the expression very imprudently used, I am one 
 who thinks that great allowance ought to be made for the 
 strong expressions of public speakers, which frequently are 
 mere vapour, and mean nothing; and I feel convinced (although 
 I know I am liable to be laughed at for my credulity) that the 
 Prime Agitator means no harm. 
 
 I remain, my dear Lord, very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Uxbridge House, March 12, 1829. 
 My dear Lord I have sent you the two bills now in pro-
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 281 
 
 gress, and I shall like to know what you think of them, and 
 particularly of that concerning the forty-shilling freeholders. 
 
 How fortunate for the Catholics that the ministers did not 
 hite at my proposition to adjust the question for them! I 
 could have obtained much better terms (as they would have 
 been erroneously thought to be) for the Protestants. I there- 
 fore rejoice that things are as they are. 
 
 Notwithstanding the forebodings of some croakers, I have 
 not the least doubt that the Relief Bill will pass triumphantly ; 
 and, excepting a few trifling and silly points, which give the 
 appearance of the measure being adopted against the grain, I 
 do think it is a handsome production, and must please the 
 Catholics. I believe O'Connell is behaving very well here. 
 Poor William has had a very severe attack of small-pox. He 
 is going on as well as possible, and I have removed him to an 
 airy lodging at Brompton. All my ladies took fright, and dis- 
 appeared, leaving me quite alone. We are fumigating, and I 
 suppose they will soon return. 
 
 I hope Lady Cloncurry and your family are quite well. I 
 assure you we often talk of Lyons and its hospitable inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 You can have no idea of the intense interest this Catholic 
 question excites in England. I do not think that Ireland is so 
 much occupied with it. Not another subject is ever broached 
 in any society, male or female. 
 
 I continue to receive daily proofs of the kind feelings of your 
 amiable countrymen towards me; and I do assure you it is a 
 source of the highest gratification to me. With best regards to 
 Lady Cloncurry, 
 
 Believe me, my dear Lord, very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Cowes, August 7, 1829. " 
 
 My dear Lord As you flatter me by wishing for my opinion 
 of the projected improvements and alterations of Kingstown 
 Harbour, I give you freely what occurs to me. 
 
 I grieve for the excesses that have been committed in Ire- 
 land, but I well know to what cause to attribute them. Those 
 who have chosen to predict that Emancipation will profit that 
 country nothing, are no doubt very well disposed to contribute 
 to the verification of their predictions.
 
 282 LORD ANGLESEY. 
 
 But in spite of every obstacle, in spite eveii of the imprudence 
 of O'Connell, who has, I admit, had ample reason to complain, 
 but who would have acted more wisely and magnanimously by 
 merely smiling at the puny and pitiful efforts to exclude him 
 from the legislature, Ireland will prosper, unless she is grossly 
 misruled. 
 
 I have my eye fixed upon you, and if I had now the influence 
 I once possessed amongst you, I should still preach Peace, Tem- 
 perance, Forbearance, Patience. Your wounds are too deeply 
 inflicted to expect a very rapid cure. 
 
 With best wishes to Lady Cloncurry and your family, 
 Believe me, my dear Lord, very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 [Extract.] 
 
 I see a subscription for the distressed manufacturers of Dub- 
 lin. Should I subscribe ? and what would be handsome with- 
 out being ostentatious 1 Or shall I order five waistcoats ?* 
 
 Seriously, would double or treble the amount of what you 
 would advise me to subscribe, be more beneficial in the shape 
 of an order for furniture, &c. ? 
 
 I have a heavier task to impose upon you shortly. Although 
 I can never bring myself to take part in debate, yet I want you 
 to furnish me at your leisure with your concise views of what 
 is not done that ought to be done for Ireland of what is prac- 
 ticable and attainable for her relief of what are the grossest 
 defects in her present state and system of the best plan for 
 something to effect what our poor-laws do not effect. In short, 
 I want a very compressed outline of the practical means of 
 making Ireland what she is capable of, and what she should be, 
 and what every honest Irishman and liberal Englishman should 
 wish her to be. 
 
 No small demand, this; but in the compass of this letter, you 
 can some day furnish me with what I want. I remain, my 
 dear Lord, very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 * The allusion here is to an order for a waistcoat given by the Duke 
 of Northumberland as his answer to the complaint of a deputation of 
 distressed weavers. There was much laughing about it at the time ; 
 but the joke wanted its point, as want of liberality was not the Duke's 
 fault. The circumstance of the order had its origin, I presume, in 
 some inadvertence.
 
 WELLINGTON AND PEEL. 283 
 
 I have more to say in reference to the policy and 
 progress of Lord Anglesey's Irish administration ; but, 
 postponing that subject for the present, I must conclude 
 my observations upon the Catholic question. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive any position in which poli- 
 ticians could be placed, more humiliating than that occu- 
 pied by the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel, in the 
 year 1829. Beaten, after a long struggle, as much by 
 their own fears as by the strength of their assailants, 
 they fell, without dignity, confessing their terrors and 
 their defeat, and yet striking a parting blow, such as 
 could only irritate without maiming their enemy. By 
 his dogged obstinacy, the Duke delayed the concession 
 of their rights to the Roman Catholics, until it could no 
 longer be yielded with a good grace; and when, at 
 length, he thought himself obliged to give way, he ad- 
 mitted that it was not to the justice of the claim that he 
 succumbed, but to his apprehensions of the force and 
 violence of the claimants. And, finally, when the victory 
 was thus gained against him, he fruitlessly vexed the 
 victor, and staked the peace of the country upon a new 
 election contest, by refusing to permit Mr. O'Connell to 
 take the seat to which he had been legally chosen by 
 the electors of Clare, and to fill which he was qualified 
 by the Relief Act. Had this bit of petty spite been 
 foregone, and had good feeling been shown, at the small 
 expense of silk gowns for Messrs. O'Connell and Sheil, 
 it is more than probable that the measure of 1 829 would 
 have been a final and healing one, and that the strength 
 of the Catholic agitation would, thenceforward, have been 
 turned to the improvement of the institutions of Ireland 
 and the development of her material prosperity and social 
 happiness. As it was, the epoch of Emancipation was but 
 the beginning of a long and troubled era of discord, in 
 the course of which Tory government was rendered 
 impossible, and successive liberal administrations were 
 obliged, alternately, to keep up their power by coercion 
 bills or to shrink from a policy of progress, in attempting
 
 284 PERPETUATION OF 
 
 to work out which they were at one time frustrated by 
 the lingering spirit of Protestant ascendancy, and at 
 another encumbered by the assistance of demagogue 
 cupidity and priestly ambition. The manner in which 
 the Relief Act was carried was so contrived as to render 
 the hatred between the two sections of the Irish people 
 persistent ; to leave each still something to fight for ; to 
 keep up the notion that government favour and patron- 
 age must be for the one or for the other, and was inca- 
 pable of being impartially divided between both. The 
 Church, the University, the municipal corporations still 
 remained to excite the cupidity or the honourable ambi- 
 tion of the Catholics. Their clergy, whom twenty years 
 of agitation had made the active leaders of the people, 
 were allowed to continue in a state of complete depend- 
 ence upon their impoverished flocks; and being dis- 
 couraged from the pursuit of education in common with 
 their Protestant fellow-countrymen, in the national Uni- 
 versity, they were practically restricted to the monastic 
 and exclusive training of Maynooth, where stinted means 
 rendered it impossible to comply with the ordinary 
 decencies of civilized life, not to speak of satisfying the 
 requirements of a liberal system of education. In entire 
 accordance with the paltry malice that denied Air. 
 O'Connell a patent of precedence, was the government 
 patronage administered. The Roman Catholics, indeed, 
 were by law made eligible to all public offices ; but Pro- 
 testantism was still the proper faith for placehunters, 
 and its profession the way to the honours of the corpo- 
 rations and the civilities of "the Castle," not less than to 
 the profits and advantages of public employments. 
 
 Thus, a great concession was made by the Legislature 
 of England to the majority of the Irish people, avowedly 
 under the influence of the fear of physical force ; and at 
 the same time it was so marred in the granting, that 
 while the popular power was vastly extended, the irri- 
 tation of the leaders of the people was preserved in its 
 state of highest intensity, by the continuance of many
 
 RELIGIOUS DISCORD. 285 
 
 small grievances. By the Act of 1829, the peasantry 
 and artisans were not benefited in their physical or 
 moral condition. They were left in that statu quo of 
 poverty and ignorance which enabled the demagogues, 
 whom they obeyed, still to guide them as they pleased ; 
 while the leaders found themselves endowed with new 
 political power, but as yet deprived of all the solid ad- 
 vantages that commonly cause such power to be desired 
 by men. It is not, therefore, matter of wonder that the 
 remarkable year 1829, instead of being the beginning of 
 an era of tranquillity turned out to be but the first of a 
 score of years of Roman Catholic agitation, more violent 
 than had ever before distracted the kingdom. Stimu- 
 lated into fury by the sweets of place and power that 
 now hung within their reach, the laymen began a fierce 
 and almost exclusively sectarian struggle for parliament- 
 ary reform, for the abolition of the Established Church, 
 and for the destruction of the municipal corporations. 
 In all their projects they were zealously and most effi- 
 ciently seconded by a clergy who saw themselves de- 
 spised, and poor, and disowned by the State, and who 
 every day contrasted their humiliating position with that 
 of the court-honoured, glebe-lodged, tithe-endowed par- 
 sons and spiritual Lords of Parliament who were their 
 neighbours in every parish, diocese, and province. In 
 these contests, the resisting party was exclusively com- 
 posed of Protestants. The differences of political opi- 
 nion that stirred society in England, and made men who 
 frequented the same parish church take opposite sides 
 at the hustings, were in Ireland swallowed up and con- 
 founded in the grand distinction of religious creed ; and 
 that, in truth, was but the received name for the real 
 subject of quarrel viz., the place, power, and conside- 
 ration exclusively enjoyed by the professors of one 
 creed, and most ardently desired by the professors of the 
 other. It is a consolation to me to observe that the 
 spirit which maintained this war is at length showing 
 signs of approaching weakness. The points in dispute 
 are daily becoming less numerous. Changes in English
 
 286 MR. L'ESTRANGE. 
 
 party tactics have led to a more extended and less ex- 
 clusively sectarian traffic in patronage. Corruption can 
 now scarcely be said to hold any peculiar religious belief. 
 The honest and too-long deluded people are, I trust, 
 beginning to see, on the one side, that the chicanery of 
 the law may be as formidable to the liberties of Ireland, 
 when worked by the hand of a Popish Attorney-General, 
 as it was under the guidance of the most ultra-Orange 
 Clare, Toler, or Saurin ; and to perceive, on the other, 
 that the property, and commerce, and agriculture of the 
 Anglo-Irish pale may be as recklessly spoiled by an or- 
 thodox Protestant poor-law commissioner as ever they 
 were by a James or a Tyrconnell. It seems to me now 
 to need but a few, not very considerable, social modifi- 
 cations to effect a complete and permanent solution of 
 the Catholic question. When that shall have been 
 accomplished, Ireland may take the place in the civilized 
 world which her geographical position, her internal re- 
 sources, and her population, entitle her to assume. 
 While the condition of social fever indicated by the 
 phrase "Catholic question," shall remain unsettled, so 
 long will this fertile island continue to be a hunting- 
 ground for English place-seekers, and a prison for 
 hordes of starving serfs Angllce dedecus et obsidium. 
 
 The Rev. F. J. IS Estrange* to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin Catholic Rooms, Feb. 3, J829. 
 
 My Lord I have the honour, as chairman of a meeting of 
 the Association, held on January 27th, instant, to enclose a 
 resolution of grateful acknowledgments for the persevering 
 support afforded by your Lordship in the arduous struggle in 
 which we are engaged for our constitutional rights. The num- 
 ber of years in which we have been cheered by the countenance 
 of your Lordship, even under circumstances of great difficulty, 
 has earned for your Lordship the everlasting gratitude of your 
 fellow-Christians; and therefore it renders it almost unneces- 
 sary for me to acquaint your Lordship with what enthusiastic 
 applause your name is always received in the Association. I 
 feel greatly flattered by having the honour of filling the chair 
 
 Father L'Estrange waa domestic chaplain to Mr. O'Connell.
 
 LETTER FROM LORD HOLLAND. 287 
 
 on an occasion which affords me the opportunity of assuring 
 your Lordship how cordially I join in paying the tribute of 
 praise, so well deserved, on account of a long series of noble 
 and patriotic deeds. I have the honour to subscribe myself, 
 my Lord, 
 
 Your faithful servant, 
 
 F. J. L'ESTRANGE. 
 
 The following letters will show that the opinions I 
 have advanced above with regard to the condition of the 
 Roman Catholic College of Maynooth were not opinions 
 " of the morrow," in reference to the recent salutary 
 changes made in that establishment : 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 [Private.] 
 
 South-street, 29th April. 
 
 My dear Lord I will take care that your suggestions shall 
 be known to Melbourne and to Mulgrave, and enforced by your 
 authority and your reasons; and I sincerely hope, and indeed 
 entreat you, to continue to convey them either directly to them, 
 or indirectly through me; for I am satisfied that nothing can 
 be more advantageous to the government than ascertaining, 
 and deliberately and favourably considering, your views of such 
 matters. I own your strong recommendation of additional 
 grants to Maynooth rather takes me by surprise, as I thought 
 that that project had in a great measure failed, and that the 
 opinion of the best-informed and most liberal of both persua- 
 sions was that almost any other scheme that could be adopted 
 would supply the Roman Catholic subjects of Ireland with a 
 better class of priests than those educated at Maynooth. How- 
 ever, your opinion, even if there be no other, is quite sufficient 
 to make inquiry and reconsideration advisable, and Melbourne, 
 and Mulgrave, and Morpeth (what alliteration !) shall all be 
 aware of it. 
 
 Our elections, with the exception of the Solicitor-General, 
 which has no moral effect whatever on the public, have hitherto 
 gone well. We are sanguine, and almost confident, about 
 Morpeth's. I wish we were equally so about John Russell's, 
 but we have no reason to despair, and what is encouraging, the 
 reports from Devon improve. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND.
 
 288 LETTER FROM LORD MELBOURNE. 
 
 Lord Melbourne to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Downing-street, June 4, 1835. 
 
 My dear Lord T beg leave to return you my best thanks 
 for your letter of the 3rd of last month ; and I know you will 
 think the assurance that I have not omitted to consider its 
 contents, a sufficient excuse for not having made an earlier 
 acknowledgment of it. 
 
 I believe all you say respecting Maynooth ; I have always 
 heard the same from all persons of knowledge and information 
 upon the subject; and yet it appears to me to be perfectly 
 impossible, at the present time, to act upon either of your sug- 
 gestions. To abolish the College altogether, without institut- 
 ing anything in its room, would be considered an insult and an 
 injury by the whole Roman Catholic population of Ireland; and, 
 on the other hand, the prejudices of Protestants of all descrip- 
 tions Churchman, Dissenter, and Voluntary would oppose 
 themselves to an augmentation of the endowment. You must 
 be sufficiently aware of the feelings of this country to be per- 
 suaded that such a proposition would fail in parliament, and 
 that the bringing it forward would be of the utmost prejudice 
 to the government. 
 
 Your observations respecting the police are equally sound 
 and unanswerable. I always thought the appointment by the 
 magistrates objectionable; and if those to whom they have 
 given it up conduct it upon the principles which you mention, 
 it is still worse. I can conceive that some of the Inspectors- 
 general might act in the manner which you mention, but 
 surely not all, and particularly not those who have been re- 
 cently appointed. 
 
 The persons whom you mention have not been neglected ; 
 an offer of advancement was made to Mr. Holmes. I am afraid 
 
 there is more difficulty in arranging C 's succeeding to Peter 
 
 Burrowes. What can we possibly do for B 1 Making 
 
 him a Privy Councillor is nonsense: he is a noodle to wish it. 
 There are, in my opinion, objections to it; and if he got it, 
 depend upon it it would not give him three hours' gratification. 
 
 I think the late government did wrong in making S . I 
 
 shall be at all times glad to hear from you ; and believe me, 
 my dear Lord, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 MELBOURNE.
 
 289 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Church Question The Church Establishment a Citadel for the English 
 Garrison Its Failure as an Ecclesiastical Institution Its Use as a Party 
 Grievance Value of the Reforms already made Lord Anglesey's Church 
 Bill Defeated by Mr. Stanley Church Question still unsettled, and at the 
 service of the Factions Payment of the Catholic Clergy Separation of 
 Church and State Letters ; from Lord Dacre, the Marquis of Anglesey, 
 Lord Holland, Sir H. Hardinge, Mr. O'Connell, Myself. 
 
 CONCURRENTLY with the agitation of the Catholic ques- 
 tion, and as the complement of it, there proceeded an 
 agitation of the question of the Protestant Established 
 Church, and when the former was supposed by short- 
 sighted politicians to have been settled by the Relief Act 
 of 1 829, the Church Establishment was suffered to remain 
 in all its monstrous deformity, to protract the distrac- 
 tions of Ireland. It had been fixed upon the country, 
 in the first instance, in accordance with the policy of 
 English rulers, as a citadel for the English garrison, and 
 as such it was continued at the time of the Union, and 
 kept up after the civil disabilities of the Roman Catholics 
 had been removed under the pressure of the fears of 
 the English ministry. That purpose, it had, no doubt, 
 served, although in the advancement of every other 
 object supposed to be attainable by an ecclesiastical 
 system, it had notoriously failed. The religious and 
 moral education of the masses of the people it could not 
 effect, when seven-eighths of the population remained 
 without the pale of its communion. With their secular 
 education it was specially charged, and this it neglected. 
 The Church was accordingly known to the Irish people 
 only through the medium of the exactions of the tithe- 
 proctors, and to the rest of the empire by the barbarous 
 retaliations which those exactions induced. 
 
 Here, then, was a grievance ready for the hand of the 
 
 o
 
 290 THE CHURCH QUESTION. 
 
 agitator, than which the most turbulent invention could 
 scarcely devise any more stimulating ; and freely was it 
 used both in the furtherance of the Catholic claims, and, 
 subsequent to the year 1829, with great advantage, now 
 and then, to the contending factions of England ; though 
 it must be confessed, with but small benefit to the Irish 
 people. It is very certain that Whigs and Tories, from 
 time to time, mutually turned each other out of Downing- 
 street, by a skilful use of the Irish Church question, and 
 there can also be no doubt that, during the years between 
 1829 and 1835, while this political game was going on, 
 a vast amount of suffering, and blood-guiltiness, and 
 bitter retaliation, was heaped upon the devoted heads of 
 the Irish people ; yet, upon taking a broad political view 
 of the subject, it will be manifest that the result of all 
 this turmoil and misery has been of little value. It is 
 true that the transfer of the immediate incidence of the 
 tithe from the farmer to the landlord, has so wrapped up 
 its payment in that of rent as to deprive the tithe-proctor 
 of his terrors, and to extinguish the power of conjuring 
 tumults which the name formerly possessed in the mouth 
 of an agitator. It is also true that the fixed commuta- 
 tion of the tithe has removed from it the character of 
 being a tax upon improvement which it formerly, in a 
 marked degree, possessed. The power of converting 
 church leases into fee-farms, has also tended to lessen 
 the mischiefs resulting from the uncertainty of the tenure 
 of church lands. Nevertheless, the legislation of both 
 Whigs and Tories has failed to touch the greatest evils 
 of the Established Church system, and has even added 
 to it some evils that did not before exist. It still stands 
 as a bone of contention to divide Irishmen ; to be given 
 as the food of corruption and anti-nationalism to the 
 Protestants, to bind them to the standard of the English 
 garrison ; and to be thrown now and then to the Catho- 
 lics (to be gnawed, not eaten up), in order to sharpen 
 the edge of their hatred to their fellow-countrymen. The 
 church of a minority is still a part of the State, and sends
 
 LORD ANGLESEY'S BILL. 291 
 
 its four prelates to parliament for no earthly purpose but 
 to keep up irritation in the minds of the prelates of the 
 church of the majority and to supply a stimulus to their 
 odium theologicum, by a direct appeal to their pride. 
 The suppression of ten bishoprics but served to aggra- 
 vate those feelings, while it removed ten resident pro- 
 prietors possessed of considerable means of expenditure, 
 from the country, and handed over their incomes to that 
 worst species of absentee a board of greedy commis- 
 sioners, connected with land or people only as birds of 
 prey are connected with their quarry. The shuffling of 
 the tithe-charge, while it unquestionably produced the 
 good effects upon the popular imagination to which I 
 have alluded, was, nevertheless, productive of no pecu- 
 niary relief to the people, and did involve a gift of one- 
 fourth of the national property to the landlords. 
 
 I am, myself, a tithe-owner the lay-rector of several 
 parishes and am, therefore, interested in taking a Con- 
 servative view of the Church question. So strongly, 
 however, have I always felt that a settlement of it is 
 necessary to the general welfare of Ireland, that I have 
 always been, in opinion, a tithe-abolitionist ; and so long 
 since as the year 1806, I pressed the subject upon the 
 Duke of Bedford during his lord-lieutenancy, and ex- 
 pressed to him my willingness to surrender that portion 
 of my property for the common good. I have continued 
 ever since to entertain the same sentiments, which I also 
 communicated to Lord Anglesey, and in conjunction with 
 him framed a plan for the total extinction of tithes, 
 which he strongly urged upon his colleagues when the 
 formidable anti-tithe agitation of 1831 and '32 forced 
 the subject upon their consideration. Our bill, as Lord 
 Anglesey took pleasure in calling it, went to the entire 
 abolition of tithe, and to the resumption by the State of 
 the church lands and their letting or sale upon proper 
 commercial principles, in all cases saving existing rights. 
 From calculations which I caused to be made by an 
 eminent notary, it was estimated that the profit derivable 
 
 o2
 
 292 PAYMENT OF THE PRIESTS. 
 
 from such a management of the six hundred thousand 
 acres of profitable land held by the Church would have 
 been sufficient to have supported an establishment ample 
 enough for the spiritual wants of Ireland, and to have 
 left a handsome surplus available for the education and 
 relief of the poor or as a provision for stipends for the 
 Roman Catholic clergy, should the granting of such be 
 thought expedient. This plan, I confess, did not fully 
 carry out my own views in church matters, as these 
 extended the whole length of complete voluntaryism and 
 a severance of all connexion between Church and State. 
 Nevertheless, I believe it would have settled the Church 
 question, so far as to determine its use as a factious 
 rallying cry, and I have no doubt it would have been 
 quite as easily carried as the half measures which were 
 adopted. But, in the preference given to these, the 
 genius of Lord Anglesey was over-ruled by that of his 
 Chief Secretary, Mr. Stanley, and so another sore spot 
 has been kept open on the Irish body politic, ready for 
 the whip of the English ruler whenever it may serve his 
 purpose to excite a domestic broil. 
 
 The Church question was, for some years, available in 
 the struggle of parliamentary factions ; and, though it 
 has latterly remained dormant, it is, by no means, settled, 
 and there are not wanting indications that it may soon 
 again be put to its former use. The ministerial leaning 
 towards a plan for the subsidization of the Roman 
 Catholic priesthood on the one hand, and on the other, 
 the aggressive activity of some of the more ambitious of 
 the latter class (as evinced, for example, in their crusade 
 against education), are portents of evil towards which 
 every true lover of national liberty and of Ireland, ought 
 to direct an anxious eye. The payment of the priests 
 from State funds would be the enlistment of another 
 batch of ecclesiastical recruits for the English garrison. 
 It would, indeed, bind another body of clergy to the 
 English, as contra-distinguished from the Irish, interest, 
 but it would not satisfy clerical ambition. The new
 
 PAYMENT OF THE PRIESTS. 293 
 
 Stipendiaries would taste the sweets of State patronage ; 
 but in their new position they would contrast, with more 
 bitterness than ever, the difference in the degrees of 
 favour shown to them and to their Protestant rivals. 
 They would ask, why are we but yearly hirelings, while 
 the clergy of the church of the minority are beneficed 
 with lands and tithes, and their prelates seated in the 
 upper house of parliament ? The stipend would thus 
 become a vantage-ground upon which a new agitation 
 for priestly aggrandizement would be based, and in that 
 agitation, I believe, the pride of the laity, stimulated by 
 their clergy and overcoming their judgment, would force 
 them to join. Such, I believe, would be the effect of the 
 stipend, even in the case of the more moderate of the 
 priests who would at once agree to accept it. Its effect 
 upon the more violent, upon whose acceptance it would 
 seem to be forced, could not be expected to be more 
 beneficial. The clerical ambition to acquire complete 
 control over popular education would not be lessened 
 by making the clergy pecuniarily independent of the 
 people ; nor would the desire to enjoy the full dignity 
 of a prelate in a national and State church be diminished 
 in the mind of a Roman Catholic bishop, by a partial 
 connexion with the State through the medium of the 
 treasury. Both bishops and priests might be made less 
 Irish and more English by subsidization, but they would 
 not thereby be rendered less ambitious or humbler in 
 spirit. A contest of unexampled bitterness would then 
 begin between two State-endowed churches, and the 
 matter indirectly at stake in the quarrel would be the 
 liberties of the flocks of both. Nevertheless, these would 
 join their pastors in clamouring, on the one side, for a 
 .Roman Catholic bench in the House of Lords and a res- 
 toration of benefices and cathedrals to the ancient pos- 
 sessors ; on the other, for the inviolability of the rights 
 of conquest ; and, on both, for such an ecclesiastical 
 control over national education as would restrict the 
 intellectual development of the people within the mea- 
 sure of church formularies.
 
 294 LETTERS ON THE 
 
 The way to obviate these great evils, and to settle 
 the Church question effectually to avoid the difficulties 
 belonging to a subsidization of the priesthood, and to 
 disengage the all-important question of national educa- 
 tion from many of its embarrassments would, in my 
 opinion, still be to separate all churches alike from the 
 State ; to remove the bishops from the House of Lords 
 where no one imagines they can perform any useful or 
 respectable function ; to capitalize the church property 
 and apply it to. purposes of education and charity ; and 
 so to let all parties start fair upon their respective mis- 
 sions. It would then be the interest of all sects to dis- 
 courage their ministers from interfering in politics ; and 
 as no one set of clergy would be unreasonably exalted 
 by the State, so it would not be likely that the pride of 
 any body of laymen could be successfully used to stimu- 
 late them to attempt an equivalent, unreasonable exal- 
 tation of a rival priesthood. If it would be too much to 
 expect that this plan would temper the bitterness of 
 religious discord in social life, it would, at least, alto- 
 gether extinguish it as an element of political warfare, 
 and would thus deprive the English minister of one of 
 the most powerful of the agencies whereby he works out 
 his Irish policy of ruling by division. 
 
 The following letters may be interesting, as throwing 
 light upon the views entertained by myself and others 
 during the height of the anti-tithe agitation, and as ex- 
 hibiting the enlightened policy entertained in reference 
 to the Church question by Lord Anglesey, and the man- 
 ner in which it was frustrated by the Secretary who was 
 placed by his colleagues over him : 
 
 Lord Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, February 15th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry Your letter of Tuesday has revived 
 me. I was unhappy until I received it. I feared that Lord 
 Grey had irretrievably committed himself to mischief. I re- 
 joice that you wrote to him; and what you said upon tithe, 
 <fec., no doubt ably supported what I had feebly represented. 
 In a former letter you say you wish you could have read to
 
 CHURCH QUESTION. 295 
 
 the committee what I had written to you. I wish to God you 
 could see all I write about Ireland, and publish it too. How- 
 ever, that cannot be; and I must stand a thousand calumnies, 
 and suffer a thousand censures for the faults of others. Do 
 you ever see Holland ? He is a trusty friend and true. Again 
 I say I rejoice that measures of justice are to precede those of 
 coercion; indeed, the latter will scarcely be wanted, if the 
 others are carried. Pat will do what he ought, if justice is 
 done him, and if the consideration of his miseries is not too 
 long delayed. Arrear of tithe he must pay, for it is just; but 
 he ought to be previously secure that he wiH be relieved from 
 unnecessary vexation and exaction. In short, if they will 
 carry forward our bill, there would be a good chance, at least, 
 of all going on quietly; and, at all events, it would justify the 
 government in coercive measures if, by the violence of dema- 
 gogueic (not in Johnson) language, the people are bent upon 
 resistance and a fight. Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 Lord Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, March 14th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry There is not a syllable in your letter, 
 just received, in which I do not concur, nor a sentiment ex- 
 pressed nor a suggestion made that I have not urged over and 
 over again upon ministers; and not merely to Lord G. and to 
 Stanley, but to other members, begging of them to aid me in 
 carrying forward the whole tithe and Church and bishops'-lands 
 measure, and, if possible to pass all that previously to any 
 coercive measures, or, at all events, simultaneously. Of poor law 
 and labour rate I have preached till I am tired. Do you keep 
 the Irish members quiet if you can. They may depend upon 
 me upon all the main points; and whilst I make allowances for 
 them whilst they are fighting for their seats, they ought to 
 make allowance for the difficulty of ministers. In urging, 
 however, to have the healing measures simultaneous with those 
 of coercion, I cannot condemn them. I quite say the same 
 thing. 
 
 I believe you are deceived and misled about G . I am 
 
 getting some inquiry made. I doubt if he is worthy of your 
 patronage. 
 
 Notwithstanding Northumberland, and your recent favour 
 with the Tories, / shall not lose you. Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY.
 
 296 LETTERS ON THE 
 
 Lord Dacre to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Chesterfield-street, February 26th, 1834. 
 
 My dear Lord I do begin to tliiiik that Ireland presents a 
 political problem not to be solved by any known political pro- 
 cess. Though I admit the conclusion with reluctance, I can 
 scarcely refuse myself to the conviction that simple, pure, con- 
 ciliation, is insufficient to satisfy the demands of the Catholic 
 population. The spirit of the people will never be laid by such 
 means. Would that the Irish Protestant Church had not been 
 constituted an integrant part of our Church at the Union ! We 
 (the English) who wish fairly, honestly, partially for Ireland, 
 may feel disappointment at her want of forbearance; but her 
 impulses are in nature that cannot be denied. 
 
 I thank you for sending me a copy of your proposed bill. I 
 assume that for a time your proposed distribution of the proceeds 
 of the tithes, rolled up in the general land-tax, might have given 
 satisfaction ; but some O'Connell or Doyle would soon have ana- 
 lyzed your land-tax, to point out the portion of tithe which it 
 would contain; and all the present objections to commutation 
 would have been placed in front of every argument against the 
 collection of the land-tax. Am not I right in supposing that the 
 very basis of your bill would slip from under you, when you enact 
 " That tithe shall not be levied henceforth, and it shall not be 
 lawful to demand any increased rent now charged for land in lieu 
 of them ?" How are you, by enactment of law, to prevent a pro- 
 prietor from obtaining the value of his land ? If the proprietor 
 occupies his own land, he would obtain the ordinary profit, plus 
 the tithe which he previously paid to the tithe-owner; and if 
 he lets his land, he ought to receive, in the shape of rent, the 
 ordinary rent, plus the tithe which was previously paid out of 
 the land. No act of parliament, no decree of the fiercest despot, 
 can counteract that necessary truth of political economy. Your 
 bill would therefore start with the simple substitution of land-tax 
 for tithe (which is now to be done under the name of commuta- 
 tion) ; then, by adding some fractional parts to the charge, you 
 get an aggregate sum, which, I certainly think, you would ap- 
 propriate satisfactorily for the moment; but still you continue 
 to describe the circle which bewilders us all. 
 
 Our poor country is in a lamentable condition ! We are less 
 clamorous on this side of the water, but our condition is most 
 alarming. Ourdistress the agricultural interest is unbounded. 
 All this is the result of a long course of bad government.
 
 CHURCH QUESTION. 297 
 
 know that the government is influenced by the most honest 
 desire to mitigate our evils, and to remove their causes; but 
 the difficulties that surround them are the accumulation of such 
 a series of errors, that my heart sinks within me when I con- 
 template them. Yours, very sincerely, 
 
 DACEE. 
 
 Lord Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Naples, April 27th, 1834. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I have been gratified by the receipt of 
 your letter of the 20th of March not that it is written in good 
 spirits, and with a satisfied mind, but merely because it always 
 gratifies me to hear from you. I fear, by your tone, that you 
 have mistaken the meaning of a former letter of mine. I did 
 not complain of you; on the contrary, I meant to express my 
 gratitude for your generous and flattering expressions concern- 
 ing me in a certain public letter; but, at the same time, my 
 regret, that, in supporting me, you should fall foul of others, 
 even although they might deserve your censure. 
 
 I grieve that the course taken by L. does not satisfy you ; 
 for it leads me to fear that he is therefore deviating from the 
 one sure track. What you say of the tithe and Church con- 
 cerns is not consoling. What a pity that, when there was a 
 scheme worked up by Blake and Griffith, assisted by you, and 
 approved by Lord Plunket and Blackburne, and recommended 
 by me, who was without prejudice, and in no respect committed 
 by public declarations or pledges, and had only calmly to listen 
 to the opinions of such able men, and then to form my own 
 what a pity, I say, it is that such a plan should be thrown over- 
 board, and that another, of little promise, should be substituted. 
 But what have I to do with these matters 1 I break off from 
 the subject. I am quite glad to learn that you see much of 
 
 B . If I did no other good, I still did much in being 
 
 instrumental in his appointment, and in planting the excellent 
 
 in your soil. You mention poor Baron Smith. I beg 
 
 you not to lose the first opportunity of assuring him of my 
 regard, and that, if I had been at hand, feeble as is my tongue 
 in the senate, he should not have wanted a champion, if no 
 other more capable had presented himself. I have thought 
 
 him most unkindly handled ; and the conduct of P towards 
 
 him, in the last session, disquieted me. I had, at first, the 
 intention of writing to Sir William, but I thought I might 
 
 o3
 
 298 LETTERS ON THE 
 
 then add fuel to a flame; but a kind message now might be 
 kindly taken only do not let him, write. I am glad that 
 Stovin has the appointment of Inspector-General; but I shall 
 always regret his not being Private Secretary. Say every 
 thing that is kind to your Duke and Duchess for me, and, 
 indeed, to all my dear and good friends. You, as well as I, 
 know that there are some who are most sincere; and if I do 
 not name them, it is not that I do not think of them. I have 
 had an interesting letter from the worthy Curran. I shall 
 write to him shortly. To Blake I have written this day. I 
 will not say much of myself; for what I should have to say 
 would not please you. I delight in Naples, and enjoy it as 
 much as my health permits me to enjoy any thing. The 
 " Pearl " is arrived, which is a great resource. Vesuvius seems 
 to be tired; he is going out fast. The weather has not been 
 as it should be; but, in my opinion, it is far preferable to 
 Rome, although it may, perhaps, not suit me. It is now rain- 
 ing. This has been wanted for more than two months; per- 
 haps it will be better after a fall. I have a house at Castella- 
 mare, but it is too cold to go there yet. I am persuaded your 
 spring is forwarder. There is scarcely a leaf upon the trees, 
 yet the gardens are surprising, and peas flourish all the year 
 round. What a gay, lively people, and what a busy town. 
 At Rome, every other man was a priest; here the priest is 
 superseded by the soldier a favourable change in my eye, 
 particularly as the troops are very fine. I grieve to hear of 
 Lord Plunk et's indisposition. Assure him of our regard; and 
 pray do not fail to lay me at the feet of Lady Cloncurry, to 
 whom, as well as to you, Lady A. sends her best wishes. We 
 have not heard of E. Lawless since his departure. I hope he 
 will be restored to you in perfect health ; but it is a plant that 
 will require attention. George is gone upon his tour. Alfred 
 remains with me; but, if I rally, I will soon be following G. 
 Good bye, and 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 Lord Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Rome, January 28, 1835. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I have received your letter of the 4th. 
 I write upon large paper, for I feel as if I had a good deal to 
 say to you; but, there is, in truth, too much to say, and I do
 
 CHURCH QUESTION. 299 
 
 Hot know how to begin, and to go on. I do not quite see into 
 the state of affairs, but it appears to me that, take what view 
 you will of them, they are frightful. Can the Peel and Wel- 
 lington government stand? I am sure it ought not; and if 
 there be common honesty and fair dealing in man, it will not. 
 But can any one count upon honesty and fair dealing in these 
 days ? I think not. I strongly suspect what are called the 
 moderate Whigs. I have no faith in them. I believe that in 
 general they are frightened, and only show liberalism as long as 
 the tide runs that way, and as it turns (if turn it do) they will 
 float back with it. Neither have I any faith in the ultra Tories, 
 I suspect that a great part of them, with a view to office, or, at 
 all events, to retaining in office men who, upon the whole, they 
 like better, and believe themselves to be safer in the hands of, 
 than the honest liberals that with a view to preserving in 
 power, I say, the present leaders, they will sacrifice all their 
 principles, and eat all their words, and vote through thick and 
 thin for reform ay, even for church reform. Here, then, if 
 I be right, will be a tolerable equipoise of baseness, and thus 
 Peel and Wellington will continue to hold the reins, and, with 
 a bad grace, give all the reforms that were in contemplation by 
 the last government, and which, if my voice had been attended 
 to, would, as far as the Irish Church is concerned, have been 
 set smooth three years ago. But instead of attending to me, 
 they took the advice of Stanley, and brought forth that notable 
 bill of his for the recovery of tithes, which I at once pronounced 
 would be a total, and, also, a very expensive failure, and would 
 cause much clerical blood to flow; and so it happened, and the 
 Protestant clergy have been bleeding and starving ever since. 
 But why do I allow myself to write on such subjects? I am 
 sure I have no inducement to take any part whatever in public 
 affairs. You, with your usual kindness and partiality, express 
 a wish that I should, in the event of a change, again return to 
 Ireland, or elso go to the Horse Guards. But of what use 
 could I be in either situation ? It has been my fate to be 
 unkindly and ungenerously treated both by friends and foes, 
 and I do not see why I should again allow myself to be made 
 unhappy by either. The truth is, I have not the capacity for 
 acting with men who have recourse to trick and duplicity. I 
 have independent thoughts, and if I go, I must go my own 
 way. I could not consent to allow Ireland to be governed in 
 Downing-street, and therefore I did not suit my employer, and
 
 300 LETTERS ON THE 
 
 employers generally. Mine has been a curious fate. Twice 
 I have been recalled from Ireland for vehemently pressing 
 measures which where obstinately resisted whilst I was in power, 
 but which were adopted as soon as my back was turned. I 
 forced Catholic Emancipation upon Wellington and Peel, and I 
 was recalled, and recalled, too, with marked insult but they 
 immediately carried the measure. Under another government 
 I again tried my hand, I urged the necessity of taking the 
 whole of the ecclesiastical funds into the hands of the State. 
 By it, the country would have been enriched the clergy would 
 have been amply paid there would have been no collision 
 between tithe-payer and tithe-receiver. All would have re- 
 ceived their just dues the Oatholic clergy might have been 
 paid, and there would have been a surplus for the benefit of 
 the State. But even that would not have been alienated from 
 the Church. The surplus would simply have been held in trust 
 for it, and if hereafter the Protestant faith had spread, and more 
 help for its souls had been required, there would have been the 
 fund from whence to draw the required aid; well, my colleagues 
 did not dare venture upon the measure, and so I was recalled, 
 because Stanley was opposed to it. Yet they etill attempted 
 by driblets to do something ! This something pleased nobody, 
 and was rejected by the Lords. Then came another set of men. 
 These, during the recess, did make up their minds to something 
 very extensive; but in that time they are ousted, and now 
 Peel and Wellington, if I am not greatly mistaken, will bring 
 forward as sweeping a scheme as that proposed by me (with 
 the able assistance of my worthy assistants who, in fact, had 
 the whole merit of it, and particularly Blake), with this only 
 difference, that whereas I would, for a time at least, have given 
 all the surplus from the bishops' lands, &c., for the benefit of 
 the State, W. and P. will insist upon its being used for eccle- 
 siastical purposes. As for the army, what could I do with it ? 
 I should find myself at the head of a complete party (I fear) 
 ultra-Tory force. I should find difficulty in every direction. 
 The King playing the whole game of Toryism, and a set of 
 people at the Horse Guards, just such as I found all the work- 
 ing men at the Castle of Dublin ! ! ! If I could do good in 
 either situation, I should not mind the burthen of it, and might 
 reconcile myself to the relinquishment of all my home and 
 family enjoyments; but when I know that I can do no good, 
 it would be madness to attempt any thing. Nor do I believe
 
 CHURCH QUESTION. 301 
 
 that any party would have me. They have had ample proof 
 that I will not submit to be a mere cipher, and, therefore, I am 
 not their man. What a shameful long letter ! 
 
 Adieu, most sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 12th February, 1835. 
 
 My dear Lord Everybody has been so occupied with the 
 elections, that we are greatly in arrear of all other information. 
 Ireland will, I conclude, as usual, form a great feature in the 
 ensuing sessions; and one is naturally anxious to procure a little 
 of that commodity, so rarely exported from your country, called 
 truth. As I consider you a safe banker, I draw upon you for 
 a little, not merely with respect to the aspect of things at the 
 Castle which, I am assured, is bad enough but with respect 
 to the actual transactions which have occurred since our mad 
 rejection of the Church bill of last year. 
 
 1. Have the clergy received any tithes due in November 
 last, or the arrears of those due before ? 
 
 2. What have the landlords paid under Goulbum's or Stan- 
 ley's Acts ? 
 
 3. And what have they paid voluntarily of tithes, which they 
 were not bound to pay by law ? 
 
 4. What has been received from occupying tenants, in the 
 usual course of collecting tithe ? 
 
 5. Has any part of the arrear to government been paid by 
 the clergy? 
 
 On all these topics the government preserve a profound 
 silence; and it is remarkable that though they have been pro- 
 fuse in promises, more or less vague, of Church reform, and 
 corporation reform, and what not, in England, they have not 
 yet said one word on what they intend to do about the Irish 
 Church tithes or arrears ! The Crown officers, as far as I recol- 
 lect, were enjoined, by act of parliament, to exact the payment 
 from the clergy, under the million act, on the 1st of February, 
 1835, unless an order to suspend the demand was issued from 
 the treasury. Has there been any such order ? and if not, has 
 there been any payment exacted ? 
 
 I think (perhaps I am wrong) that I have perceived certain 
 symptoms, in the late elections, of a decline of the supremacy 
 of O'Connell over public opinion in Ireland. If so ; is it owing
 
 302 LETTERS ON THE 
 
 to a reaction in favour of Tories or Orangemen, or to an in- 
 crease of an intermediate and temperate party, who are earnest 
 for redress of grievances, but not disposed to swear allegiance 
 to the "great liberator 1 ?" You are, of coure, aware that your 
 proxy cannot be entered till you have taken your seat; and 
 still more so, that I shall rejoice when you come to go through 
 that operation, and shall be proud if, when enabled to leave a 
 proxy, you leave it with 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND. 
 
 P.S. This about the proxy is said to Leinster as well as 
 yourself. I heard indirectly yesterday from Anglesey, still at 
 Rome a fortnight ago, but less tormented with his painful dis- 
 order than he had been. He means to go almost immediately 
 to Leipsic, to consult a German doctor Hennyman, I think, 
 the father of the homoeopathic system, and a great quack, I 
 dare say. Pray write me at length your notions of what is and 
 what ought to be in Ireland. Poor Lord Darnley died yester- 
 day of a lockjaw, occasioned by a wound in lopping the branches 
 of a tree. 
 
 Sir Henry (now Lord Hardinge) to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Whitehall-place, 4th March, 1835. 
 
 My Lord I wish I could answer your Lordship's note by 
 at once expressing the readiness of the government to act 
 on the very kind and humane spirit which has instituted your 
 inquiry. 
 
 The act of parliament is imperative. We are compelled to 
 make the demand on the tithe-owner, through the collectors of 
 excise; and I am apprehensive we might prejudice the future 
 prospects of the suffering party if we were to assume that the 
 demand is to be relinquished. In a few days the tithe ques- 
 tion will be brought forward; and as no letters have beeii 
 issued directing harsh measures to be taken against the clergy, 
 in default of repayment on the llth instant, I trust that in 
 effect your Lordship's very benevolent feeling on this question 
 may eventually be acceded to by the legislature. I am, with 
 much respect, 
 
 Your Lordship's very faithful servant, 
 
 H. HAEDINQE.
 
 CHURCH QUESTION. 303 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Darrynane Abbey, 14th December, 1835. 
 
 My Lord I thank you much for the sound views you gave 
 me of the state of the tithe question ; and upon full considera- 
 tion, I do not hesitate to say that I deem your Lordship's plan 
 the very best that can be suggested for arriving at a peaceable 
 conclusion to the agitation which tithes have created and con- 
 tinued for near a century. But, alas ! what prospect is there 
 of realizing that or any other measure useful to Ireland ? I 
 wish I could be of any service in carrying it into effect. You 
 should in that case command my very best exertions. 
 
 I regret to see that all my efforts appear insufficient to excite 
 to the formation of a "government party" of rank and fortune 
 in Ireland. The odious Orange party rally at once round a 
 Tory party. But see how difficult it is for you to get any 
 thing like an exertion for the liberal government. I would 
 submit that a Reform Association, could and I think ought, to 
 include peers. There are many peers belonging to the English 
 Reform Association. Indeed, more than one English peer has 
 claimed to be allowed to register as a voter, and such claim has 
 been allowed in more than one instance. The cases have been 
 of English peers sitting in the Lords. This fact may, I should 
 hope, influence your judgment as to joining ACTIVELY in an 
 Irish Reform Society. I have the honour to be, with very 
 sincere respect, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's faithful servant, 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 South-street, 8th January. 
 
 Dear Lord Cloncurry It is generally very desirable that our 
 friends should attend the meeting of parliament; and I think 
 it is particularly so, for reasons too long to explain, that you 
 should be there; your absence would disappoint us much. 
 
 Your being in good humour is a good sign ; and I really think 
 you have no grounds to be otherwise, nor even to imagine that 
 Irish interests would be sacrificed to forward English measures. 
 You must always recollect that by attempting any Irish measures 
 that are strongly reprobated by public opinion in England, we 
 should not forward the interests of one or of the other; and
 
 304 LETTERS ON THE 
 
 even your tithe arrangement and Church question is I hope 
 more likely to be now settled, and settled well, by having been 
 postponed, than if it had been attempted before the anomalous 
 and revolting details of the Irish Church establishment were 
 laid bare by the reports of the Commissioners, or one-third of 
 the people of England aware of the strength of our case for 
 appropriating, re-modelling, and reducing it. As I was writing 
 this sentence, I was interrupted by our friend Anglesey, who 
 walked here, and is himself in better strength and health than 
 he ever was in Ireland, but is on the eve of a journey to Paris, 
 with his son Clarence. That once fine young man is, I sadly 
 fear, in a very bad way; and Lady Anglesey herself is suffer- 
 ing severely. I am afraid, therefore, Anglesey's spirits are not 
 so good as his health. Why on earth does your countryman 
 abuse him 1 It is foolish as well as wrong enough to deal so 
 much in Billingsgate as he is apt to do, about his antagonists. 
 It does them no harm, him some, and those he means to support, 
 a great deal ; but yet it is intelligible, and has, at least, the ex- 
 cuse of not being unprovoked, and little more than tit for tat; 
 but his retrospective disparagement of others, and of Anglesey 
 especially, is surely gratuitous, unprofitable, and disgusting. 
 
 I am quite glad you like John F so much; and I quite 
 
 agree with you and him that he should ultimately make him- 
 self an Irishman; but I own I think it more prudent in him to 
 wait, for the purpose of coming out on an unencumbered, instead 
 of an encumbered property; and I think it will be quite time 
 enough to buy or to build a house when one of the Ladies (both 
 past sixty, and one sixty-seven years old) shall die. I hold 
 nothing to be so really advantageous to your country, or so 
 creditable in it to the individual, as a resident gentleman of 
 landed property, quite unencumbered. I have thought this 
 matter over very often, and solely with reference to John's 
 comfort and happiness (for I have a real and almost parental 
 affection for him, and he knows it); and the result of my cogi- 
 tations, reflections, and consultations on the matter is, that it is 
 infinitely better for him to postpone the step he meditates ce 
 qui est differs n'est pas perdu; on the contrary, it will be better 
 assure. With hopes of seeing you on the 4th of next month, 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND,
 
 CHURCH QUESTION. 305 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 [Private.] 
 
 26th February. 
 
 My dear Lord The objects of your bill, as described in your 
 letter, are very desirable. If I thought that our bill defeated 
 or impeded any one of them, I should never have supported it. 
 But it endeavours, at least, to secure, if not full, adequate pay- 
 ment to the present incumbents, and to provide moderately for 
 their successors. When those two purposes are accomplished, 
 it does not preclude or prohibit the application of part of the 
 commuted land-tax to those of education, improvement, &c., 
 &c. ; nor does it present any obstacle to a proper communica- 
 tion between government and the Roman Catholic clergy, or 
 even to a provision for the latter, from any fund except that 
 destined by the bill to the payment, in the first instance, of the 
 Established Church. Our bill leaves all these objects of yours 
 entirely open nay, it removes many impediments in the way 
 of a discussion or determination on the remaining points of it. 
 Had we, for instance, mixed up with an act of justice and 
 reform and adjustment affecting the Established clergy, any 
 thing like provision for the Catholic priesthood, we should have 
 raised a clamour both here and in Ireland, and have been 
 charged with as little truth, no doubt, but with ten times the 
 plausibility and effect, as we were about the Education Board 
 with subverting the Protestant and substituting the Popish 
 faith. Surely it is prudent to avoid any proceeding which, 
 merely from the form of it, furnishes a handle to the foolish or 
 the malignant for giving such a colour to our policy. By doing 
 what justice or necessity require to be done for the Established 
 Church, separately and previously, we set that question at rest; 
 and when we come to consider matters in which Roman Catho- 
 lics, lay or clergy, are concerned, can discuss them more success- 
 fully on their own merits, as a satisfaction of the claims or a 
 boon to the advantage of one class of our fellow-subjects, not as 
 an encroachment on the rights or a spoliation of the property 
 of any other. ITou predict, and I fear too truly, much resist- 
 ance; and you very feelingly and justly deprecate the conse- 
 quences. But you do not suggest any proposal that will avert 
 such consequences. They may follow our bill, but they are not 
 less likely to follow if yours were adopted. They are to be ap-
 
 306 LETTERS ON THE 
 
 prehended from the adoption of any land-tax or commutation 
 whatever; and are even more certain and unavoidable if the 
 law is left as it is the clergy, after the 1st of November next, 
 to their full rights of tithe or composition, and the government 
 to the obligation of supporting the law. The alternative is, to 
 leave the legal rights of the subject without protection, i.e., in 
 other words, to abandon the functions of a government; or to 
 encounter a resistance formidable in its extent, and fearful in 
 its consequences. What better can be devised, in such a di- 
 lemma, than an attempt to mitigate the latter evil a plan 
 compelling the clergy to purchase additional security by the 
 sacrifice of some portion of unquestionable but unattainable 
 rights, and by an acquiescence in an arrangement, if less profit- 
 able, less precarious for them, and infinitely less burthensome 
 and less vexatious to those whose resistance is apprehended. I 
 see the inconveniences and dangers you allude to, but I do not 
 see how you propose to avoid, or even lessen them. Your bill 
 and your letter both admit, by implication, that an abandon- 
 ment of the law, i.e., a refusal to protect unquestionable rights 
 of property, is out of the question. I am sure you would apply 
 your epithets of unjust and unwise to any such dereliction of 
 duty. 
 
 I support the bill from one simple consideration that it 
 affords some prospect or chance of an amicable settlement of 
 Ireland, which while tithes subsist cannot be accomplished, and 
 which, if they were suppressed by violence and spoliation, with- 
 out equivalent to the sufferers, would be equally impracticable. 
 Commute you must, if you mean to relieve one party and be 
 just to the other : yet all commutations will have to encounter 
 more or less resistance; and I think we shall, in our plan, have 
 reason and law on our side. If we leave things as they are, we 
 may have law, but shall have no reason ; and if we give up all 
 payment, we shall have neither law nor reason on our side, nor 
 will the people really obtain relief; for, as you say, the Protes- 
 tant landlord will pay the commutation, by exacting more rent; 
 so will he raise his rent in proportion, on his titheable land 
 becoming tithe-free. Yours ever, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND. 
 
 I believe Lord Wellesley considered the bill very earnestly, 
 and gave it his full sanction and recommendation. His opinion, 
 even exclusive of his station, carries great authority with it;
 
 CHUKCH QUESTION. 307 
 
 for he has long and deeply reflected on the subject; and, on all 
 g^eat matters, has a better judgment, as well as more experience 
 than most men. 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 18th July. 
 
 My dear Lord I do not think we shall be in committee till 
 Monday. We shall carry the second reading easily. You will 
 be satisfied, I think, with the manner in which Lord Grey 
 handled your topic of the Irish incumbents' oaths and school- 
 keeping. It was really admirable, and singularly opportune, 
 when they are affecting to raise scruples about the coronation 
 oath, and the right of parliament and people to release the king 
 from it they! ! who release themselves from promissory oaths, 
 without the ceremony of any consent of the promisee, and by 
 an evasion as shameless as it is unaccountable. 
 
 The end of Grey's speech will, I am sure, delight you ; and 
 had you been in the House, I do think that the virulence with 
 which bishops and Orangemen declaimed against the bill would 
 have raised " the penny" you value it at to a good pound, and 
 a shilling to boot. 
 
 Seriously, the extinction of tithe (even if in the details some 
 injustice be committed), and the abolition of church cess, must re- 
 move the two greatest practical grievances your peasantry have 
 to complain of; and, above all, allay that perpetual conflict of 
 interests between Protestant and Catholic, which is the great 
 curse of your country. Till Monday, 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry to the People of his Neighbourhood. 
 
 Cootehill, June 29th. 
 
 My dear Friends and Neighbours Were I at home, and in 
 good health, I should certainly go amongst you this day. Be 
 assured that the same love of Ireland, and the same desire to 
 render her free and happy, fills my heart now that has, for near 
 fifty years, directed every action of my life. 
 
 So convinced was I, at all times, of the improper application 
 of tithe in this country, that I wrote and published my opinions 
 against it near thirty years ago, and often since; and this 
 although I was myself a proprietor of that species of property. 
 
 But, my friends, I am also a landlord, and, I hope, not a bad
 
 308 LETTERS ON THE 
 
 one. Remember, I tell you, that if tithe was abolished to-mor- 
 row, nine-tenths of the Irish landlords would add the amount 
 to the rent, and the condition of the poor would be any thing 
 but improved; for there are more absentee landlords than there 
 are parsons. 
 
 My opinion is, that tithe should not be abolished, but that it 
 should be paid by the landlords, and applied to the use of the 
 poor and other good purposes: this is my opinion, and will, I 
 hope, soon be the opinion of parliament. The Church has 
 ample funds without tithe; and if she had not, it would still 
 be most unjust for Catholics to pay the Protestant clergy. 
 
 Church cess, though of less amount, is a thousand times more 
 offensive and more unjust than tithe. It will, I am certain, be 
 abolished; but until the law be altered I will obey it. I never 
 asked any man to adopt my opinions; but I feel that, for the 
 present, the clergy should not be left to starve, particularly the 
 good, charitable clergy of our neighbourhood. 
 
 I believe the time is at hand when the patience, the good- 
 humour, the courage, and determination of the people of Ire- 
 land will have its reward; that our many oppressions and 
 grievances, of which tithe is only the tithe, will be put an end 
 to by a reformed parliament and the honestest minister Eng- 
 land ever saw. But to secure these advantages we must be 
 peaceable and united, kind to one another, and seek, through 
 the lawful channel, and no other, the restoration of rights too 
 long withheld. 
 
 Your affectionate friend and neighbour, 
 
 CLONCDKRY. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry to . 
 
 Sir It being stated in the papers that I was consulted oil 
 the subject of tithes by the parishioners of Kill, county of Kil- 
 dare, of which the Rev. John Warburton is vicar, and that I 
 thought the parishioners were going on legally, I beg leave to 
 say that the statement is untrue; I was not consulted, and I 
 gave no opinion. 
 
 Had I been consulted by my poor neighbours, I would have 
 said Continue to obey the law peaceably and good-humour- 
 edly, as you have done for thirty years that I have passed 
 amongst you. Be assured that no man disapproves of the 
 system of tithes and of its appropriation, more than I have ever 
 done, and I hope sincerely that they may be speedily put on a
 
 CHURCH QUESTION. 309 
 
 different footing, and applied to far different purposes; and this 
 I know may be effected, not only without diminution to the 
 income of present incumbents, but to the great improvement of 
 the country in wealth, produce, and employment. For such 
 improvement I confidently look to a reformed legislature and 
 the King's good and enlightened ministers. 
 
 But if, at the very moment that we may reasonably hope for 
 the redress of many and serious grievances, we set ourselves 
 with blind and foolish violence against the law, and the govern- 
 ment whose duty it is to enforce and support the law, must we 
 not appear to the legislature unfit for liberty, and unworthy of 
 attention ] Having for generations submitted to wrong, I 
 would not now dash from my lips the cup of right, thereby 
 almost justifying the slanders of our enemies, and diminishing 
 the power of our friends to do us service. The parish of Kill 
 and my own adjoining parish have long been remarkable for 
 good order and for comfort, for the moderation of a resident 
 parson, and the prosperity of an industrious people; but this 
 never for a moment blinded me to the impolicy or injustice of 
 the tithe system, the extinction of which we should not delay 
 by our own folly, but endeavour to get accomplished by the 
 reformed parliament; and for that purpose the people should 
 return representatives of known and good character men to 
 whom tests would be as disgusting as unnecessary, but whose 
 lives and circumstances would guarantee their independence, 
 their love of their country, and their knowledge of her interests.
 
 310 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Education Question Restrictions upon the Education of the Catholics 
 Evasion by the Protestant Clergy of their obligation to establish Schools 
 The Charter Schools Struggles of the Peasantry to obtain Education The 
 Kildare-place Society Discords in that Body, resulting from their enforce- 
 ment of Religious Education A pious Fraud Mode in which the Educa- 
 tion War between the Kildare-place Society and Myself was carried on 
 Letters ; from Doctor Doyle, the Earl of Donoughmore, the Rev. Mr. 
 Armstrong The National System of Education Mr. Stanley's opposition 
 Withdrawal of the Parliamentary Grant from the Kildare-place Society 
 Combination of the extreme Factions against the National System Ultimate 
 Triumph over Bigotry Moral of the Education War The Godless Colleges. 
 
 IN the whole of that mass of wickedness and folly, known 
 under the name of the penal laws, there was, perhaps, 
 no item so wicked or so foolish as the denial of education 
 to the Roman Catholic youth of Ireland. Nevertheless, 
 the statutory provision which forhade Roman Catholics 
 to teach or be taught, was surpassed in evil by a volun- 
 tary accession to the crime, of which the clergy of the 
 Established Church were in great numbers guilty. By 
 the penal laws, Roman Catholics were strictly forbidden 
 to engage in the business of education, and they were 
 made liable to special punishment for instructing the 
 children of parents professing their own faith. As a sort 
 of counterfoil to this cruel and most impolitic restriction, 
 a step was taken towards providing means of education 
 for the poor, by obliging the Protestant incumbent of 
 each parish, at the time of his induction, to take a solemn 
 oath binding himself to provide a school and a teacher 
 for the children of his parish and to defray the necessary 
 expense from out of the revenues of the benefice. This 
 engagement was in a large number of instances altoge- 
 ther disregarded ;* and as the result the children of the 
 
 * When Archbishop Magee assumed the superintendence of the see 
 of Dublin, he set himself zealously to work to force the clergy to estab-
 
 THE EDUCATION QUESTION. 311 
 
 peasantry were, almost generally throughout the king- 
 dom, left without any means of education, except such 
 as the peasants themselves could procure, at first by 
 stealth and in defiance of the law, and, subsequently, in 
 the face of obstacles that rendered a proper system of 
 instruction impossible of attainment. It is true, a vote 
 of some forty thousand pounds was annually appropriated 
 by parliament to the support of the Protestant charter 
 schools ; but these were designed as proselytizing insti- 
 tutions, and were, moreover, conducted upon principles 
 so vicious and so entirely opposed to nature, as to lead 
 to their suppression by common consent, though not 
 until their manifold abuses had brought them into noto- 
 riety as a public nuisance, and forcibly called for the 
 interference of the government. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it became matter of wonder 
 to all reflecting persons, not that an imperfect state of 
 civilization existed in Ireland, but that the entire popula- 
 tion had not relapsed into barbarism. To my mind there 
 are few traits in the history of the Irish peasant more 
 affecting than the persevering energy with which he, for 
 generations, struggled against all difficulties, in his efforts 
 to secure for his children some rudiments of education. 
 
 lish schools in their respective parishes, and by the exercise of his 
 authority in that direction, placed some of his reverend brethren in a 
 difficult position. The rector of the small parish of Newcastle, near 
 Lyons, was then Archdeacon James Langrishe, who was one of the 
 best men I ever knew, though his clerical ministrations consisted in the 
 performance of kind offices to his neighbours, poor and rich, Catholic 
 and Protestant, rather than in the discussion of the dogmas of their 
 respective creeds. As his congregation seldom exceeded eight or ten 
 persons and none of them were likely to attend a parish school, my 
 excellent friend had left the work of education to the priest, and when 
 the Archbishop's mandate to open school arrived, he was not a little 
 puzzled as to where to get the necessary materials. A council was 
 thereupon called, consisting of the parson, the priest, and myself, 
 whereat it was arranged that the priest should supply scholars, I should 
 provide books, and the Archdeacon and his amiable family should keep 
 the school in the parish church. The success of the plan proved both 
 the anxiety of the people for the blessing of education, and the desire 
 of the priest to go at least half way in abandoning prejudices that 
 might interfere with the attainment of that desirable object.
 
 312 THE EDUCATION QUESTION. 
 
 It is, indeed, scarcely possible for any man whose know- 
 ledge of Ireland dates fifty years back, to think without 
 emotion upon the strange shifts and devices to which 
 this passion for knowledge (for such it truly was) gave 
 birth. For my part, I cannot reflect, in any spirit but 
 one of admiration and pity, upon the "poor scholar" and 
 his ready welcome at the peasant's hearth ; upon the 
 philomath, next to the priest, the object of the venera- 
 tion of the entire parish, purely from his claims to learn- 
 ing and often despite of moral defects and aberrations 
 little likely to secure public esteem ; upon the hedge- 
 school, with its incidents of voluntary contributions to the 
 comforts of the master and the cheerful extension to him 
 of the cordial hospitality of the neighbourhood. Those 
 traits can now no longer be observed ; the state of things 
 that brought them out to view has fortunately ceased to 
 exist. They should not, however, be suffered to pass 
 from the memory, where they can scarcely dwell apart 
 from a kindly recollection of good feelings marred by 
 bad laws or from a generous pity for the sufferings of a 
 people steeped in ignorance and yet striving against 
 hope in the pursuit of knowledge. 
 
 At a very early period of my life I became sensible to 
 these impressions and fully awake to the responsibility 
 that devolved upon m-e, as an individual, of doing what 
 lay in my power to avert the miserable consequences 
 that must attend upon a nation which suffers the bulk of 
 its people to increase in numbers and yet to remain in 
 moral darkness, though living in the midst of the splen- 
 dour of an advanced civilization. I accordingly took 
 care that those who were immediately dependent upon 
 me should not lack the means of education, and, I believe, 
 in my time I built no fewer than five schools. But some- 
 thing more than individual exertion was necessary to 
 this great work ; and, accordingly, it was with pleasure 
 I found myself able to join with an association known as 
 " The Kildare-place Society," in a general movement for 
 the extension of the blessings of education to all classes
 
 THE KILDARE-PLACE SOCIETY. 313 
 
 of the Irish people, "without any attempt to interfere 
 with the peculiar religious opinions of any." 
 
 My first connexion with this Society was the result of 
 a visit made to me at Lyons by Mr. (now Judge) Jackson 
 and Mr. Maquay, as a deputation from the committee, sent 
 to solicit my co-operation. Upon the showing of these 
 gentlemen, that the object of the Society was to promote 
 general education, irrespective of sectarian views, and in 
 such a manner as should not involve any offence to the 
 religious feelings of the people, I agreed to join it, and 
 became a subscriber. The Duke of Leinster, at the same 
 time, consented to act as president. It was not long, 
 however, until the old bane of Ireland, religious discord, 
 interrupted this union, and a war arose, which ended in 
 the formation of the National Board of Education and 
 the appropriation to it of the parliamentary grant that 
 had been for some years given to the Eildare-place 
 Society. The cause of quarrel was the determination of 
 the latter to force the reading of the Bible, without note 
 or comment, in all the schools under their control, as the 
 condition upon which assistance for their support would 
 be afforded. I confess I did not at first anticipate that 
 any objection could be made to this condition ; and I 
 was strengthened in this belief by the circumstance that 
 some priests in my neighbourhood did comply with it, 
 and received aid from the Society. This was done, I 
 believe, through a sincere desire to procure the means 
 of education for the people ; but so closely were these 
 reverend gentlemen pressed between the commands of 
 the church on the one hand, and the behest of the Society 
 upon the other, that I had reason to believe, a priest to 
 whose school I subscribed, did actually get the Bible 
 read daily in the school-room, by the permission of his 
 diocesan, while he, at the same time took the precaution 
 of rendering his submission to the rule of the Society 
 innocuous to the consciences of his flock, by performing 
 the obnoxious operation in, the absence of the scholars. 
 I am in no degree inclined to justify " pious frauds*;," 
 
 p
 
 314 THE K1LDARE-PLACE SOCIETY. 
 
 but in this case there certainly was a good motive and 
 end. The objection of the priesthood to the reading of 
 the Bible being insuperable, the reverend gentlemen 
 alluded to contrived their plan, with a view of obviating 
 the effect of that objection in preventing their flocks 
 from being educated ; and the end attained for the time 
 was their education. Such occurrences, as it appeared 
 to me, ought to have convinced the managers of the 
 Society that the rigid enforcement of their rule must 
 operate to prevent the attainment of the object of edu- 
 cating all classes ; and as soon as the nature of the diffi- 
 culty became fully known to me, I did all that in me lay 
 to induce the Society to remove it, and so, at all events, 
 to secure for the children of the poor a free opportunity 
 of moral and intellectual education. My representation 
 of the actual state of the case, as it was known to myself, 
 was at first met by a statement that the reading of the 
 Bible had been agreed to by certain of the leading Roman 
 Catholic prelates, among whom were named Archbishop 
 Troy of Dublin, and Bishop Everard of Waterford. 
 Although, however, those gentlemen, in communication 
 with the Duke of Leinster and myself, positively denied 
 that they had ever made any such concession which, as 
 they said, the rules of their church absolutely precluded 
 them from making, no relaxation would be assented to. 
 The committee was in the hands of a few professional 
 fanatics, who, in that day, were in the habit of seeking, 
 through Protestantism and piety, a ready road to the 
 bench ; and so all warnings were disregarded, and a 
 barrier of Bibles built up between the people and civili- 
 zation. Here was a new grievance brought above ground 
 and within reach of the professional agitators upon the 
 other side ; and as they did not at all lack the disposi- 
 tion to use it, a new war of opinion forthwith sprung up. 
 To prevent the prosecution of this most unnatural contest, 
 I laboured long and hard. But the professional gentle- 
 men were too many both for me and for themselves ; and 
 after driving all liberal Protestants from their counsels,
 
 THE EDUCATION WAR. 315 
 
 they finally succeeded in causing the withdrawal from 
 themselves of the parliamentary grant, and the establish- 
 ment (I may now say, with nearly complete success) of 
 the National system of education. 
 
 It is a curious, yet humiliating view of human nature, 
 that a retrospect of the occurrences at this stage of the 
 Irish education war presents to the mind. On the one 
 hand, are to be seen a body of men, originally brought 
 together for a purpose the most honourable that can be 
 aimed at by human beings that of elevating the moral 
 nature of their fellow-men and yet suffering themselves 
 to be induced by trading politicians, to postpone the at- 
 tainment of their grand object, to the prosecution of a 
 party quarrel, and hunting down, with a virulent energy 
 only known in religious wars, the humblest individual 
 who, wishing to aid them in their course, dared to hint 
 at the folly of building up obstacles notoriously capable 
 of impeding it. On the other side an observer was, and 
 even at this day, in reference to the same dispute, still 
 is, offended by the sight of a hard fight against civiliza- 
 tion marshalled under the banner of religion, and the 
 employment of all the arts of polemical strategy to 
 prevent the instruction of a generation of men, lest 
 they should be taught to read that book which all the 
 disputants believe to contain the inspired word of the 
 Almighty. It is strange that such feelings should exist 
 most strange that they should have a place in the 
 minds of men in other respects benevolent and enlight- 
 ened. That they did so exist, however, I had personal 
 opportunities of knowing during my intercourse with the 
 Kildare-place Society. JSTo sooner did I begin to grow 
 troublesome to the lawyers, in my endeavours to render 
 the working of the Society effective, in accordance with 
 its original design, than those gentlemen showed that 
 they would not allow their projects to be so disturbed 
 with impunity. I was accordingly set upon by profes- 
 sional orators whenever I dared to raise my voice at the 
 public meetings, in support of "the leading principle of
 
 31& THE EDUCATION WAR. 
 
 the Society;" and when that plan did not succeed, and 
 opponents of the same cloth came to my rescue, then I 
 was attacked in scurrilous libels published in the news- 
 papers, or, when they were too foul for that channel, 
 printed in pamphlets and thrust into the hands of 
 passers-by at the doors of the Society House. Of 
 one of my perils among those false brethren I must tell 
 a few particulars, as they illustrate the general state of 
 the case. 
 
 It happened that the priest of my immediate parish 
 was a person of not very amiable character or temper, 
 and that he and I had a quarrel, in the course of our 
 relation as tenant and landlord, to the details of which 
 I need not advert. It occurred, however, at the close 
 of a period of several years during which I had shown 
 him whatever hospitality and civility was in my power, 
 and was engaged in by me, in some degree on the part 
 of his own flock, between whom and himself I was 
 obliged to interfere as a magistrate. Of this reverend 
 gentleman's liberality in the matter of Bible reading, I 
 had an opportunity of judging before he was removed 
 from my neighbourhood, by the fact of his having 
 publicly burned a number of Testaments which had been 
 distributed among his parishioners, with the very best 
 motives, by a lady who was then a member of my family. 
 What then was my surprise when, at one of the meet- 
 ings of the Kildare-place Society, I found my remon- 
 strances against the impossible condition met by the 
 secretary (now Mr. Justice Jackson) drawing from his 
 pocket "a letter from the respected parish priest of his 
 Lordship's parish," in which the reverend gentleman, 
 after roundly abusing me, declared that "it was always 
 his practice" to have the Testament read in his parish 
 schools, and in the chapels during the holding of the 
 Sunday schools.* The insinuation obviously pointed by 
 the secretary, and by others of his learned brethren who 
 spoke, was, that it was Lord Cloncurry, and not the 
 * The poor man never had a Sunday school in his chapel at Lyons.
 
 _ 
 
 THE EDUCATION WAR. 317 
 
 priest, who opposed Bible reading ; that I was conjuring 
 up difficulties which existed only in my own mind, and 
 that " so far was it from heing the fact that the Roman 
 Catholic clergy were universally opposed to scriptural 
 education, that there were among them to be found 
 some of the most efficient friends of scriptural instruc- 
 tion." The result has too plainly shown how entirely at 
 variance with the true state of matters was this account 
 of it ; and the following letters will show how ground- 
 less, even then, was the insinuation made in reference to 
 myself. The Rev. Mr. Nolan, whose name is mentioned 
 in them, was the parish priest referred to with respect 
 and veneration by Mr. Jackson : 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Bishop Doyle to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Old Derrig, Carlow, March 10th, 1824. 
 
 My Lord The letter which you did me the honour to ad- 
 dress to me in Dublin, reached me only on last night. I regret 
 very much the delay which has occurred, and that I could not 
 until now assure your Lordship, that nothing almost could be 
 more painful to me than that a clergyman of our Church should 
 have excited the just displeasure of your Lordship. 
 
 It is our duty to be patient with all; but we should be 
 greatly devoted to those few of your Lordship's rank who look 
 upon us as fellow-men, and can sympathize with us in our un- 
 merited sufferings. 
 
 I write to Mr. Nolan by this day's post, and will state to him 
 the heads of your Lordship 1 s statement, as it is just that every 
 man should be heard in his own defence; and as soon as it will 
 be in my power to do so, I shall inform your Lordship of the 
 result of my inquiry, and hope it will prove satisfactory to your 
 Lordship. I have the honour to be, with the highest respect 
 and esteem, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 1% J. DOYLE. 
 
 The JKt. Rev. Bishop Doyle to Robert Cassidy, 
 
 Carlow, February 19th, 1829. 
 
 My dear Sir I have just now arrived here from Dublin by 
 Maryborough. I wished very much to stop, at least some 
 hours, at Monasterevan, to pay my respects to your father, and
 
 318 THE EDUCATION WAR. 
 
 speak with you on our political prospects; though, 'till the bill 
 and the introductory speeches appear, we can only speculate. 
 If they emancipate, as they ought, all things may go well. 
 
 I feel how much you have done in the matter of the legacy, 
 and hope you will in a little time be enabled to complete it. 
 I would have been surprised if Mr. Kavanagh had not caused 
 you even useless trouble; for, at war with himself, he must 
 give pain to others. 
 
 Old Nolan, as Lord Cloncurry properly enough calls him, is, 
 and always was, a most unmanageable sort of being. I am not 
 surprised at his misstatement. I hoped when I removed him 
 from Lyons he would cease to give trouble ; but his habits were 
 not formed but confirmed when I first knew him. 
 
 I did not read, for I had not leisure, the report of the 
 knaves' meeting at Kild are- place; but I am exceedingly dis- 
 tressed at what you state as having occurred. I will oblige 
 Nolan to account to me for his conduct; but, though I reprove 
 him, how can I repair the injury done by him to Lord Clon- 
 curry ? I will write either to you or to his Lordship, on hear- 
 ing from Mr. Nolan. And have the honour to be, my dear sir, 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 ij J. DOYLE. 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Bishop Doyle to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Carlow, February 20th, 1829. 
 
 My Lord On yesterday I was favoured with a note from Mr. 
 Cassidy, informing me of the pain resulting to your Lordship 
 from a letter written by Rev. Mr. Nolan to the secretary of the 
 Kildare-place Society. I wrote immediately to Mr. Nolan, who 
 called upon me this morning, and expresses his sincere and 
 deep regret for having written the letter alluded to. He was, 
 at the time of writing it, as he is at present, suffering under a 
 most painful disease, which sometimes affects his temper; and 
 was urged, by feelings of dissatisfaction at some then recent 
 occurrences, to indulge in reflections which he now most sin- 
 cerely regrets. He blames, in his usual manner, Mr. Jackson, 
 for having produced his letter, after having, through a Mr. 
 Topham, applied for permission to do so, which permission he, 
 Mr. Nolan, did not give ; and thus the public injury which 
 your Lordship has received has been aggravated without his 
 concurrence. He acknowledges the exaggerated threat used 
 by him to destroy the Protestant versions of the Bible, if circu-
 
 THE EDUCATION WAR. 319 
 
 lated among bis flock at Lyons; but says that his approbation 
 of the use of the sacred Scriptures in schools, was confined to 
 those used by Catholics, accompanied with explanatory com- 
 ments, as prescribed by the superiors in the Catholic Church. 
 The injury done your Lordship is not much diminished by 
 these explanations. I lament it most sincerely; and Mr. 
 Nolan would regret it more, if possible, than he does, were his 
 health in a less painful or dangerous state. I have the honour 
 to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 & J. DOYLE. 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Bishop Doyle to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Carlow, October 14th, 1829. 
 
 My Lord I have been for some time endeavouring to erect 
 here a small cathedral, with a view not only to provide for the 
 more decent exercise of the Divine worship, but such as would 
 also, by exhibiting a better style of architecture, contribute to 
 the general improvement of the country. I mentioned the 
 matter to some noblemen His Grace the Duke of Leinster, 
 the Marquis of Lansdowne, of Downshire, Lord Clifden, <fec., 
 proprietors of land, like as your Lordship, in different parts of 
 the diocese of Kildare and of Leighlin all of whom were 
 pleased to assist my exertions by some contribution to the 
 building in the erection of which I am engaged. I certainly 
 feel more than ordinary delicacy in praying the notice of your 
 Lordship to such a subject, on account of the incessant claims 
 upon your bounty, to which the generosity of your character 
 gives access; but as I am writing to some other noblemen 
 interested in the advancement of the country, and among them 
 to your neighbour, Lord Mayo, I thought you would not be 
 displeased with me for mentioning the matter to your Lord- 
 ship, and I do no more. With the most perfect esteem, I have 
 the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 JH J. DOYLB. 
 
 My reply to the request contained in this letter drew 
 on a renewal of the correspondence respecting Mr. 
 Nolan, and brought the two following letters from the 
 bishop :
 
 320 THE EDUCATION WAR. 
 
 The Jit. Rev. Bishop Doyle to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Carlow, February 12, 1830. 
 
 My Lord On my return here from Dublin, late on yester- 
 day, I found upon my table the letter of the 10th of this 
 month, with which your Lordship has honoured me. 
 
 I assure you there is not a nobleman in Ireland, with the 
 exception of the Duke of Leinster, whom I would be more 
 anxious to gratify than your Lordship; so that if in this letter 
 I do not, in all respects, fulfil your wishes, the deficiency will 
 not be owing to a want on my part of an inclination to do so. 
 
 I have not seen the Seventeenth Report of the Kildare-place 
 Society, unless ia the mutilated shape in which it appeared in 
 the newspapers, and am, therefore, but imperfectly acquainted 
 with the nature of the calumnies on your Lordship published 
 in that Report. But as the speeches and documents emanating, 
 for years past, from that place, have been chiefly remarkable 
 for a want of candour and truth, it is to me a matter of some 
 surprise that they could give your Lordship pain ; for what is 
 the value of good sense, rectitude of conduct, and high charac- 
 ter, unless they afford protection against the evil reports and 
 misrepresentations which are constantly emanating from such 
 places as Kildare-street ? 
 
 I recollect the substance of your Lordship's communication 
 to me in, I think, February last year, relative to the late Rev. 
 Mr. Nolan. I sent for him at that time, and after hearing him, 
 I wrote you a note, to which I beg now to refer you, wherein 
 I expressed for him, and at his desire, his contrition for the 
 injury he had done your Lordship, I adverted, if I recollect 
 well, to the natural acerbity of his temper, and to the illness 
 under which he laboured an illness which terminated shortly 
 afterwards in his death. I thought then, and had reason given 
 to me to think, that your Lordship was appeased; and, therefore, 
 was filled with regret when I found, in a letter recently pub- 
 lished by your Lordship, a most severe animadversion on the 
 memory of a man removed from this scene of contention a 
 man who, whatever might have been his faults, had once 
 enjoyed your friendship, and who, your Lordship will permit 
 me to say it, had a right to have his faults buried with him in 
 his grave. 
 
 Far be it from me to excuse his conduct. His misrepresen- 
 tation of your Lordship was most unwarrantable : he regretted
 
 THE EDUCATION WAR. 321 
 
 it deeply and bitterly. His letter, he said, was written to the 
 Kildare-street people at a moment when trouble and disease 
 embittered his mind. They applied to him for permission to 
 publish that letter, which he declined to give; but they of 
 Kildare-street had a purpose to serve, and did not hesitate 
 about the means of effecting it. They published the letter, 
 and wounded your Lordship; but they sacrificed their own 
 honour, as well as the feelings and character of a dying man. 
 I confess, my Lord, that I am at a loss as to the mode in which 
 I should, as you require, aid in vindicating your name in this 
 matter otherwise than I have done, by placing in your hands 
 the note to which I have above referred; for your Lordship 
 will not require of me to pronounce of a dead man that he was, 
 whilst living, guilty of ingratitude and dishonesty, when the 
 subject-matter of the charge is hospitality exercised towards 
 him ; and dealings in houses and lands, of the merits of which 
 I am ignorant, but with respect to which the deceased, who 
 cannot now plead, held opinions the very reverse of those en- 
 tertained by your Lordship. 
 
 For my own part, and independent of this matter, I am quite 
 certain that, besides your Lordship's unwillingness to be found 
 allied with "certain needy lawyers, showing no other utility 
 than that of doing mischief," you objected to the Kildare-street 
 system, not because it required the indiscriminate reading of 
 the sacred Scriptures by children, without note or comment 
 however you might think such a system liable to abuse but 
 principally because you found that Catholic children would not 
 resort to schools in which such a system prevailed, and, there- 
 fore, that money levied off the whole community would be em- 
 ployed to educate the children of only a small portion of the 
 people but to goad and insult the great majority of them. It 
 was this reason which weighed with your Lordship; and with 
 whom does it not weigh, unless with fanatics, or the weak- 
 minded, or those who love discord, and rejoice when they do 
 evil ] And certainly with such a reason, so often avowed by 
 your Lordship, I think you stand so fairly before the country, 
 as to be in no need whatever of my poor testimony for your 
 vindication. 
 
 Your Lordship being a Protestant need not assign a reason, 
 as we Catholics are bound to do, why the reading of the sacred 
 Scriptures without note or comment by children is objected to 
 by us; for your Lordship, as a public man, it is enough to 
 
 p3
 
 322 THE EDUCATION WAR. 
 
 know that the Kildare- place system of education is cast off by 
 the vast majority of the people, and upon religious grounds 
 which in Ireland have been, and are, and, I trust, always will 
 be, immovable. It belongs to us Catholics to state the reason 
 of this our determination. We have done so one thousand 
 times, in every place, and in every form ; but, like one singing 
 to the deaf, or preaching to the dead, we hitherto have not been 
 heard. Accept, I pray you, the assurance of the perfect esteem 
 with which I have the honour to remain, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 <%t J. DOYLE. 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Bishop Doyle to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Carlow, February 16, 1830. 
 
 My Lord I have but an imperfect recollection of the mis- 
 etatement relating to your Lordship, published at Kildare-place 
 last year by the Society, which holds there its annual meetings. 
 They imported, as I recollect, that your Lordship was opposed 
 to the system of education upheld there, not for the reasons so 
 often and so forcibly stated by your Lordship, but from a dis- 
 guised feeling of hostility to the reading of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures, or, perhaps, to the truths revealed in them. This evil 
 imputation was sought to be affixed to you by a reference to, 
 or quotation from, a letter said to have been written to the 
 Society by the late Rev. Daniel Nolan, sometime parish priest 
 of Kill, or Blackchurch, in the diocese of Kildare, wherein your 
 Lordship resides; and in which letter the writer stated that he 
 discontinued his connexion with the Society, or excluded the 
 sacred Scriptures from his school, at the suggestion of your 
 Lordship. 
 
 I also recollect that the statement thus put forward by the 
 Society was shortly afterwards formally contradicted, and the 
 falsity of it proved, by the brother of the deceased who, at the 
 time referred to, had been his (Mr. Nolan's) curate, and is now 
 his successor at Kill, or Blackchurch. 
 
 Your Lordship, justly indignant at the attempt thus made to 
 convert your righteous opposition to a mischievous society into 
 a charge against yourself, and at finding this charge sustained 
 by a letter purporting to be written by a man whose opposition 
 to the reading of the sacred Scriptures without note or com- 
 ment by children was well known to you, very justly called 
 upon me to oblige him to state the truth and so acquit your
 
 THE EDUCATION WAR. 323 
 
 Lordship of this foul charge, so dangerously insinuated against 
 you. 
 
 I did, without delay, what your Lordship required, and com- 
 municated to you, with the express knowledge and at the desire 
 of the late Mr. Nolan, his avowal of the injury he had done you, 
 as well as the expression of his deep regret for having been 
 misled in thinking or writing what was so inexcusable in itself, 
 and so painful to your Lordship. Should your Lordship deem 
 it proper to further notice this matter, you are at full liberty to 
 make such use as you may judge proper of my note above 
 referred to, as well as of my letter of Monday last addressed 
 to your Lordship, or of such portions of the latter as have 
 reference to this subject. 
 
 I am sincerely sorry that there should be any necessity of 
 reverting to these calumnies on your Lordship, now that Mr. 
 Nolan is removed from among us, especially as his conduct in 
 reference to that Society, and to your Lordship, was such as 
 cannot be vindicated ; but he was, as your Lordship recollects, 
 a person of very peculiar habits of mind and character. He 
 always considered and designated the Kildare-place people as a 
 congregation of knaves who squandered the public money, and 
 thought himself justified in dealing with them as they dealt 
 with government and the country. I have the honour to be, 
 my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 & J. DOYLE. 
 
 I may here introduce two letters which will not only 
 show that my zeal in the cause of education was of an 
 old growth, but will also exhibit the opinions upon the 
 subject entertained by two very different men, and formed 
 under the influence of very opposite circumstances : 
 
 Richard Earl of Donougfimore to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Tunbridge Wells, 7th August, 1820. 
 
 My dear Lord Upon the subject of your acceptable letter, 
 which, from the staleness of its date, may have, perhaps, escaped 
 your recollection altogether, the truth is the best apology to 
 make. During the pressure of the parliamentary campaign, I 
 put by many interesting objects at the moment, with the inten- 
 tion of giving them an early consideration; but I had laid them 
 by so carefully, that it was but by accident that I recovered them
 
 THE EDUCATION WAR. 
 
 at all, and your letter amongst the number, on making a review 
 of my papers in this place of retirement, to which your friend 
 and my brother, Lord H., have retreated, to breathe a little 
 uncontaminated air during the recess. 
 
 The printed paper which accompanied your letter, and of 
 which I more than suspect you are well acquainted with the 
 author, is a correct and judicious statement of the case, and 
 sufficiently proves that if we had fewer parsons, of all sorts and 
 sizes, we should have more education and more morality. Our 
 well-fed ecclesiastics don't much care for the book about which 
 all the racket is made, except so far as it may serve as a bone 
 of contention; and their working brethren of the same cloth 
 will suffer no Bible but their own. I should, therefore, say 
 that there are faults on both sides; and I would either have 
 editions of both sorts, and preceptors, too, of both religions, or 
 I would not include the Bible amongst the school books at all. 
 But I fear it is the fate of our unfortunate country to furnish 
 the field for perpetual religious contentions, and for the pro- 
 pagation of that ill-fated science which is to teach us how to 
 hate one another. 
 
 What an extraordinary conflict it is for which my brother 
 and I are to prepare ourselves, and which is to open on the 
 17th of this month. From having been a member of the Secret 
 Committee, and being, therefore, acquainted with the sort of 
 evidence which is in existence against the illustrious inculpated 
 personage, I can have little doubt of what the decision ought to 
 be, and of what it will be in the upper House of Parliament. 
 In the other House no man living can anticipate the result. 
 The members there seem to have already ranged themselves 
 too much as partisans on one side or the other; and the feelings 
 out of doors are likely to have more weight with the repre- 
 sentatives of the people than with our Lordships; and certainly 
 the public have conceived no slight repugnance to the prosecu- 
 tion, if it may be called by such a name. All I can say is, that 
 I wish it was well over. 
 
 Knowing as I do your kind partiality towards my brother, 
 I was not surprised at the honour which you have done him, 
 by the light in which you were so good as to place him at the 
 late public dinner. Believe me, my dear Lord, 
 Always and truly yours, 
 
 DONOUGHMOBE.
 
 THE EDUCATION WAR. 325 
 
 The Rev. James Armstrong to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Hardwicke-street, Dublin, June 27th, 1832. 
 
 My Lord The petition, of which the enclosed is a copy, has 
 just been despatched to Lord Plunket, who has kindly under- 
 taken to present it to the House of Lords. 
 
 The Presbytery of Dublin, from which it proceeds, seldom 
 intermeddle in political matters. They have been stimulated 
 to the present measure, under the hope that the facts stated 
 in their petition may tend to disabuse the minds of many Pro- 
 testants in Great Britain of the erroneous notions they enter- 
 tain on the subject of National Education in Ireland. 
 
 The Presbytery apprehend that these erroneous impressions, 
 if not corrected, will ultimately frustrate the wise and judicious 
 scheme of education lately devised by his Majesty's present 
 able, liberal, and enlightened ministry. 
 
 The opposition given to this scheme in Ireland is, as your 
 Lordship well knows, only an indication of that political ran- 
 cour, by which under the mask, at one time, of exclusive 
 loyalty, and at another, of religious zeal factious antipathies 
 are kept up in this distracted country, the minds of the popu- 
 lace inflamed, and the peace of society endangered. 
 
 The extensive means of information possessed by the Pres- 
 bytery of Dublin may, perhaps, give weight to their represen- 
 tations on the subject of National Education. Their total 
 freedom from all political bias will give additional value to their 
 testimony. 
 
 Your Lordship has so long supported every thing liberal and 
 patriotic, that the Presbytery rely with confidence on your 
 Lordship's advocacy of their petition. I have the honour to 
 be, my Lord, with great respect, 
 
 Your Lordship's faithful servant, 
 
 JAMES ARMSTRONG, 
 
 Minister of the Presbyterian Church, Strand-street. 
 
 The war between the Bible-forcers and Bible-burners 
 continued to rage with such fury, that it became, at length, 
 evident to all men, that until it should be forcibly quelled, 
 there could be no chance of accomplishing the great 
 object of a general and liberal education of the people. 
 How this was to be done was then an important question ; 
 and during the early part of the second viceroyalty of
 
 326 THE NATIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEM. 
 
 Lord Anglesey it occupied much of the attention of 
 those who enjoyed the honour of his Excellency's con- 
 fidence. It was but too plain that the subject of quarrel 
 between the professional disputants on both sides was 
 not popular education, but the disposal of the large 
 grant annually given by parliament for the purpose of 
 affording instruction to the people. The lawyers and 
 parsons of the Kildare-place Society had a vested in- 
 terest in this money, which the priests and agitators 
 were desirous of superseding. The most obvious ex- 
 pedient for at once removing the bone of contention, 
 and applying the bounty of the public to its proper use, 
 was to place the responsibility of administering the edu- 
 cation fund upon the executive government, and to re- 
 move all control over it from any self-constituted and 
 irresponsible body. 
 
 This plan I pressed upon the attention of Lord Angle- 
 sey, and, at length, in 1832, it was adopted. Mr. Stanley 
 was then a member of the cabinet, and so, in reality, a 
 sort of viceroy over the Lord Lieutenant, and he was, 
 at first, much disinclined to the measure. It was, indeed, 
 the subject of an anxious discussion the very night before 
 he left Dublin, to attend parliament, that session. There 
 dined together on the occasion, en petit comite, Lord 
 Anglesey, Lord Plunket, Mr. Stanley, Mr. A. R. Blake, 
 and myself; and when we parted, at two o'clock in the 
 morning, it did not seem that the united arguments of 
 the party had produced any effect upon the Chief Secre- 
 tery. The Church and the Protestants, both of England 
 and Ireland, he said, would not stand the withdrawal of 
 the grant from the Kildare-place Society and the sub- 
 stitution of a project for united and merely secular edu- 
 cation. I presume, nevertheless, that the seed did not 
 fall upon stony ground, as it was but a few weeks after- 
 wards, the plan was broached by Mr. Stanley himself; 
 and during that session, a grant of 30,000 was made 
 "to enable the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to issue 
 money in aid of schools, and for the advancement of
 
 THE NATIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEM. 327 
 
 education." It was Lord Anglesey's desire to place my 
 name at the head of the commission which he appointed 
 to manage the distribution of this fund, an honour 
 which, anxious as I was that as few elements of discord 
 as possible should be introduced into the new system, I 
 thought it prudent to decline. I had been too promi- 
 nently selected for the attack of the traders in civil strife, 
 to render it likely that they would miss the opportunity 
 of fastening upon my appointment as president of the 
 new Board, as a Protestant grievance ; and, accordingly, 
 at my instance, my friend the Duke of Leinster was 
 induced to take the post of danger. 
 
 Then began that combined and desperate effort of the 
 extreme factions to obstruct the communication of know- 
 ledge to the people, which has continued, though with 
 gradually abating force, even to the present hour. The 
 ultra Churchmen and the ultra Romanists, for a time 
 ceased from that internecine war which they had so long 
 waged against each other, and coalesced in an unholy 
 alliance against enlightenment and civilization, agencies 
 equally dreaded by both as the most dangerous foes to 
 their respective antagonism to the cause of liberty and 
 human progress. To my mind that noble cause ever has 
 been, and I humbly trust, ever shall be, a sacred one, to 
 have contended for which is my greatest pride, whether 
 the adversary was a Protestant judge or a Roman Catholic 
 prelate. 
 
 In so far as the education of the lower classes is con- 
 cerned it may, I think, now be set down that the victory 
 over bigotry has been achieved. The best disposed and 
 most enlightened ecclesiastics of all the churches have 
 seen that the opposition offered to the National Educa- 
 tion system was purely factious, and being persuaded of 
 that, they have, with few exceptions, withdrawn their 
 opposition to the moral and intellectual instruction of 
 the rising generation apart from the inculcation of the 
 religious duty of hating each other. If the sad truth 
 that men seldom learn how to guide their conduct for
 
 328 THE " GODLESS COLLEGES." 
 
 the future by experience of the past were not incontro- 
 vertible, I should be tempted to point a moral for the 
 edification of my fellow-countrymen, from the history of 
 the rise, progress, and decline of this education war. 
 It is, in fact, so far as the two first stages are concerned, 
 the true type of many a passage in Irish history. It 
 shows the joint organization by honest Irishmen of oppo- 
 site parties, of a project for the regeneration of their 
 common country. It traces the efforts of the extreme 
 sections of both parties to baffle a scheme, the success 
 of which they well knew would tend to destroy the craft 
 of discord, by which they live. The subtle attempt to 
 corrupt, by the poison of religious strife, that which 
 public opinion would not suffer to be crushed by open 
 force, is there exhibited ; and, as the plot thickens, the 
 customary intervention of England to turn the quarrel 
 to use in her own party contests, is manifested to the 
 dullest observer. Fortunately the last stage of this his- 
 tory differs from the normal standard of Irish political 
 tales. The war has been fought out, and peace restored, 
 without a sacrifice of the just cause. Archbishop Mac 
 Hale and Archbishop Beresford have beaten each other 
 to a stand still, without damaging by their joint blows, 
 the cause of the education of the people honoured in 
 its defence by Archbishop Whateley and Archbishop 
 Murray. Would that the example might be accepted 
 for the guidance of the masses of Irishmen upon every 
 occasion when the interests of Ireland are made the sub- 
 ject of the mock quarrels of demagogues, whether lay or 
 clerical, and (as they have ever hitherto been), the toys 
 or the stepping blocks of English factionaries. 
 
 I cannot close this chapter without expressing, in a 
 word or two, the shame I feel at the senseless clamour 
 raised against what are called " the Godless Colleges." 
 The Roman Catholics of Ireland have not been so 
 gravelled for lack of a grievance as to render it neces- 
 sary for them to make one out of the establishment of 
 liberal institutions for the joint education of our youth
 
 THE " GODLESS COLLEGES." 329 
 
 of all religious persuasions. Can the Catholic clergy 
 have so low an opinion of the people or of their own 
 influence as to imagine that a liberal education would 
 destroy faith ; or that ignorance is necessary to salva- 
 tion ? The " Godless Colleges" are only an extension 
 of the National system of schools which I strove, for so 
 many years, with the aid of the Eoman Catholic hier- 
 archy, to substitute for the hypocrisy of Kildare-place, 
 and the horrors of the charter schools. Are the people 
 of Ireland (amongst the most intelligent and quick-witted 
 of the people of Europe) likely to abandon their religion 
 on the acquisition of classical, mathematical, moral or 
 physical knowledge ?
 
 330 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 18291831. 
 
 The First Recall of Lord Anglesey Reasons assigned by the Duke of Wellington 
 His Attack upon Myself Lord Anglesey's Reply Ministerial surveil- 
 lance of Hospitality Letters from Lord Anglesey Viceroyalty of the Duke 
 of Northumberland Unnecessary Irritation of Mr. O'Connell Its Con- 
 sequences Renewal of Party Violence Lord Anglesey's Return to Ireland 
 His Reception and Difficulties Letters ; from Lord Anglesey, from Mr. 
 William Murphy, from Mr. George Villiers My own Difficulties at this 
 Period The Campaign opened by Mr. O'Connell His Attempt to force me 
 into Collision with the Lord Lieutenant Letter from Lord Anglesey 
 Arrest of Mr. O'Connell His Arraignment and Escape from Judgment. 
 
 I WILL now take up the thread of my rambling story 
 from the date of the first recall of the Marquis of Anglesey 
 from Ireland a measure with which I was in some de- 
 gree connected ; at least her Majesty's Ministers did me 
 the honour of framing a special count in their indictment 
 against the noble Marquis, in such a manner as to in- 
 clude an attack upon me. On November the llth, 1828, 
 but a few short months before the Duke of Wellington 
 turned his back upon himself and his old no-Popery 
 friends, his Grace wrote to the Lord Lieutenant in the 
 following terms : 
 
 " I will not conceal from you, likewise, that your visit, and 
 those of my Lord Chancellor, to Lord Cloncurry, and the attend- 
 ance of Lord Cloncurry at the Roman Catholic Association, im- 
 mediately subsequent to the period at which he had the honour 
 of receiving the King's Representative in his house, are not 
 circumstances calculated to give satisfaction to the King, and to 
 the public in general." 
 
 The cause of the visit to the Roman Catholic Associa- 
 tion here alluded to I may as well explain ; not, of course,
 
 FIRST RECALL OF LORD ANGLESEY. 331 
 
 that I think such an occurrence requires explanation, but 
 in order to show the quality of the charges which were 
 thought by the emancipating ministry sufficient to justify 
 the insulting dismissal of my noble friend. That visit 
 was, in fact, so far as I recollect, my first and only appear- 
 ance at the Association, although I had for some time 
 been a contributor to its funds. I went there, then, not 
 in order to make a speech or to show myself, but for the 
 purpose of seeing Messrs. O'Connell and Sheil, in the 
 hope that I might be able to induce them to interfere to 
 prevent certain monster marchings of the peasantry in 
 Tipperary, against which it was thought it would have 
 been necessary to issue a proclamation. I thought I 
 might be able to prevent this necessity by appealing to 
 the good sense and good feeling of those gentlemen ; 
 and accordingly, with the privity of Lord Anglesey, I 
 took Mr. W. H. Curran with me to the house of Mr. 
 O'Connell, to speak with him on the subject. We failed 
 of seeing him there and went on to the Association rooms, 
 where 1 saw Mr. Sheil who promised to use his influence 
 (which he did successfully) to stop the marchings. While 
 we were speaking, Mr. O'Connell came in ; and as I was 
 going away, he said to me " While you are here, you 
 may as well come in and see our meeting." I did so, 
 and being received very cordially by those present, I 
 addressed to them a few words of gratitude, and hope 
 for the success of their cause. This was the head and 
 front of the offending both of Lord Anglesey and myself 
 in this matter; yet, although a full explanation of his 
 communications with me was given by the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant, in his reply to the letter from which I have just 
 quoted, it was again adverted to in offensive terms by 
 his Grace of Wellington, and was finally disposed of by 
 Lord Anglesey in the following spirited words, which I 
 extract from a letter addressed by him to the Duke, on 
 the 23rd of November : 
 
 " I have little to add (wrote his Excellency) to what I have 
 already said concerning Lord Cloncurry. I believe him to be a
 
 332 SURVEILLANCE OF HOSPITALITY. 
 
 loyal subject, a good man, and an exemplary magistrate; and I 
 cannot eonsent to abandon the exercise of my own discretion 
 in selecting those with whom I may deem it expedient and 
 prudent to hold an intercourse. But even if I were mistaken 
 in the character of my Lord Cloncurry, and that he is not what 
 I suppose him to be, I am sure I shall not be thought arrogant 
 in expressing a conviction that there is something in my own 
 character, and in my well-known devoted and affectionate 
 attachment to the King, which ought to shield me from the 
 imputation of having selected and encouraged as acquaintance 
 those who are ill-affected to his Majesty's person and govern- 
 ment." 
 
 The Chancellor who was implicated with Lord Anglesey 
 in the grave offence of dining with me, was my late ex- 
 cellent friend, Sir Anthony Hart. I know not whether 
 he got a private share of the rebuke, or whether his 
 judicial position preserved him from the operation of 
 martial law ; but I am sure it would not, if the system 
 of espionage had been a little more perfect, and the fact 
 had been known at head-quarters that Sir Anthony had 
 begged of me to introduce him to the Prime Agitator, and 
 that one of the few occasions upon which Mr. O'Connell 
 dined with me at Lyons was in company with the keeper 
 of the King's Irish conscience, who was much interested 
 and amused upon the occasion. 
 
 I must not omit to mention, however, that the shabby 
 allusion of the Duke of Wellington to the civilities that 
 passed between those distinguished persons and myself 
 was quite of a piece with the system adopted towards 
 me by "the Castle," when the prevalent influence there 
 was en rapport with his Grace. A curious illustration 
 of the pettiness to which this feeling was carried oc- 
 curred upon one occasion, when I had received into my 
 house a gentleman who met with a severe accident 
 while hunting in the neighbourhood, and who was 
 obliged by the injuries he had received to remain for 
 some time at Lyons. This gentleman (a brother of Lord 
 Dinorben's) upon his return to Dublin met Sir Charles
 
 LETTERS ON THE SUBJECT. 333 
 
 Vernon, one of the Castle officials, and was warned by 
 him in a friendly way of the dangerous character of my 
 hospitalities : "You are taking a bad way of recom- 
 mending yourself for promotion, Colonel Hughes," said 
 Sir Charles, "by accepting Lord Cloncurry's civilities." 
 The foregoing little episode tells somewhat of the 
 tone of a petty court ; but, to return to the Duke of 
 Wellington, I have reason to believe that it was not for 
 lack of will that the attack made upon me through Lord 
 Anglesey was not renewed by his Grace at a subsequent 
 period, apropos to the favour bestowed upon me by the 
 King, in raising me to the peerage in Great Britain. 
 There was, however, so far as I know, no overt act of 
 hostility committed against me on that occasion, and I 
 shall now take leave of the subject ; but in doing so, I 
 must not deny myself the pleasure of putting upon re- 
 cord the following letters having reference to it. Their 
 contents will not surprise any one who has had an oppor- 
 tunity of estimating the noble character of the writer: 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, December 26th, 1828. 
 
 My dear Lord I ought not to have so long delayed the ac- 
 knowledgment of your obliging letter of the 21st, and the ex- 
 pression of the high sense I entertain of the delicacy of your 
 conduct in declining to come to my house, lest it might be 
 productive of increased ferment in a quarter which has taken 
 so sinister and so ill-judged a v.iew of our acquaintance. 
 
 If I thought that by yielding in some measure even to the 
 prejudices of others I would increase the possible chance of 
 rendering some service to Ireland, I would be ready to make 
 great sacrifices to attain this paramount object; but I feel cer- 
 tain that the very reverse is the fact, and that with those I have 
 to deal, I have no chance whatever of success, if I yield one inch 
 of ground, or am diverted from the straight line I am pursuing. 
 
 I entreat you, therefore, my dear Lord, to overcome your 
 patriotic scruples, and that you will believe me to be, 
 Very faithfully yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY.
 
 334 IRRITATION OF 
 
 Should you have any objection to my showing your memoir 
 and letter to the Chancellor and Lord F. Leveson? I am sure 
 both the memoir and the letter do you honour. A. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Uxbridge House, May 7th, 1829. 
 
 My dear Lord When I can get a corrected copy of my 
 speech and explanation of Monday last, I will send it to you ; 
 in the meantime, be assured that I have not made out a bad 
 case either for you or for me. 
 
 I hope you will take no sort of notice of any thing that 
 passed. Your character has been so supported, and stands so 
 clear, and those parts of my speech and statement wherein your 
 name was mentioned were so warmly cheered, that I do not 
 believe you could make it better. Let me hear what you think 
 of it all. 
 
 Thank God, my parliamentary and official duties are now 
 over ; and I have ascertained beyond a doubt that I am not fit 
 to fight with thorough-paced politicians, so I shall leave them 
 to their dirty work. 
 
 I beg my best regards to Lady Cloncurry. My boys are at 
 Westminster. Nothing could keep them from the House that 
 night. It is well they did not rush through, and attack the 
 Duke with their little fists. 
 
 Believe me very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY 
 
 The interval between Lord Anglesey's two viceroyal- 
 ties extended over a period of nearly two years, during 
 which the Duke of Northumberland was at the head of 
 the Irish government. It was a stormy and eventful 
 time. The manner in which relief was granted to the 
 Roman Catholics expressly as a concession to violence, 
 wrung from the fears not from the sense of justice of the 
 givers, confirmed the people in their wildest impressions 
 as to their own power; while the contemptible exhibi- 
 tion of personal spite towards Mr. O'Connell, with which 
 it was accompanied, irritated the personal feelings of 
 that gentleman and of his associate leaders. Accord- 
 ingly the passing of the Relief Act, instead of proving 
 to be a healing measure, became the signal for the com-
 
 MR. O'CONNELL. 335 
 
 mencement of a new agitation. Mr. O'Connell started 
 from the post. He again offered himself to the electors 
 of the county of Clare immediately after the House of 
 Commons refused to receive him upon the credit of his 
 election prior to the passing of the Relief Act, and his 
 address was at once a song of triumph for his victory 
 over Wellington and Peel, and a declaration of future 
 war to the knife. He said, truly enough, that securities 
 against treachery and perfidy were necessary to protect 
 the Irish people against " the insidious policy of men, 
 who, false to their own party, can never be true to us, 
 and who had yielded not to reason but to necessity." 
 Such securities he announced his intention to seek in 
 the repeal of the Act for disfranchising the forty-shilling 
 freeholders, and of the Subletting Act ; in a re-distribu- 
 tion of Church property, and a provision of glebes for 
 the Catholic clergy; in parliamentary reform, and in 
 "the introduction of the English system of poor-laws." 
 
 It is impossible to read this catalogue of promises 
 without being struck with their obvious character. Two 
 of these measures the provision for the Catholic clergy, 
 and the poor-laws were afterwards violently opposed 
 by Mr. O'Connell, and all of them were manifestly the 
 fruit of the irritation of the moment. It is scarcely pos- 
 sible to doubt that had the Belief Act not been framed 
 with the express design of excluding Mr. O'Connell,* he 
 would have quietly taken his seat, and, if he had not 
 eventually settled down into the ease of the bench of 
 justice, that he would have pursued a course of consti- 
 tutional exertion for the social and political improvement 
 of Ireland, that must, before long, have received the 
 warm support of every Irishman, and would, in the end, 
 have led to an amended relation between the two king- 
 doms, satisfactory to every wise and honest Englishman. 
 
 * The relief from the necessity of taking the obnoxious oaths, was 
 expressly limited to the case of "any person professing the Roman 
 Catholic religion, who shall after the commencement of this Act be re- 
 turned as a member of the House of Commons,"
 
 336 LORD ANGLESEY'S RETURN 
 
 The future was, however, differently looked to by Peel 
 and Wellington, and their wisdom resulted in the initia- 
 tion of a new epoch of distraction and misery which has 
 now endured for twenty years, and is, to all human 
 appearance, hut just entered upon. Mr. O'Connell forth- 
 with commenced his new career, and coincidently with 
 his commencement, the Protestant party, deceived and 
 betrayed by those whom they had served to the destruc- 
 tion of the real foundations of their own prosperity, re- 
 girt themselves for a further struggle in the cause of 
 civil discord. A revival of the Orange Lodges was 
 begun and pushed forward under the stimulation of a few 
 leaders whose traffic in the liberties and welfare of their 
 country had been put an end to by the recent revolu- 
 tion, and who, a few years later, when they failed in the 
 attempt to re-establish their oligarchy, again basely be- 
 trayed those whom they had thus driven into the mise- 
 ries of a hopeless and aimless civil war. 
 
 The latter part of the year 1829 and the whole of 
 1830, were miserably distinguished by the party con- 
 flicts, outrages, and agitations, which were the necessary 
 concomitants of the position of affairs I have endeavoured 
 to describe. To the government of the country thus 
 torn and convulsed, Lord Anglesey was again called in 
 December of the latter year. To every sincere and un- 
 biassed friend of Ireland, this event was a source of unal- 
 loyed gratification. It was known that his Lordship's 
 mind had received the most favourable impressions of 
 the case of the Irish people ; that he had never ceased, 
 during his absence, to feel the deepest interest in their 
 concerns ; and that he was now likely to possess the 
 power of carrying out his good intentions, which had 
 been wanting to him during his first viceroyalty when he 
 was the colleague of a Tory government. That power 
 he would not only have possessed, but have successfully 
 exercised for the good of Ireland, had the leaders of the 
 Irish people not preferred the pleasure and profits of 
 agitation to the attainment of the legitimate end of all
 
 TO IRELAND. 33T 
 
 political agitation, the substantial improvement of the 
 country. It was an unquestionable fact that, even under 
 the most liberal English government, a governor of Ire- 
 land must have many difficulties to contend with in 
 entering upon a liberal course of Irish policy. The ex- 
 traordinary ignorance of any feelings but English feel- 
 ings, which usually impedes the progress of British 
 statesmen beyond their domestic circle of politics the 
 vast difference of character and circumstances between 
 the Irish people, both aboriginal and colonial, and the 
 English, which mates that ignorance the occasion of 
 grave political errors in the government of Ireland the 
 old and fixed habit of conducting that government by 
 the agency of a faction the circumstance that it was the 
 unalterable custom to incarnate all these difficulties in 
 the person of a Chief Secretary holding political opinions 
 opposite to those of his chief all these facts demanded 
 from the Irish people, not merely forbearance, but an- 
 active support to a Lord Lieutenant, who, like Lord 
 Anglesey, had pledged himself (and been martyred for 
 his fidelity to his pledge) to do justice to those whom he 
 had undertaken to govern in the name of his and their 
 sovereign. Nevertheless, neither support nor forbear- 
 ance were accorded to Lord Anglesey. From the mo- 
 ment when it was known that he was re-appointed, he 
 was treated by the demagogues as an enemy, and the 
 extraordinary progress in liberalism made during his 
 Lieutenancy must, in candour, be set down to the ac- 
 count of his courage and perseverance in fighting the 
 cause of the people against both themselves and their 
 enemies. 
 
 The following letters will be interesting as illustrating 
 the view I have just taken of the relations between Lord 
 Anglesey and the Irish leaders and people, at the period 
 to which I refer, as well as from the expression in them 
 of certain opinions of the former upon the character and 
 causes of passing events : 
 
 01
 
 338 LORD ANGLESEY'S 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Uxbridge House, June 14th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry Although I am ill able to write, 
 and particularly upon any thing like business, still I cannot 
 resist sending the enclosed. 
 
 I cannot enter into particulars, but send you the pamphlets 
 some specimens of the plant [New Zealand flax], and of articles 
 made from it; and also two plants, which I hope will arrive 
 safe. 
 
 If you judge right, you will present them to the Board from 
 me, or if not, you will, perhaps, try them yourself. 
 
 You see I am always interested about Ireland, and wish I 
 could give it better help ; but, alas ! I have not been able. I 
 have been, and am very ill, and have been obliged to turn all 
 the petitions with which I have been charged over to other 
 Lords to present. 
 
 Let not them think that I neglect them. With kindest 
 regards to Lady Cloncurry, in which Lady Anglesey cordially 
 joins, 
 
 Ever, my dear Lord, most truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Cowes, August 10th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry The writer of the enclosed desires 
 me to give a letter of introduction to you, and the best thing I 
 can do is to forward his letter, stating, at the same time, that 
 I know nothing of him. 
 
 I congratulate you and all liberal minds, upon the glorious 
 conduct of the French nation. They have wisely profited by 
 the severe lessons they have received, and by their firmness and 
 moderation are proving that they are deserving of liberty. We 
 are going on strangely, and from having been the leading power 
 of Europe, with all eyes upon us, to take the tone from us, are 
 now hated and despised by the whole Continent ay, and, I 
 fear, by the other Continent also. 
 
 If we persevere much longer in our old habits, and do not 
 turn over a new leaf, and reform whilst we yet may through the 
 medium of moderate and honest men, I fear that reform may
 
 SECOND VICEROYALTY. 339 
 
 come from quarters that will not accomplish it in the manner 
 that the real lovers of their country would wish. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Lord, very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY, 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Beaudesert, September 9th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I am glad you have crossed the 
 water, and I hope I shall profit by it. You are at no 
 great distance, and we shall all rejoice to see you and Lady 
 Cloncurry. 
 
 Your letter in regard to politics, both internal and external, 
 is as if you had heard me descant upon those matters, and had 
 wished to flatter my vanity by a coincident opinion we agree 
 to a very trifle. The whole of Europe is in a state of excite- 
 ment and commotion. I do not even exclude Russia. If 
 monarchs and governors act with liberality, discretion, and 
 decision if they will open their eyes to the real state of 
 general knowledge and of public feeling, and go with, or, what 
 would be better, anticipate public expectation all may go well, 
 and mankind may make a very rapid stride towards happiness 
 and prosperity. But if the reverse is the case if, instead of 
 bending with a good grace to circumstances which they cannot 
 control, they attempt to persevere in the old pernicious courses, 
 there will be an universal crash, and few states, if any, will 
 escape the general wreck. He who first begins to reform ia 
 the wisest man, and, in my opinion, there is not much room for 
 delay. I want reform, temperate, but deep and general, and 
 not the least reason for wanting it is, that I prefer the monar- 
 chical state and am an aristocrat. But then aristocracy wants 
 reform, for I believe it to be the most powerful of the three 
 estates, and what I take to be right is, that the three should 
 balance each other, or what I ought rather to say, that no one 
 of the three should be too powerful for the other two. 
 
 We must contrive to get a government that shall rule by 
 public opinion and the confidence of the people, and that shall 
 at once and manfully, cease to carry on their measures by the 
 power of patronage, influence, and intrigue. 
 
 We must look all our difficulties and dangers in the face, and 
 pay our debt and support our necessary establishments by a 
 
 Q 2
 
 340 LORD ANGLESEY'S 
 
 total alteration in taxation and in the method of collecting an 
 adequate revenue. 
 
 All this I firmly believe to be practicable; but where is the 
 man who has the nerve and vigour to undertake it ? I know 
 him not, nor do I know any one who would take upon him the 
 unpleasant task of proving to our King, that by such a course 
 alone he and our constitution may be saved. 
 
 I do not believe our present premier is equal to all this; and 
 I do not believe he would establish such an order of things, 
 even if he could. 
 
 He is losing ground in public opinion; and he has made it 
 apparent that no good measure ever emanates from him, but 
 that whatever of good is adopted has always been forced upon 
 him. For my part I know not where to look for an able and 
 an holiest leader. There is no one that appears inclined to take 
 that happy middle course which is alone safe. 
 
 I am inclined to think that our best liberals of high character 
 and name, are not prepared to go deep enough to get at the 
 seats of the sore or grievance. They shrink from the difficulty 
 of attempting to govern without patronage to support them, 
 whereas, it appears to me, that in proportion as patronage for- 
 merly gave power, it will now (or very soon will), totally destroy 
 it. Now, if we cannot get men of high character and indepen- 
 dence to carry on the necessary reforms, we shall, in a certain 
 time, perhaps very soon, find some gentlemen who will be less 
 scrupulous and who will not hesitate to pull the old building 
 about our ears. 
 
 When I began I did not mean to dissert upon politics I 
 only meant to engage you to come here. I will now leave you, 
 and when you come we will resume the subject. But I will 
 not leave you so long in error upon one point of your letter. 
 You express a wish to see me in my place in parliament, and 
 taking an active part. 
 
 First, I sadly fear my health will not permit it; but next, 
 if it did, I do assure you I am wholly unequal to what you 
 propose. Nothing is to be done in this country without a 
 certain share of oratory I have not a grain of it I have no 
 facility of expressing myself the thing does not come naturally 
 to me. When I have been forced to utter, it has always been 
 in misery and in distrust of myself, and that will not do I am 
 too old to mend.
 
 SECOND VICEROYALTY. 341 
 
 No ! my best chance is gone by. When amongst you all 
 in Ireland, I felt at home, and, as if I might be useful; but 
 you may be assured that I cannot be so in the House of 
 Lords. 
 
 Pray let me hear that you decide upon coming here; and 
 believe me, my dear Lord, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Gloncurry. 
 
 Uxbridge House, November 7th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry Here I am in fine hot water. The 
 Grangegorman petition is intrusted to me, with a request that 
 I would advocate the Repeal of the Union; and by the same 
 post I get a letter from the secretary of the Leinster meeting, 
 desiring me to make known my sentiments upon the question, 
 which would have an overpowering influence over the minds of 
 all classes, &c., &c., &c. A pleasant dilemma this ! ! ! 
 
 Well, after having well weighed every thing after having 
 read over and over again all your letters upon the subject 
 after having (contrary to usual practice) solicited the opinions 
 of those who I thought were most likely to be adverse to my 
 bias, I made up my mind, and have by this post written an 
 answer to Mr. Kertland, chairman, in which I make known my 
 opinion upon the question ; and in answer to Mr. Murphy, secre- 
 tary to the Duke of Leinster's meeting, I shall send a copy of 
 that letter; and thus my opinion, humble as it is, will be known 
 all over Ireland, and Dieu sqait ce qui en arrivera. Whatever 
 that may be, I shall have the consolation of feeling that I have 
 given an honest and a very deliberate opinion; and if I could 
 by it make any impression upon you, I should be superlatively 
 happy, for there is no man in Ireland on whose opinion I set so 
 high a value. 
 
 I have talked it all over with Holland; and you don't know 
 how anxious he is that you should discourage any agitation of 
 the question. So is Lord Grey. 
 
 I should like you to see the correspondence, but I really have 
 not time to copy it. 
 
 I dare say you could get it from Mr. Kertland, and probably 
 from M , to whom I write what I have done. 
 
 My dear boy is going on famously. I am very tottering. 
 
 The ministers are done. It is impossible they can stand.
 
 342 LORD ANGLESEY'S 
 
 I am pressing hard for a good, sound, liberal reform, and hare 
 persuaded many; and if we can get a good, honest, and liberal 
 government, we must try to do better for Ireland than in allow- 
 ing her to separate from us. Let me hear much and often from 
 you. With best regards to Lady Cloncurry, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 P.S. The ministers have decided that the King shall not go 
 to the Lord Mayor's dinner ! If that does not dish them, I do 
 not know what will. They must go ! 
 
 Do see M and my letter instantly. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 November 13th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I enclose what I said last night. 
 It is only worth recording inasmuch as it will show that I am 
 alive to all Irish interests, and I do not think it will come amiss, 
 after my anti-Union (or rather my anti-anti-Union) letter. Per- 
 haps you will have the goodness to get it put in the papers 
 amongst the parliamentary reports, lest a bad version should 
 creep in. So pray take the trouble (if you approve) to send it 
 without loss of a day. 
 
 More from me in a day or two. I suspect the Duke is not 
 beat yet, 
 
 Truly yours, A. 
 
 I am in such haste that I have not time to read over. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Uxbridge House, November 18th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I know you will be glad to hear 
 that I return to you. I would have written it two days ago, 
 but was afraid of the post-office, and did not like to have the 
 report prematurely propagated. 
 
 I have been disappointed in not having heard your opinion 
 of my letter to the Repeal petitioners, and also of what I said 
 and sent to you for publication (if you approved) of the speech 
 respecting the Kildare-place Society. Alas ! I am nervous 
 about Ireland, for I know you will expect more than man can 
 do ; but whatever zeal and truth can effect, you shall have from 
 me. I have little more to give. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY.
 
 SECOND VICEROYALTY. 343 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Uxbridge House, November 27th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry Many thanks for your several 
 letters. The die is cast, and I am to resume my post amongst 
 you. I know you regret it on my own account, and so must 
 every true friend of mine; but, called upon as I was, I could 
 not bring myself to shrink from difficulty in time of need; and 
 I shall buckle to with all my zeal, but, alas ! with a very mode- 
 rate share of health. 
 
 I see the Freeman and some others have already begun upon 
 me. When they criticize facts it is fair enough, and I never 
 complain ; but they ought not to put forth falsehoods, and then 
 argue upon them as facts. 
 
 I am said to have made a point of retaining D : that 
 
 is false; I had nothing to do with it. I was merely asked if I 
 had any objection to his retaining his office. I said, " None." 
 
 I am stated to have recommended M to replace Gregory :* 
 
 that, too, is false. I stipulated that Gregory should go ; but I 
 
 shall appoint a very different man from M as Gregory's 
 
 successor. 
 
 But there is no use in enlarging upon these facts and in 
 complaining of misrepresentations. I shall steadily go on upon 
 my old plan of hearing all parties, and being the tool of none. 
 I shall do what I conscientiously believe to be best for the 
 country, and leave the event and the issue to the Supreme Dis- 
 poser of all things. With all these threatenings I nevertheless 
 do not totally despair of controlling the angry spirits, and even 
 the arch spirit; for the entertaining of which hope I am thought 
 very weak. You are so kind as to ask how I shall like to 
 make my entry. I will tell you how, health pemitting, I mean 
 to dispose of myself, and I must leave the rest to the good 
 people amongst whom I am going. I intend to land at Kings- 
 town, and, as is usual with me whenever I am able, to mount 
 my horse; but this must depend upon health and weather. I 
 would not for the world have any thing got up, as it is termed, 
 
 * The blank left at this place in the first edition I now fill up, in order 
 that I may have an opportunity of giving expression to my respect for 
 the memory of the late Right Hon. Wm. Gregory. Notwithstanding 
 the inconsistency of his political opinions with those of Lord Anglesey 
 and with mine, I constantly found him a sincere and active friend and 
 promoter of the physical interests of Ireland.
 
 344 LORD ANGLESEY'S 
 
 for me. Those who will be glad to see me will, probably, come 
 and tell me so. Those whom I do not suit will stay away, or 
 being present, will mark their displeasure. I shall delight in 
 the one; I shall bear with patience the other. I go with but 
 one object the good of Ireland. I am not sanguine of success, 
 because she appears to be still destined to be torn to pieces by 
 factions (and there appears to me to be now one more than I 
 left) ; but still I do not quite despair, for if I meet with fair 
 play if the conduct of the ill-disposed does not force forward 
 measures of rigour there is a growing spirit amongst public 
 men to set a higher value upon Ireland than has been heretofore 
 shown, and a determination on my part, on the part of the new 
 Secretary (as, indeed, there was -on the part of the late one), 
 and also on that part of the government which is connected 
 with the affairs of Ireland, to attend to her interests and not to 
 allow, year after year, the recommendations of the several Com- 
 mittees to lie on the shelves as a dead letter. I meant to write 
 a short letter. Here I am in my third sheet. I will only add, 
 that I shall often suck your brain, although I feel it will be 
 quite impossible ever to realize the delightful results contem- 
 plated by your sanguine mind. My first anxiety is to tran- 
 quillize the old ascendancy. They must never rule again; but 
 they shall never be insulted by me. I am sure you know and 
 approve my intentions, so it is needless to amplify. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 [Private.] 
 
 Uxbridge House, December 8th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry There is, I trust, nothing in the 
 law arrangements that will not give you satisfaction, excepting 
 only the retirement of our dear and excellent friend Hart. It 
 grieves me to lose him, I have a sincere regard (I can well call 
 it affection) for him. I never knew a more upright, single- 
 hearted man. 1 know how much you will regret him; but 
 circumstances made it very desirable to accomplish the distri- 
 bution of parts that has been made. I had intended to be with 
 you by the 20th or the 23rd; but I now almost doubt if I shall 
 not delay my appearance until the 1st of January. What 
 think you of my being ushered in by the new year, when we 
 will turn over a new leaf ? Have you a choice ? Give me a
 
 SECOND VICEROYALTY. 345 
 
 line by return of post, to say how all is going on. My ladies 
 appear determined to precede me by a day or two. I tell them 
 they may be disappointed, but they seem inclined to take their 
 chance. Tell me what you think of the new appointments. I 
 wrote yesterday to Gregory to announce his fate. With best 
 regards to Lady Cloncurry, believe me, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Uxbridge House, December 15th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I mean to be at Beaudesert dur- 
 ing Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, the 20th, I sleep at 
 Kernioge; on Tuesday, at Holyhead; on Wednesday, I cross 
 and sleep on board the yacht at Kingstown; and on Thursday 
 the 23rd, I proceed to Dublin. 
 
 O'Connell is my avant courier. He starts to-day with more 
 mischief in hand than I have yet seen him charged with. I saw 
 him yesterday for an hour and a half. I made no impression 
 upon him whatever; and I am now thoroughly convinced that 
 he is bent upon desperate agitation. All this will produce no 
 change in my course and conduct. For the love of Ireland I 
 deprecate agitation. I know it is the only thing that can pre- 
 vent her from prospering ; for there is in this country a growing 
 spirit to take Ireland by the hand, and a determination not to 
 neglect her and her interests; therefore I pray for peace and 
 repose. But if the sword is really to be drawn, and with it the 
 scabbard is to be thrown away if I, who have suffered so much 
 for her, am to become a suspected character and to be treated 
 as an enemy if, for the protection of the State, I am driven 
 to the dire necessity of again turning soldier, why then I must 
 endeavour to get back into old habits, and live amongst a people 
 I love in a state of misery and distress. 
 
 My course is decided upon. I shall land, and proceed exactly 
 in the way I did upon a former occasion. 
 
 Your offer about Maretimo is most kind; but I have dis- 
 couraged my daughters from preceding me, and they will pro- 
 bably not reach Dublin until the following week. Best regards 
 to Lady Cloncurry, and 
 
 Very truly yours, in much haste, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 Q 3
 
 346 LORD ANGLESEY'S 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Beaudesert, Dec. 19th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry Many thanks for your friendly 
 letter. I am perfectly prepared for the worst that may happen, 
 and shall present myself amongst you in all the consciousness of 
 not deserving unkindness, whatever may be my lot ; for if ever 
 there was a sacrifice made for the benevolent intention of con- 
 ferring a public benefit, I am making such a sacrifice. It seems, 
 however, that I have miscalculated my means, and consequently 
 the public, as well as myself, must suffer for the indiscretion. 
 But there is no use in running on thus. It seems that I have 
 " set my life upon a cast, and I must stand the hazard of the 
 die !" This is not obstinacy; it is a fatality. The thing was 
 inevitable, believe me. 
 
 I have had various kind and even affectionate letters, warn- 
 ing me of what I may expect, and suggesting to me the landing 
 where I am not expected, and proceeding quietly and secretly 
 to Dublin. They might just as well propose to me to consent 
 to mount a balloon, for the purpose of seeking the moon ! No ! 
 no ! I will land at Kingstown, and will proceed unostenta- 
 tiously to the Castle. Had there been the sort of reception 
 decided upon, that you expected only a few days ago, I should 
 of course have mounted my horse at Ball's Bridge, and have 
 endeavoured to show the most marked sensations of gratitude 
 and of high sensibility for a people who loved me. As public 
 opinion has taken another course, I must adapt my conduct to 
 the altered circumstances. If (as I imagine is the practice) any 
 of the authorities the Privy Council, for instance are to meet 
 me, they will get into my carriage, and we shall proceed toge- 
 ther in the old jog-trot way. What I insist upon is this (and 
 I charge you, my dear Lord, very particularly upon this sub- 
 ject) let no friend of mine come forward, and mix himself up 
 with my unpopularity (what a term for me to make use of 
 amongst Irishmen ! ! !) Let me alone. I shall like to meet 
 their hostile ebullitions alone and unattended. Even my curi- 
 osity is excited. I am anxious to see the thing. It will be 
 curious enough to contrast the first days of 1829 with the last 
 days of 1830 and the whole change of sentiment to be upon 
 the plea of a solitary law appointment ! Amazing ! Yet such 
 is human nature. But I have done. In three words you will 
 understand me. My particular desire is, neither to attract
 
 SECOND VICEROYALTY. 347 
 
 notice, nor to avoid it; and most particularly, that not one single 
 friend shall put himself forward to share with me the fortunes 
 of the day; and, therefore, my dear good Lord, stay at home, 
 and you shall hear that I am not less patient and enduring with 
 a hostile and deluded people, than I am feelingly alive to the 
 cheers of an affectionate one. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 William Murphy, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Mount-Merrion, Wednesday Evening, 
 22nd December. 
 
 My dear Lord Knowing how very anxious your Lordship 
 and Lady Cloncurry are about the reception your friend Lord 
 Anglesey may meet with to-morrow, I am rejoiced to tell your 
 Lordship that there will be a most numerous and highly respect- 
 able attendance of citizens in Kingstown on the occasion, such 
 as to afford the highest gratification to the Marquis. I have 
 given up my entire attention to this affair since I went to town, 
 though I could not have met O'Connell. I have the honour to 
 be, most respectfully, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient and humble servant, 
 
 WM. MTJBPHY. 
 
 The Hon. G. Villiers (Earl of Clarendon) to Lord Cloncurry. 
 [The commencement of this letter has been lost.] 
 
 converted into party purposes 
 
 by a certain set that I could almost regret any triumphal entry 
 for Lord A. There are many people, for many causes, who 
 would be interested in misusing such an occasion. 
 
 The present Government has I am certain better and more 
 honest intentions than any we have ever seen; but this is an 
 awful moment a trial of strength between those who have 
 something and those who have nothing; and I should like to 
 see the government wrap themselves up in their integrity, and 
 assume a high tone. Last night I thought damaging to them 
 in the House of Commons. The fault-finders were numerous, 
 noisy, and, upon the whole, victorious. We have a murky 
 horizon, and I don't exactly see the point from which the blue 
 sky proposes to itself to break. 
 
 Should you, after Lord A.'s arrival, have fire minutes to
 
 348 LORD ANGLESEY'S SECOND VICEROYALTY. 
 
 throw away upon me. I should be very thankful. May I beg 
 my best remembrances to Lady Cloncurry, and that you will 
 always believe me, 
 
 Most faithfully and sincerely yours, 
 
 GEORGE VILLIERS. 
 
 Notwithstanding the threatening indications disclosed 
 in the foregoing communications, the reception actually 
 given to Lord Anglesey was far from being so unworthy 
 of his merits, or so disgraceful to the people, as the fears 
 of the best friends of the latter led them to anticipate. 
 Mr. O'Connell kept out of the way ; but a numerous and 
 respectable assemblage of citizens accompanied his Ex- 
 cellency from Kingstown to Dublin Castle ; and I need 
 scarcely say that I did not feel bound to follow the 
 generous advice pressed upon me in one of the letters 
 above cited, that I should keep out of harm's way by 
 avoiding a public expression of my respect and sympathy 
 for my noble friend. Lord Howth and I rode at the head 
 of the procession. The crowd confined the expression of 
 the mischief with which they had been charged to a few 
 groans for " Dirty Doherty," whose promotion to the 
 chief seat in the Court of Common Pleas was the alleged 
 offence of Lord Anglesey. 
 
 The three years that followed Lord Anglesey's return 
 to Ireland, though full of excitement and action, were 
 to me the most unhappy I had passed since my release 
 from the Tower. I have already mentioned the terms 
 of confidence upon which his Excellency admitted me 
 to his friendship during his first viceroyalty. These 
 were again re-established between us ; and in the new 
 position of antagonism to the demagogues, and, through 
 their contrivance, apparently to the people, in which he 
 was now placed, my situation was rendered any thing 
 but pleasant. Every party was at war with me ; and a 
 large party engaged in operations equally opposed to my 
 comfort pressing me to exercise in their favour the in- 
 fluence which they thought I possessed. The assaults 
 of my old foes, the Protestant- ascendancy men, I could
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OPENED. 349 
 
 easily forgive ; indeed, they were infinitely less virulent 
 than the attacks of the patriots, and a vast deal more 
 agreeable than the solicitations of the place-hunters. 
 These two latter classes began by expecting impossibi- 
 lities, and the first of them ended by adopting a course 
 which rendered possibilities impracticable. The whole 
 three joined in actively, and but too often successfully, 
 counteracting efforts (in which I was the humble assist- 
 ant of the Lord Lieutenant) made to relieve his Excel- 
 lency from the restrictions imposed upon him, not less 
 by the cabinet with which he was acting, than by the 
 officials (co-ordinate and subordinate) of his own admi- 
 nistration. 
 
 It was scarcely a week after the arrival of Lord An- 
 glesey when Mr. O'Connell opened the campaign. A 
 meeting of the trades of Dublin had been arranged to 
 assemble at Phibsborough, on the 27th of December, 
 and to march in procession through the city, to the 
 house of Mr. O'Connell, in Merrion-square, there to 
 present him with an address of thanks for his advocacy 
 of the Repeal of the Union. Sworn informations were 
 laid before the Lord Lieutenant, to the effect that 
 serious disturbances were likely to be occasioned by this 
 proceeding, and accordingly, on Christmas Day (two 
 days after his Excellency's landing) a proclamation, for- 
 bidding the meeting and procession, was issued, under 
 the authority of the recently-passed " Act for the Sup- 
 pression of Dangerous Associations or Assemblies." The 
 meeting was thereupon countermanded by Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, multum gemens ; but it was at the same time de- 
 termined to put a test to me which it was hoped would 
 have the effect of forcing me into the desired pre- 
 mature collision with the government. On the 4th of 
 January, 1831, a deputation of three persons appointed 
 by Mr. O'Connell for the purpose, waited formally upon 
 me, to "inquire whether I would preside over a meet- 
 ing of Irishmen to petition for the Repeal of the Union." 
 My sentiments on the subject of the Union were well
 
 350 MR. O'CONNELL'S ATTACK 
 
 known to all my fellow-citizens and to the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant not less than to them : they were, as they are 
 now, entirely in favour of a legislative separation be- 
 tween the two kingdoms ; but while I firmly held that 
 opinion, I was at the same time fully satisfied of the 
 honesty of Lord Anglesey's intentions and of his sincere 
 desire to bring forward comprehensive measures for the 
 advancement of the interests of Ireland. I am free to 
 confess that I then doubted upon a point in reference to 
 which I am now convinced. I doubted, in 1831, that it 
 would be possible to restore self-confidence to the Irish 
 people, without throwing them upon their own resources 
 for government and for social improvement ; and I knew 
 that without self-confidence a nation can neither be free 
 nor prosperous. I am now, in 1849, convinced that 
 neither peace nor prosperity can ever exist in Ireland so 
 long as she, being a nation physically and morally sepa- 
 rate, and incapable, in the nature of things, of amalga- 
 mation with any other, shall continue in degrading sub- 
 mission to the blows, and in still more degrading accep- 
 tance of the alms, of England. But the nearer my own 
 doubts approached to convictions, the more anxious was 
 I that the candid mind of Lord Anglesey should be 
 permitted to investigate the whole case of the two king- 
 doms, undisturbed and in that spirit of kindness and 
 friendship towards Ireland which I knew influenced him. 
 I therefore replied to the ambassadors of Mr. O'Connell 
 that I regretted not having been at home when they 
 called upon me, in order that I might have had an 
 opportunity of fully explaining my reasons for declining 
 to comply with their request ; that I did not think " I 
 should act fairly by my Sovereign, his ministers, and, 
 above all, by my country, if I did not adhere to my de- 
 termination, already expressed, of hearing patiently and 
 respectfully the intentions of government towards this 
 country and their proposed plans for our relief, in this 
 their first parliament, before doing any thing to add to 
 the embarrassment and difficulty of their situation an
 
 UPON MYSELF. 351 
 
 embarrassment not of their own creation, but brought on 
 by others, to whom they have hitherto been in uniform 
 opposition. This opinion," I continued, "has been con- 
 firmed by communication with the excellent, steady, 
 well-informed, thinking patriots, with whom I have been 
 so long in the habit of acting and consulting, and by a 
 desire neither to be deceived, nor to be inconsistent or 
 unreasonable." 
 
 Those who knew Mr. O'Connell, and recollect what a 
 creature of impulse he was how impatiently he bore 
 with any difference from his opinions, and what a storm 
 was the first burst of his wrath, will not wonder at what 
 followed. Three very long letters were immediately 
 issued, specially devoted to the business of vituperating 
 me; but with ample digressions maledictory of Lord 
 Anglesey. I was "a renegade," "an aristocrat born and 
 bred," "a thinking patriot;" it was a matter of doubt 
 whether my heart was " of stone or a human heart," and, 
 worse than all, I was the friend of " Algerine Anglesey," 
 who, in the meantime, was thinking of those effusions in 
 the spirit indicated in the following note : 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Castle, January 15th, 1831. 
 
 My dear Lord Do tell me if you think the enclosed may be 
 advantageous ; it strikes me that it will. If you encourage 
 me, I would be patron and subscriber say 100; would that 
 be enough 1 Do pray let me have some talk with you before 
 you answer O'Connell. I have read the second letter. I think 
 you might settle the question at once, and so completely allay 
 the public agitation, without deviating from your former opi- 
 nions (which were only contingent), that you might save OUR 
 country. 
 
 Always truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 Pray return the enclosures directly. 
 
 A few days afterwards, however, the fever was brought 
 to a crisis by the arrest of Mr. O'Connell and his agita- 
 tion staff, after a brisk pursuit through a labyrinth of
 
 352 MR. O'CONNELL'S ARRAIGNMENT AND 
 
 ingenious devices whereby he sought to evade the law, 
 in the course of which it was found necessary to dis- 
 charge five or six proclamations against him. The chase 
 must have been an exciting one to those engaged in it, 
 and would have been amusing to by-standers, did it not 
 assume a character of ludicrous absurdity that rendered 
 it impossible for an Irishman who loved his country, to 
 look upon it without sorrow and humiliation. To-day 
 Mr. O'Connell's audience and claqueurs were termed 
 " The Society of the Friends of Ireland of all Religious 
 Persuasions," to-morrow they were "The General Asso- 
 ciation of Ireland for the Prevention of Unlawful Meet- 
 ings, and for the Protection and Exercise of the Sacred 
 Eight of Petitioning for the Redress of Grievances." 
 Then, again, they were a nameless " Body of Persons in 
 the Habit of Meeting Weekly at a place called Home's 
 Hotel;" and as the hunt continued, they successively 
 escaped from each daily proclamation, under the chang- 
 ing appellations of "The Irish Society for Legal and 
 Legislative Relief; or, the Anti-Union Association," 
 " The Association of Irish Volunteers for the Repeal of 
 the Union," " The Subscribers to the Parliamentary In- 
 telligence Office, Stephen-street," until, finally, they 
 were fairly run down at a breakfast party in Hayes' hotel. 
 
 In the melee, the last blow was given to a really useful 
 " Society for the Improvement of Ireland," which, how- 
 ever, the fatal patronage of Mr. O'Connell had some 
 time previously brought into a dying condition. It had 
 been working beneficially for the physical amelioration 
 of the country and people, under the guidance of some 
 of the best men in the country; but as soon as it 
 began to assume the appearance of influence and pros- 
 perity, Mr. O'Connell came in with a tail of followers 
 to endeavour to turn it to his purpose of political agita- 
 tion, and it was finally broken up in the beginning of the 
 year 1831. 
 
 The collision to which I have just referred, produced 
 a personal estrangement between Mr. O'Connell an4
 
 ESCAPE FROM JUDGMENT. 353 
 
 myself, which continued for three or four years. It did 
 not, however, prevent the occurrence of a warm alterca- 
 tion between the Attorney-General (now Chief Justice) 
 Blackburne, and me, upon his account. When he was 
 brought to trial under the Proclamation (or, as he called 
 it, the Algerine) Act, he pleaded guilty ; but the term 
 at which, in the ordinary course, he should have been 
 brought up for judgment did not arrive until within a 
 month or two of the expiration of the statute, and then 
 I strongly urged upon Lord Anglesey the prudence of 
 allowing him to escape, as the nominal infliction of a 
 punishment which could endure but for a few weeks, 
 would only have the appearance of impotent malice, 
 and while it might have created dangerous popular ex- 
 citement, would have added to .his exasperation and 
 have given him a triumph upon the event of his liberation 
 that must so speedily follow. Mr. Blackburne thought 
 differently, and the dispute ran so high that Lord An- 
 glesey thought it necessary to pledge both of us to 
 proceed no farther in the matter. I am not aware 
 that this circumstance ever came to Mr. O'Connell's 
 knowledge.
 
 354 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 18311833. 
 
 Renewed Agitations and Party Struggles The Parliamentary Reform Question 
 Negotiations for a Peace with Mr. O'Connell Letters; from Mr. O'Mara, 
 from Mr. O'Connell Memorandum by the Earl of Meath Mr. O'Connell 
 re-opens his Campaign Letter from Mr. O'Mara Subsequent Reconcilia- 
 tion with Mr. O'Connell Letters ; from Mr. O'Connell, from Mr. Wm. 
 Murphy, from Lord Anglesey Manly Struggles of the Lord Lieutenant 
 Letters from him Termination of Lord Anglesey's Second Viceroyalty 
 His Intercepted Letter to Lord Grey His Irish Policy Letters ; from Mr. 
 Littleton, from Lord Anglesey Created an English Peer Letters ; from 
 Myself, from the Duke of Leinster, from Mr. George Villiers. 
 
 THE mischief with which (to use Lord Anglesey's expres- 
 sion) Mr. O'Connell was charged when he set out for 
 Ireland to prepare a reception for the Noble Marquis, in 
 December, 1830, exploded with a vengeance in the ensu- 
 ing year. During it the Anti-Tithe, and Repeal, and half 
 a dozen other agitations, reached their highest stages ; 
 and the miserable scenes of Newtown-Barry, Castle-Pol- 
 lard, and Carrickshock were enacted. On the other side, 
 there was no want of an equally violent reaction. The 
 Tory lords and squires saw the miserable advantage 
 afforded them by the imprudence of their emancipated 
 serfs, and they lost no time in employing it in an endea- 
 vour to regain their former power. Great Protestant 
 meetings were held, and it was determined by the leaders 
 that they would rejoin the Orange Association, even at 
 the expense of lessening their dignity by an alliance with 
 the middle and lower classes of Protestants, without 
 whose assistance they were fully sensible they could do 
 nothing. These latter took the bait, and forgetting how 
 often they had been sold by their aristocratic allies, they 
 not only declared for a renewal of that struggle for
 
 RENEWED AGITATION. 355 
 
 ascendancy which had ruined their common country, but 
 consented to allow themselves, their votes and interest, 
 to be handed over to the anti-Reformers of England, as 
 a consideration for the support by that party of the 
 objects of the Irish Tory leaders. Parliamentary reform 
 thus became converted into an Irish religious question, 
 without, I believe, the mass of the people caring much 
 about it in its civil aspect. The Roman Catholic masses 
 shouted for Reform, because it was denounced by their 
 old oppressors. The Protestant tradesmen, shopkeepers, 
 and small gentry clamoured and voted against it for the 
 equally valid reason that it was supported by Daniel 
 O'Connell and his tail, never reflecting that they who 
 lived in the country, who throve in its prosperity, and 
 suffered in its distress, who could not bring it to market 
 for a ribbon, or a title, or a commissionership that they 
 were the parties most interested in securing for Ireland 
 a fair share of influence in the imperial legislature. 
 
 This position of affairs much impeded the stable settle- 
 ment of the Reform question, in so far as related to Ire- 
 land. It prevented at the time the obtaining of the best 
 terms that might have been obtained, and it left behind 
 it a new party division among Irishmen, that has contri- 
 buted much to hold them in that position of subserviency 
 to England into which a similar cause the split upon 
 parliamentary reform plunged them on the very morrow 
 of the birth of the Irish nation, in 1782. For my part, 
 having seen, as I had, the mischiefs of a corrupted and 
 narrow representative system, I threw myself zealously 
 into the reform movement ; and, in the hope of advan- 
 cing it, listened with pleasure to a proposition for peace 
 with Mr. O'Connell, made to me through a neighbour 
 of mine and a relation of his, the particulars of which, 
 though in the end it came to nothing, are worth reading, 
 as throwing some light upon the character of that ex- 
 traordinary man. The story will be best told in the 
 words of the correspondence that took place upon the 
 occasion :
 
 356 NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE 
 
 T. O'Mara, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry* 
 
 Dublin, 20th January, 1831. 
 
 My good Lord I think I may say, with Dan, that the fate 
 of the country is in your hands. 
 
 Lord Meath called at Lisaniskea this morning ; and after the 
 interview with him, I put all forms on one side and went to 
 Dan, who has agreed to act in conformity with the wishes of 
 Lord Meath and your Lordship, and has pledged himself to me 
 to that effect. After seeing Dan, I went to Lord Meath and 
 told him, who seemed delighted with the prospects of peace, 
 and desired I should instantly write to your Lordship ; and 
 desired me to say that he would meet your Lordship and Dan 
 any day most your convenience, at Lisaniskea. I promised to 
 let him hear from me as soon as I heard from your Lordship. 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Your Lordship's faithful servant, 
 
 T. O'MAEA. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to T. O'Mara, Esq. 
 
 22nd January, 1831. 
 
 My dear O'Mara I do most anxiously wish to confer with 
 Lords Meath and Cloncurry on the present awful position of 
 public affairs, and the possibility of calming the public mind. 
 I would wish that this desire of mine should be communicated 
 to their Lordships in the manner most respectful to them both, 
 and to each of them individually. 
 
 I have had a communication with a person in the confidence 
 of the ministry, in England, but whose name I cannot disclose, 
 who states distinctly, that all the ministry desire is to postpone 
 the Union question, until those of reform, abolition of corporate 
 monopoly, and reformation of Church abuses, are disposed of 
 thus leaving " the Union" for the last. 
 
 I think this may be done by Lord Cloncurry and Lord Meath, 
 in such a manner as to carry with them the public mind, pre- 
 serving only just so much, or rather so little, of popular agita- 
 tion as would continue the confidence of the people in the pros- 
 pect of legitimate redress; such prospect being, in my mind, 
 the only mode of preventing violence and outrage, and probable 
 rebellion. I think that Lords Meath and Cloncurry are the 
 only persons in Ireland who can certainly save us all from 
 
 * Mr. O'Mara was a well-known solicitor.
 
 WITH MR. O CONNELL. 
 
 357 
 
 scenes too horrible to be thought of, but which will be acce- 
 lerated by shutting the eyes to their imminent and approaching 
 danger. 
 
 I would wish respectfully to offer my assistance to Lords 
 Cloncurry and Meath: they should have that assistance cor- 
 dially and sincerely. I would either appear prominent, or stay 
 in the background, precisely as they wished. I would either 
 agitate with them, or leave the entire and exclusive manage- 
 ment of the necessary quantity of salutary agitation to them. 
 I think I could give them much aid; and I am most desirous 
 of throwing into their hands the full direction of all the influence 
 which I may possess, whatever that be. In short, I would desire 
 to converse with them on these subjects; and if I be wrong in 
 any of my views of the present position of affairs in Ireland, 
 there are no men living whose mature judgments would have 
 more influence over mine. I would also be glad to communicate 
 to them all the facts that have come to my knowledge respect- 
 ing the state of popular feeling. 
 
 lu fine, I am deeply convinced that Lords Meath and Clon- 
 curry have it in their power to put themselves at the head of the 
 popular party in Ireland, and to do more good to the country 
 and prevent more evil, than any two persons ever had before. 
 
 I need not add that no part of this correspondence, nor any 
 communication that may follow, shall ever be disclosed, save by 
 their directions; it being understood that an honourable secrecy 
 is the basis of our meeting. 
 
 I am yours very faithfully, 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 T. CfMara, JEsq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Lisaniskea, Monday night, 24th Jan. 
 
 My good Lord Maurice O'Connell mistook his father's mes- 
 sage yesterday. 
 
 I saw O'Connell this day, who desired me to inform you that 
 you may keep the letter as long as you like. 
 
 I never witnessed any thing so turbulent and angry as the 
 populace were in Dublin this day not even in the height 
 of '98. 
 
 Let what will come, my highly- valued countryman, while I 
 can draw a sword or a trigger, you will find me 
 
 Your attached faithful friend, 
 
 T. O'MABA.
 
 358 MR. O'CONNELL RE- OPENS 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Merrion-square, 25th January, 1831. 
 
 My Lord I heard yesterday with much regret that Mr. 
 O'Mara totally mistook the meaning of a verbal message which 
 I sent him, and, in consequence of that mistake, called on your 
 Lordship to return the letter I addressed to him nominally, but 
 to you and Lord Meath really. That letter I made your pro- 
 perty, and, of course could not reclaim it heaven knows it 
 would be but little worth my while to trouble you about it. 
 
 The demand of Mr. O'Mara having arisen from a mere mis- 
 take you are at liberty to do anything or nothing with the 
 letter as your own judgment dictates. 
 
 I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to assure you of the 
 pride and pleasure I feel at being again able to address you, 
 and to assure you that I am, with great respect, my Lord, 
 Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 Memorandum by the Earl of Meath, 
 
 Some time previous to the 22nd of January last, a particular 
 friend and relative of Mr. O'Connell called on me and stated, 
 that he, O'Connell, was most anxious to have a communication 
 with Lord Cloncurry and me, and to put himself entirely under 
 our advice and direction as to the conduct he should pursue 
 under existing circumstances; he further stated that he con- 
 ceived that by our not declining to meet Mr. O'Connell we 
 should have it in our power to put a stop to the evils which 
 threatened, and that we should be instrumental in saving the 
 country; he also asked me whether I was likely soon to see 
 the Lord Lieutenant, as he thought that if his Excellency knew 
 that such a meeting was to take place, it might have the effect 
 of suspending any harsh proceeding which might make Mr. 
 O'Connell the less inclined to follow any suggestions that 
 might come from us. After a consultation on the subject with 
 some friends, Lord Cloncurry and I agreed to comply with Mr. 
 O'ConnelTs request, and, accordingly, fixed to meet him at 
 Lord Clon curry's house, on the 22nd of January, having pre- 
 viously requested of his friend to get Mr. O'Connell to put in 
 writing what the object of the meeting was to be this Mr. 
 O'Connell did (see his letter). We then met him, and after 
 much conversation in which Mr. O'Connell gave us to under-
 
 HIS CAMPAIGN. 359 
 
 stand that lie was anxious to cease all agitation (being much 
 alarmed for the state of the country), and stated that he had 
 received a letter from a person high in the confidence of mini- 
 sters declaring their determination to do every thing required 
 for Ireland this session, short of a Repeal of the Union, pro- 
 vided he (O'Connell) would give up the question for the 
 present; he, therefore, proposed to Lord Cloncurry and me, 
 that he should give up all agitation, and to use his influence to 
 allay the present ferment, provided we would join the Society 
 for the Improvement of Ireland, and discuss political subjects 
 therein, especially the reform question, the abolition of corpo- 
 rations, and the new application of the temporalities of the 
 Church, not interfering with present incumbents; also, that we 
 should promote county reform meetings, and that we should 
 pledge ourselves to the future support of the Repeal; we, of 
 course, declined enteriag into any such engagement; a proposal 
 was then made to him, that he should sign a certain paper 
 drawn up by us; he said, that his signing it would have no 
 earthly effect, and that, on the contrary, it would diminish his 
 power of preserving the peace, which, of all things, he chiefly 
 desired. 
 
 Thus ended that affair; and, immediately after its 
 conclusion, Mr. O'Connell re-opened his battery of abuse, 
 and worked it with his accustomed vigour, during the 
 entire of that year, until, as would appear from the 
 following communication, his friends began to tire of 
 the war : 
 
 T. CfMara,, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Lisaniskea, 1st January, 1832. 
 
 My valued and esteemed good Lord I should not trespass 
 on you with this note, but from a feeling that it may ease and 
 soothe the mind of your amiable, attached, affectionate partner, 
 Lady Cloncurry, by knowing that your name is not again to be 
 mentioned at public meetings. 
 
 I had a long interview with Mr. O'Connell yesterday, and 
 after accusing him of attacking friends and foes indiscrimi- 
 nately, I mentioned his attack on Lord Anglesey, Lord Clon- 
 curry, &c., &c. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry, or the warmest friend of Lord Anglesey, 
 could not give a more honourable description of the high-
 
 360 SUBSEQUENT RECONCILIATION 
 
 minded soldier's private worth and character. But he wants 
 
 him to get rid of Mr. B , &c., &c. He wants Lord Clon- 
 
 curry to come to his place, at the head of his countrymen, and 
 endeavour to obtain justice for his country. 
 
 What passed between him and me would be too much for a 
 letter, but on your Lordship's return I will give you the entire, 
 and am confident you will be pleased with it. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell has assured me that until the reform bill shall 
 be passed, he will not bring before the public (at his meetings), 
 the name of any friend. 
 
 I am well aware that this letter contains nothing of any 
 value for your Lordship. But I am aware that it contains a 
 soothing reflection for your amiable wife, whose life and soul 
 are wrapped up in every thing that contributes to your peace 
 and happiness. 
 
 Wishing you, my Lord, your Lady, and your dear boys, 
 many, many, happy new years, I remain your attached, 
 Faithful friend, to command, whilst 
 
 T. O'MARA. 
 
 As I had but little intercourse with Mr. O'Connell from 
 this period until the close of his life, I may as well finish 
 here what I hare to say concerning him. We continued 
 in estrangement and coolness, now and then warmed up 
 by a burst of vituperation on his part, until the arrival of 
 Lord Mulgrave in Ireland, in 1835. It seemed to his 
 Excellency that the policy of his administration would 
 be rendered more practicable if Mr. O'Connell and I 
 became reconciled ; and as no unkind feelings existed in 
 my mind with regard to him, I was easily induced to 
 receive an advance. Mr. (now Chief Baron) Pigot and 
 Mr. Wm. Murphy were the internegotiators ; and it was 
 not long before an arrangement between "the high 
 contracting parties" was effected through their exer- 
 tions. Characteristic traits are exhibited in the follow- 
 ing letters, which were among those that passed upon 
 the occasion : 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq.) to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Merrion-square, 12th October, 1835. 
 
 My Lord I do not know how to express my feelings of 
 satisfaction and delight at the kind manner in which, after
 
 WITH MR. O'CONNELL. 361 
 
 all, you so kindly received my advances towards a reconci- 
 liation. 
 
 I do assure you, my Lord, I do bitterly regret Laving ever 
 forfeited that kindness. If I knew how to atone to you, I cer- 
 tainly would do so in the most respectful manner that words 
 could assume, and with the most cordial anxiety to satisfy you 
 in every respect. But, perhaps, a recollection of the circum- 
 stances in which I was placed at the time the natural irrita- 
 tion and excitement of my mind at a prosecution which I neither 
 expected nor deserved may, perhaps, furnish to your Lordship's 
 indulgent mind a better excuse for me than I could otherwise 
 possibly make. 
 
 Yet, I should certainly not have forgotten your long-tried 
 zeal and fidelity in the cause of Ireland the persecution you 
 endured for the far greater part of your life, because you had 
 the undeviating manliness to prefer the cause of the people to 
 the interests of the malignant but governing faction by which, 
 that people were oppressed. Perhaps, too, I Avas the more 
 easily led into violent courses by the confidence placed at that 
 time by the ministry on men in this country, who naturally 
 belonged to that faction, and who, under the hypocritical pre- 
 tence of liberality, were betraying the government under whom 
 they served and the country which they treacherously affected 
 to cherish. I do appeal to you, my Lord, whether it was not 
 natural I should feel deeply indignant at the appointments 
 made by the Whig ministry in Ireland at the blindness with, 
 which they fell into the snares, and even into the arms of their 
 mortal enemies and of those of our wretched country. But, 
 surely you who were honest in the worst, the very worst of 
 times, will, from your own attachment to Ireland, appreciate 
 the state of my feelings at that unhappy period, and whilst you 
 are willing to palliate my fault, I, on the other hand, am ready 
 to make you every reparation in my power. I cheerfully 
 acknowledge myself to have been in the wrong, and I seek for 
 your forgiveness upon your own terms. 
 
 We are come to a period when you can be eminently useful 
 to Ireland. All that is wanting now is that the friends of con- 
 stitutional freedom amongst the nobility and leading gentry, 
 commercial as well as agricultural, should take their natural 
 station in support of the King's government, at the head of the 
 people. 
 
 The Irish people have been too well taught by the expe
 
 362 SUBSEQUENT RECONCILIATION 
 
 rience of centuries of oppression, not to perceive that there is 
 at length a new day opening upon this unfortunate land. They 
 are convinced that in the stability of the present ministry is 
 placed the only prospect of that reign of justice which shall 
 destroy the rule of the sanguinary, mendacious, and insolent 
 Orange faction, and give to Ireland a participation upon terms 
 of perfect equality of all the advantages of the more favoured 
 parts of the British empire. Need I say how desirable it is 
 that you, my Lord, should become a prime leader in that popu- 
 lar movement which would, peaceably but firmly, aid the Lord 
 Lieutenant and government of Ireland in that system of con- 
 duct which would blot out the miseries of this country by ter- 
 minating that cruel and emaciating misrule which has marked 
 the history of the Tory and Orange domination over the Irish 
 people at all former periods. 
 
 Pardon me, my Lord, for the length of this letter. I take 
 up an idea which the celebrated popular leader, John Keogh, 
 endeavoured to realize more than forty years ago the taking 
 the government of Ireland out of the hands of the ascendancy 
 faction, and identifying it with the Irish nation at large. If 
 we be true to ourselves, the time is come to have that choice 
 made once and for always. Every former administration have 
 chosen the "worse part" the faction. They have governed 
 Ireland by the faction through the faction and for the bene- 
 fit of the faction. It is time that Ireland should be managed 
 wisely and kindly by the friends of her people and for the 
 exclusive but comprehensive benefit of that people. The choice 
 is the faction on the one hand Ireland on the other. This, 
 therefore, is just the time when every man who loves his native 
 land should rally all the liberal and enlightened part of the 
 aristocracy, of the landed gentry, and of the commercial wealth 
 and intelligence of the Island, in one common cause with the , 
 people at large, to give efficient support to the government 
 which has, at length, made a salutary and wise choice has 
 disclaimed faction, and preferred the people of Ireland. 
 
 How sincerely do I wish you would place yourself promi- 
 nent in producing such a combination. Need I add, that if 
 you will accept of my co-operation, you shall command it with 
 a sincerity written on my heart's core. I have the honour to 
 be, my Lord, most respectfully, 
 
 Your most faithful and obliged servant, 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL.
 
 WITH MR. O'CONNELL. 363 
 
 Wm. Murphy, Esq., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Mount Merrion, Wednesday night. "* 
 
 My dear Lord Mr. Pigot and I delivered your Lordship's 
 letter this evening to O'ConnelL I never saw a man more 
 delighted than he was on reading it. On finishing the first 
 paragraph he struck the table, and exclaimed in a loud voice, 
 "May God bless him." He said it was a letter he should keep 
 carefully by him as long as he lived. At another time he said, 
 "Good God ! how could I ever have quarrelled with such a 
 man !" My dear Lord, I trouble you with this merely that 
 you should know how your letter was received. Pigot says 
 that it is one of the best letters he ever read; that it could 
 only be written by the best of Irishmen. I am, my dear Lord, 
 Most truly and faithfully yours, 
 
 W. M. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Beaudesert, October 20th, 1835. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I received the Dublin Evening Post of 
 the 15th, containing your correspondence with O'Connell, and 
 directed to me by you. 
 
 All I shall say upon it is, that if this re-union tends to the 
 benefit of Ireland, there is no one who will more sincerely 
 rejoice in it than I shall. His flings at me are certainly inno- 
 cuous. He knows as well almost as you do how unjust they 
 are. Certainly they will never do me so much injury as his 
 former fulsome flattery did. 
 
 You know him well enough not to calculate upon his friend- 
 ship longer than it suits the convenience of the moment ; but 
 if it lasts long enough to give poor Ireland a good lift, I 
 again say I shall rejoice. With all your courteous expressions 
 towards him, you have nevertheless hit him hard as regards 
 me, and he will remember you for it. I go up to see Lady A. 
 to-morrow. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The finish was put to the work of reconciliation by 
 our meeting at dinner at Lord Mulgrave's table; and 
 from thenceforward I do not recollect that Mr. O'Connell 
 
 E2
 
 364 LETTERS FROM 
 
 ever renewed the war with me personally, although he 
 continued to render a cordial co-operation between us 
 impossible, by turning his arms against a very near and 
 dear relative of mine, who ventured to entertain and to 
 express opinions at variance with his own. 
 
 In the midst of all the turmoil, and in the face of all 
 the difficulties I have adverted to, Lord Anglesey held 
 on his course with a manliness and devotion, which it is 
 impossible to think of without admiration. Thwarted, 
 upon the one hand, by his colleagues, and more espe- 
 cially by his Chief Secretary, whom, in an evil hour, he 
 had allowed to be placed above him, by being admitted 
 to a seat in the cabinet ; and confronted, on the other, 
 by the popular leader who earnestly strove to render it 
 impossible for him to serve the cause of the people, his 
 Excellency still fought gallantly on ; and in the years of 
 his viceroyalty more was accomplished towards the ame- 
 lioration of Ireland than had been done in as many pre- 
 vious centuries. Of the great Irish measures carried, or 
 rendered immediately inevitable, during the viceroyalty 
 of Lord Anglesey, I have already spoken, in my remarks 
 upon the Roman Catholic, the Education, and the Church 
 questions ; but grand as may be the notion entertained 
 of the magnitude of those results, and hard as their 
 attainment may seem to the ordinary observer, they fur- 
 nish but an imperfect means of estimating the vastness 
 of the work of government and the amount of the diffi- 
 culties undertaken and striven with by the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant during those few years. With the view of throw- 
 ing some light upon the events of that bold struggle, 
 and knowing that any amount of illumination that can 
 be brought to bear upon the character of my noble 
 friend will but serve to render it more illustrious, I ven- 
 ture to select, from the bulky mass of his correspondence, 
 the following few memorials of his varied labours, and of 
 his constant love for Ireland :
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 365 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, July 15th, 1831. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry Can you dine with me to-day? I 
 have much to talk to you about. I also ask Blake. Be pre- 
 pared for Education Poor Laws Employment Newtown- 
 barry Castlepollard Orangemen Yeomanry and the d 1 
 else besides. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 A. 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, July 16th, 1831. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I return the letters you sent me. 
 I have just received your statement respecting what passed 
 
 about the baronetcy of the L M , I confess I do not 
 
 recollect any promise to the L M himself. I fully 
 
 determined to use every possible exertion to get it for him, in 
 
 the event of his resigning in favour of P , and in that 
 
 event only; and I did write to this effect to Lord G. How- 
 ever, I will not persevere in this conclusion; and I do trust, 
 from Lord Grey's last letter to me, that he will be enabled to 
 
 make II a baronet at the coronation. 
 
 I am most anxious to see you about the Deputy-Lieutenancies 
 of counties. When can you without inconvenience call? I am, 
 I fear, going to have a serious attack; I feel very unwell. 
 Lady Anglesey and the girls, and Lady L. Cadogan, arrived 
 this morning, all well. Will you and Lady C., and your son, 
 dine here to-morrow ? 
 
 Captain Warren, and a Lieutenant R.N., are arrived to sur- 
 vey Kingstown Harbour, at my request. Will you give them 
 every assistance, and show them all reports and previous opi- 
 nions ? It is possible they may call upon you to-morrow morn- 
 ing. I have asked them to dine here; yet I doubt if I shall 
 be forthcoming. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 P. P. Nov. 23rd, 1831. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry Really P 's nervousness and want 
 
 of confidence in us is very worrying. The A G will 
 
 not prosecute H ; but do not mention it. He thinks other-
 
 366 LETTERS FROM 
 
 wise about B M , which really would be most disastrous, 
 
 and I will stave it off, if I can, and have just written to urge 
 
 Stanley to avert it; but I understand the A G feels 
 
 that the PEREMPTORY order of the House of Commons is not 
 to be got rid of. He strongly urges the necessity of the ex- 
 candidates using every exertion to bring forward cases in a 
 tangible shape, and as soon as possible, as a set-off, and which 
 
 may cool the courage of the other party ; but of course B 
 
 must not be known to give this advice, which is strictly con- 
 fidential. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry* 
 
 Phoenix Park, January 31st, 1832. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I have had the inclination, but 
 really I have not had the time to write to you, on account of 
 the great pressure of business, and the numerous persons I have 
 had to see. I seize a moment of calm, and will begin with what 
 I know you will consider the best news I can send you. I am 
 remarkably well, and able thoroughly to enjoy myself. I ride, 
 I talk, I eat, and I drink, without the least difficulty; and Mr. 
 M seems to be doing wonders. 
 
 Of your dear country I can hardly tell you any thing that 
 you do not know. It is in a most feverish state; and yet in 
 one from which it may be extricated, if it is judiciously treated, 
 and if we do not lose time in consultation, without action. 
 Innishowen is in a blaze, and I have sent my firemen to ex- 
 tinguish it; and in default of magistrates, I am employing 
 officers. I do not fear the result, and I only hope the law will 
 not fall too severely upon that praiseworthy body of distillers 
 who put forth the real crater. 
 
 I have appointed Goold Master in Chancery, and P 
 
 Serjeant. There is no pacifying poor D . If you could see 
 
 my letters to him, you would hardly believe he would write the 
 answers he does. Poor man ! He is worked up to such a pitch 
 of excitement that I fear it will be fatal to him. 
 
 Have you seen Stanley, and calmly conversed with him upon 
 the Irish Reform Bill? I have begged him to cultivate you, 
 and also the Irish members. I fear ministers are inexorable 
 upon numbers. I am pressing Lord Grey hard upon the sub-
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 367 
 
 ject of tithe and bishops' lands. The plan, if carried into im- 
 mediate effect, would save a world of difficulties. 
 I am interrupted, and must break off. 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, February 1st, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I return you Mr. C 's letter. I was 
 
 interrupted yesterday, and am not better off to-day. The fact 
 is, I am persecuted; and were I to think of self alone, I would 
 rejoice in the truth of your report of Lord Carlisle being sent 
 to relieve me. Yet while I have life and hope, no disgust at 
 my treatment, either on this side of the Channel or on yours, 
 shall divert me from using my best energies for Ireland; and 
 O'Connell's " deplorable Lord Lieutenant," and Marcus Cos- 
 tello's " weak and silly Lord Anglesey," shall still work on 
 at his up-hill and almost hopeless game and drudgery. Mine 
 is, indeed, a laborious and a thankless charge; and I am con- 
 stantly open to abuse which I know I do not deserve, and which, 
 if I were to expose the truth, would soon change the tone of 
 my traducers. 
 
 I cannot quite go your length with respect to S., but I do 
 not think he is very anxious to uphold me, and I do believe 
 he would prefer a more submissive master. You must see that 
 I work at great disadvantage. He knows all my schemes, and 
 I know few of his, until he finds himself in a difficulty. Thus 
 all my projects, when laid before the Cabinet, if he does not 
 go the whole length with me (and half-measures are worse than 
 useless), are probably thwarted by him. He tells his own story, 
 and I have no one to support and back my views. The post 
 time is come. 
 
 I can only say sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, February 7th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I am sorry to observe that your 
 last letter to me is written in a state of despondency about your 
 country and yourself. Let me beg of you to put yourself above 
 the mean, pitiful abuse you meet with, who well know that 
 every word they write or utter against you are positive false-
 
 368 LETTERS FROM 
 
 hoods. It is, to be sure, very distressing that men who are 
 exerting their best energies, with no other object but to serve 
 their country, should be the victims of the most abominable 
 misrepresentations. But the best way to meet the calumnies 
 is, utterly to despise them ; this is my course, and I defy my 
 detractors to ruffle me by their abuse. Take my advice, and 
 follow the same course. Something must be in ilie wind on 
 your side of the Channel, of which I know nothing, for I have 
 been long without a word either from Lord Grey or Stanley; 
 and I have written upon important subjects, which require 
 early attention. I had, indeed, a hasty line from the latter 
 yesterday, merely enclosing a copy of a foolish letter of the 
 Duke of Buckingham to the Home Secretary, calling upon 
 government to collect his Grace's rents. In confidence, I send 
 you a copy of my reply. I do not think Parnell's secession is 
 a great loss. He is a busy good man of business, but he is 
 terribly un homme a systeme, and a too rigid parer of cheese 
 and candles' ends. They are taking every thing from poor 
 Ireland. I fear lie has suggested the withdrawing of King's 
 plates. Every guinea taken from expenditure in this impover- 
 ished country is very pernicious economy. In what you say 
 of the understrappers of the Castle I fully concur; but there 
 is no means of freeing ourselves from them. It is impossible 
 to fix any thing upon them which would justify dismissal, 
 and few of them could be discharged without pension; and 
 you well know that it is impossible to propose the grant of 
 any. I return you M 's blarney. He, too, must not ex- 
 pect a pension; but I am most ready to reward him handsomely 
 for his most useful services. I continue perfectly well, and up 
 to any thing. I hope Donegal is quite restored to tranquillity, 
 and I am now going to set to with Tipperary and Kilkenny. 
 I am interrupted. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Mr. Secretary Stanley. 
 
 Phoenix Park, February 6th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Stanley I have just received your hasty note of 
 the 4th, and have only a moment merely to acknowledge it. 
 
 As is usual with all the complaints against me, hastily and 
 inconsiderately made, I have the satisfaction of being able to 
 state that I can scatter them all to the winds.
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 369 
 
 His Grace of Buckingham has been completely anticipated ; 
 and the very depositions which he sends to the Home Secre- 
 tary are those with which, by my directions, his agent was 
 furnished. 
 
 Informations, not sworn to, were sent up; the priest's name 
 was omitted; and the magistrates could not induce Geohagan 
 to swear to them if it was introduced. 
 
 The magistrates were informed that I would afford G. ample 
 protection, and that he should not be a sufferer, if he would 
 swear to the facts of the case. 
 
 Geohagan accordingly swore to the informations; and con- 
 ceiving that his life, after taking such a step, might be sub- 
 jected to hazard if he remained at his residence,' I desired that 
 he might come to Dublin, where he might be taken care of. 
 Here he received sixteen shillings a-week ; but, anxious to return 
 to his family, he has left Dublin; and this day we hare appli- 
 cation from Mr. Uniacke, J.P., requesting me to continue G.'s 
 allowance, as he could not follow his usual occupations. 
 
 In the meantime, the opinion of the Attorney-General was 
 taken upon the legality of prosecution; and his first impres- 
 sion has been, that the government could not act without the 
 agent of the Duke of Buckingham coming forward; and to effect 
 this the Attorney-General has been in communication with that 
 agent. 
 
 As it is possible that the Duke of Buckingham may take 
 some opportunity of casting censure upon this government in 
 the House, I wish you would at once show this outline of facts 
 to Lord Grey, that he may be enabled to repel them. To-morrow 
 documents shall be forwarded upon this subject. 
 
 You speak of strong measures being about to be adopted 
 against lawless combinations. If these are coupled with heal- 
 ing measures if the tithe and Church land plan recommended 
 from hence if the poor be provided for as proposed and if 
 the various other projects for the improvement of this country 
 be vigorously pushed forward there will be no need of much 
 coercion; but if all this is not done (and that promptly) then I 
 have no hesitation in saying, that my military means are wholly 
 inadequate, and that less than an addition of twenty thousand 
 men cannot secure the tranquillity of Ireland. 
 
 In the hope and expectation that the legislative measures to 
 which I have made allusion would soon be carried into effect, it 
 has been my object to temporize; to induce the clergy, as muc 
 
 B*
 
 370 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 a* possible, to refrain from the exaction of tithe; and by ponr- 
 ing in troops rapidly, wherever disturbances broke out, to over- 
 awe the people. Hitherto insurrection, at least, has been fended 
 off; and wherever the clergy, in despite of the advice given, 
 have persevered in the collection of their rights, not an instance 
 has occurred in which they have not received protection. But 
 the consequence is, that the troops are greatly harassed; and, 
 therefore, unless the country is brought to tranquillity and good 
 feeling, by the effect of healing measures, the army must be 
 largely augumented. 
 
 For myself, I am persecuted on all sides by the hostility of 
 open foes, and by the unreasonableness of professed friends; 
 and there is an impertinence of dictation on the part of the old 
 ascendancy faction that exceeds all belief. 
 
 What is settled about the Lieutenancy of Tipperary, in case 
 
 D should persevere ? I wrote strongly to Lord Grey, in 
 
 recommendation of Lord Lismore; and I am anxiously awaiting 
 his reply, in order to be able to bring this tiresome matter to a 
 close. I remain, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 (Signed) ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, February llth, 1832. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I am just going to take up my 
 residence in the Castle. 
 
 What you relate is, I fear, but too true. Thank God I have 
 nothing upon my conscience. I have exerted every means 
 within my power to effect measures of conciliation, redress, and 
 amelioration, if possible before, but, at all events, simultaneous 
 with any new law or measure of coercion. 
 
 1 well know the consequence of the latter having the prece- 
 dence. The country is at this moment all but in a state of 
 rebellion; and the course which is, I fear, about to be pursued, 
 will probably produce a crisis that will shake the empire. 
 
 I really have anticipated all your remarks, and have given 
 the strongest opinions; and have shown what additional force 
 will be immediately necessary, which I have rather under than 
 over-rated ; and I conscientiously believe that if our tithe plan 
 were instantly adopted and acted upon, at the same time that 
 a firm determination were shown to enforce the actual laws 
 whilst they last, bad as they are, the country might yet be
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 371 
 
 saved. If we are to act upon a contrary system, I have no 
 hope. 
 
 Blake goes over immediately. He is perfectly equal to show 
 the practicability of overcoming all the difficulties put forth by 
 Stanley. Indeed answers to his objections are already sent over 
 to Lord Grey, which I should hope would have due weight. In 
 the meantime, I tremble at every day's post. I cannot cover 
 the whole country, and can only subdue two or three counties 
 at a time, and then fall upon others. But, what a miserable 
 state of things ! 
 
 I really doubt if my presence here can be much longer of use. 
 Personally I have nothing to complain of with ministers. All 
 with whom I communicate are apparently full of kindness and 
 confidence. Still there is something, or somebody, too powerful 
 for me to counteract, and, therefore, I expect mischief. I will 
 not, however, abandon the sinking vessel; and I call upon you 
 to make no rash declaration to take no hasty step. 
 
 Peers must be made ; but I know not how many will be made 
 from hence. I shall very much regret Milltown's not being 
 one. I would say Kenmare, Gormanstown, Landaff, Lismore, 
 Milltown (why not Killeen ?), and Rossmore. He is a wild one; 
 but he would tame the other wild elephants. He is acting 
 judiciously in his county. 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, February 22nd, 1832. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I have not written to you lately, 
 but I have written to those who would communicate with you, 
 
 I had a letter from Lord Grey a few days ago, which gave me 
 satisfaction, because it told me that you were satisfied with the 
 proceedings of the Committee. I replied that I rejoiced so 
 true a lover of Ireland, and so good a judge of its interests, 
 should be in good humour about it; that such an opinion from, 
 such a man would make me appear unreasonable in not being 
 satisfied, which I professed not to be. I then went on to say 
 that nothing less than our whole plan would do permanent good; 
 that I thought the proposed arrangements of the bishops' lands 
 were a sine qua non; that without it the whole question would 
 be re-opened j and that then, when they would have to fight
 
 372 LETTERS FROM 
 
 their battle single-handed, they would be defeated, and pulled 
 off the bench, &c. &c. <kc. 
 
 To Stanley I strongly put the policy of giving more members 
 to Ireland, and not giving an additional one to the College. But 
 I have not time to tell you all I wrote. Suffice it to say, that I 
 feel confident you would approve of every word. 
 
 I am prepared at all points in Kilkenny ; but I sincerely hope 
 the unhappy, misguided people will not drive me to extremities. 
 One guarantee against violence is, that O'Connell will be there, 
 and he will not venture to risk his sacred person. 
 
 I rejoice that your health is improving. Lady Anglesey 
 informs me that you are in the hands of Dr. Maton, of whom I 
 have a high opinion. 
 
 As the Mail and the Pilot failed in spoiling the levee, I 
 imagine they were deterred from trying their hands at the 
 theatre last [night] when I went in form. It was a full and 
 particularly respectable house; and the attempts for O'Connell 
 first, and then for Repale, had no success. 
 
 There was a most respectable dinner of the Bar last week, of 
 
 which, no doubt, C or some of your friends will give you 
 
 particulars. You will, no doubt, see Blake. I have a very 
 satisfactory and interesting letter to thank him for; and I beg 
 him, and you too, to write all that concerns us here. With 
 best regards to Lady Cloncurry, I remain, 
 
 Most sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, February 28th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry The affair of the Pole is in the 
 true spirit of the Old Castle ! Fire drawn upon one in a case 
 of the most complete insignificance; as if it signified whether 
 the fellow was here or anywhere else ! Yet I must father it all, 
 although I did not give it a moment's consideration. They 
 merely told me that he would be sent packing without any 
 trouble. For my part his presence and his absence are alike 
 indifferent to me. He is not likely to do good to Ireland ; and 
 the only harm he can do is what any other sturdy arm (if hia, 
 in fact, be such) may be equal to. 
 
 I rejoice that you think favourably upon tithe and Church 
 matters. 
 
 We must have very hot assizes. If we get well over these,
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 373 
 
 we may go on well ; but I sadly fear there will be many broken 
 heads. I have taken all the precautions within my power. 
 I am exceedingly distressed at the unfavourable report you 
 
 make of yourself. I wish M was alongside of you. My 
 
 best regards to Lady Cloncurry, and always 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY". 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, May 5th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I do not know that I have had 
 any thing particular to relate; for it is not at all particular that 
 the factions should continue to vie with each other in virulence, 
 in envy, in hatred, and in malice, and, I can well add, in all 
 uncharitableness ! It is shocking ! ! ! 
 
 Of course you have seen Mr. B 's letter. It is false 
 
 nearly from the beginning to the end. I forwarded to Lord 
 Lansdowne copies of letters from Tickell, and from the Crown 
 Solicitor, upon the facts, enough to satisfy every reasonable mind. 
 I sent them to him, because there was matter in them connected 
 
 with Mr. P , his agent, who, although a good man, is liable 
 
 to be misled and imposed upon. 
 
 Per contra, the Conservatives are outdoing themselves ; and 
 the league of almost the whole of the gentry against the govern- 
 ment is every day more strongly manifesting itself. Traps are 
 
 laying for me every hour. A certain Colonel P , for instance, 
 
 of Meath, repeating certain expressions in my speech, in regard 
 to the combining of the good against the bad, demands arms for 
 the chosen spirits whom he shall select ! In other words, he 
 wants to arm Orangemen. If I do, you know the consequences; 
 if I do not, you know the tone he will take ! Oh ! they are a 
 precious set. But I should make volumes if I entered into par- 
 ticulars; so I have done. 
 
 What I want to engage the gentlemen to is, to call upon the 
 best part of the people to assemble and associate with whatever 
 weapons they may have (and nothing is better than a good 
 bludgeon), and to sally forth with them, by day as well as by 
 night, occasionally, always accompanied and supported by a cer- 
 tain body of the military or police, or both. I am convinced 
 that a little occasional vigour of this sort would soon alter the 
 appearance of things; but I despair of accomplishing it. Next 
 week entre nous, I make a grand sweep for arms and culprits,
 
 374 LETTERS FROM 
 
 at the same instant, in the King's and Queen's Counties, in Kil- 
 kenny, and Carlow. I propose immediately afterwards to visit 
 these counties, and to talk to the gentlemen; and a special com- 
 mission is about to issue. 
 
 If all this is of no avail, we shall have nothing for it but 
 coercion laws. Will you believe it when I state, that clergy- 
 men, with their eyes open to the measures in contemplation for 
 them, and when the odium of collecting tithe is about to be 
 imposed upon the government, are daily persecuting me for 
 military aid to enforce payment of dues ? This is not Christian 
 patience. Will you believe this, too : whilst the Catholic 
 clergy are pursuing the most exemplary course, in attending 
 the dying in hospitals, and even taking up their abode amongst 
 them, Protestants were crying out for spiritual comfort, and no- 
 one could be found to give it ? At length their services have 
 been bought ! ! I 
 
 Tuyll has this instant walked in. He gives a dismal account 
 of Reform, and says you are low about it. Courage ! we must 
 carry it. Even our bill brought out by our adversaries would 
 not go down. Judge then what would be the fate of one of 
 their concoction. 
 
 If the King wavers he is lost. I will not give him up. I 
 think he will be firm. Best regards to Lady Cloncurry, and 
 always 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Abbeyleix, June 20th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I must return to-morrow, and propose 
 to take an early dinner with you, en passant. I have written 
 
 to desire C to meet me, because you will be most useful in 
 
 advising with us as to the course to be pursued in a case of in- 
 vestigation in which I am employing him. I know you will 
 excuse this liberty; indeed, I know you will be glad of the 
 
 opportunity of seeing C . As I believe five o'clock is your 
 
 hour, I will be with you by that time; and Lady Cloncurry 
 will, I know, tolerate us without any attempt to adorn our 
 persons. Colonel Roehfort, whom I meant to go on to, has 
 been summoned to London, and almost all the magistrates are 
 out of the country. However, even with the few I have seen, 
 I trust that this trip will not be wholly useless. I am afraid
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 375 
 
 I shall not see C the elder; and as for C the younger, 
 
 I fear he is not worth seeing. If I find that I pass close by 
 the former, and have time, I will call. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, June 22nd, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I send you letters from the Dean of 
 E . He is angry and inconsiderate. Surely I might ex- 
 press a hope that he has been misled in respect of the conduct 
 of an individual, without impeaching his character for veracity. 
 I did not even hint at voracity. 
 
 Can you not frame me two or three lines, which may accom- 
 pany my letter, when I return him his precious papers? When 
 
 M calls upon you, you may show him my remarks upon 
 
 his proposition. You will like to read Holland; send him 
 back. Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Maretimo, July 14th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I return Mr. R C 's letter. I 
 
 have thought long that this person is a firebrand, working from 
 vanity, and for his own private objects exaggerating every 
 statement; and therefore an enemy to Ireland of the worst 
 description. My interview with his respectable father quite 
 confirmed me in that view : and therefore I always read with 
 suspicion and distrust whatever comes from his pen, either 
 publicly or privately. 
 
 That you may have suffered from being my friend, as I for- 
 merly suffered by being yours, is indeed likely enough; but 
 this entirely proceeds from the infamous falsehoods which are 
 set abroad by rash agitators on both sides, in regard to my 
 conduct formerly and now. It affects me only with pity for 
 the people they mislead, and contempt for themselves. But the 
 time is come when they will find that I will not treat them with 
 contempt alone. Let them look to it. The difficulties of the 
 country are not brought on by me. I could and would have 
 avoided them by passing better laws; but the force of circum- 
 stances have not allowed this; and I will now see that the 
 laws, such as they are, shall not be broken with impunity.
 
 376 LETTERS FROM 
 
 I trust nothing will prevent your all coming on Tuesday. 
 Sir Frederick and the aid-de-camp have lodgings; and so I 
 hope the boys and all will come to my house. Just starting 
 for Council ; perhaps I may meet you there. 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, August 1st, 1832. 
 8, 30, P.M. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry Tour proposal is tempting; but after 
 much consideration, I fear the embassy would be too late to be 
 of service. Nevertheless, if you think otherwise, I would wil- 
 lingly write to Lord Lansdowne, and furnish C with cre- 
 dentials. 
 
 I enclose a letter I hastily scratched this morning to Lord 
 Grey, but I was too late for the post. Do read it, and give 
 your opinion; and add or erase as you may think best. Even 
 
 if it went, it need not preclude C 's going also. Could you 
 
 not come here early to-morrow, and talk over this, and pick up 
 
 C , and bring him with you 1 I will have an orderly with 
 
 you by eight o'clock to-morrow morning, to bring back any 
 thing you may have to say, and (if you choose to summon 
 
 C ) to convey a letter to him to that effect, as the orderly 
 
 returns through Dublin. 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, August 25th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry Read the enclosed little tract. There 
 are a few false statements, but in general there is good sense in 
 it. Coming from Cork, after the late to do there, might it not 
 be well that my secretary should express my assent to it, point- 
 ing out, perhaps, an error or two, which, if they strike you, I 
 would request you to observe upon, that I may adopt them. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Phoenix Park, September 8th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry Quand finira done mes tourmens ? To 
 please Lord M , I desired that Mr. H might (although
 
 LORD ANGLESEY. 377 
 
 I believe he bad done his duty) be removed from a scene where 
 he had .given offence to some persons. 
 
 Read all this trash and impertinence. Removed he shall 
 
 now be; but where shall I send him? Is Lord M really 
 
 anxious about this, and has he just grounds? 
 
 I vow to God life is not long enough to get through these 
 petty broils. Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, December 15th, 1832. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I have just received the enclosed from 
 dear Holland. It was evidently not written to meet your eye; 
 but as there is a little gentle throw at you, that is not altogether 
 undeserved, I send it to you. Let me have it again, for I read 
 it in such haste that I should like to see it again. 
 Most sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 Lady A. has told me several times that she has a letter from 
 you to show me, but it has not yet been produced. Why do 
 you keep moping and growling down there, just because things 
 do not go altogether according to your fancy ? Good God ! if 
 I were to act so, how long ago should I have rejected public 
 employment ! We must expect injustice and ingratitude. It 
 is inevitable; but we are bound to bear up against it. 
 
 A. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Dublin, January 18th, 1833. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry Where are you, and what are you 
 about ? Oh, what a life is mine ! What numberless things 
 would I wish to consult with you about, but my lips must be 
 hermetically sealed. 
 
 I opened the enclosed, as you desired. Lord Garvagh with- 
 draws. How I wish for honest Lismore's success ; but I cannot 
 expect it 
 
 Most sincerely yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1833, Lord Anglesey's 
 connexion with Ireland finally terminated. The multi- 
 farious difficulties that beset his administration may be
 
 378 LORD ANGLESEY'S 
 
 imagined from the insight afforded by the foregoing 
 letters into the conduct of his friends and of his foes. 
 Coupled with a hostile colleague in his government, sur- 
 rounded by hostile subordinates, virulently assailed by 
 the leaders of the people in whose cause he was strug- 
 gling, and underworked by intriguers within the cabinet 
 which he served, he held out manfully for nearly three 
 years; and as his concluding act, put upon record, in a 
 private letter to Lord Grey, a summary of that comprehen- 
 sive policy, the bearings of which I have endeavoured, in 
 some small degree, to exhibit. In it was put forward 
 an urgent expression of the noble Marquis's deliberate 
 opinion, founded upon his experience of Irish govern- 
 ment during the four years comprised in his viceroyal- 
 ties, that peace could not be established, or prosperity 
 initiated in Ireland, unless her English rulers could make 
 up their minds to carry out a system including 
 
 1. A complete arrangement of the Church question, 
 whereby the Protestant Religious Establishment would 
 be brought into conformity with the wants of its mem- 
 bers, and the ecclesiastical property made subservient 
 to the general good of the community. 
 
 2. A satisfactory arrangement of Grand and Petty 
 Juries. 
 
 3. A system of Poor-laws. 
 
 4. A system of Labour Rates. 
 
 5. A suppression of party processions and demonstra- 
 tions. 
 
 6. The organization of a force of special constables. 
 
 7. The regulation of the possession of arms, and 
 
 8. The payment of the Clergy of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 Several months after that remarkable letter was 
 written, it was made public, by means never explained, 
 and respecting which I have never been able to form a 
 satisfactory conjecture. The following letters refer to 
 the subject, though without throwing any light upon the 
 course by which a secret despatch from the Lord Lieu-
 
 INTERCEPTED LETTER. 379 
 
 tenant of Ireland to the Prime Minister of England came 
 to appear, without the consent of either, in the columns 
 of a public print : 
 
 Mr, Secretary Littleton (now Lord ffatherton) to Lord 
 Cloncurry. 
 
 Brighton, May 20th, 1834. 
 
 My dear Lord I will inquire into Mr. M 's case, and 
 
 do what I can on it. I shall also talk to Lord Melbourne on 
 the whole class of cases to which his belongs. 
 
 Lord Anglesey's habit of showing his correspondence was so 
 incautious, that the publication of his excellent letter to Lord 
 Grey did not surprise me. The publication will do no harm; 
 as, except that one must regret such a dishonourable act as that 
 by which it has been produced to the public, I cannot but feel 
 gratified that his real sentiments should have become known to 
 the world. 
 
 Ever, my dear Lord, faithfully yours, 
 
 E. J. LITTLETON. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesey to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Naples, June 7th, 1834. 
 
 My dear Cloncurry I have received your kind letter. The 
 publication of mine to Lord Grey is abominable, be the treach- 
 ery where it may; but I feel confident, and have told them 
 all I would stake my life upon it, that no one connected with 
 me has had any hand in it. For myself I care not a straw. I 
 hold the advice I gave to have been excellent, and I stand to 
 it; and I do not mind any abuse that may be heaped upon me 
 by bigots, who, because I will not go their stupid lengths, and 
 risk their Establishment by perpetuating its abuses, will con- 
 sider me, or rather misrepresent me, as a wild Reformer, hostile 
 to the Protestant Establishment. What does greatly annoy me 
 is, that ministers, and Lord Grey in particular, may possibly 
 have been put to some inconvenience by the appearance of the 
 document. It seems, however, to me, that one of them (Lord 
 J. R.) holds precisely the same opinions as I do. Pray assure 
 
 my dear friends T , S , and C , if you see them 
 
 and indeed any who can by possibility have seen the letter 
 that I know them to be incapable of showing any paper of 
 mine without my consent. Indeed, excepting the latter, who
 
 380 CREATED AN 
 
 is the faithful depositary of all my papers, and who is truth, 
 and honour, and honesty personified, they could not have had 
 the means. Had my general opinions upon public matters been 
 merely quoted, I would not have been surprised, as you know it 
 has ever been my principle to elicit opinions from able men, by 
 stating my own ; but that a verbatim copy of a whole letter 
 should have appeared is inexplicable. 
 
 I have been suffering very much, indeed, and continue very 
 ill. It takes off all enjoyment', and checks my excursions. I 
 shall, however, try to move on Monday to Sicily, probably for 
 a few days, to see what change of air will do. I long to see 
 that your son is restored to you in health. Lady A. is far from 
 well; the young ones in high force. All join in best regards to 
 you and Lady Cloncurty. Let me hear from time to time how 
 things go on. Truly yours, 
 
 ANGLESEY. 
 
 Shortly after the commencement of the second vice- 
 royalty of Lord Anglesey, I was made a Privy Coun- 
 cillor for Ireland; and in September of the year 1831, a 
 few days after the coronation, it pleased the King to 
 raise me to the peerage in England. This honour it had 
 been determined, without solicitation on my part, to con- 
 fer upon me in the previous June, at the time when the 
 Earls of Fingall and Leitrim were created Barons of the 
 United Kingdom; but I had reason to believe it was then 
 postponed through the operation of influences acting 
 "from behind the throne." There were quarters in 
 which any interruption to the consistency of a persecu- 
 tion was looked upon with disfavour ; and there, I be- 
 lieve, nothing was left undone that was thought likely 
 to prevent the bestowal upon me of a mark of royal 
 favour which might be recognised as an authoritative, 
 though somewhat tardy, censure upon the conduct of 
 my persecutors. The design, however, did not succeed ; 
 and although the triumph was not then, and is not now, 
 of much value in my estimation, I cannot deny myself 
 the pleasure of putting upon record the subjoined me- 
 morials of the light in which it was at that time viewed 
 by myself and others :
 
 ENGLISH PEER. 381 
 
 Lord Cloncurry to Earl Grey. 
 
 My Lord I beg of you in the most dutiful terms to express 
 to his Majesty my humble gratitude for his favour. 
 
 It is doubly valued, as a proof of the royal approbation of the 
 zeal and perseverance with which I have, through life, endea- 
 voured to advocate the interests of his loyal and faithful sub- 
 jects, the people of Ireland. I have the honour to be, with 
 respect, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's faithful, humble servant, 
 
 CLONCTJBEY. 
 
 The Duke of Leinster to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 6, Carlton-House Terrace, 10th Sept., 1831. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloucurry I have received your letter of the 
 7th, this morning; and again repeat my congratulations, not 
 only on your account, but on account of Ireland, at your being 
 created an English Peer. You have so long taken an in- 
 terest in the affairs of Ireland, that I know you will be of 
 use; therefore you ought to feel happy at your creation on her 
 account. 
 
 I am not in general an advocate for county meetings; but at 
 this moment I think petitions ought to be sent to the House of 
 Lords in favour of reform. Ours from the county of Kildare 
 has not yet been presented. Do you think a new meeting 
 requisite ? 
 
 By the enclosed note from Lord Brougham, which I received 
 too late for the post last night, I fear your presence will be 
 wanted. I am sorry you are brought from your home ; but 
 every exertion must be made at this moment to assist the 
 government to carry this great measure. As we shall so soon 
 meet, I will not answer the other subjects in your letter, but 
 sincerely thank you and Lady Cloncurry for your kindness to 
 our children. I am, my dear Lord Cloncurry, 
 Yours ever sincerely, 
 
 LEINSTEE. 
 
 This will be my last frank to you. 
 
 The Hon. George Villiers (now Earl of Clarendon) to Lord 
 Cloncurry. 
 
 Cleveland Court, September 14th. 
 
 My dear Lord Cloncurry I can with all sincerity say, that 
 I remember few circumstances in my life (not immediately per-
 
 382 CREATED AN ENGLISH PEER. 
 
 sonal) that have given me more hearty satisfaction than the 
 one upon which I now beg you to accept my congratulation. 
 Having been honoured with your acquaintance, and possessing 
 some knowledge of your deeds as well as opinions, it has always 
 been with sorrow, not unmingled with shame, that I have re- 
 flected upon the injustice to which you have so long been made 
 the victim. I only hope that this act of justice may, however 
 tardily, compensate you for the mortified and indignant feelings 
 with which you have for years seen every act of yours for the 
 benefit of your country misrepresented and distorted. As an 
 Englishman, as a friend of yours, my dear Lord, and, above 
 all, aa an ardent friend to Ireland, I shall rejoice to hear that 
 one of her best champions feels cause for satisfaction ; for the 
 public will view the honour that has been conferred on you in 
 its true light as a testimony borne to your public worth. 
 
 I hear you have published your opinions upon a poor law in 
 Ireland. You would much oblige me by giving me a copy, or 
 informing me where I can procure one in London. During a 
 late very severe and long illness, I have been giving much 
 attention to this intensely interesting subject; and any light 
 upon it from you would be most valuable. 
 
 Pray present my best respects to Lady Cloncurry ; and believe 
 me, my dear Lord, with great regard, 
 
 Most faithfully and sincerely yours, 
 
 GEORGE VILLIERS.
 
 383 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 18341846. 
 
 Abandonment of Lord Anglesey's policy Statesmanship on the Whig Model 
 Its results in the Demoralization of the People Testimony to this Truth ; 
 of Dr. Doyle, of Mr. Lambert Persistence in the same Policy Political 
 Quietism Letter from Lord Holland Break up of the Grey Ministry 
 Wellington Dictatorship Reheating of the Whig Mess, with the Old Con- 
 diments Letters ; from Lord Holland, from Lord Durham Working of the 
 Normanby Government. 
 
 THE period of the determination of Lord Anglesey's 
 administration of the Irish government was the begin- 
 ning of an era over which the recollections of a lover of 
 Ireland cannot be extended without exciting in his mind 
 feelings of sorrow and humiliation. With it ended the 
 only attempt at an impartial rule in Ireland, and with it 
 began the endeavour to establish the provincialization 
 of the country, through the agency of the vilest instru- 
 ments ever employed by one nation to enslave and de- 
 grade another placed by adverse circumstances under 
 her sway. For twenty-nine years the country had been 
 held for England, through the instrumentality of an 
 English garrison composed of a section of the people 
 and backed by English bayonets. From the Union up to 
 the year 1829 the Tory type of British colonial govern- 
 ment was the order of the day. The Protestants were 
 upheld as a superior caste, and paid in power and official 
 emoluments for their services in the army of occupation. 
 During the second viceroyalty of Lord Anglesey, the 
 effort was made by him to evoke the energies of the 
 whole nation for its own regeneration. That effort was 
 defeated by the conjoint influence of the cowardice of 
 the English cabinet, the petulance of Mr. Stanley, and 
 the unreasonable violence and selfishness of the lately-
 
 384 ABANDONMENT OF 
 
 emancipated popular leaders. Upon Lord Anglesey's 
 recall, the modern Whig model of statesmanship was set 
 up and followed; popular grievances were suffered to 
 remain unredressed ; the discontent and violence engen- 
 dered by those grievances were used from time to time 
 for party purposes ; the people were hung and bayoneted 
 when their roused passions exceeded the due measure of 
 factious requirement ; and the State patronage was em- 
 ployed to stimulate and to reward a staff of demagogues 
 by whom the masses were alternately excited to madness 
 and betrayed, according to the necessities of the English 
 factions. When Russells and Greys were out or in dan- 
 ger, there was free promise of equal laws and privileges 
 and franchises for oppressed Ireland ; the minister ex- 
 pectant, or trembling for his place, spoke loudly of jus- 
 tice and compensation, of fraternity and freedom. To 
 these key-notes the place-hunting demagogue pitched 
 his brawling. His talk was of pike-making and sword- 
 fleshing and monster-marching. The simple people were 
 goaded into a madness, the end whereof was for them 
 suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the hulks, and 
 the gallows ; for their stimulators, silk gowns, commis- 
 sionerships, and seats on the bench. 
 
 Under this treatment, the public mind became de- 
 bauched. The lower classes, forced to bear the charges 
 of agitation, as well as to suffer its penalties, lost all 
 faith in their social future ; they saw not, and looked not 
 beyond the momentary excitement of a procession or a 
 monster meeting. As time went on, those who led and 
 robbed them felt the necessity of meeting the apathy 
 attendant upon their increasing demoralization, by the 
 use of more pungent stimulants. They could no longer 
 trust for topics of agitation to a recapitulation of real 
 grievances, which might be redressed, but in the removal 
 of which would be involved the drying up of the springs 
 of the agitators' influence. To hold out hopes of the 
 establishment of civil and religious equality, of the attain- 
 ment of complete freedom of industry, or even of local
 
 LORD ANGLESEY'S POLICY. 385 
 
 self-government, no longer sufficed to rouse the passions 
 of the mob, or to bring money into the exchequer of the 
 demagogues. It therefore followed, that the staple talk 
 of the popular meetings came to be made up of appeals 
 to the basest passions of the multitude ; old feuds be- 
 tween Irishmen were revived ; a new appetite for ven- 
 geance was whetted ; nay, even the bonds of society 
 were loosened by intimations not obscure that a triumph 
 of the people would be associated with an abatement of 
 the sacredness of property. The emptiness of this noise 
 was in a direct ratio with its loudness. Yet it fulfilled 
 its purpose of frightening the Tories out of office, or of 
 deterring them from accepting it ; and the talkers were 
 accordingly every now and then rewarded and silenced 
 by scraps from the refuse of official patronage. 
 
 It must be obvious that this state of things could not 
 have existed had a middle class exercised a proper and 
 natural influence upon the public mind. There was, 
 however, practically no such class in a position to inter- 
 fere. Many of those who should have belonged to it 
 were clamorous place-beggars, in the ranks of the agita- 
 tors. Those who were not sunk into that abyss of de- 
 gradation, were restrained by their fears from taking any 
 part in public affairs. They were, upon the one hand, 
 afraid of contributing to a restoration of the power of 
 their ancient oppressors ; and upon the other, distrustful 
 of those pretended friends whose selfish motives they 
 could not but perceive through the thin disguise of their 
 assumed patriotism. 
 
 How heavily this condition of the country weighed 
 upon the spirits of those who knew her best and loved 
 her most, appears in the following letter from Dr. 
 Doyle, while that which succeeds it from the able peu 
 of Mr. Lambert, then member for Wexford, contains 
 no bad sketch of the Whig policy and practice of the 
 day:
 
 386 TESTIMONY OF DR. DOYLE ; 
 
 The Right Rev. Bishop Doyle to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 Carlo w, March 3rd, 1834. 
 
 My dear Lord I am greatly obliged to your Lordship for 
 the letter with which you lately honoured me, and the draft of 
 bill which Mr. R. Cassidy had, by your Lordship's direction, 
 forwarded to me some day last week. 
 
 I had partially recovered from a long illness, but have again 
 relapsed into such a state of debility as to be incapable of apply- 
 ing my mind to any subject requiring attention. Should it 
 please God that I would again be enabled to attend to business, 
 I will derive great gratification from the study of your Lord- 
 ship's work, which, if I would judge of by the preamble, is 
 worth fifty volumes of what is every year spoken or written 
 about Ireland. 
 
 Perhaps it is in part owing to the state of my health that my 
 hopes of the improvement of our country are weakened. I 
 thought there was more intelligence and virtue among the 
 middle classes of our people than there now appears to me to 
 be. Their conduct at the period of the last general election, 
 and since, in suffering themselves to be deceived, and then 
 bestrode by the basest tyranny that ever established itself for 
 any length of time in these latter ages, compels me, God knows 
 how reluctantly, to doubt whether there be sufficient soundness 
 in the community to render it capable of profiting by any 
 liberal system of legislation. As to the lowest classes of the 
 people, their demoralization is extreme, and they thirst for dis- 
 order. I am very much of opinion that if there be a chance 
 remaining of yet rescuing the country from the evil genius 
 which troubles and torments it, and of placing the people within 
 the fold of the law and constitution, a measure large and com- 
 prehensive, such as your Lordship's professes to be, would be 
 most likely to attain those ends. I have the honour to be, my 
 dear Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 >J J. DOILE. 
 
 H. Lambert, Esq., M.P., to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 8, St. James's-place, 3rd June, 1834. 
 
 My dear Lord I have received your letter, and I hope need 
 not assure you how willingly I would attend to any recommeu-
 
 OF MR. LAMBERT. 387 
 
 dation of your Lordship's, if I had any power whatever of pro- 
 moting the accomplishment of your wishes. 
 
 In common with many others, you seem to think, my dear 
 Lord, that having stood in the front ranks in defence of his 
 Majesty's government, having dismissed every selfish appre- 
 hension of danger and consideration of prudence, when their 
 battle was to be fought, in the House or out of it, I might be 
 supposed to possess some influence with those distinguished 
 persons. Quite the reverse. If you want to carry any point 
 with government, apply to Mr. O'Coiinell for his interest; it 
 will not fail. It is actually rutting season with that great 
 character and our illustrious rulers. A superb "juste milieu" 
 Cabinet, with subordinates of similar talents and propensities, 
 is in progress of formation. I rather suspect it will not last 
 long. I stated last night my belief that dissension did still 
 exist among the remains of the Cabinet. This was angrily 
 denied; but we shall see, when the moment for any positive 
 proposition or practical measure shall arrive. Ellice is the only 
 man of energy among them ; and I have reason to think that 
 lie joined the Cabinet merely to avoid its total break up, which 
 would have ensued had he declined. No other appointment 
 lias been made, except, perhaps, that of Lord Auckland to the 
 Admiralty, in the place of Sir J. G. /// Many have been 
 offered and refused ; some from the certainty of not being re- 
 elected; others, as in the case of M. O'F <, from a difficulty 
 of comprehending the precise politics of the new Cabinet. 
 There are reports, / cannot say if correct, that Lord Brougham 
 has acted a very strange part in the late Cabinet dissensions. 
 There can be no doubt that intrigues of all sorts were at work, 
 and I should think successfully, to exclude any thing like talent 
 or energy from the new administration. So we are to jog on 
 in the juste milieu until the next explosion. 
 
 I had a few lines from Blake lately, but so extremely guarded 
 and diplomatically laconic, that I have not felt it necessary to 
 write to him on these late events, not knowing exactly the 
 political shade of his opinions. 
 
 I had a letter also from General Cockburn relative to the 
 tithe bill. Will you pardon my requesting you, if you see the 
 General, to thank him from me, and assure him I shall attend 
 to his proposition. Believe me, my dear Lord, 
 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 H. LAMBEBT. 
 
 32
 
 388 PERSISTENCE IN THE SAME POLICY. 
 
 P.S. Report says Lord G. is heartily sick of all this, and 
 longs for retirement. The means employed to obtain the majo- 
 rity for the "previous question" last night were the threatened 
 resignation of Lord Althorpe, and the collision with your noble 
 House. Some hints about Tories coining in, made up the sum 
 of the statesmanlike arguments advanced. The present Cabinet 
 arrangements are said to be exclusively Lord Althorpe's. Ima- 
 gine that a dissolution of Parliament was among the menaces of 
 yesterday. 
 
 It would be impossible to find witnesses more compe- 
 tent than the writers of these letters to speak to the 
 condition of Irish affairs in 1834, and few whose testi- 
 mony, in the line in which it runs, it would be more 
 difficult to discredit. There was, I believe, no Irishman 
 imbued with deeper feelings of nationality than Bishop 
 Doyle, or who was more painfully sensible of the bitter- 
 ness of being, obliged by his own sense of truth and 
 honour to admit the fact of the moral degradation of his 
 fellow-countrymen. On the other hand, there was no 
 Irish Whig more jealous of the character of his party 
 than Mr. Lambert, or who was more desirous to carry 
 out its principles in the administration of Irish affairs in 
 such a manner as should sink the individual nationality 
 of Ireland, and make her a great limb of the English 
 Whig body. Surely, then, it is lamentable to find one of 
 these men " doubting whether there was sufficient sound- 
 ness in the community to render it capable of profiting 
 by any liberal system ; " and the other admitting with 
 regret that the whole statesmanship of the English party 
 rulers of Ireland with whom he was associated was limited 
 to a truckling subserviency to Mr. O'Connell. Still more 
 lamentable is it to know, that after the lapse of fifteen 
 years, there is still in the community the same unsound- 
 ness, and in the ruling faction the same deficiency of 
 manly conduct and far-seeing statesmanship. At this very 
 moment, the " intelligence and virtue among the middle 
 classes of our people" has succumbed under the tyranny 
 of demagogues, who, with liberty upon their tongues,
 
 POLITICAL QUIETISM. 389 
 
 have successfully called upon a starving and oppressed 
 nation to contribute money to aid in the replacement of 
 the yoke of despotism upon the necks of the people of 
 another land. While I write the lineal successors of the 
 juste milieu Whigs of 1 834 know of nothing better that 
 can be done for the relief of a prostrated country, than 
 to provide the means of buying more village agitators 
 and members of parliament, by stopping a hole in a 
 demoralizing and corrupting, but place-making poor-law, 
 with a six-penny rate-in-aid patch. 
 
 How deeply the best and wisest of the ministers of 
 the former period suffered themselves to settle down 
 into political quietism, is shown in parts of the following 
 letter : 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 17th June, 1834. 
 
 My dear Lord I shall have pleasure in taking your proxy, 
 and giving it, as you would give your vote, in favour of justice 
 for Jews as well as Gentiles. On the proxy question, if I am 
 present, I am afraid I cannot give it, as I should vote against 
 Grosvenof's motion. It is much 'better for the country and for 
 themselves, that their Lordships' attendance should not be 
 numerous and constant. 
 
 Indeed I do not damn Irish business, but do my best to bless 
 it, and make it advantageous to him that gives and him that 
 receives. But is it possible for government or legislature to 
 acknowledge that they cannot enforce the law, and simply to 
 enact that what men are by law entitled to they shall not 
 receive, because those from whom it is due will not pay it ? The 
 Church lands have been turned to some account towards the 
 purpose you mention, and may be converted to yet more; but 
 yet I cannot take the sanguine view you do of that subject, and 
 imagine that all could be defrayed from thence, even without 
 injury, much less without difficulty or offence to any body. 
 The other plans you suggest for the employment of the people 
 and the cultivation of lands, may be, and, I dare say, are good; 
 but I think you expect from them, and from the legislature, 
 more than laws or legislators can confer. The province of 
 government is to place their subjects in a state of liberty and 
 law, in which it becomes their interest and inclination to employ
 
 390 BREAK-UP OF 
 
 themselves, and to improve the country; but I have little con- 
 fidence, I own, in the efficacy of undertakings for such purposes 
 at the public expense, and where the State, not individuals, are 
 the adventurers. 
 
 I concur with you much more cordially about the act of 
 amnesty, though, I suppose, Melbourne is right in thinking a 
 general act inexpedient, and the whole attainable by individual 
 applications. I will not lay down my pen without writing to 
 him to urge Major Weir's case. 
 
 It delights me, both for private and public reasons, that you 
 think of coming over for the Irish questions. I infer from it 
 that your health is improved; and 1 hope that you will assist 
 us in whatever may require correction in our bills. 
 Believe me, truly yours, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND. 
 
 P.S. Sorry I am to say that my last accounts from Lord 
 Anglesey were very distressing; and I am afraid his physician, 
 who was to return this month, will disappoint him. 
 
 The brief period of Lord Wellesley's second vice- 
 royalty was passed through, by both ministers and people, 
 in the manner indicated in Dr. Doyle's and Mr. Lambert's 
 letters. The " rutting season" (to use the expressive 
 phrase of the latter writer) between our rulers and the 
 leader of the people, was attended with much noise and 
 fury on the one side, and shabby, paltering, vain yielding 
 on the other. The collision between Mr. Littleton and 
 Mr. O'Connell, in which the former himself established 
 his own folly, and was shown by the latter to labour 
 under the infirmity of a treacherous memory, took place 
 towards the close of the session of parliament ; and, a 
 few weeks afterwards, the death of Earl Spencer broke 
 up the ministry, then thoroughly disgraced, and placed 
 the Duke of Wellington in the position of dictator. 
 
 The act of the assumption of that position was charac- 
 terized by the Duke himself, in an anticipatory judgment, 
 as one of insanity. The fit, however, did not last long, 
 and it resulted, in a few months, in a re-heating of the 
 old Whig mess, in the fashion here set forth;
 
 THE GREY MINISTRY. 391 
 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 14th April. 
 
 A thousand thanks, my dear Lord, for your letter, enclosure, 
 and suggestions : the latter shall go directly to Lord Melbourne 
 and the Lord Lieutenant, whoever he be. Whether Lord Wel- 
 lesley returns, or a new appointment takes place, is not, I pre- 
 snme, yet settled, or if so, I have not heard. But whatever the 
 appointment may be, it will, I trust, be on the principles and 
 with the views you describe. You have certainly been quite 
 right in your predictions. Had what we now must do been done 
 in time, it would, no doubt have been better; but, on the other 
 hand, to do a thing well, or indeed to complete it at all, one 
 must adapt one's efforts to one's means. Lord Melbourne was, 
 on Sunday last (after a joint, earnest but fruitless endeavour of 
 his late colleagues and the King to prevail on Lord Grey to 
 resume office), authorized to form a ministry, and has been ever 
 since, and is now, occupied in making those arrangements. 
 With one painful exception, which occasioned in a great mea- 
 sure by public feeling, just or unjust, must be pretty well 
 known to that public, I do not think that he will have to 
 encounter more difficulties or annoyances than usually attend 
 the appointment of some, and the disappointment of others, in 
 such an operation. 
 
 By some clumsy accident, Melbourne's name was not men- 
 tioned in either House last night; but if any Lord is curious 
 enough to ask, he will this evening tell him that he is forming a 
 ministry, and has every prospect of completing his task shortly. 
 Tell Leinster this. I am, in hurry, 
 
 Yours, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND. 
 Lord Holland to Lord Cloncurry. 
 
 South-street, 18th April. 
 
 Dear Lord Cloncurry I save the post; and though, I doubt 
 not, the evening papers will tell you all more fully and correctly 
 than I can, send you our list : 
 
 Melbourne, First Lord. 
 
 Lansdowne, President of Council. 
 
 Duncannon, Privy Seal and Woods and Forests. 
 
 Palmerston, F. \ 
 
 Grant, with Peerage, C. > Secretaries of State. 
 
 Lord J. Russell, H. J
 
 392 RE-HEATING OF THE WHIG MESS 
 
 Hobhouse, B. of Control. 
 
 Auckland, Admiralty. 
 
 Poulett Thompson, B. of Trade and Cabinet. 
 
 Holland, Duchy. 
 
 Spring Rice, Exchequer. 
 
 Howick, Secretary at War. 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Mulgrave, Lord Lieutenant. 
 
 Morpeth, Secretary; if he can vacate. 
 
 All, except the last, were announced by the King in Council 
 to-day, and have actually or virtually kissed hands. Of the 
 other appointments I am rather imperfectly informed; and till 
 they have kissed hands, been gazetted, or had their writs moved, 
 alterations may occur. I hope, but / do not know, that Welles- 
 ley will be Chamberlain. Nothing is said, nor I think done, 
 about Horse Guards; but I hope if ever any thing is, Anglesey 
 will be at hand to counsel and assist. Kempt refused, and, I 
 believe, Sir John Byng has taken, the Ordnance. He did no.t 
 kiss hands. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 VASSALL HOLLAND. 
 
 This, if not in the papers, is for Lemster as well as yoia. 
 The Times will oppose, if it be only for spite, every man John, 
 as well as John himself, in the elections. 
 
 Here was a fair opportunity for retrieving former 
 blunders, and making up for past shortcomings ; but it 
 might as well not have been offered. The Whigs pot- 
 tered on in their old way, and still dealt with Ireland in 
 the spirit which one who knew them well would seein 
 to have expected : 
 
 The Earl of Durham to Lord Cloncurry* 
 
 Lamb ton Castle, April 18, 1835. 
 
 My dear Lord I feel greatly obliged to you for your com- 
 munication. The state of Ireland is a disgrace to the age. 
 Whether the new ministry will have inclination or power to 
 apply a remedy, I know not. If they make the attempt, they 
 shall have my warmest support. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 DURHAM.
 
 WITH THE OLD CONDIMENTS. 393 
 
 It was in the fashion to which I have alluded that the 
 administration of Ireland, during the viceroyalty of Lord 
 Normanby, was carried on. The Marquis, no less than 
 his secretary, Lord Morpeth, was filled with the best 
 intentions. He was desirous, I am convinced, of acting 
 liberally and impartially ; but the ancient curse of the 
 country intervened, and rendered both liberality and im- 
 partiality impossible. Immediately upon Lord Normanby's 
 arrival, war was proclaimed against him by the entire of 
 the Protestant party ; while he simultaneously received a 
 still more fatal support from the rabble of plac-hunters. 
 The policy of his government, accordingly, became a 
 mere affair of place-giving. When a demagogue became 
 particularly violent, he was cooled down toy the gift of 
 an office in the courts of justice, or a commissionership, 
 it mattered not in what line, so as a suitable salary was 
 attached. Again, when a vigorous rally was made by 
 the old Church and State party, and there was a lull in 
 the more popular agitation, a sop would be thrown in 
 the opposite direction, by placing a mitre upon the head 
 of some stanch opponent of National Education. Mean- 
 while, little was done to advance the general interests 
 of the people. Their enlarged franchises, parliamentary 
 or municipal, opened for them no new channels of in- 
 dustry. They were left still trusting in the potato for 
 their daily subsistence, and fighting, like wild beasts, 
 over the soil that to them supplied all the necessaries of 
 life, through the sole means of that fruitful but ill- 
 economized root. In vain for them was the most fertile 
 land in Europe ready to teem with various fruits ; in vain 
 their coasts swarmed with living food ; in vain the sea 
 that washed those coasts invited the commerce of two 
 worlds. The victims of that disorganization of society, 
 some of the causes of which I have endeavoured to indi- 
 cate, they vegetated on in an apathetic quiet ; or, when 
 starving amid the plenty that surrounded them, they 
 gave expression to their misery in violence, they were 
 quieted by the rope or the bayonet, or caged in the 
 
 s 3
 
 394 WORKING OF THE NORMANBY GOVERNMENT. 
 
 union poorhouses, until pestilence put a period to their 
 season of troubling, and set their weariness at rest. 
 
 Lord Normanby was succeeded by Lord Forteseue, 
 Lord Fortescue by Lord De Grey, and Lord De Grey by 
 Lord Heytesbury ; but still there was no real change in 
 the policy of government; and so matters went on for 
 ten or twelve years, until, in the total failure of the po- 
 tato, the staff of the miserable life of the people was 
 broken, and the beginning of the end of the Anglo-Irish 
 system arrived. That end is now in course of accom- 
 plishment. To attempt to chronicle its progress would 
 be a painful task that, I confess, I lack spirit to under- 
 take ; but an allusion to its events must form an item in 
 the moral with which it is my design to conclude this 
 tale.
 
 395 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Moral of the Tale Hope for Ireland Its Foundations Over-success of 
 the Policy of the Unionists The Irish Burthen upon England Expatria- 
 tion and Corruption of the Irish Gently Effects upon the People Natural 
 Results of the Policy The Land Difficulty The Land Inquiry Commission 
 The " Fixity of Tenure" Movement The Potato Failure Final Ruin of 
 the Gentry The Old Liens on Estates The New and More Fatal Encum- 
 brances What can an Irish Gentleman do under existing circumstances ? 
 Old English Party Politics Decline of their Interest in Ireland The Po- 
 litical Inquiry proper for the Occasion Determination of the Land Struggle 
 Mischievous Effects of the Fixity of Tenure Movement on the National 
 Cause Signs of the Effects of the Removal of the Barriers of Irish Society 
 Natural and necessary Solution of the Anglo-Irish Question Conclusion. 
 
 THE growing bulk of my volume gives warning that 
 it is time to stop my pen, and, for the present at least, 
 to interrupt the stream of recollections that seems to 
 press upon me with an increased strength and fulness, 
 as I have, by degrees, opened a channel for its flow. In 
 drawing to a conclusion, however, I cannot persuade 
 myself to let slip the opportunity of sketching, in a few 
 brief sentences, the present condition of Ireland, as a 
 counterpart to the traits I have drawn of her former 
 state to point, as it were, the moral of my tale, so far 
 as it relates to the trials, and sufferings, and hopes of 
 my country. Adopting the metaphor of Grattan, I may 
 say that I witnessed the birth of her constitution, lived 
 through the short period of her existence as a nation, 
 and have survived her death for half a century. During 
 the long and dreary sleep of the grave that has suc- 
 ceeded that event, I have never ceased to believe in the 
 possibility of her regeneration. Is there yet a hope re- 
 maining that the mouldering and corrupt mass shall ever 
 be resuscitated into a new and purer form of national 
 life ? With the experience of more than ten lustra of 
 misery and oppression, of domestic broil and debasing
 
 396 OVER- SUCCESS OF 
 
 protection to damp my ardour, my answer to this ques- 
 tion still is, that my faith in the destinies of the Irish 
 people has not ceased to live. At this, her darkest 
 hour, I look forward with confidence to the internal 
 union, the prosperity and the independence of Ireland. 
 
 Where are the foundations of this hope that has grown 
 with my strength and years of manhood, and has lived 
 on through my weakness and age ? They seem to me 
 to be discernible even in the fabric of those circum- 
 stances that English ministries look to as the last signs 
 of the triumph of the policy that has for its end the de- 
 nationalization of this fair kingdom, and the confusion of 
 its identity in the unwieldy and bloated mass of the 
 British empire. When the contrivers of the Legislative 
 Union in 1799 avowed to each other, in their most 
 secret communications,* the great object of their work 
 to be a stoppage of the progress of the growing pros- 
 
 * MR. EDWARD COOKE'S NOTES IN FAVOUR OF THE UNION. 
 
 Will a Union make Ireland quiet ? 
 
 Who can judge for the future? Yet, although we cannot command 
 futurity, we are to act as if futurity were in our power. We must 
 argue from moral causes to moral effects. If, then, we are in a disad- 
 vantageous situation, we must, of course, look to those causes which 
 have brought us into that situation. What are they ? 
 
 1st. The local independent acting of the Legislature.. 
 
 2nd. The general prosperity of the country, which has produced 
 great activity and energy. 
 
 3rd. The emancipation of the Catholics. 
 
 4th. The encouragement given to the reform principles of the Pres- 
 byterians. 
 
 5th. The want of number in the Protestants. 
 
 6th. The uncertainty of counsels as to this great division of the 
 country. 
 
 Now what is the complaint? That we have not influence in the 
 originating Cabinet. By a Union, we should have that influence. 
 
 We have no influence in the originating Parliament of the Empire. 
 We should have a great and commanding interest there. 
 
 The want of numbers, which is the want of power, would be in- 
 creased by an accession of all the Protestants of the Empire. 
 
 The question of Reform would be settled. 
 
 The Catholic question would be settled. 
 
 The question then is, Can these moral causes of discontent be taken 
 away with safety without Union ? 
 
 1st. Can the Protestants of Ireland, as a separate State, gain an in- 
 ternal accession of strength as Protestants ? No.
 
 THE UNIONIST POLICY. 397 
 
 perity of Ireland, they probably did not dream of so 
 complete an attainment of that end as their successors 
 have achieved in 1849. Their high-vaulting ambition 
 has o'erleaped its selle. They have not merely stopped 
 the growing prosperity of Ireland : they have done 
 more ; they have reduced the strength of her people 
 of her peers and of her peasants to a homogeneous 
 mass of misery, and they have fastened that upon the 
 shoulders of England which already totters under the 
 burthen. The caricaturists have represented the Celt 
 with his legs of leather clinging around the neck of the 
 sturdy Saxon, and ministers and people, thinking not of 
 the moral of the eastern story, made merry at the con- 
 ceit. Sinbad found not rest by day or by night; his 
 food ceased to nourish him, his sleep brought no refresh- 
 ment so long as the old man of the island, whose car- 
 riage he had voluntarily imposed upon himself, continued 
 to press in dead weight upon his strength, and to con- 
 sume his resources in ravening idleness. Sinbad found 
 no relief from his misery until he intoxicated his tor- 
 menter, and beat out his brains with the fragment of a 
 rock. There is no prospect of a like relief for the 
 Saxon. He has, indeed, exhausted the vigour of his 
 Celtic old man by absentee depletion he has paralyzed 
 his limbs by denying to him opportunities for their ex- 
 ercise; but, intoxicated though the Celt be by a de- 
 basing alms-system, he will but hold his seat the more 
 tenaciously for his stupor, and, unless he be charmed off 
 by the assurance of freedom, there will he sit on until, 
 with his bearer, he shall sink down in common help- 
 lessness. 
 
 The policy of stopping the growth of Irish prosperity 
 
 2nd. Can the Roman Catholic question be altered so as to preclude 
 Reform of Parliament ? It cannot. 
 
 3rd. Can a Reiorm of Parliament be made consistent with Protestant 
 security ? It cannot. 
 
 4th. The Representative body of Ireland will obtain a joint right 
 with the Representative of Great Britain to legislate for the whole Em- 
 pire. Castlereagh Memoirs, vol. iii., pp. 54, 55.
 
 398 EXPATRIATION OF THE GENTRY. 
 
 has succeeded, so far as the immediate object is con- 
 cerned. The gentry, attracted to the English metropo- 
 lis by the business of parliament and the pleasures of 
 the court, have been broken down in spirit and fortune, 
 as completely as were the noblesse of France by the 
 analogous device of Louis XIV. The Grand Monarque 
 destroyed the influence and corrupted the patriotism of 
 the French nobles, by drawing them to Paris by the 
 force of fashion ; the English government dealt in like 
 manner with the Irish gentry by forcing them to follow 
 after their political importance to London. In the one 
 case and in the other, estates were at once neglected 
 and wasted; local ties were dissolved; the bond of 
 feeling, as well as that of mutual interest between the 
 owners and occupiers of land, was severed, the former 
 were plunged into difficulties by their increased expen- 
 diture ; the latter galled by the expedients rendered 
 necessary by those difficulties. In France there was a 
 revolution and a re-distribution of property ; in Ireland, 
 a revolt of the forty-shilling freeholders, and a long 
 agrarian war, with all its lamentable concomitants of 
 murder, agitation, and demagogue rule. For a while 
 this state of things jumped well with the English policy. 
 The division, for the purpose of government, of the Irish 
 people, was facilitated ; landlords and agents were shot, 
 and farmers and cottiers were evicted and starved ; but 
 still corn and cattle were exported to England, and their 
 price spent in London, and Cheltenham, and Brighton : 
 there were Orange and Ribbon processions and battles, 
 and bloody election fights ; but still some scores of venal 
 votes were brought into the imperial political market, 
 and some half-dozens of well-trained gladiators provided 
 for the faction games of Westminster. Ireland was going 
 on very well for English purposes. To keep matters 
 going, it was only necessary now and then to rob and 
 insult the resident gentry, and, when the tide turned, to 
 shoot and hang the peasants, and all through to keep up 
 a supply of places and pensions for leading factionaries
 
 ITS EFFECTS ON THE PEOPLE. 399 
 
 of both colours. With attention to these precautions, 
 all went right : Ireland was divided and governed ; her 
 people grew corn, reared cattle and pigs to feed Liver- 
 pool, Manchester, and Leeds ; supplied the army with 
 horse, foot, and dragoons, and starved, without grum- 
 hling, upon potatoes. It is true this climax of the Eng- 
 lish policy could not, under any circumstances, have heen 
 long maintained. The progress of a nation cannot be 
 stopped at the precise point that suits the convenience 
 of her rulers. If the natural tendency to advance be 
 checked, there will surely be a retrograde movement, 
 and that, too, in a direct proportion with the strength of 
 the original impulse. In morals, as in physics, action 
 and reaction are equal ; and when the unionists, acting 
 upon the principle laid down in Mr. Secretary Cooke's 
 private memoranda, succeeded in checking the growing 
 prosperity of Ireland, the force they were obliged to 
 exert to stop the machine caused it to move backwards 
 with a rapidity upon which, it is probable, they did not 
 calculate. The organization of society set a-going under 
 the constitution of '82, and w r hich was proceeding during 
 the next eighteen years, in spite of the English ministe- 
 rial impediments of a close parliament and a religious 
 persecution, was, after the melancholy epoch of 1800, 
 speedily dissolved, and replaced by that chaos of faction 
 and corruption, which, growing darker and more con- 
 fused from year to year, seemed, about the years 1843- 
 44, to be on the point of passing into social dissolution. 
 
 The fifty thousand bayonets and sabres with which 
 the English goverment thought it necessary to hedge its 
 divinity inspired no awe. The people saw them through 
 the light of their victory of '29, and the impressions of 
 their own superior force communicated by that and sub- 
 sequent similar events, were continued and strengthened 
 by the ill- concealed tremblings and delusive concessions 
 of the ministers. Messages of peace were laughed at, 
 when they were known to be framed under the shadow 
 of clouds in the far west. Commissions to inquire into
 
 400 THE LAND DIFFICULTY. 
 
 questions that lay in a nutshell, were looked at either as 
 tedious and expensive contrivances for evasion, or as 
 direct stimulants to the pressure from without. The 
 instance of the Land Inquiry Commission will serve as a 
 specimen of the whole policy, and of its effects. The 
 land difficulty rested on the surface. The owners, made 
 absentees by the English policy, were at one stroke de- 
 prived of their local influence, and impoverished. Their 
 poverty obliged them to exact, with rigour, rents which 
 their personal neglect of the public business of their 
 districts, as well as of their own private affairs, rendered 
 burthensome. The decline of their local influence added 
 at once to the difficulty of collecting those rents, and to 
 the bitterness that attended their violent exaction. A 
 state of fierce hostility sprung up where there should 
 naturally have been the peaceful relation of commercial 
 dealers, if not the more friendly union of landlord and 
 tenant. The occupier of the land then fell into arrear, 
 and his stock was seized : the owner evicted, and if 
 increasing poverty drove him homewards, was shot 
 This was the exact state of matters, and it was clearly 
 one that direct legislation could not cure. To invest an 
 absentee landlord with more legal power to enforce his 
 rights would not render him more observant of his 
 duties. To fence round the dishonesty of an irritated 
 tenant with additional chicaneries of law, would not 
 calm his vexation, or teach him correct principles of 
 dealing. Sir Robert Peel knew these truths : one can 
 scarcely doubt, too, that he was aware of the moral im- 
 possibility of a society existing in a wholesome state, 
 while some of its essential elements are deficient ; yet 
 this minister did not meet the land difficulty by measures 
 for the restoration of the abstracted parts to the Irish 
 community, but tried to evade it by the issue of the 
 Land Inquiry Commission. In its contrivance, and in its 
 working, the landowners saw a shabby, paltering, half- 
 confessed scheme for putting their evil day a very little 
 farther off; while the land occupiers hailed it as an en-
 
 THE LAND INQUIRY COMMISSION. 401 
 
 couragement to the more ardent pursuit of their own 
 plans. The former fell in with the policy of evasion, and 
 set about patching up laws to confuse the already 
 tangled relation of landlord and tenant ; the latter ad- 
 vanced boldly to the assertion of an indefeasible right in 
 property, irrespective of the covenants under which they 
 had obtained its temporary occupation. Thus arose, 
 from this very foolish or very wicked trickery of Sir 
 Robert Peel, that fierce agitation for a new distribution of 
 the soil, which raged in 1843-4, and 5, under the name 
 of the "fixity of tenure," or "tenant-right" movement, 
 and which would most certainly have brought to a com- 
 mon and not remote end, order and civilization, and the 
 English system of government in Ireland, had not the 
 will of Providence otherwise determined, and overruled 
 at once, as I trust the event will prove, the approximat- 
 ing extremes of the policy of our unionist and our 
 anarchist enemies. 
 
 The failure of the potato crop, begun in 1845, and 
 continued up to the present year, has among its other 
 consequences, been attended by two remarkable results. 
 It has completed the breaking down of the spirit and 
 fortunes of the Irish gentry ; and it has put an end to 
 that death-struggle for land which gave its peculiar 
 character and danger to the revolutionary movement. 
 The unphilosophical and barbarous experiments where- 
 with the government met the famine have not only eaten 
 up the available means of the proprietors, but have bur- 
 thened then* lands with debt, and obligation for poor- 
 rate and useless works-rate and ineffectual drainage-rate, 
 to an amount so great that, in a large portion of the 
 kingdom, it must be absolutely vain to contend against 
 it. There has been much talk about the family liens 
 and encumbrances of Irish estates ; but however mis- 
 chievous these may have been in themselves to the land- 
 lord, the tenant, and the community, they did not in 
 their essential nature preclude a possibility of the soil 
 being employed for the public advantage. To the evil
 
 402 THE NEW ENCUMBRANCES. 
 
 of encumbrances there was, indeed, added another and 
 a greater evil in the incubus of law and lawyers, whose 
 pressure, no doubt, operated to nullify the most vigorous 
 and honest efforts of both debtor and creditor, to escape 
 from the difficulties of their position. But even this 
 cruel oppression it was not impossible to contend against. 
 When family-debtor, and spendthrift-mortgagor, and 
 orphan, widow, and creditor, were all ruined, and barely 
 sufficient remained to discharge the attorney's bill, the 
 law commonly relaxed its grasp, and the land was trans- 
 ferred, unburthened, to new hands, wherein it might 
 become profitable to the community, until the follies of 
 another generation should again mesh it in legal toils. 
 The case is now far different : the possessors and the 
 occupiers of the soil may be changed ; the former may 
 be thrust out by the Encumbered Estates Commissioners, 
 with little ceremony and less protracted torture than 
 would formerly have been necessary ; the latter may be 
 more summarily cleared off by new processes of eviction, 
 but still the burthen of poor-rate arrears, and the more 
 intolerable burthen of an indefinite prospective rating, 
 will remain to clog the efforts of industry, with a weight 
 the magnitude of which was not, I believe, calculated 
 upon even by the authors of the Union. It is within 
 my own knowledge that farms let during the past year 
 for the rates only, have been since given up, and the 
 payment of those charges thrown upon a landlord who 
 had already exhausted his revenues in generous endea- 
 vours to improve and tend his lands and tenants. I 
 speak of a case within my own knowledge ; but in doing 
 so I but cite an example of a class of cases, with numerous 
 instances of which most men in Ireland are acquainted. 
 Wherever an Irish proprietor shall be found desirous of 
 serving his country, and preserving his property, by ac- 
 tively encouraging local improvement, he will surely 
 have neighbours by whose neglect or absenteeism such 
 an amount of pauperism and poor-rate will be created, 
 as will quickly reduce his own means to a point at which
 
 WHAT CAN AN IRISH GENTLEMAN DO ? 403 
 
 be can neither give employment nor maintain his accus- 
 tomed state ; nay, often not even provide himself with 
 the necessaries of life. Such men, during the last three 
 or four years, have made desperate efforts ; they have 
 burthened themselves with drainage loans; they have 
 engaged in attempts, absolutely small, but great for their 
 means, to develop the industrial resources of the country ; 
 and with what result ? Their drainage loans have been 
 too often dissipated in salaries to government officers, 
 and in unprofitable encumbrances upon their rentless 
 acres ; if they sought a fishing company's charter, or a 
 railway |act, their little capital was, after a thousand 
 delays and difficulties, eaten up by the officials of a 
 foreign legislature, without whose permission Irishmen 
 must not co-operate in an Irish undertaking. 
 
 It is the nature of such difficulties as these to accu- 
 mulate with rapidity, and whatever of perseverance or 
 individual pecuniary means may be brought to oppose 
 them must in no long time be overwhelmed. What, 
 under such circumstances, can an Irish gentleman do ? 
 Must he not remember [that nature has endowed his 
 country with a fertility that, were it not for the wilful- 
 ness of man, would supply thrice the number of her 
 population with abundant means of subsistence ? * Must 
 
 * The returns of agricultural produce in Ireland for the year 1 848, 
 compiled by that excellent public servant, Major Larcom, have just 
 now fallen under my notice, and so remarkably corroborate the views 
 of the capability of Ireland advanced above, that I will make no apo- 
 logy for quoting from it the following numerical facts : 
 
 Table showing the comparative amount of grain, to each person, in 
 each province of Ireland : 
 
 GRAIN. 
 Ibs. per bead. 
 
 Leinster, . . . 885 
 
 Ulster, . . . .696 
 
 Munster, . . . 380 
 
 Connaught, . . . 347 
 
 From this it would appear that there was actually grown in Ireland, 
 during the year 1848, an average of 577 Ibs. of grain for each inhabitant. 
 Taking the common estimate of a quarter (480 Ibs.) of grain per head, 
 as sufficient for a year's consumption, it would, therefore, seem that 
 there was a famine in the land coincident with a superabundance of 
 grain, amounting to 97 Ibs. for each man, woman, and child of its
 
 404 OLD ENGLISH PARTY POLITICS. 
 
 not that remembrance be accompanied by the reflection, 
 that the cause of his misfortunes has been created by a 
 legislature wherein he is unrepresented, and by which 
 his remonstrances are altogether disregarded? He is 
 told by the leaders and factionaries of a political party, 
 that he must attend to his corn and his cattle, and think 
 not of politics, which have been the bane of him and his 
 country. And that they have been so is most true. The 
 politics of English Whigs and Tories have been the bane 
 of Ireland : the politics that, by making her gentry and 
 her legislature absentees, engendered the evils to which 
 I have already referred : the politics that, by a series of 
 laws and loans for the encouragement of pauperization, 
 fatally exasperated those evils. Such politics have done 
 their appointed work upon gentry and people, and they 
 have fixed the politicians in place and power ; therefore, 
 say the Whig and Tory placemen (for in the names there 
 is a distinction without a difference) therefore, let no 
 Irishman counterwork those politics that have produced 
 such happy results in ruining him, and aggrandizing us. 
 This is the precise meaning of the ministerial depreca- 
 tion of politics ; and that it is so, would be made mani- 
 fest enough to-morrow, were the leadership of John 
 Russell to need the support of party clamour. For my 
 own part, however, I fully concur in the propriety of the 
 recommendation to abandon politics in this latter sense. 
 I would not willingly see a single Irishman lift a finger 
 as an English partisan, and it is through my hope, that 
 the wounds the Irish gentry and middle classes have 
 received in that warfare, may have caused them to reflect 
 upon its real nature, and (in relation to themselves) its 
 monstrous wickedness, that I now see a faint glimmering 
 
 people. Yet it is shown by Major Larcom that the produce of 1848 
 was much below that of the immediately preceding year. The follow- 
 ing is his table of averaged results : 
 
 WHAT. OATS. BARLZY. RYK. BEAKS. POTAIOM. TURKIPS. 
 
 Barrels per Barrels per Barrels per Barrels per Bushels per Tons TODI 
 
 acre. acre. acre. acre. acre. per acre. per acre. 
 
 1847 6A 8 T V 8^5 8 A 8, ff 57 J5 
 
 1848 4j ff 7iV 8ft 8 8 T \ 30 14
 
 DETERMINATION OF THE LAND STRUGGLE. 405 
 
 of sunshine. The gentlemen, farmers, and tradesmen of 
 Ireland have fought long enough under the banners of 
 petty chiefs, retained by one or other of the English 
 factions. The chiefs have been provided for, and for- 
 tunately they have left no successors : the disbanded fol- 
 lowers have been sent back to their ploughshares and 
 counters weary and penniless. Former animosities are 
 forgotten in an overwhelming sense of present misery. 
 Men who, but a little while since, fought with fanatic 
 fury, to carry this or that English leader into Downing- 
 street, now gaze upon the mutual injuries received and 
 inflicted in those insane quarrels, with astonishment and 
 dismay. I do not think that there has been a hundred 
 pounds subscribed for Whig and Tory registrations in the 
 whole of Ireland during the last two years. The Irish 
 people have abandoned party politics, and I cannot be- 
 lieve that they will not turn their naturally acute minds 
 to the consideration of politics of a broader kind. They 
 cannot do better than diligently to attend to their ploughs, 
 and their oxstalls, and their sheepwalks. In doing so, 
 they must abandon placehunting ; and as there is now a 
 chance of their seeing objects untinged by the colours of 
 English parties, it seems hard to suppose that they will 
 not inquire into the circumstances that, in Ireland alone 
 of all the world, render corn and cattle the emblems not 
 of prosperity, but of hard and biting poverty. If this 
 inquiry be honestly made, and pushed to its legitimate 
 extent, I entertain no fear for the result. That its insti- 
 tution will probably be an immediate consequence of 
 the levelling of Irish fortunes I believe, and that it may 
 be carried out in a calm and liberal spirit is my earnest 
 prayer. 
 
 As the breaking down of the fortunes of the Irish 
 gentry has thus tended to obliterate one cause of our 
 domestic disunion the spirit of English partisanship 
 so I think the determination of the death-struggle for 
 land, which has also been a result of the potato-famine, 
 has greatly modified another. Minute fragments of land
 
 406 
 
 are no longer clung to with the desperate tenacity of 
 former days, when its possession was the sole condition 
 of existence. The voice of the peasant is therefore no 
 longer available to swell the cry for an agrarian law 
 under the douhtful name of " Fixity of Tenure." To 
 the raising of that cry, I firmly believe, the total sub- 
 version of the Irish national party may be traced, and 
 the remembrance of it will ever be the greatest obstacle 
 in the way of its restoration. Whatever may have been 
 the intentions of those who invented the phrase, it cer- 
 tainly conveyed to the minds of the ignorant no other 
 notion than that of an easy appropriation of the property 
 of others ; and to those of persons of reflection, the idea 
 alone of spoliation, not merely of their accumulations 
 vested in land, but of the daily earnings of their indus- 
 try. That many of the promoters of the movement in 
 question were incapable of entertaining the idea of 
 M. Prudhon that property is robbery I am well aware, 
 and I will not argue that it could be legitimately traced 
 in their language ; but it was, nevertheless, an easy 
 corollary from their proposition, and as such it was re- 
 ceived by the public. Now, the feeling of property is 
 not merely stronger in the human mind than that of 
 nationality, but it is its necessary antecedent. It is im- 
 possible that a nation can exist independent of rights of 
 property, both collective and individual. Therefore, no 
 man of sense or honour could implicate himself in a 
 movement to attempt the establishment of nationality 
 upon an essentially defective basis. 
 
 I have already, I hope, both in this volume and else- 
 where, expressed my views upon the subject of the rela- 
 tions between landlord and tenant with sufficient clear- 
 ness, and have also carried them into practice, to my 
 own great advantage, for too long a period, to permit 
 me to fear that the foregoing remarks will be misunder- 
 stood as containing an advocacy of the extreme doctrine 
 of " doing what one likes with his own." My under- 
 standing of a complete enjoyment of property, on the
 
 MOVEMENT. 407 
 
 contrary, is fully expressed by the old maxim of law, 
 which sanctions a man in using his own rights as freely 
 as he can do, without injuring those of another; and 
 for that amount of liberty alone do I contend. So think- 
 ing, I look with satisfaction upon the decline of the 
 popular competition for land in Ireland, as the removal 
 of another barrier between the classes, the replacement 
 of which, I earnestly hope, may be rendered impossible 
 by a fair regard on the part of the landowners to the 
 principles of commercial prudence, which I am quite 
 certain will be found to be coincident with those of 
 humanity and justice, in their dealings with the culti- 
 vators of their lands. 
 
 It is upon these two great points of approximation 
 between the classes that I chiefly rest my hopes for the 
 future unity, prosperity, and legislative independence of 
 Ireland. It is only in this order progress can be made. 
 The barriers of English party politics, and of agrarian 
 agitation, being removed from between Irishmen, it is 
 possible they may unite, prosper, and become free. 
 
 That something more than the mere removal of bar- 
 riers has been already done towards the advancement of 
 this holy work I would fain persuade myself. The 
 mutual sufferings, and kindnesses, and co-operation, 
 during the last three or four years, of men who before 
 never met, and who, in all probability, ignorantly hated 
 and feared each other, must have softened many hearts. 
 There is a growing feebleness manifested from day to 
 day in the convulsive efforts of the demagogues to keep 
 up the old party strife. The government evidently find a 
 difficulty in perpetuating discord. It is plain, from the 
 testimony in reference to the late orange and green fight 
 in the County of Down, that the raising of a finger by 
 the executive would have prevented the lamentable 
 results of a demonstration which was engaged in unwil- 
 lingly, and under the spur of faithless and cowardly 
 leaders. It has been found impossible to get up a cry 
 even upon the acknowledged and offensive grievance of
 
 408 NATURAL SOLUTION OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 the Church Establishment. Added to these signs, there 
 is. too, the most important fact, that a united education 
 of the people is going on and being extended upwards 
 in the social scale, under a system, the triumph of which 
 over the bigotry of the two extremes of party, is now- 
 accomplished. I see these specks of blue sky upon the 
 horizon, and I hope that the breaking up of the clouds 
 that overhang the destiny of my country may be looked 
 for at no distant day. 
 
 But, however or whenever it may arrive, the indepen- 
 dence of Ireland is sure to come at last as sure as that 
 the Roman Empire fell in pieces, or the North American 
 provinces are now free states. England holds no patent 
 of exemption from the common lot of nations. When 
 misfortune shall overtake her, or the lot common to 
 empires as to individuals, can she lay the flattering 
 unction to her soul that she has acted with probity to- 
 wards Ireland ? At all events, it is certain that a highly- 
 centralized government, and a hired soldier-class alto- 
 gether separate from the citizen, and, as the necessary 
 consequence, a monstrous and growing load of debt, 
 form a political conjunction that, in the history of the 
 world, has not been known to endure long. A metropo- 
 lis containing nearly two and a half millions of people, 
 and an insular province ungovernable without the aid of 
 fifty thousand bayonets, are materials of a political fabric 
 such as were never at any period found to be congruous. 
 Yet, day after day, London is growing larger and larger, 
 and the administration of the government of Ireland is, 
 with equal steps, becoming less and less domestic. The 
 public works are executed ; a monstrous establishment 
 of beggars is maintained, by the agency of hired English 
 officials, who, at their own pleasure, impose a ruinous 
 taxation upon the people, and cause it to be levied by 
 fifty thousand English mercenaries, under the apparently 
 civil superintendence of stipendiary magistrates. Here 
 is a succinct but complete account of the English go- 
 vernment in Ireland. Under it the staff of paid officials
 
 CONCLUSION. 409 
 
 now rivals in number those of the Austrian or Russian 
 despotisms, and it is gradually increasing. This cannot 
 last, and the sooner it shall be brought to an end the 
 better for the two countries. It is the interest of both 
 the kingdoms, different and distinct as they are, morally 
 and physically, to be separate and yet united. It is only 
 under such a constitution the British Empire can be sus- 
 tained in its grandeur, as a rallying point for liberty and 
 progress. To England, I would say, it is your interest 
 that Ireland should recognise in you her best friend and 
 federated ally under the same imperial crown. To my 
 own countrymen my parting advice is, obey the law, but 
 endeavour to change it : in your internal relations, bear 
 and forbear with each other : concordid parva crescunt; 
 discordid, maxima dilabuntur: distracted and divided 
 by civil and religious strife, you will be poor and op- 
 pressed : united in industry, you will prosper ; and pros- 
 perous, you will be free. The God that made Ireland 
 fertile, and placed her on the confines of two hemi- 
 spheres, designated her before the world as the key of 
 Eastern and Western commerce, and a home of civiliza- 
 tion and freedom.
 
 411 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 THE following paper was my first essay in pamphlet- 
 eering, and was also, I believe, one of the earliest pub- 
 lished protests against the project of Union between 
 the two kingdoms. A copy was lately sent to me by my 
 old friend, Dean Blakely, and I am induced to reprint it, 
 not by any opinion I entertain as to its merits, but as a 
 proof that the experience of upwards of half a century has 
 not effected any change in my sentiments upon the sub- 
 ject to which it relates. This trifle of boyish penmanship 
 was, I believe, the motive cause of the persecutions ad- 
 verted to in the foregoing Recollections ; fifty-two years 
 have elapsed since it was written, but imprisonment, and 
 disfavour, and pecuniary damage, have not beaten out of 
 my head or heart the convictions that influenced its 
 composition. 
 
 T 2
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE PROJECTED UNION 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 4 
 
 "Nous perdons la Patrie, si nous nous divisons." 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE author of the few following pages, animated by an anxious 
 desire of saving his country from an attempt he has long fore- 
 seen and dreaded, is yet conscious of his inability to place the 
 picture in the strongest light. He hopes, however, to succeed 
 so far as to put the matter in a way of being fully discussed by 
 persons more equal to the important task. 
 
 The pain which every Irishman must feel at reading the 
 historic page of his country, has not deterred him from sketch- 
 ing the cause and progress of our original connexion with Eng- 
 land, together with our present subjection to the Cabinet of 
 that country, in fourteen years after our emancipation from its 
 parliament. Whilst he deprecates the measure of AN UNION, 
 as ruinous to this country, he does not imagine there is any 
 necessity for painting the present bankrupt and degraded situ- 
 ation of Britain, to recover her from which the minister would 
 sacrifice us. He is fully convinced that no exertion of his is 
 necessary to the determined opposition of the great body of his 
 countrymen ; but he wishes to prevail with our next parlia- 
 ment, to gain the hearts of Irishmen by scouting the preposte- 
 rous idea; to prove themselves our representatives, by pro- 
 tecting us from a measure to be carried at the point of the 
 sword; and whilst they refuse reform, to show some attach- 
 ment to the interests of the people, by saving us from the last 
 dreadful innovation a British minister can make on the few re- 
 maining rights of IRELAND an innovation that he never dare 
 to attempt, IF THE PEOPLE WERE FULLY AND FAIRLY REPRESENTED, 
 but which, if effected, will for ever destroy all hope of reform, 
 or of liberty. 
 
 .* Dublin: Printed for J. Moore, No. 45, College-green. 1797.
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE PROJECTED UNION. 413 
 
 THERE are certain periods in political, as well as in moral opi- 
 nion, when the man who is born free, as well as the philoso- 
 pher who has spent his life in the investigation of truth, feels 
 himself equally called upon, by principle, to make his thoughts 
 public. 
 
 The period is now arrived when every native of this island 
 should fix his attention on one of the most important subjects 
 that has ever employed the mind of an Irishman to wit, an 
 Union between this country and the kingdom of Great Britain. 
 I know there are many who, even yet, look on such an event 
 as merely ideal, and contrary to the wishes of the British go- 
 vernment; while others, perhaps, overvaluing our parliament- 
 ary virtue, and the great danger that must attend such a mea- 
 sure, fancy it utterly impossible. But those who build their 
 security on the political self-denial of an English minister, or 
 the virtue of an aristocracy, but too much subject to British 
 influence, know but little of the power of wealth and rank on 
 the minds of men educated to regard the mere sound of title as 
 the feeling of genuine honour, and to look on the pre-eminence 
 of equipage as the true distinction of superior virtue. 
 
 That the minister of England is serious in his design to bring 
 about an Union between the two kingdoms, is a matter so evi- 
 dent, that he must be blind who does not instantly perceive it, 
 not only from the great advantages that must result to England 
 from such a measure, but from the avowed sentiments and re- 
 gular approaches of the minister of that nation to effect this 
 long-projected purpose : for, 
 
 In the year 1776, a Lord Lieutenant was fixed on by the 
 then minister, who was to have been invested with powers to 
 couple this design with a total repeal of the Popery laws, and 
 this nobleman had sent a person to Lord Harcourt, to confer 
 with him on the means of carrying this intention into effect. 
 In consequence, Lord Harcourt had digested a system for the 
 purpose; but it fell to the ground, on account of Lord Hert- 
 ford's not wishing to remain so long in office as would be 
 necessary to put it into execution. Again, in the English 
 debates on the propositions, the wishes of the parliament of 
 that country appeared without disguise; for those who de- 
 fended the propositions alleged that they would lead to an 
 Union, and those who objected to them, argued that they would 
 impede it; both sides of the house being equally desirous of such 
 a measure; and even so late as Lord Fitzwilliam's administra-
 
 414 THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 tion, it is a matter of notoriety that this favourite plan has been 
 again projected, as appears evident from one of the Duke of 
 Portland's letters to that nobleman, which says, "If the Catho- 
 lic question can be postponed until a peace, something may be 
 obtained for England, more important than any thing which 
 has happened since the Revolution, or at least since the Union." 
 What measure to be obtained in Ireland could bear this descrip- 
 tion but an Union 1 
 
 It is to be particularly remarked, in how many respects the 
 government of England has followed the plan of Lord Harcourt. 
 
 He advised that the attempt should not be made in time of 
 war, for that, he said would be insanity ; that the proposal 
 should be made to come from an Irish party in parliament (as 
 in all probability it will) ; that the Catholic question should be 
 inseparably connected with it; and that a formidable body of 
 troops* should be ready in the country. 
 
 But it may be asked how this secret history of British de- 
 signs has been so brought to light, that the public may be 
 satisfied of its reality 1 To this I answer, that nothing but 
 time will suffer secret history to bring forth its authorities, 
 which when produced become final evidence; nevertheless, 
 when such history (which I will admit to be questionable) 
 comes, backed by notorious fact,"\ I think little doubt may be 
 entertained of its veracity. 
 
 Since then an Union is determined on, and the time of peace 
 only waited to put this plan into effect, it may not be unneces- 
 sary to look back to the original political connexion of the two 
 islands, with a view to examine the first links of that chain, 
 with which Ireland has been bound for so many centuries ; and, 
 although it may appear invidious to many to unbind the first 
 ties of the two nations to that incision in which Ireland became 
 a graft on Great Britain ; yet, as gratitude may be made an 
 argument for this measure of an Union, we will j ust glance at 
 our original obligations. 
 
 I feel it to be a feature in the historic delineation of these 
 islands, which is far from pleasant to depict; but it is a poli- 
 
 * There have been eighteen regiments poured into this kingdom 
 since Christmas last. 
 
 t The Duke of Richmond, in his reply to the Irish delegates, says, 
 "I have always thought it for the interest of the two islands to be in- 
 corporated, and form one and the same kingdom, with the same legis- 
 lature, meeting sometimes in Ireland as well as in England."
 
 PROJECTED UNION. 415 
 
 tical circumstance, too well known to be hidden, which few will 
 either doubt or defend. I am the more reluctant to recur to 
 this period of British and Irish history, as it has always been 
 my wish to compare political policy on the scale of individual 
 rectitude; a criterion which, praise be to God, is coming every 
 day more and more into use ; and though I believe it is not 
 customary with those who exhibit the moral outlines of parti- 
 cular ages to compliment the age in which themselves live with 
 progressive attainments in virtue; yet, bad as we all admit the 
 present world to be, I feel persuaded, should any individual in 
 this age behave to another, as England, in the first instance, 
 thought fit to conduct herself* towards this island, the most 
 indulgent judgment of mankind would, at least, be banishment, 
 if not an irrevocable outlawry, as a punishment for so high an 
 aggression. 
 
 It is a subject, not beneath the moral inquirer, to know how 
 great and polished nations could treat with such fraudulent 
 policy, obscure, but independent states countries whose very 
 low inferiority, in both population and traffic, could neither 
 menace their security with the terrors of invasion, nor alarm 
 their avarice with the apprehensions of commercial rivalry. 
 Indeed, history abounds with the contentions of many nations, 
 so equal in strength, and so implacable from a spirit of re- 
 venge, and a mutual ambition of surpassing each other in glory 
 and wealth, that evident policy seemed to dictate little less for 
 the safety of the one than the utter extermination of the other. 
 But how a Christian prince, without a near prospect of extra- 
 ordinary gain ; without the inducement of fame, or any other 
 strong incentive to aggression, could invade a generous and 
 unoffending nation (under whatever specious pretext) with the 
 diabolical determination of butchering and enslaving all such as 
 dare to oppose so wicked and cruel a design I say, how such 
 a wantonly calamitous conduct could be adopted with delibera- 
 tion, is a circumstance, though strictly true, yet so contrary to 
 natural justice, that no good man would, or could give it credit, 
 if his doubts were not fully removed by the concurring evidence 
 of all historians. 
 
 But to return. When the quarrels of the Irish princes invited 
 
 * The original invaders of our country looked upon the murder of a 
 mere Irishman as no crime, Quere Are not the ministers of the pre- 
 sent day of the same opinion? fide "Davies on Ireland," pages 11 
 and 12.
 
 416 THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 the designing Henry II. to intermeddle in the domestic affairs 
 of this kingdom, that politic prince clearly foresaw the high 
 importance that such an island, and so situated as Ireland, must 
 assume by its annexation to his former empire. He was well 
 convinced that the unity of the two islands would secure the 
 peace and double the vigour of England, by concentering in 
 him, and in him fixing in Britain the physical powers of both 
 it was he, perhaps, who first had the sagacity to perceive the 
 weight that these two insular nations united would, in after 
 ages, acquire in the balance of European politics. 
 
 Henry was a prince of the most refined political penetration. 
 He valued the possession more than the name of power, and 
 the name more than the spirit of religion; for he preferred the 
 security of dominion to the title usually annexed to the means 
 by which his conquest had been acquired, and the enlargement 
 of that dominion to moral justice. His forces landed as friends, 
 to restore peace to the country; but afterwards made the pos- 
 session of the country the object of perpetual war with the 
 owners of it. The discordant leaders, and naked, undisciplined 
 forces that endeavoured to set bounds to the various subjugat- 
 ing contrivances of an enemy no longer concealed, were easily 
 defeated by a veteran phalanx, acting as a military machine on 
 a mass of men (however individually brave) that thronged to 
 battle almost certain of defeat. But although discomfiture was 
 the companion of resistance, the Irish opposed every attempt of 
 an enemy found by calamitous experience to be invincible, and 
 despaired not of the independence of their country, though 
 slaughtered in every effort to assert it. 
 
 England soon found that victory, however complete, was 
 attended with loss to the successful, and that the vanquished, 
 however broken and dispersed, found means of fresh resistance; 
 she therefore endeavoured to accomplish that by treaty which 
 she found could not be effected by arms; and contenting herself 
 at length with partial dominion, left that to be done by posterity, 
 which other projects afforded neither time nor ability finally to 
 execute, i.e., the entire subjection of the island. 
 
 Since those days various efforts have been made to complete 
 the design of the first invaders, and have been attended with 
 almost all the success that either the avarice or the vanity of a 
 Briton could wish for. What will appear strange to the man 
 unacquainted with the history of Ireland, and acquainted only 
 with the Irish military character in foreign nations, the natives
 
 PROJECTED UNION. 417 
 
 of this island have been, almost without exception, unsuccessful 
 in their endeavours to defend their own country. But what 
 can the most illustrious courage effect darkened by the obscu- 
 rest ignorance of science 1 And what will not disunion itself 
 accomplish without an auxiliary? Within the last century 
 this country has become too populous and too much enlightened 
 to be bullied by the comparison of numbers, or its inhabitants 
 unresistingly slaughtered through their ignorance of military 
 tactics. Terror has ceased (till of late) to be the order of the 
 day, though yet our degraded subjection continued, not from 
 the threats of external power, but from external influence ope- 
 rating on the majority of an internal aristocracy. 
 
 Such, until the auspicious year of 1782, was the brief poli- 
 tical history of this ill-fated country a country, from its insular, 
 far-detached situation, formed by the Sovereign Architect for 
 the most unconnected independence* a country blessed by the 
 Donor of good with the abundance of all the necessaries and 
 comforts of life ; fortified by the ocean, garrisoned with Irish- 
 men, and stored by the united hands of Mars and Ceres. Ireland 
 had been hitherto nothing more in effect than an humble colony, 
 swindled out of her national rights, pilfered of her domestic 
 treasures, flattered out of her virtues, and indebted to England 
 only for her vices; Ireland, like the beggarly kinswoman of 
 a relation by whom she was despised, boasted of the consan- 
 guinity of a sister, submitting to the treatment of a step-child. 
 In that good year the country was relieved from much of the 
 weight that had been laid upon us by the oppression of foreign- 
 ers; the parliament of Ireland, stimulated by the energy of 
 our glorious and immortal volunteers, conveyed some small 
 portion of constitutional spirit into our government; and this 
 spirit, feeble as it was in reality, so vivified all conditions of 
 the people of Ireland, that a whole century of the former pro- 
 gression of the country was scarcely equal to a single year's 
 improvement during that dawn of liberty. f But what was, in 
 fact, this liberty, this constitution, which appeared so dazzling, 
 
 * Surely far more than Portugal, Switzerland, Holland, or Denmark, 
 which are not islands, nor have half our population. 
 
 t Grattan obtained for Ireland a free trade and free parliament ; but 
 our freedom of commerce has been much impaired by an ill-regulated 
 channel trade ; and our late parliaments, by their own corruption, have 
 sold that liberty, and not contented with being themselves slaves, have 
 enacted laws subversive of the liberties of the people. 
 
 T3
 
 418 THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 and of which so much was boasted? A power vested in an 
 eighth part of the people to vote for the fourth part of the 
 members of an independent parliament; in other words, an 
 exclusive right in the English interest to elect representatives 
 for the Irish people; in fact to form a parliament, the grand 
 object of the majority of whose members was, first, to provide 
 places and pensions for themselves, and then to vote for what- 
 ever measure the British Secretary should recommend, without 
 any regard to the interest of the island, whose parliament they 
 styled themselves, when such interest appeared to clash with 
 that of Great Britain. 
 
 But this partial return of the popular voice could not long 
 deceive. The British constitution said, that the House of Com- 
 mons represented all the people in the land possessed of a 
 certain property, i.e., a property of such a value as gave its 
 possessor an undoubted interest in the peace and prosperity of 
 the state. The Irish Catholic found himself in possession of a 
 national stake, generally equal, and in numerous instances, 
 superior, in value to what was thought necessary by the con- 
 stitution to secure the amor patrice; but the favourite scheme 
 of divide et impera of our English rulers deprived that great 
 portion of our people of their elective franchise, because they 
 continued attached to the religion of their forefathers. The 
 Protestant was taught to look on the Catholic as his vassal, or 
 almost as a being of an inferior nature, who should be completely 
 shut out of that right of franchise which he thought his due as 
 a freeman, and which he was highly interested in the exercise 
 of, as a chief possessor of the commercial wealth of the country. 
 This exclusion, so contrary to the intentions of the founders of 
 the constitution, so severe when applied to the great majority 
 of the people, and so absurd and insulting when used in a state 
 said to be/ree, where every man in the land ought to enjoy his 
 representative in parliament, has of late appeared so illiberal and 
 preposterous to the enlightened and independent men of every 
 religious description, that the general sentiment and general 
 voice of the valuable part of the nation has repeatedly and 
 strenuously demanded its repeal. But how could the voice of 
 thousands and tens of thousands avail when an omnipotent 
 majority in parliament said no and when that no was not the 
 result of meeting the question fairly, and replying to it on 
 principles of sound national policy; but a negative to the pros- 
 perity of our country, dictated by those whose grand aim was
 
 PROJECTED UNION. 419 
 
 to make a divided people ;* because division kept us in poverty 
 and weakness, and our weakness and poverty was their strength 
 and aggrandizement. 
 
 But the sad difference in religious opinion which had so long 
 shut up the people of this land from the blessings of social 
 communication, and closed the eye of benevolence on " the 
 human face divine," could no longer partition the general good 
 by the rancour of theological acrimony. The professors of the 
 various sects of Christianity began to abate of their violence 
 to each other, and so far relaxed in their hostility against the 
 papal doctrines, as to regard the Church of Rome, not as the 
 whore of Babylon, but as a venerable though diseased mother, 
 who in return seemed to look on her self-willed, long-exiled 
 children with a goodnature not far removed from charity. At 
 length the spirit of Christianity splendidly dawning on the 
 people, and shooting its beneficent influences over those sharp 
 and terrifying fences that so long divided communities, pre- 
 sented to their view the very soul of religion, in the truly divine 
 precept of "Love one another." The animosities of religious 
 distinction ceased or subsided: all sects seemed to implore 
 mutual forgiveness, and from this moment the general voice was 
 for the general good. 
 
 This unanimity, so felicitous to Ireland and so grateful to 
 the philanthropist, must be prevented by the British minister. 
 The prejudices that so strongly affected former majorities in 
 parliament having almost wholly ceased, fresh incentives must 
 be held up. The parliament that seemed inclined to knock off 
 the fetters riveted on the Catholics in the iron age of persecu- 
 tion, must themselves be bound to British interests by stronger 
 chains of gold. Places without number or utility have been 
 created, and pensions immoderate and indecent bestowed on 
 those whose merit was opposition to the good of the country, 
 or notoriety in blasting the growth of public and private virtue. 
 Yet the good of Ireland has not been entirely put down; it has 
 contended, though in vain, against the frowns and smiles of 
 foreign fears and favours, till the experience of every meeting 
 of parliament has sufficiently proved that such new gifts must 
 
 * The Orangemen, a banditti of tolerated murderers, have, of late, 
 devastated some of our most flourishing counties, and revived the 
 horrors of religious warfare. The people attacked by them, styling 
 themselves Defenders, have, in many instances, been guilty of equal 
 outrage.
 
 420 THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 be continually presented by the English minister to induce 
 anti-patriotism, that no ingenuity of taxation can find means to 
 supply them. 
 
 Formerly it was an easy matter for an English minister, by a 
 judicious disposal of a few offices of emolument, and a sparing 
 application of titles, together with seasonable alarms for the 
 safety of the Protestant religion, with consequent terrors to the 
 possessors of the forfeited estates, to hold the Irish parliament 
 in such bonds that, in fact, it was no other than a mere organ 
 tuned by an outlandish hand, not to play the melodious music 
 of the country, but to squeak out the unnatural compositions of 
 a foreign master. But of late, from the causes before assigned, 
 the aristocracy of the country would no longer be content with 
 a partial occupation of the great employments; and the English 
 minister is so far now from having it in his power to provide for 
 the abettors of his schemes in the British parliament, by placing 
 them and their relations in the episcopacy, the seats of judg- 
 ment, or in the possession of the other prime offices of Ireland,* 
 that he has found all the great and small employments of the 
 nation scarcely sufficient for the avarice of a native aristocracy. 
 Titles have ceased to dazzle by being always held in view; our 
 fears for the Christian religion affect us the less, as we become bet- 
 ter acquainted with its genuine energies; and the present owners 
 of the forfeited lands are so little uneasy at the security of such 
 estates, that alarmists find it useless to bellow on this subject. 
 
 To get rid at once, then, of the parliament of Ireland, which 
 is found too untractable even in its present imperfect state, the 
 British minister is at this instant engaged not (as in former par- 
 liaments) in learning the sum that may be necessary to influence 
 the next delegation of the people in favour of British interests, 
 nor in procuring votes for or against a particular question; but 
 in finding the fee simple of your liberty and property, by a per- 
 manent purchase of the parliament of Ireland. 
 
 'Tis in vain for the agents of this measure, so capitally ruin- 
 ous to the constitution of this kingdom, particularly to those 
 great efforts made by our patriots, within the last sixteen years, 
 for its final redemption, to say that such a design as an union is 
 not in contemplation by the present minister of Great Britain, 
 or that a design so contemplated, will not very soon be (at least 
 attempted to be) carried into effect. The prodigious advantage 
 
 * One of the late Mr. Forbes's excellent bills, and in which he suc- 
 ceeded, was a limitation of the pension list.
 
 PROJECTED UNION. 421 
 
 that must arise to England from such a project, if executed, 
 and the means of executing which, no one will deny the British 
 minister fully to have in his power, together with the daily 
 increasing difficulty of managing a parliament, the more in- 
 clined to attachment to their country, as they see the people 
 united to each other, and the less liable to be seduced by 
 foreign influence, as they find their real interest in a virtuous 
 discharge of their public trust. I say, the great advantage of 
 an union, on the one hand, and the accumulating difficulties of 
 managing a parliament in Ireland on the other, must convince 
 every man of reflection, without further proof, that such a de- 
 sign as an union of the two islands is now in contemplation by the 
 minister of England, and that nothing is wanted by him but a 
 peace with France to put that design into immediate execution. 
 'Tis true, the people of Ireland have been long well acquainted 
 with their true interests, justly estimating the value of a con- 
 stitution, which, though far from accomplishing what it theore- 
 tically promised,* yet they nevertheless despaired not, in time, 
 to disencumber of those clogs and impediments that so palpably 
 frustrated the excellent intentions of those who first contrived 
 it; and under this hope, every attempt of former British min- 
 isters, to transport the legislature of the land, the independence 
 of the nation, the very name of kingdom, has been most deser- 
 vedly opposed with an honest and general indignation. The 
 minister of England well knows that this just indignation can 
 never fail to be roused in the bosom of every Irishman, when 
 a proposal, so ruinous, so insulting, so inflaming, is made to 
 this independent kingdom. He will not, therefore, attempt to 
 bring this infamous question before your parliament with the 
 usual formalities. You may be sure, whenever he shall attempt 
 it (and attempt it he certainly will, and perhaps carry it with- 
 out your being aware, if the people of Ireland are not vigilant 
 and determined to prevent it), he will attempt to smuggle it 
 through both houses of parliament, without your consent or 
 knowledge; and whilst you fancy your liberties are secure in 
 the hands of your representatives, and your island free and 
 independent of other nations, as it is detached from other 
 countries, you will behold your rights transferred to the par- 
 liament of a foreign nation, and your goodly kingdom dwindled 
 into a province. 
 
 * The exclusive right of the people to constitute the third estate of 
 the legislature. LOCKE.
 
 422 THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 I know there is no cause so bad, to which private interest 
 will not procure public advocates. I have no doubt then, that 
 an union, fatal as it must be to the welfare of this country, 
 will find its supporters and defenders even among Irishmen; 
 and perhaps it will be said by such persons, that Scotland has 
 benefited by her union with England, that her industry has in- 
 creased, her commerce extended, and such a flux of wealth found 
 its way into the country, as it was totally unacquainted with 
 before that period. All this I grant but can by no means 
 attribute such prosperity to an union; on the contrary (it may 
 appear extraordinary, but so it is), to the calamities immediately 
 produced by this measure, and not to its natural salutary con- 
 sequences, we ought, in reality, to ascribe that prosperity. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Anne, when the union was at last 
 effected, the kingdom of Scotland still endured the feodal fetters, 
 that not only closed the hand of industry, but bound up the 
 very mind against the grovelling pursuit of commerce, and gave 
 no other liberty to the exertions of the people than the horrid 
 latitude of civil war. The union then which took most of their 
 chieftains from the clans, together with the troops brought into 
 the country to keep down civil war, at once lopped off the 
 resources of an idle life, and effectually prevented the general 
 plunder that would naturally ensue. Traders and manufactu- 
 rers, speculating on the situation and produce of the country, 
 but most of all on the poverty of the people, and the consequent 
 cheapness of labour, found it strongly their interest to com- 
 mence business among them ; and then the few persons of pro- 
 perty who still remained in the country, observing the prosperity 
 of strangers, and being freed from the ridiculous restraints of 
 feodal absurdities, attached themselves likewise to industry; 
 so that we may plainly see the advantages which Scotland has 
 acquired in consequence of its union with England, have not 
 arisen from any inherent good intended for the benefit of Scot- 
 land by that union, but from a casual and unintentional gain, 
 in at once getting rid of the destructive system of feods, and 
 restoring the people to their natural liberty of following that 
 path of life which seemed the nearest way to the attainment of 
 wealth. It is therefore plain, that if Scotland could have 
 enjoyed security in a peace with England, which she could not 
 (and a war with that country must have been her immediate 
 ruin), and at the same time have divested herself of the absurd 
 prejudices of her nobles, which were equally fatal to tranquillity
 
 PROJECTED UNION. 423 
 
 and exertion, her union with England would have been the 
 most impolitic measure that could have been submitted to by a 
 keen and independent people. Yet Scotland, in an union which 
 she dared not avoid, acquired commercial advantages which 
 Ireland cannot look for, because she already possesses them. 
 If Scotland yielded her nobles and commoners to England, she 
 got in return a certainty of domestic peace, and liberty of mind 
 to practise industry, with liberty of navigation to float that 
 industry to its best markets; and if she resigned the title of her 
 land, and the self-direction of an independent nation, she was 
 still allowed her natural station in the island, by the title of 
 North Britain ; and as a member of the kingdom that could not 
 be detached, she had no reason to suspect a less beneficial 
 government than the other parts of Great Britain. But Ireland 
 in an union with England has every thing to lose, with only 
 one apparent benefit that of a greater probability of domestic 
 quiet. But should this quiet really ensue from the adoption of 
 this measure would any one be foolish enough to assert that 
 this internal tranquillity would be permanent? By no means. 
 It may be depended on, that such a calm, so far from being a 
 sign of fair weather, would certainly prove like that kind of 
 sickness incident to persons affected with epilepsy, which stu- 
 pifies the brain before it agitates the body into foaming con- 
 vulsions. Indeed, the power of forty thousand foreign troops, 
 which, in such an event, you must pay for, and the terrors of a 
 military government, which, of necessity, you must now submit 
 to, might chain down the struggles and silence the ravings of your 
 maddened country; but as soon as your poverty would petition 
 the British parliament for the reduction of so enormous an 
 establishment, and that parliament should be graciously pleased 
 to hear your supplications, the nation, like the maniac reduced 
 by chains from rage to despondency, feeling itself unbound, 
 would, in all probability, commit such terrible excesses in its 
 first transport of fury (and, perhaps, on its best friends) as reason 
 dare not attempt to foresee, and seeing, could not prevent. 
 
 It should be observed, particularly, that at the time when 
 Scotland and England became united, England was then at the 
 very apex of her greatness ; she had routed the French armies, 
 was in close alliance with most of the powers of Europe, and 
 her revenues were clear of any national debt. But at present 
 she cannot pride herself quite so highly on either her military 
 prowess or her political connexions for she has neither routed 
 the French armies, nor secured so extensively the alliance of
 
 424 THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 her neighbours; and, such is the state of her national debt, 
 that, for a country like ours, to hazard all in an union that 
 must make our, all most clear, revenues responsible for such 
 debts, would resemble the conduct of the little and secure 
 trader who got admitted to the partnership of a declining 
 firm, for the honour of making one in a splendid bankruptcy. 
 Who would lash a stanch frigate to a sinking first-rate?* 
 
 But let us for an instant anticipate the terms on which we 
 are to resign, for ever, our national independence; and better 
 terms it is impossible for us to expect, consistent with the 
 nature of an union. By the first important article the English 
 will share with us all their unbounded liberty of commerce. 
 But aret we not already in possession of all this liberty of 
 commerce, including even the East Indies to a certain degree? 
 and by the second article of grace (which will make up the full 
 sum of those stipulations which will have even the shadow of 
 concession) the landed interest will be specially indulged, by 
 only paying a small rateable proportion of the land tax, that 
 is now, or may be hereafter levied on Great Britain perhaps 
 three hundred thousand pounds per year surely this must be 
 a notable indulgence, that we who pay no land tax at all, in 
 fact, who are not able to pay it, should be favoured with one so 
 moderated. 
 
 As for the other ingredients that may compose this pleasing 
 cement of an union, I take it for granted that they will be 
 made up of such suppurative materials, as will not only draw 
 out the present symptoms of partial inflammation, but extract 
 the very blood and life from the entire kingdom. 
 
 You will, perhaps, be permitted to send thirty of your peers 
 to the parliament of Great Britain, styled the parliament of the 
 empire, and, also, seventy commoners; but this body of one 
 hundred Irishmen, possessing, no doubt, the greatest fortunes 
 in your island (for you no more dare to call it kingdom) would 
 
 * The funded debt of England amounts to upwards of 409 millions ; 
 that of Ireland does not amount to ten millions. 
 
 i But would a restoration of commercial advantages, by a well- 
 regulated channel trade, still unjustly withheld from us, be a compen- 
 sation for the loss of that independence? The East India trade is now 
 a monopoly in favour of the port of London, with an exception of a 
 mere matter of form ; and it is certain that no parliament meeting at 
 Westminster will abolish that monopoly. As to the channel trade, I 
 hope that either we shall have the spirit to assert our right to an equal 
 advantage in it, or that we shall avoid the example of the foolish Esau, 
 old his birthright for a mess of pottage.
 
 PROJECTED UNION. 425 
 
 be so far from having influence on any question concerning the 
 interest of your country, when placed in opposition to England, 
 that their very best exertions would affect such a vote only in 
 the proportion of one to nine, which will appear evident by 
 examining the number which that assembly will then consist 
 of. Ridiculous as this proportion of one to nine will appear to 
 him who considers the majority of a single vote, as fatal or 
 fortunate to any question; yet, even this proportion we have 
 no reason to expect, if we are not more wise in our selection 
 than our neighbours of Scotland;* or (to judge of the future by 
 the past) if our representatives, like gross fluids, don't wonder- 
 fully improve by the voyage. 
 
 Now, by this one article of representation, which will not 
 only prove a nullity to your interests, but an insult to your 
 understanding; but, which England will give you as a proud 
 substitute for your own parliament; you will, in the first 
 experience of your treaty, add one hundred of your richest 
 men to the already huge mass of your destructive absentees; 
 and if to those we further add their relations and friends, with, 
 what is still more alarming, the prodigious numbers of your 
 wealthiest people who will follow them from the fashion of 
 emigration that will then rage; nay, a less prevailing motive 
 the comforts of rational society; I think you may set down 
 the export of the money that is now abundant in your thriving 
 kingdom, at the last guinea your beggared colony shall be able 
 to produce. 
 
 Your capital, now the most beautiful in the empire, and 
 which promises, in a few years, to vie, even in wealth, with the 
 first in Europe, will then be reduced to certain ruin. Its mag- 
 nificent streets, or rather, its ranges of palaces, will no more 
 buzz with the hurried and confused sounds of jocund industry 
 and rolling splendour; but suddenly transformed into the dreary 
 walks of hopeless misery, may be truly called the metropolis 
 of distress, where the melancholy traveller shall hear no other 
 sounds than the plaint of starvation, or the groan of the patriot. 
 The fine arts, now in healthy infancy, would instantly expire; 
 whereas, if we have but virtue and public spirit to preserve our 
 independence, we shall not only bring them to maturity, but 
 call to the heart of our country, our exiled ingenious brethren, 
 
 * The virtue of the British parliament is not much increased by the 
 addition of the Scotch members, who serve the minister of that house, 
 as the bishops do in the Lords.
 
 426 THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 the ornaments of most of the cities in Europe, as to their natu- 
 ral mother and most bountiful patron of her children's ingenuity. 
 Should you consent to an union, not only the fine arts would 
 vanish, but even your established manufacturers, who now 
 begin to feel the superiority of their own country to any other 
 on earth, must follow the wealth that employed them, and 
 emigrate in a body; or, forced from on shipboard by the point 
 of the bayonet, remain in a desolate land, in a half-starved 
 condition, to toil for the aggrandizement of English monopo- 
 lizers. 
 
 Our canals, formed at such an immense expense, and not yet 
 finished, would be rendered useless; for our capital being the 
 heart from whence those nourishing veins spread through the 
 body of the nation, the breaking of that heart must bring 
 inevitable destruction on the commercial circulation of the 
 whole island. I wish I could here finish the sad and tedious 
 catalogue of our impending dangers; but the brief plan of 
 these few pages, and what is still a greater impediment, alas ! 
 the state of my own feelings will not suffer me to dwell 
 minutely on the ruin of my country, I shall, therefore, only 
 put you in mind of what must be palpable to the meanest 
 understanding. 
 
 All our great men (it matters not whether that greatness is 
 applied to title and fortune, or to the uncommon power of 
 genius) I say all the great men would settle in England, 
 either to seek for honours, to challenge rewards, or even to 
 look for the humble comforts of society; our metropolis one 
 ruin; our finest country seats, now the residence of magnificence 
 and hospitality, would then be inhabited by a few English 
 graziers, whose flocks would feed on your best lands, now pro- 
 ducing (one of your chief articles of commerce) an abundance 
 of the finest corn to nourish and enrich your rising peasantry, 
 till those flocks themselves should be exterminated by the 
 wolves, the ancient ravagers of your fields, who would ulti- 
 mately be the chief gainers by such an union. 
 
 What a grievous sight will then present itself to your man 
 of science, when he looks on the map of the world, and fixing 
 his eye on the delightful spot that gave him birth, observing 
 its happy situation for trade to every part of the world, and its 
 peculiar commercial advantages with respect to all the western 
 hemisphere, its numerous and fine harbours, superior to any in 
 Europe ! its many and deep rivers in short, its singular and
 
 PROJECTED UNION. 427 
 
 entire requisites for the most sovereign independence I repeat 
 it, what will be his sorrow when he reflects that this island, the 
 most delightful in the universe, had, within his own memory, 
 enjoyed the blessings of its own government, was fertile for its 
 own inhabitants, traded for its own profit, and grew rich for its 
 own magnificence 1 but now, alas ! its harbours useless, its fields 
 uncultivated, its towns nearly deserted, and its capital in ruins! 
 Will my independent countrymen resign for ever, without a 
 shadow of compensation, the power of taxing themselves, the 
 final adjustment of their own litigations, the framing and enact- 
 ing of their own laws, the majesty of the nation ? Will they 
 pledge their country as a joint security for the liquidation of an 
 English national debt a debt of upwards of 409 millions ster- 
 ling a debt that never can be lessened, but which, in all pro- 
 bability, by the end of next year, will be increased by the 
 addition of a further loan, of not less than six times the sum of 
 your own national debt. Will you mortgage and double your 
 taxes for the sole benefit of another island, and contract for fresh 
 and usurious loans, in proportion as you find yourselves inca- 
 pable of discharging, even the interest of your former debts ? 
 But let me not calculate; your destruction is too plain to re- 
 quire demonstration, for the most dimsighted can perceive the 
 ruin of your country through such an alliance. Nothing can 
 be added to the political misfortunes of your Union; but to the 
 moralist the Irish moralist who will be more affected for the 
 character of his countrymen than for their national indepen- 
 dence, or even for their means of physical existence, an Union 
 must prove a ceaseless cause of silent lamentation. No more 
 shall he pride himself on the honest candour of the Irish charac- 
 ter; nor boast himself as the native of a land exempt from the 
 cowardly vice of deceit. The Union the double-faced Union 
 will invert the aspect of your national virtues; and, in the 
 predicament of Scotland, you will endeavour, like the people 
 of that united country, to excel in the concealment of your 
 thoughts. The affectation of virtues you do not possess a 
 beggarly humility, an unnatural self-denial, a slavish demeanor 
 to your superiors; but to your inferiors, a haughtiness not to be 
 endured, an arrogance not to be gratified.* 
 
 To prevent, as far as lies in my power, this Union, which I 
 cannot think on without feeling the destruction of my country, 
 
 * This character seems to suit some persons in ministerial capacities.
 
 428 THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 I have taken the liberty of publishing the foregoing pages, that 
 the genuine lovers of Ireland may not be wholly ignorant of a 
 measure that will certainly and shortly be brought forward. 
 My object is to make my countrymen unanimous, and unani- 
 mous in time, in an invincible opposition to so fatal a proposal, 
 come in what shape it may. I arn well aware that allurements 
 of a very attractive nature will be held out to my brethren the 
 Roman Catholics motives of seduction, which I entertain no 
 doubt they will resist: nay, abhor, when they know they will 
 be offered as the price of the sovereign independence of their 
 country. The Roman Catholics cannot but be sensible that the 
 few remaining grievances of the many they have for so many 
 years patiently suffered, will not long continue to afflict them. 
 The liberality that has of late removed so many penal laws, 
 will not cease to regard you with an eye of justice, until your 
 last oppression is cast off; this must be soon; you will not then 
 be so foolish in regard to your interests, and so treasonable to 
 your country, as to sell the fee simple of the independence of 
 your island, for the anticipation of your civic franchise of, per- 
 haps, not a year perhaps not longer than the meeting of the 
 next parliament. I would therefore earnestly recommend every 
 Irishman to put aside religious distinctions, but I would par- 
 ticularly conjure all those who at present, in city, county, or 
 borough, enjoy the shadow of elective franchise, to instruct* 
 their representatives to oppose with all their might so degrad- 
 ing and disastrous a measure as an Union. This will be the 
 only effectual way to save the country, and to counteract the 
 designs of the British minister; for every freeman should know 
 that the parliament is only a delegation of the people, convened 
 for the benefit of the people. The people then speaking thus 
 to their representatives, cannot fail to be obeyed; for no par- 
 liament that sought its election from the people, can cease to 
 obey the voice, the undoubted voice of its electors. But, 
 should the House of Commons vote away, or alter the constitu- 
 tion of the land, without the approbation of its constituents, 
 such an act, I am certain, could be in nowise binding, because 
 the parliament being chosen to act under the constitution, 
 cannot alter or destroy it, without rising above it. Should the 
 parliament of Ireland, then, accede to an Union with England, 
 without the approbation of the people who made them a par- 
 
 * County meetings cannot at present be held, as, under the procla- 
 mation, the military would disperse them.
 
 PROJECTED UNION. 429 
 
 liament an Union by which the sovereign constitution of Ire- 
 land would be swallowed up and lost in the ocean of English 
 and Scotch representation it could not be said to act with 
 more fidelity than the servant, who being sent to collect the 
 rents of an estate, took the liberty of selling it in fee. I should 
 apprehend, both in law and justice, that the vote of the one 
 and the sale of the other would be equally binding. 
 
 I shall no longer intrude with my anxieties and my fears, but 
 conclude with reminding my readers of the motto with which I 
 set out, " Nous perdons la patrie, si nous nous divisons." 
 Faithful and steady to a connexion with England which we 
 prize, still let us not sacrifice our country for her aggrandize- 
 ment. Whatever disadvantages we at present labour under, 
 spring from an English* administration; let us not, then, add 
 an English parliament. In spite of oppression, in spite of mar- 
 tial law, let the people of Ireland be united as a man to oppose 
 the fatal attempt; and let the people of England be assured, 
 that if they suffer themselves to be made the instruments of 
 enslaving us, they will in turn be themselves enslaved. 
 
 Ireland may yet be saved, if, by a steady perseverance, we 
 succeed in obtaining a Parliamentary Reform. f Let not the 
 
 * An English minister plunged Ireland into the present war. so disas- 
 trous to her finances and to her population, but by which, if ever so 
 successful, she could not have hoped for the most minute advantage. 
 
 f I have lately met a pamphlet, I cannot recollect where, which con- 
 tains a well-conceived sketch of a parliamentary reform. The cities 
 continuing to return their present number of representatives, and the 
 boroughs disfranchised, each barony in the several counties might have 
 its representatives with a very small increase to the number of your 
 present commons. Every individual of a proper age to have the power 
 of voting in the parish where he is enrolled. The poll to be had in 
 each parish at the same time, and the return to be made at a fixed hour 
 to the baronial court. By this means, the whole parliament would be 
 chosen in one day, and in a manner that would effectually prevent 
 riot, disorder, or bribery. 
 
 Many persons may disapprove of this scheme of universal suffrage ; 
 but what right can a Reformer have to shut out a particular class of his 
 countrymen from the elective franchise ; and ought not all the people 
 to be represented in a parliament that can dispose of liberty, life, and 
 limb, as well as of property. I must acknowledge I think the liberty 
 and safety of the father of a family, who labours for its support, is of 
 far more value to the community, than the acres of the monopolist, or 
 the houses of the boroughmonger. The constitution thus invigorated 
 would be supported and beloved by all the people, who would then 
 have a real interest in its preservation, whilst it would afford them 
 effectual protection.
 
 430 REPLY TO ADDRESS. 
 
 warmth of temper, natural to my countrymen, incline them to 
 any excess. Ministers only seek an excuse to continue, or, if 
 possible, to increase their outrages against the people. Mr. 
 Pitt, a good financier, and a lover of absolute authority, having 
 lost the good opinion of the monied men in England, as well as 
 of the body of the people, now speculates on the further taxa- 
 tion of Ireland, and of employing our physical force to put down 
 his opposers at home. The trying moment approaches; I 
 beseech the great Ruler of the universe to give us unanimity, 
 and to inspire every Irishman with this great truth that his 
 individual welfare is inseparably connected with, and dependent 
 on, that of his country. 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 I AM also indebted to a friend for an old newspaper, con- 
 taining the following reply to an address presented to 
 me in the year 1821. I shall, perhaps, be pardoned for 
 putting upon record a trifle which, after a lapse of twenty- 
 nine years, recalls to my mind recollections of many good 
 offices and kindly feelings : 
 
 To the High Sheriff of the County of Kildure, the Lady Ponsonby, the 
 Gentlemen, Clergy, Freeholders and Landholders of the Barony of 
 South Salt. 
 
 MADAM AND GENTLEMEN Accept my warmest thanks for your 
 affectionate and truly gratifying address. A man who is loved by all 
 his immediate neighbours, of all ranks and of all persuasions, may well 
 be proud ; he must have some good in him. He might be covered with 
 ribands and orders, and be worse than worthless. 
 
 Your kindness is dear to my heart. You all know my life, public 
 and private, and your testimony of approbation is at least disinterested ; 
 for though I live amongst you, my property is elsewhere. Your tri- 
 bute of affection is not the bought or buyable effusion offered to an 
 absentee by orders of his agent. From me the poorest of you could 
 not expect an abatement of rent, or a provision for his family, through 
 my interest at the Castle, and the greater part of you live, with re- 
 spectable hospitality, on your hereditary or honestly earned means. 
 Gentlemen, for twenty years I have been a constant resident amongst 
 you ; for the chief part of that time the sole acting magistrate, not 
 only for your barony, but for miles beyond it. If any man can say 
 that during that period I ever delayed justice or made distinction on
 
 REPLY TO ADDRESS. 431 
 
 account of friendship, wealth, religion, or politics, I am ready to forego 
 the reward of your affection. I never annoyed you or the Government 
 by false alarms, nor refused my personal assistance where occasion re- 
 quired. You more than seconded my humhle but zealous exertions 
 no season, no personal inconvenience prevented your ready aid for the 
 preservation of the public peace. That peace has not been endangered, 
 I think, by any bad spirit or mischievous propensity amongst our poorer 
 neighbours, though their wants and their sufferings have often been 
 such as to have almost justified any outrage that could afford relief. If 
 in some other parts of the county the same good order has not always 
 prevailed, I attribute it very much to the want of magistrates, or to 
 the conduct of some improper persons appointed to that office, who 
 trade on the commission and on the miseries of their fellow-creatures 
 to the public money given to these improper persons for payment of 
 informers, to drink with the foolish and unwary, and lead them into 
 crime to the almost total want of employment for the industrious poor, 
 caused by the weight of taxation, the high rent of land, and the absence 
 of great proprietors to the present system of tithe and tithe proctor- 
 ing to the general want of education, the funds intended for which, 
 either by public or private benevolence, are intercepted by traders in 
 religion and loyalty to the notions entertained by the poor respecting 
 the administration of justice between them and the rich to the sus- 
 pected impunity of gross peculation when supported by party influence 
 to the animosity so systematically and so successfully excited between 
 Christians for slight differences of opinion on subjects which few can 
 understand to the encouragement held out to the exciters of those 
 differences to the change caused by the Union in the Lieutenancy of 
 Ireland, which instead of a station of high political importance, has often 
 been a mere money-making retreat, divested of dignity, and controlled 
 by TJnder-Secretaries, or young inexperienced political tyros, sending 
 much money from the country, and driving from our beautiful city all 
 who have taste enough to dislike bad company and tinsel finery finally, 
 and all in all, to the want of a resident and reformed Legislature. 
 
 Gentlemen, I should like a stipendiary police under the unfortunate 
 circumstances of Ireland, as I should prefer a property tax to the pre- 
 sent more ruinous and expensive mode of supplying the extravagance or 
 the wants of Ministers. The police of our metropolis is excellent, and 
 not very costly. A county police in a country circumstanced with re- 
 spect to the people and magistracy as Ireland is, would be desirable, 
 particularly if the magistrates of such police were appointed by the 
 grand juries, well paid, and not removable without fault. 
 
 The best magistrate and grand juror I ever knew, the late Wbgan 
 Brown , who was a magistrate of three contiguous counties, was removed 
 from the commission of two of those counties, whilst he was left in for 
 a third, thus acknowledged to have been just and necessary, and in- 
 sulted because he was liberal. He was a man whose virtues of head 
 and heart never were exceeded the best scholar and most polished 
 gentleman kind, loyal, and honest, in every relation of life he ex- 
 pended a great fortune in truly Irish hospitality he was an ornament 
 to our country, yet was he thus treated, doubtless from misrepresentation, 
 That circumstance, gentlemen, and the fear of too great responsibility,
 
 432 REPLY TO ADDRESS. 
 
 prevents many in this county from becoming magistrates; and in 
 Kildare, which is less bereft of gentry than most other counties, there 
 are miles, including the county town, without a magistrate. Poor 
 people have often had ten or twelve miles to come to me for the reco- 
 very of a few shillings hardly earned, and unjustly withheld. What 
 must be the case in other counties ? I would therefore prefer a general 
 police, if cheaply and properly organized ; but the system, under Mr. 
 Peel's bill, leads to favouritism and injustice. The proclaiming of this 
 barony is, I think, a most unadvised and severe measure. Idleness 
 and want being the chief cause of the crimes of our people, will these 
 evils be diminished by additional taxes 011 us, many of whom have 
 already discharged our best servants and labourers from want of means 
 to pay them ? Besides we are, all things considered, one of the most 
 peaceable districts in the kingdom. Within these two years the only 
 felonies I have heard of in the barony, were the stealing four sheep, 
 for which one man was convicted ; a house robbery, for which the 
 accused are in gaol ; and a very insignificant arson by a woman, also 
 confined ; the other criminals brought before me were from remote 
 distances, or from the county of Dublin. Gentlemen, I have stated 
 no fact which most of you do not know, and of the whole I can adduce 
 the most positive evidence. My opinions may be mistaken ; to them I 
 have never endeavoured to convert any man ; a man who cannot think 
 for himself is not worth converting. 
 
 The people of Ireland are brave, grateful, and long suffering, but 
 their very nature and disposition have been perverted by the system. 
 Justice and conciliation can alone reclaim them. If the Government, 
 instead of listening to the false representations of needy and insignifi- 
 cant persons, will take the pains to seek the truth, the evil may be yet 
 remedied. 
 
 Madam, and Gentlemen, with great respect, 
 
 Your faithful and obliged friend, 
 
 CLONCURRY. 
 
 Lyons, 18th June, 1821. 
 
 DUBLIN : PRINTED BT ALEXANDER THOM, 87, ABBEY-STREET.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 tt. APR151996 
 
 .; W, 
 
 Form L9-
 
 A 000 085 470 3 
 
 NEW WORKS. 
 
 THE BOYNE AND BLACKWATEE 
 
 ILLUSTRATED, HISTORICALLY AND TOPOGRAPHICALLY. 
 
 BY WILLIAM ROBERT WILDE, M.R.I.A. 
 
 With a Map, an Itinerary, and numerous Engravings on Wood. A 
 
 handsome volume. Crown 8vo, price 9s. 6</. 
 
 A HANDBOOK OF IBISH ANTIQUITIES, 
 
 PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN ; 
 
 Especially of such as are easy of access from the Irish Metropolis. 
 
 BY W. F. WAKEMAN. 
 
 With 100 Illustrations. A beautiful pocket volume. Fcap. 8vo, 
 price 5s. cloth. 
 
 A HANDBOOK FOE TEAYELLEES IN IEELAND. 
 
 BY JAMES ERASER, 
 
 A New Edition, with Map and an Introductory Chapter, descriptive 
 of the various Railways open. Crown 8vo, price 8s. 
 
 A HANDBOOK FOE THE LAKES OF KILLAENEY, 
 
 AND THE SURROUNDING SCENERY. 
 
 BY JAMES ERASER, 
 
 Author of "A Handbook for Travellers in Ireland." With a Map. 
 Price Is. 6d. cloth. 
 
 DUBLIN AND ITS EiNYIEONS. 
 
 With a Map of the City, and numerous Illustrations engraved on 
 
 Wood. A neat pocket volume, price 2s. 6d. sewed ; 3*. cloth. 
 
 PLAN separately, Qd. 
 
 IBISH EAILWAY GUIDES; 
 
 Being complete Charts of the Lines, pointing out every object of 
 interest in their vicinity. Each copiously illustrated with Wood 
 Engravings and a Map of the Railway. Price 6</. each, 
 I DUBLIN TO CARLO-VV. 
 II DUBLIN TO TIPPERARY and 
 
 IEISH GEOLOGY. 
 
 In a SiTies of Chapters, containing an Outline of the Science of 
 Geology : a description of the various Rocks distributed on the surface 
 of the Island ; with some Remarks on the Climate. 
 
 BY THOMAS ANTISELL, M.R.C.S.. 
 
 Author of " Lectures <n; Agricultural Chemistry," c. 
 IBmo, Sixpence. 
 
 DUBLIN : JAMES M'GLASHAN, 21 D'OLIER-STREET. 
 
 WM. S. ORR AND CO., AMEN-CORNER, LONDON. 
 
 AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.