CAWTHOKN, HUTT & SON, 
 
 WDQI&SIBIIXlBmS AHUD ILUlBmiUEII&HS, 
 
 2 4, C^fcSSPUR STREET, 
 
 DAYS 
 
 TtOSS, s.w 
 
 A 
 
(5 
 

MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
■ 
 
 
P J r , , 
 
 > t I 1 > J 3 » • ■ . , > 
 
 IE. GEEGOEY'S LETTEE-BOX 
 
 i 8 i 3 — i 830 
 
 EDITED BY LADY GREGORY 
 
 WITH A PORTRAIT 
 
 LONDON 
 SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 1898 
 
 [All rights reserved] 
 
C art 
 
 t t * 
 
 
 2 
 
 M 
 
 5 U 
 
 • • • e ■ . , • . • ...c,, c c c < 
 
 £. 
 
 £( 
 
 £ 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mr. Gregory's Letter-box 1 
 
 Orangeism and Emancipation 14 
 
 Lord Whitworth, Peel, and the Fear of France . . 40 
 
 Lord Talbot 108 
 
 Lord Talbot and Mr. Grant 108 
 
 Lord Talbot (continued) 129 
 
 The King's Visit 140 
 
 Lord Talbot's Dismissal 158 
 
 Lord Wellesley, and Mr. Goulburn 183 
 
 Lord Anglesey, and Mr. Lamb 237 
 
 The Carrying of Emancipation, and the Duke of North- 
 umberland 249 
 
 The Place-hunters 268 
 
 Lord Talbot in England . 284 
 
 Index 349 
 
 583378 
 
. . . > 
 
 • I 
 
 ' ' ' ' > 1 1 
 
 > . i ) 
 
 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' Correspondence of the Right Honourable William 
 Gregory, 1813-1835.' A large iron-clamped, leather- 
 
 C*t \\TCM*Cif\ \-\r\-*r r» 4- t\r\ s* I ■ <•* J» ~ A ' 
 
 Erraia 
 Page 54, line 11, for Rathangar read Rathangan 
 66, ,, 6, „ aquittal read acquittal 
 10, „ aquitted read acquitted 
 94, ," 15, „ Caraval read Caravat 
 95', footnote „ Caraval read Caravat 
 .. 184, last line but one, for honour read humour 
 „ 257, line 8, for July 1 read Feb. 1 
 
 jvyxj-x xj± UJ.1C kJU-A.. 
 
 I have not discovered any grave State secrets. 
 Even the books recording the laying out of the 
 Secret Service money, audited by ' Bedford,' ' Arthur 
 Wellesley,' ' Richmond,' and their successors, reveal 
 no plot against the liberties of the people. It is 
 ostensibly ' applied in detecting treasonable con- 
 spiracies, &c.,' and was also used for the subsidising 
 
 B 
 
» » 
 
 1 
 
 » ' 
 
 I 
 
 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' Correspondence of the Eight Honourable William 
 Gregory, 1813-1835.' A large iron-clamped, leather- 
 covered box at Coole bears this inscription. 
 
 We sometimes talked, my husband and I, of 
 reading through its contents. Once we even began 
 to do so, but we happened to strike into a vein of 
 applications for places, and after a few days' work 
 we tired of appeals on behalf of possessors of all the 
 virtues who pined for any place, however poor or 
 small, and we gave up the task for the time. 
 
 But last winter, being alone, with patience and 
 long evenings on my side, I set to work, and came 
 at last to the bottom of the box. 
 
 I have not discovered any grave State secrets. 
 Even the books recording the laying out of the 
 Secret Service money, audited by ' Bedford,' ' Arthur 
 Wellesley,' ' Richmond,' and their successors, reveal 
 no plot against the liberties of the people. It is 
 ostensibly ' applied in detecting treasonable con- 
 spiracies, &c.,' and was also used for the subsidising 
 
> ' 
 
 ' < 
 
 t t < . 
 «■ t 
 
 < I 
 
 2 .•;. : :,•':' ''.ic'^ JG:$E&ORTS LETTEK-BOX 
 
 of newspapers, the protection of threatened wit- 
 nesses, and small pensions to the victims of political 
 troubles. There is also a regular payment of 100/. 
 per annum to a certain Dr. Parkinson * for per- 
 formance of two odes ' on the birthdays of the King 
 and Queen. That was the golden age for a Court 
 poet. 
 
 Having read from beginning to end this mass of 
 letters from those engaged in the Government of 
 Ireland, the impression that remains is that they 
 were all, all honourable men, and not only that, but 
 truly anxious for the welfare of the country, looking 
 with kindly, if somewhat prejudiced, eyes through 
 their party-coloured glasses. 
 
 One thing to be admired about them all is the 
 beautiful clearness of their handwriting. There have 
 been Viceroys and Chief Secretaries since then whose 
 letters will make more severe demands upon the 
 eyesight and ingenuity of their biographers. Mr. 
 Gregory's writing indeed grows a little shaky as years 
 advance, and his scorn of punctuation and unexpected- 
 ness in the use of capitals make his own letters a little 
 puzzling. They are traced in faded ink on thin 
 copying paper, and it is sometimes trying to the 
 patience when a document, pored over and held in 
 various lights and positions, is at last deciphered, to 
 find it relates only to the survey of a road or the 
 Keports of the Board of Health. 
 
 But I have striven to write fair what time had 
 blurred, and I have chosen here and there from all 
 
MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 3 
 
 the correspondence such letters as seem to throw a 
 light on the history of the time. 
 
 Bat I cannot give anything like a continuous 
 history, for during some months of every year the 
 Viceroy and the Chief Secretary and the Under 
 Secretary were together in Dublin, and, of course, 
 during those months no letters passed between them. 
 The extracts I give, however, seem to me to throw 
 some side lights on Castle government during those 
 years. 
 
 I see no need to apologise for their publication, 
 purchase and perusal being non-compulsory, but I 
 may quote a sentence of Lord Eosebery's : ' The 
 Irish question has never passed into history, for it 
 has never passed out of politics.' And also a word 
 said to me by Mr. Lecky, that far less is known of 
 the early part of this century in Ireland than of the 
 close of the last. 
 
 Old Mr. Gregory's bust looks benevolently on my 
 labours. The geniality of his nature beams through 
 its white marble. The bumps of perception are 
 strongly marked, as well they may be after many 
 vears of office in Ireland. 
 
 My husband says of him in his autobiography : 
 ' My grandfather, though not at all a brilliant man, 
 possessed many high qualities — excellent judgment, 
 sound sense, attention to business, great clearness 
 and accuracy in his transaction of it. He had a 
 frank, open manner, and was straightforward, true 
 and just in all his dealings. Few people have been 
 
 B 2 
 
4 MR. GREGORYS LETTER-BOX 
 
 more popular in Ireland during so long a period of 
 great power, and though he was a Tory of the Tories, 
 he was not disliked by those who differed with him 
 in politics. 
 
 ' My grandfather was originally a man of Liberal 
 opinions, but his connections and the influential 
 persons by whom he was surrounded made him adopt 
 the extreme Tory opinions of that day, though I 
 never recollect hearing a violent expression from his 
 lips as regards Catholics. It is not, however, 
 wonderful that O'Connell was bent on removing all 
 opponents of his views from Dublin Castle, and in 
 several of his letters he lays the strongest stress on 
 clearing out Gregory, though he subsequently 
 acknowledges that " to do him justice he had some 
 Irish feelings." 
 
 'He had been educated at Harrow and Trinity 
 College, Cambridge. In 1813 he was made Under 
 Secretary for Ireland, a post which he held until 
 1831. He married Lady Anne Trench, and had 
 three children, two sons and a daughter.' 
 
 I find among his papers some little note books or 
 almanacs for each year. But unfortunately little is 
 revealed in them save the houses he dined at, the 
 very many guests who dined or stayed with him, and 
 his journeys. There is an indignant entry in 1810 
 of having been called upon by a Galway squire ' to 
 be his second with Mr. A. Martin, a grocer in Henry 
 Street.' Very often the arrival is noted of ' a 
 hogshead of claret ' or ' a pipe of port from Sneyd,' 
 
MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 5 
 
 and the date of bottling is also recorded with due 
 care. His dinner-giving days were nearly over in 
 1833, when he writes, ' My dear old friend Sneyd shot 
 by a madman at half-past two p.m. in Westmoreland 
 Street.' 
 
 I have also found his account books from 1790, 
 carefully written up all through, though with a 
 coupling of details sometimes rather incongruous — 
 'Print and Pickles, 195. 6<i.' ; 'Play and John, 
 11. 6s.' ; ' Stockings Powder Cheese, 1/. 5s. 6c/.' I 
 am glad that in spite of his usual economy of stops 
 he affords a comma between the words ' Frank, 
 washing, Betty, 4/. 0s. 7-|<i.' Lavender water seems 
 to have been a heavy item, and muslin for cravats, 
 which comes to about as much as window tax. 
 Lottery tickets he sometimes invests in, but apparently 
 without success. Before his appointment he borrowed 
 money now and then, but it is honestly paid off 
 afterwards with such expressions as ' Creasy, the 
 last of him, 50/.' Charity is not neglected. There 
 is more than one entry of ' Cloaths for poor Boy.' 
 Charity sermons draw an unfailing guinea, 20/. is 
 given in one lump to the poor of Dublin, and even 
 a ' Mass-house ' receives a small donation. Books 
 appear sometimes — Stockdale's ' Shakespeare,' ' Lord 
 Eussell's Letters,' ' Davis's Tracts.' It is curious to 
 look through the accounts for 1798 and see the 
 usual peaceful items ' perfumery,' ' three white waist- 
 coats,' ' children's ' hats, ' drawing William's tooth ' 
 (lis. i\d.). But there are some signs of the terrors 
 
6 ME. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 around in ' sword-belt and plate,' ' barracks ' and 
 ' trimming regimental hat.' 
 
 Travelling was in those days a serious expense. 
 In 1805 I see 'Dublin to London, 45/. 10s.'; 'Ex- 
 penses to Coole (Dublin to Galway), 24/.' ; ' Bath to 
 London (1808), 23/. 19s. 4d.' Once in London his 
 sojourn did not cost him much, the houses of Lord 
 Whitworth, Lord Talbot, and others were open to him. 
 He bought presents there, however, and did com- 
 missions for friends marked ' English money at par,' 
 a 'hookar for the Duke (of Eichmond) is 25/. 8s. id' 
 That a prelate should be strait-laced is befitting, but 
 this is perhaps too plainly indicated in ' paid for the 
 Bishop of Elphin in London, Kirby, 5/. Is. 6d. Stay- 
 maker, 21. 10s.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory had no lack of work to attend to. 
 He had to show each new Viceroy and Chief Secre- 
 tary the working of the ropes, and it was not always 
 easy to keep the whole machine from being put out 
 of gear by the sudden changes in the political views 
 of those who from time to time took up the govern- 
 ment. An Under Secretary who had worked under 
 Grant and Goulburn, Lord Talbot and Lord Anglesey, 
 may well have echoed the lament of Irenams : ' This 
 is the common order of them, that who cometh next 
 in the place will not follow the course of government, 
 however good, which his predecessor held, either for 
 disdayne of him, or doubt to have his doings drowned 
 in another man's prayse, but will straight take a way 
 quite contrarye to the former ; as iff the former 
 
MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 7 
 
 thought (by keeping under the Irish) to reforme 
 them, the next by discountenauncing the English will 
 currye favour with the Irish, and so make his 
 government seeme plausible in viewe, as having all 
 the Irish at his commaunde : but he that comes next 
 after will perhaps follow neither one nor the other, 
 but will dandle the one and the other in such sort as 
 he will suck sweete out of them both, and leave 
 bitterness to the poore lande, which if he that comes 
 after shall seeke to redress, he shall perhaps finde 
 such crosses as he shall be hardly able to beare, or 
 do any goode that might work the disgrace of his 
 predecessors.' 
 
 He was, as his letters show, strongly against 
 emancipation. He writes to Lord Talbot on hearing 
 some news unfavourable to the Bill : ' Your account 
 of the fixed determination to maintain the Protestant 
 religion is very consoling.' He adopted the current 
 belief that the savagery and disorder amongst the 
 people should be laid at the door of their religion 
 and not of their misgovernment and misfortune. 
 And no doubt he sincerely believed that the estab- 
 lished Church would at last, if given time, lead them 
 to ' the blessed comfort of the sweete gospell and 
 Christe's deare passion.' 
 
 But for the material good of the people he was 
 always ready to work, and he speaks indignantly 
 again and again against absenteeism and the careless- 
 ness of the country gentlemen. In 1822 he writes : 
 ' The helpless apathy of the gentry of Clare is quite 
 
8 ME. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 provoking. Because Major Warburton is ill tliey do 
 not act, and apply with complaints to and against 
 the Government to know what they are to do.' 
 
 His own father was an energetic landowner, and 
 I see no applications for help from his people. Arthur 
 Young found him in 1776 * engaged in pursuits which 
 if well imitated will improve the face of the country 
 not a little,' and ' improving his land with great 
 spirit,' having brought over a Norfolk man to teach 
 his people the management of the newly introduced 
 culture of turnips. He was a Liberal in politics, and 
 had been chairman of the East India Company. 
 Edmund Burke, writing to him upon some Indian 
 subject, said : ' I enter fully into everything you feel. 
 Certainly you must begin with the natives. This 
 was always your fundamental maxim ; and be 
 assured it will be mine. God knows whether I for 
 one shall have health to get through the business 
 yours has sunk under. But depend upon it I shall 
 not depart an inch from your line.' This letter he 
 ' desired to have carefully handed down to his 
 posterity, to show how dearly he had the interests of 
 the natives of the East Indies at heart.' And the 
 Under Secretary instilled these lessons of humanity 
 learned from his father so well in the minds of his 
 children, that his eldest son met his death in 1847 
 through personally attending the fever-struck victims 
 of famine. Mr. Gregory seldom grumbles over his 
 work, which had at least the charm of variety. In 
 1814 he writes to Mr. Peel : 'The news from Paris 
 
MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 9 
 
 has made me unfit to think of Carders. Bib bonnien , 
 Orangemen, Tidewaiters, Magistrates and all the 
 varied topics of our usual correspondence.' 
 
 And in 1813: 'I have been occupied a great 
 part of the day in the troublesome part of my duty 
 as Chief of thieftakers. I hear another gang of Mail 
 Coach Bobbers is formed, with a brother in law of 
 Colliers as their Captain ; one of them was closely 
 pursued last night, but escaped in the usual place of 
 Eobbers refuge, the Demesne of Soger O'Connor. 
 From the information received and the activity of 
 the Country People who have suffered from these 
 Depredators I hope we shall disperse them.' 
 
 And again : ' The Xegociations between the 
 Paving Board and the Gas Light Company are very 
 tiresome, and old Taylor, who is as restive as he is 
 honest, wishes to throw all the Business on Govern- 
 ment. He might as well set me to work on animal 
 Magnetism as on Gas Light.' And finally, in 
 
 CD <- J ' 
 
 1819: 'I have never performed a more arduous 
 Task in my varied Official Duty than the one in 
 which I was engaged for a long time this morning, 
 no less than attempting to settle the misunderstanding 
 between the Ranger of the Curragh and the Stewards 
 of the Turf Club.' 
 
 He also bore the first brunt of the applications 
 for places, his good word being eagerly looked for, 
 and his power believed in. 
 
 There is a touch of oriental patience and pathos 
 in this appeal to him from the Countess of G., who 
 
10 Mil. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 begs that 6,000/. belonging to her may be released 
 from a judgment in favour of the Barrack Board 
 without delay. ' Think of me at Cork, and the 
 money only waiting to be paid to me after waiting 
 for it twenty-eight years. On my knees I entreat 
 you to have this done immediately ! ' 
 
 Lady Anne Gregory died in 1833, but his 
 daughter was still his companion. I see by his note- 
 book that she was not an old maid perforce, for there 
 is an entry: 'Sept. 10, 1817. Colonel E pro- 
 posed for my Daughter' ; then, ' 19th. My Daughter 
 confined to her bed by Fever, attended by Dr. 
 Perceval.' ' 21st. Eefused Colonel E's proposal.' 
 ' 24th. Crampton called in to my Daughter.' 
 
 There is a delightful flavour of Miss Austen about 
 this. Miss Gregory was contemporary with her 
 heroines, and may even have met her suitor at the 
 Bath Pump Eoom at the end of one of those expen- 
 sive journeys. One cannot but speculate on an un- 
 happy attachment elsewhere, which combined with 
 remorse for false hopes given plunged her into that 
 * Fever ' which we are prone to fancy only seeks its 
 victims amongst the heroines of romance. One can 
 hear her murmur, ' My illness has made me think — it 
 has given me leisure for calm and serious reflection. 
 Long before I was enough recovered to talk I was 
 perfectly able to reflect. I saw that my own feelings 
 had prepared my sufferings, and that my want of 
 fortitude under them had almost led me to the grave.' 
 But Miss Austen would have brought about a more 
 
MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 11 
 
 satisfactory ending, and Colonel R , like that 
 
 other Colonel, who, notwithstanding that he ' sought 
 the constitutional safeguard of a flannel waistcoat,' 
 was made happy by Miss Dashwood, would never 
 have been sent away in enduring despair. 
 
 Mr. Gregory's removal had often been threatened 
 as opinions on the Catholic question changed. In 
 October 1827, Lord Lansdowne wrote to Lamb : 
 ' Lord Anglesey will be prepared to commence his 
 vice-royalty with the New Year . . . Second, as to 
 Gregory. We are all agreed that it is desirable he 
 should be removed, but in a way that shall be both 
 civil in manner and satisfactory in substance. As, 
 judging from your letter, you are on good terms 
 with him, you can have no difficulty in ascertaining 
 how he is circumstanced, and what provision would 
 best suit him. Goderich thinks there is no harm in 
 granting a pension analogous to that which would 
 exist with respect to an under secretary. But, if no 
 other way can be suggested, he would have no diffi- 
 culty in submitting the case to Parliament, as he has 
 served much longer than under the law here would 
 entitle him in a parallel case to a pension. Any- 
 thing you can propose for this purpose will be 
 attended to with a desire to give it immediate effect, 
 as Lord A. is anxious that the arrangement should 
 take effect as soon as he goes, if not before, and C. 
 Grant says that G. must in your case, as he found in 
 his, remain master of the whole machine of govern- 
 ment when you are absent.' 
 
12 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 However, he escaped for that time, and in 1829 
 we find Mr. Wyse writing : ' The petitioner at the 
 Castle did not ask what the Lord-Lieutenant thought, 
 but what the Lord-Lieutenant's Secretary thought, or 
 rather what his Secretary's Secretary thought. It 
 was not Lord Wellesley, nor even Mr. Goulburn, 
 but it was Mr. Gregory who held in his hand the 
 destinies of Ireland.' 
 
 In 1830 Mr. Gregory notes on September 17 : 
 ' Not one letter by the English or Irish mail. Such a 
 blank day I have not known for eighteen years.' 
 
 This was an omen foreshadowing the end, for 
 three months later, on Lord Anglesey's re-appoint- 
 ment, he received from him a letter of dismissal. He 
 writes, December 27 : ' Eemoved from the office of 
 Under Secretary for Ireland, which I had held for 
 upwards of eighteen years, having filled other public 
 offices.' 
 
 It was better, even for his own sake, he should 
 go out with Protestant ascendency. He would have 
 been old wine in new bottles now the new order had 
 begun. He led a quiet and apparently a happy life 
 until the end came in 1840. In his last year he 
 writes : ' 74 years old. How thankless am I for the 
 mercy that has been shown unto me, living to such 
 an advanced age in the enjoyment of excellent health, 
 the free use of my limbs and my mind unimpaired.' 
 
 Even after his fall no unkind words seem to have 
 been said of him. Lord Cloncurry, though they had 
 always been in opposite camps, writes in his memoirs: 
 
MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 13 
 
 'Notwithstanding the inconsistency of his political 
 opinions with those of Lord Anglesey and with mine, 
 I constantly found the Right Hon. William Gregory 
 a sincere and active friend and promoter of the 
 physical interests of Ireland.' 
 
 Addresses and letters of sympathy and regret 
 followed him in his retirement. I fancy he kept up 
 his old habit of hospitality even then, for I see in his 
 account book for January, 1831 : ' Dejeuner to the 
 Lord Mayor and Corporation who presented an 
 Address, 1U. 15s.' 
 
14 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ORANGEISM AND EMANCIPATION 
 
 The dramatic idea, if one may so call it, of Mr. 
 Gregory's term of office was the emancipation of the 
 Catholics. And so many practical questions of 
 administration turned upon this unsettled question, 
 and so many disorders were caused by the irregular 
 forces of this war of creeds, that it is necessary to 
 know something of the causes and the tendencies of 
 the war when trying to understand the ins and outs 
 of Castle government. 
 
 ' They come in the morning, scoffing and scorning, 
 Saying, were you harassed, were you sore abused, 
 O, Orange haters, ye beat the traitors, 
 That betrayed our Saviour to the wicked Jews.' 
 
 Such songs as the above testify to the depth of 
 religious bitterness that had grown up in Ireland in 
 the early part of this century. 
 
 Up to 1795 religious intolerance had seemed to 
 be in abeyance, or to have died away. When the 
 question of the removal of religious disabilities was 
 brought before the Irish House of Commons in that 
 year, ' the Protestants of Ireland as a body were per- 
 fectly ready to concede what was asked,' Mr. Lecky 
 
THE BIRTH OF ORANGEISM 15 
 
 tells us, and he tells us also that ' the Protestants of 
 Ireland had many faults, but they were at this time 
 remarkably free from religious bigotry.' But the 
 liberty which Irish Protestants were ready to grant 
 was refused by the Protestants of England, and conces- 
 sion having been violently thrown out by the door, 
 rebellion and revolution came in by the window. 
 Before the dawning of the new century two events 
 had taken place which had revived bigotry and 
 drawn a hard line of separation between the two 
 creeds, the birth of Orangeism, and the rebellion 
 of '98. 
 
 ' No Surrender,' ' No Popery,' the support of the 
 Crown so long as it supported Protestant ascendency, 
 these were the cries of the Orange society. Distrust 
 of the Catholics was its leading motive. William 
 the Third, from whom it took its name, was its hero. 
 
 The Protestants were not without provocation 
 in forming this League. The Catholics had already 
 banded together as ' Defenders.' The ' Battle of the 
 Diamond,' in which the ' Defenders ' were the 
 aggressors and the Protestants the victors, was the 
 official birthday of the Orange society, and is still 
 celebrated in its triumphant though unmelodious 
 
 song: 
 
 ' 'Twas in the year of '95, September the 21st, 
 They rushed from the hills with shouts and with yells, 
 The Defenders to do their worst. 
 But them to oppose stood Protestant foes, 
 Who scattered the murderous crew ; 
 And ere the sun set the green grass was wet, 
 But not with the evening dew.' 
 
16 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 It was a great misfortune to Ireland that this 
 religious war came into being before the '98 
 rebellion. A few years earlier, the North had been 
 the headquarters of disaffection. Even in 1796 'the 
 town which showed the worst spirit was undoubtedly 
 Belfast, the capital of the most advanced Irish 
 Protestantism.' But by degrees first the gentry and 
 then the Northern democracy drifted away from the 
 national movement, which grew more and more 
 fierce as its channel was narrowed. 
 
 If they had held together, sufficient concessions 
 might have been granted to prevent the rebellion 
 taking place. Or had it taken place, and still been put 
 down, the ropes that hanged Protestant and Catholic 
 alike might have acted as ' cords of love ' in binding 
 different creeds and classes together. We might 
 have escaped that root of bitterness, whose fruit, 
 like the blossom of the furze, is never quite out of 
 season in Ireland. 
 
 But when the moment of the rebellion came, its 
 great Protestant leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, had 
 already been seized, and lay dying in prison, there 
 was no one competent to take his place, the rising 
 took place spasmodically, its guidance fell into the 
 hands of a few violent priests, and instead of a war 
 for liberty or for justice, it became a war of fana- 
 ticism and religious hatred. 
 
 I was made to realise this, and the nearness of 
 '98 to 1800, by a talk I had a little time ago with an 
 old ladv, born during the Duke of Kichmond's vice- 
 
TRADITIONS OF '98 17 
 
 royalty, but who is a link with a yet more distant 
 generation. 
 
 She had been reading my husband's autobio- 
 graphy, and she put it down and said : ' I never knew 
 O'Connell myself, but I have heard him speak from 
 the balcony of his house in Merrion Square, and I 
 have seen him carried about in a chair by the people. 
 I don't think so much of him as your husband 
 did. Yes, he may have believed he was doing good 
 work, but my feelings were not for the Catholics. I 
 was reared in a little chair beside my grandmother, 
 
 Mrs B. of I , and I heard too much of the 
 
 horrors of '98. 
 
 ' She was but a young thing when my grand- 
 father first saw her. He had come to buy horses, 
 and she was up in a tree picking nuts, and her 
 sisters were wading in the stream. She was only 
 fifteen, but he fell in love with her that moment, and 
 at dinner time he asked that she might come down, 
 and he married her before many months were over. 
 She had everything she could want, and I remember 
 often when it was a wet day, we children would go 
 and take out the beautiful dresses that were put by, 
 that she used to wear when he took her to Dublin. 
 
 ' Their home was in Wexford, and all was quiet, 
 and one evening the parish priest had dined with 
 them, and they had no fear of anything more than 
 usual. But in the middle of the nmht a neighbour, 
 Mr. W., came and knocked at the door and bid them 
 escape for their lives, for the rebels were out. So 
 
 c 
 
18 MR GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 they flung on what clothes they could, and ran down, 
 and the kitchen was filled with Protestants that had 
 flocked in for safety. So they got carriages and cars 
 and all they could ready, and set out for Dublin. There 
 were parties of rebels along the road, and they stopped 
 the carriage to search it, and tried my grandmother's 
 pocket, but she had left all her money in a cabinet at 
 home, and they found nothing in it but bunches of 
 keys. Lady Courtown was in a carriage behind — they 
 could hear her shrieking — and presently Lord Cour- 
 town and my grandfather left their wives and went 
 back to defend their county, but they got safely to 
 Dublin. 
 
 ' After the rebels were put down they went back 
 home, and the first thing that they saw was the 
 blackened walls of their house, nothing else left 
 standing. The Protestant gardener had refused to 
 come away with them, said he would stay and take 
 his chance. And when they got back there was his 
 body lying across one of his hotbeds, where a pike 
 had been put through him. 
 
 ' They built the house up again, but there were 
 always cracks to be seen in the walls of the drawing- 
 room. And the kitchen and the offices they built a 
 long way off, as far as the flower beds from the front 
 of this house — my grandmother would never have felt 
 easy to have Eoman Catholics sleep near her again. 
 
 ' Yes, O'Connell may have had some good in him, 
 and once when I was a little girl sitting up on a wall 
 at Kilkenny to see the tinkers sell their wives to each 
 
RESULTS OF '98 19 
 
 other (yes, they did so, it was their custom, or made 
 an exchange — and the children alway went with 
 the woman), his son, Maurice O'Connell, came and 
 said I was sitting in a dangerous place, and took me 
 and lifted me down. But for all that I wouldn't 
 have given them the Maynooth grant. And as for 
 O'Connell, I had never heard he had any good in him 
 till I read your husband's book.' 
 
 On the other side, Parnell is said to have been 
 turned into a rebel by the story told him in his child- 
 hood by an eye-witness of the very brutal flogging to 
 death by English soldiers of a prisoner who fell into 
 their hands after the rising of '98. 
 
 I might have learned this change of class tradition 
 and one at least of its causes by an object lesson at 
 my own old home. My great-grandfather had been 
 active in the Volunteer movement, as an inscription 
 on a bridge built by him shows. As children we 
 were not taught Irish history, and I used to puzzle 
 over the meaning of the words : ' This bridge was 
 erected by William Persse Esquire, Col. of the 
 Koxborough Volunteers in the year 1783, in memory 
 of Ireland's Emancipation from Foreign Jurisdiction.' 
 
 But after '98, National feeling turned to distrust 
 of the people as Catholics, and a colony was formed 
 on the estate of Protestants imported from the North. 
 They were respectable but troublesome tenants, and 
 the experiment was not repeated. A letter from Mr. 
 Gregory to Lord Talbot written in 1820 tells of its 
 results : 
 
 c 2 
 
20 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' The accounts from Galway continue very bad. 
 The house of Eoxborough was attacked on Thursday 
 night. Your friend Persse was absent, but his sons 
 made a gallant Defence and the Eibbonmen were 
 repulsed. The village of Kilchriest (one mile from 
 Eoxborough) was plundered of Arms on Monday 
 last, and on the following night a party of Eibbonmen 
 compelled the Protestant Inhabitants (there are 
 several in the Village) to swear on their knees that on 
 the following Sunday they will with their families 
 attend Mass; the penalty of their disobedience, the 
 burning of their houses. Now that confidence has 
 been gained by numbers and the possession of arms, 
 the hatred to Heretics publicly manifests itself, and 
 the extirpation of Protestants is the avowed object of 
 these Miscreants. The completion of such a diabolical 
 wish is in my mind absurd and impracticable, tho' 
 many valuable lives may be lost. But the great and 
 immediate danger I dread is the reaction of the 
 opposite Party. The Protestants find themselves so 
 threatened, and such power gained by their enemies, 
 they will naturally associate and arm in their own 
 defence, and the whole mass of the lower Class of 
 population will be arranged in open hostility against 
 each other. I have seen so many parts of the 
 Kingdom at various times, fully in as bad a state as 
 Galway, and the disturbances suppressed, that I can 
 have no doubt of the restoration of tranquillity, tho' 
 it may be attended with much trouble and the loss of 
 some excellent Men who will not yield to those mid- 
 
ATTACK ON KOXBOROUGI1 21 
 
 night Legislators. Old Sir George moves with a lock 
 step, when we require double quick time, and 
 General O'Loughlin considers that the danger is 
 much exaggerated. No one dreams of those Kap- 
 parees taking the field against the King's troops ; but 
 the danger is not the less to the peaceable inhabitants 
 who are attacked by them at night. Large bodies of 
 Military are marching into the Country, there will 
 be this day or to-morrow 2,000 Men in the County of 
 Galway, and before the expiration of the ensuing 
 week 800 more.' 
 
 We used to hear traditions of this attack on 
 Eoxborough in my childhood. My father had been 
 one of its defenders. It was attacked by moonlight, 
 and the garrison could distinguish groups of men, 
 one group surrounding an oak-tree on the lawn. My 
 father took aim at the tree, thinking that in the 
 uncertain light he would thus be sure of hitting one 
 of the party. But his aim was surer than he thought, 
 and next day it was seen that the bullet had gone to 
 the heart of the oak. Other shots, however, were 
 more successful, for trails of blood were to be seen 
 in the morning, where the dead or wounded had 
 been carried away. 
 
 The following extracts are from a letter written 
 in 1813 by Baron Smith, in answer to an inquiry of 
 Mr. Gregory's as to the state of religious parties in 
 the North. The letter itself is, as Mr. Gregory says 
 of another by the same writer, ' of ponderous and 
 elephantine proportions.' Even in Court, the 
 
22 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Baron's charges were usually on the same ' elephant- 
 ine ' scale, and the vast MS. notes he was wont to 
 arrive with were said to be ' the terror of Grand 
 Juries.' But he seems to have been painstaking and 
 for those days impartial, and one good deed of his 
 deserves record, that of having learned Irish, that he 
 might not be dependent on an interpreter in the 
 examination of witnesses. 
 He writes : 
 
 ' On state of Catholics and Protestants in the 
 North of Ireland 
 
 Sept. 4, 1813. 
 
 1 Perhaps the outline of my opinion will be this, 
 that there does not appear to be a Party Spirit, or 
 rather perhaps that two Party Spirits appear to be 
 afloat, and very angrily and troublesomely busy in 
 some of the Counties through which I have passed, 
 that there are faults, animosities, ill-blood and 
 aggression upon both sides, but that the Orange 
 party have not infrequently given the original 
 provocation, to minds ready I am afraid to take fire 
 from a trifling spark, and by contumely and insult 
 and a certain tone and indication easier to under- 
 stand than to describe, of hostility, superiority, 
 defiance and contempt, have exasperated feelings 
 
 which a different conduct might assuage. 1 am 
 
 tempted to add that though I love and warmly share 
 the loyalty of Gentlemen, there is a spurious and 
 illiberal loyalty which grows up amongst the vulgar 
 
ORANGEMEN AND RIBBOXMEX 23 
 
 classes, and which is very turbulent, bigoted, riotous 
 and affronting, very saucy, and overbearing, almost 
 proud of transgression, necessarily producing exas- 
 peration, and often leading to the effusion of blood. 
 It is a rebellious and insurrectionary propensity gone 
 astray, and running contradictorily in the channel of 
 Allegiance. 
 
 ' A witness before me at Lifford, being asked why 
 the Corps of Yeomanry to which he had belonged 
 was disbanded, answered (on his oath) smiling and 
 in an exulting way, " Because it was too loyal." I am 
 afraid that, with it may be very pure intentions, some 
 of our Country Gentlemen do not always find their 
 fairness seconded by equal coolness, Intelligence or 
 Judgment. 
 
 ' I do not know, probably you do, whether those 
 Bodies called Eibbon men are or are not of a 
 decidedly political character, and a symptom of 
 rebellious plans and organisation. I have heard the 
 thing asserted and denied ; but when I asked for 
 proofs, I was put off with prejudice and empty noise. 
 That they are a Religious Party is beyond question, 
 and if it were not that the gross exaggerations which 
 I have detected make me a little incredulous, I should 
 say that they collect from distant quarters, are 
 bound together by an obligation, appear suddenly in 
 great numbers, act in concert, are very anti-Protest- 
 ant, or at the least violently anti-Orange, and if their 
 present views and prospects are vague and immature 
 and not unequivocally revolutionary, yet that a combi- 
 
24 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 nation formed for one ill purpose may be equally 
 applied to another equally or more mischievous one, 
 and that objects at first undefined may with the aid 
 that will be given soon settle into something very 
 dangerously certain and precise.' 
 
 The following, reported by Mr. Gregory to 
 Mr. Peel, is an instance of religious intolerance in 
 Dublin : 
 
 May 22, 1813. The Guinnesses ' are very exten- 
 sive porter brewers in Dublin, and a report having 
 been invented that they had signed the petition 
 against the Catholics, the houses of the publicans 
 in which their Beer was sold became unfrequented, 
 or large Parties going into the houses called for 
 Beer, and asking the Landlord whether he bought 
 from Guinness, on receiving an answer in the affirma- 
 tive, threw the beer about the House, telling the 
 owner if ever he bought any more from the same 
 People, the next visit they paid him should be more 
 expensive.' 
 
 The Guinnesses, however, had been unjustly 
 accused, as far as signing the petition went, but 
 were then taxed with having ' disseminated the 
 Bible.' Mr. Guinness was also said to have helped 
 in the conviction of a '98 rebel, M'Cann. ' If Pro- 
 testants who now only appear racing who shall first 
 elevate the Host, would for one Moment seriously 
 reflect on the proceedings of this Inquisitorial 
 Board, they would be satisfied that concession is 
 vain,' is the moral drawn by Mr. Gregory. 
 
THE WAR OF CREEDS 25 
 
 He gives another instance in 1820, after a meet- 
 ing in support of Catholic claims : 
 
 ' Alderman Manders at the City Assembly voted 
 against the Lord Mayor, calling an aggregate meet- 
 ing ; his son is a brewer in partnership with a Man 
 who is, I understand, a Catholic, but the Alderman 
 has no concern in the house. The day after it ap- 
 peared in the Newspapers how the Father had voted, 
 the Catholic Customers came to the brewery and 
 closed their accounts ; in vain were they assured that 
 the Alderman had no share in the establishment, they 
 were inexorable until the Son signed the Eequisition 
 to the Lord Mayor, and they then agreed to deal 
 with the house as usual.' 
 
 In 1816 Major Willcocks, Chief Magistrate of 
 Tipperary, in answer to questions as to the feeling 
 towards Protestants, the Government and England, 
 put by Mr. Peel, says : 
 
 Feeling towards Protestants and towards England 
 
 ' I don't think in conversation they betray 
 their feelings towards Protestants and towards 
 England, but I think they have a secret dislike to 
 Protestants. I have not known them to express a 
 dislike to English soldiers as being such — in many 
 instances I have known the common people to be 
 very civil to them — but I have also known the 
 Common people to cheer Catholic Irish Eegiments 
 because they were such.' 
 
 The following verses sent to the Castle from 
 
26 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Clonmel by Mr. Cuppaige, an active magistrate, in 
 
 1816, and docketed by him ' Precious Ditty,' is of 
 
 about the same order of merit as ' The Battle of the 
 
 Diamond.' Beginning with the usual appeal to the 
 
 ' Sons of brave Milesians ' for a hearing, it soon takes 
 
 a more theological turn : 
 
 ' Now my boys consider 1 , the time is drawing hither, 
 When every branch shall wither, but the bough that 
 
 wears the green, 
 When Luther's vile dissension will fall without con- 
 tention, 
 With the curst invention, of the year 17 — , 
 The Gentry of this place are of curst Cromwell's race : 
 It's well known by their face, their heart is base and mean. 
 They are still striving forcibly, to overturn Popery, 
 By cruel tyranny to elevate their name. 
 
 ' Now let your hearts be well disposed, and your minds be 
 well enclosed, 
 Until the time affords that, that long expected day, 
 When Catholics will see the lovely Laurel tree 
 Displayed for liberty, and the damned Orange cut away.' 
 
 Mr. Cuppaige, who had taken the song with 
 
 other papers in a raid on a Eibbon meeting, found 
 
 himself thus described : 
 
 ' There's a Locust in our nation, a Demi-Devil in station, 
 He surpasses Dioclesian, or Nero's cruelty. 
 He is daily meditating to vitiate our Nation from every 
 
 consolation — 
 So superciliously. 
 
 Eichard Cuppaige is his name, he aspires much to fame ; 
 May his diabolic scheme, be the cause of his downfall. 
 May perpetual desolation, trace his cursed generation, 
 Or effectual Damnation the moment death shall befall.' 
 
 If poor Mr. Cuppaige was a sharer in the old 
 Irish belief that ' a poet's curse could wither the 
 
'RIBBON WEAVERS' 27 
 
 corn in the ground and make the milk dry in the 
 udders of the cows,' he must have trod delicately 
 when he next disturbed a Eibbon meeting. 
 
 An amateur and somewhat officious Informer 
 writes to Lord Sidmouth, February 19, 1818 : 
 
 ' I am an inhabitant of Ballycastle, where there is 
 a great deal of Ribbon work carrying on ; there is not a 
 night but they are met on the hills ; and as a good and 
 loyal subject of his Majesty, I warn you that if some 
 measures don't take place soon so as to quell them, 
 I am afraid they'll murder us all in a short time. 
 They are talking a great deal about rising all 
 through Ireland before Easter, so would advise you to 
 take some measures that would put an end to the 
 work, as I don't think there is 2 Catholics in Ireland 
 that are not Eibbonmen.' 
 
 Mr. Hobhouse writes with this to Mr. Gregory : 
 
 ' I am directed by Lord Sidmouth to transmit to 
 you the enclosed copy of a letter from a person 
 giving information of an intended rising of the 
 Ribbon Weavers near Ballincastle, and who he states 
 hold nightly meetings on the Hills, and I am to desire 
 that you will submit the same for the information of 
 the Lord-Lieutenant.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory sends the letters to Mr. Peel, and 
 says, ' Pray read these letters, and explain to Mr. 
 Hobhouse that Eibbon Work in Ireland is a very 
 different manufacture from weaving of Eibbons in 
 England.' 
 
 He writes on May 31, 1813 : 'A most serious 
 
28 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 disturbance has taken place in a part of the county 
 of Donegal called Fannet, between the Orangemen 
 and Eibbonmen, in which many lives have been lost.' 
 
 And a month later he writes of the difficulty of 
 interfering with the Orange and other processions in 
 the North : 
 
 'It would be most happy for the country if 
 those religious distinctions of the victors and the 
 vanquished could be done away, but by what 
 authority can this be accomplished ? The Orange 
 meetings in the North, consisting of very many 
 thousands, could not be dispersed but by very strong 
 military force. The Catholics assemble constantly in 
 prodigious numbers at funerals, wearing and carry- 
 ing crosses ; they march in the greatest regularity, 
 and are regularly told off by some one commanding 
 in Divisions, but they commit no violence — could 
 they be disturbed ? ' 
 
 This is a question that comes before every 
 succeeding Viceroy, for Orangeism still nourishes, 
 and Orange lilies, here in the West of such harmless 
 tendency that they brilliantly deck the altars of 
 village chapels, still unfold their petals as a declara- 
 tion of war when the July sunshine falls on Ulster. 
 The feud seems likely to last for many a long year 
 yet, and to give lively occupation to the police and 
 magistrates of the new century. Not long ago, 
 when the Chief Justice of Ireland was transferred to 
 the wider business of the Privy Council in the House 
 of Lords, one of the first cases he had to do with was 
 
THE DAWN OF EMANCIPATION 29 
 
 an appeal from Indian Mohammedans in some 
 religious dispute. ' They seem to have sects there 
 too,' he said, ' the Sunis and the Shiahs they are 
 called. Always fighting they seem to be. I give 
 you my word, I thought I was in Belfast ! ' 
 
 Yet if we look back we see that it was not the 
 bigotry of Protestant Ireland, but of England, that 
 kept its foot for so long on the neck of the ' Papist.' 
 A record of the whole long struggle would be a 
 record of England's broken promises, beginning with 
 the violated Treaty of Limerick in 1691, and also, 
 more happily, a record of each painful inch gained 
 by wave after wave of agitation, until the breaking 
 down of all barriers in 1829. 
 
 In 1778 Catholics were granted some liberty of 
 holding their estates. In 1782, Catholic soldiers and 
 sailors were received into the English army and 
 navy, and no longer driven into those of France. ' I 
 have had a hundred relatives in the French army,' 
 O'Connell says, 'but now not one.' In 1793 the 
 Irish House of Commons, before it expired, granted 
 the last best gift, the franchise. This once granted, 
 the crash of all systems of intolerance becomes but a 
 matter of time, as the Boers of to-day well know. 
 
 With this came admission to the Grand Jury box, 
 to the Magisterial Bench and to the outer Bar. 
 
 Then, when the smoke of the Eebellion had 
 cleared away, and the Union was talked of, full 
 emancipation was offered as a bribe. Many good 
 patriots were induced to vote for the silencing of 
 
30 MR GREGORYS LETTER-BOX 
 
 their Parliament by the promise of this, and were 
 bitterly deceived. 
 
 Pitt himself was deceived as to his own power to 
 grant the promised boon. Even Lord Castlereagh 
 said in after-years, ' his anxiety to see the Catholics 
 emancipated had been one of his inducements to 
 support the Union.' Perhaps the King was also 
 deceived, or deceived himself, as to the implied 
 promise, for he boasted that the carrying of the 
 Union had ' shut the door for ever against Catholic 
 claims.' 
 
 So he hardened his heart and would not let his 
 people out of bondage in spite of the voices of 
 warning ringing in the air. Burke had prophesied 
 with luminous foresight the inevitable yielding to 
 agitation on this question, and had pleaded for timely 
 and gracious concession. Fox, ' a man who inherited 
 so much of fervour of liberty that it glowed in his 
 heart amidst the chilling scenes of Parliamentary 
 profligacy,' set his influence on the side of political 
 freedom in Ireland as well as in France. Grattan, 
 ' our best and brightest advocate,' had borne the 
 griefs of his Catholic countrymen and carried 
 their sorrows into the new century and the English 
 House of Commons. Emancipation was ' backed 
 also by the memories of Sheridan, Dunning, Windham 
 — by the memory of every man who possessed 
 buoyancy enough to float down the stream of time.' 
 But Pitt pleaded promises and prophecies in vain. 
 Thackeray, who has pilloried George the Fourth, has 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR EMANCIPATION .".1 
 
 let the third George off far too easily. Liberal 
 measures were brought in again and again, and were 
 dashed to pieces against the dead wall of his 
 obstinacy. He had been brought up by his mother 
 in a German cradle, and he could never stretch his 
 limbs to the length of his English bedstead. The 
 extraordinary patience of England under the 
 Georges can only be accounted for by dread and 
 dislike of the Stuarts. 
 
 At last his failing and diseased mind was so much 
 troubled by any allusion to the question that it had 
 to be abandoned. Pitt resigned, or was dismissed, 
 and went to his grave looking at his great uncrowned, 
 unfinished work, as Stevens afterwards looked on his 
 unfinished masterpiece in St. Paul's, with yearning, 
 disappointed eyes. 
 
 Hope came to life again when the Eegency was 
 established — Grattan, supported by the Irish Parlia- 
 ment, had held that in case of the King's lunacy, the 
 death of the mind should be looked upon as equiva- 
 lent to the death of the body, and that the heir to 
 the throne should enter upon the full duties and 
 enjoyments of sovereignty. 
 
 Though this opinion was not endorsed by that of 
 England, it was felt that the Eegent would cherish a 
 grateful feeling towards the advocates of his absolute 
 power, and would look upon their claims with 
 favour. 
 
 In 1812 the Irish Catholics sent him a deputation, 
 bearing a petition for the restoration of their rights, 
 
32 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 and reminding him of his promised protection eight 
 years earlier. But the Eegent bluntly refused to see 
 the deputation, and pigeonholed the petition, it was 
 supposed at the instigation of the reigning favourite, 
 Lady Hertford. 
 
 The Catholics, furious at the betrayal of their 
 hopes, called a meeting and passed the ' Witchery 
 resolutions.' ' We learn with deep disappointment 
 and anguish how cruelly the promised boon of 
 Catholic freedom has been interrupted by the fatal 
 Witchery of an unworthy secret influence, hostile to 
 our fairest hopes, spurning alike the sanctions of 
 public and private virtue, the demands of personal 
 gratitude and the sacred obligations of plighted 
 honour. 
 
 * To this impure source we trace but too dis- 
 tinctly our afflicted hopes and protracted servitude.' 
 
 The Eegent never forgave these insults, nor some 
 remarks of the same nature made by O'Connell. He 
 set his face against emancipation, and even in 1829 
 made it a rancorous condition of his forced consent 
 that O'Connell should not be allowed to take the seat 
 he had been elected to by Clare. 
 
 But others were more faithful. Canning, who had 
 lighted his torch at that which fell from the dying 
 hand of his dear master, Pitt, brought forward in 
 the same year (1813) a resolution to take Catholic 
 disabilities into consideration with a view to remedy- 
 ing them. This was carried by a majority of 129, 
 the largest Canning was ever destined to see. 
 
THE 'VETO' 33 
 
 Napoleon was then formidable, Catholic Ireland was 
 looking to him for help and offering sympathy, and 
 England was moved by fear of further exasperating 
 the country. The majority melted after that, with 
 the melting of Napoleon's power. 
 
 Thus began the annual bringing in of the Motion 
 for emancipation, or as O'Cormell called it ' the 
 yearly rattling of our chains in the hearing of the 
 enemy.' 
 
 Canning pleaded for relief while it could be 
 granted with grace, warning his countrymen that it 
 would become ' a thankless favour ' when wrung 
 from them by necessity. He proposed safeguards, 
 the most important the ' veto ' on the appointment of 
 Irish Bishops not considered ' peaceful and well 
 disposed subjects.' This was a cause of much dispute 
 and wrangling. The Irish Catholics were against it, 
 the English for it. It was said to be already 
 practically in existence, Dr. Curtis, Archbishop of 
 Armagh, having been appointed through the influence 
 of the Duke of Wellington. The Pope himself was 
 won to assent to it, calling forth the exclamation of 
 the old servant of a priest, ' Oh, Sir, what shall we do ! 
 They say the Pope has turned Orangeman ! ' 
 
 It was something gained that in Lord Liverpool's 
 Cabinet it was agreed that Emancipation should be 
 an open question. 
 
 Peel was its strongest and most formidable oppo- 
 nent, a supporter of Canning in all but this. He 
 believed that the Catholics when they had power 
 
 n 
 
34 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 would attack the Established Church in Ireland. 
 This indeed seems to have been the most solid ground 
 the Anti-Catholics stood on. They could not foresee 
 that when that ill-fated Establishment eventually 
 toppled down, the trumpets that achieved its fall 
 would be sounded by the lips of English Protestants. 
 
 Other reasons were more trivial ; the fear ex- 
 pressed by Peel himself that Quakers would have to 
 be admitted to the House, the fear of foreign in- 
 fluence, of 'the Pope, the Devil and the Pretender' 
 as was tauntingly said, the fear that ' there might 
 one day be a Catholic Home Secretary who would 
 advise a Catholic education for the children of the 
 King.' Others had a vague dread of evils, they 
 knew not what, issuing from this Pandora's box. An 
 Irish peer exclaimed when the news of Mr. Perceval's 
 assassination arrived in the House of Lords, ' You see, 
 my Lords, the consequence of your agitating the 
 question of Catholic emancipation ! ' Lord Talbot 
 seriously offered Mr. Gregory a refuge at Ingestre, 
 when, the Bill having passed, his further residence 
 in Ireland would of course become impossible. 
 
 In Ireland through all this time O'Connell's re- 
 dundant oratory had kept the country in a state of 
 ferment, and brought the question home to the 
 people. But according to the saying of Napoleon, 
 one bad general is better than two good ones — and 
 Canning, who assured his English supporters that 
 emancipation was meant to complete and consolidate 
 the Union, found the cause damaged by O'Connell's 
 
O'CONNELL ' THE ( i I FT OF GOD ' 35 
 
 violence and anti-Union speeches. He wished for the 
 discipline of the House of Commons for his unruly 
 ally. ' I have never seen a demagogue,' he said, 
 ' who did not shrink to his proper dimensions after 
 six months of Parliamentary life.' Dublin Castle was 
 continually occupied in the struggle with O'Connell 
 and his irrepressible societies. The Catholic Com- 
 mittee was put down but to be succeeded by the 
 Catholic Board, and that again by the Catholic 
 Association. But his power was ever on the 
 increase. 
 
 Many say that ' the Agitator ' is already being 
 forgotten, but I discern signs that his turn will come 
 again, and that he will in some future age appear as 
 a sort of mythical giant. 
 
 The other day, in a mountain valley I fell into 
 talk with an old peasant, and as usual in Ireland, 
 where politics, like the stones, are always near the 
 surface, we got on to them, and then to the 
 Emancipation time. 
 
 ' And you have all those letters ! ' he said ; ' well 
 now, it's you has the newses ! And you so pleasant 
 and so civil to tell them, I wouldn't be tired listening 
 to you. 
 
 ' O'Connell was a grand man, and whatever cause 
 he took in hand it was as good as won. But what 
 wonder. He was the gift of God. 
 
 ' His father was a rich man, and one day he was 
 out walking he took notice of a house that was being 
 built. Well, a week later he passed by the same 
 
 D 2 
 
P,6 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-ROX 
 
 place, and he saw the walls of the house were no 
 higher than before. So he asked the reason, and he 
 was told it was a priest that was building it, and he 
 hadn't the money to go on with. 
 
 ' So a few days after, he went to the priest's 
 house, and he asked was this true, and the priest 
 said it was. So, says O'Connell, " would you pay the 
 money back to the man that 'ud lend it to you ? " "I 
 would," said the priest. So with that O'Connell gave 
 him the money that was wanting, 500/., for it was a 
 very grand house. 
 
 ' Well, after some time the priest came to 
 O'Connell's house, and he found only the wife at 
 home. So, says he, " I have some money that Himself 
 lent me." But he never had told his wife of what he 
 had done, so she knew nothing about it ; and says 
 she, " Don't be troubling yourself about it, he'll 
 bestow it on you." " Well/' says the priest, " I'll go 
 away now, and I'll come back again." 
 
 ' So when O'Connell came in, the wife told him all 
 that had happened, and how a priest had come, 
 saying he owed him money, and how she said he'd 
 bestow it on him. "Well," said O'Connell, " if you 
 said I'd bestow it, I'll bestow it." And so he did. Then 
 the priest said, " Have you any children ? " " Ne'er 
 a child," said O'Connell. " Well, then, you'll have one," 
 said he, and that day nine months their young son 
 was born. So what wonder if he was inspired, 
 being as he was the gift of God.' 
 
 In a paper marked ' Notes as to Irish Catholics. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF O'CONNELL 37 
 
 Private and very confidential, 1806,' in Mr. 
 Gregory's letter-box, I find a more prosaic account. 
 ' O'Connell, A Barrister. An intimate of the Master 
 of the Eolls. Talents. Property. Impatient for 
 emancipation, ambitious, very warm, Uncle rich/ 
 
 There are still many who remember him, and who, 
 though out of sympathy with his politics, tell of his 
 charm. One says : ' Our house in Dublin was next 
 his, and there was always some excitement, he was 
 either speaking from his balcony, or walking about 
 with a train of little boys running after him, or 
 he would order illuminations for some occasion, 
 and we would have to put candles in the windows 
 lest they should be broken. One day my little sister 
 and I were playing in the Square. She was a very 
 pretty child, and O'Connell stopped and said, " What 
 
 is your name, little one ? " " Jane H ■." " Are you 
 
 any relation to J. H and Master H ?" (two 
 
 members of the Bar). " One is my grandfather, and 
 the other my father." " Then, my children, you may 
 go home, and thank God for your relations." 
 
 And another friend tells me : ' His voice, when he 
 spoke from his house on the north side of Merrion 
 Square, could be heard on the south side. 
 
 ' I heard him speak for his life at the State Trial 
 — and the Miss Sugdens, who had seats on the Bench, 
 were crying bitterly before he had ended. 
 
 ' I took young L , an Eton boy, to the Courts 
 
 when the trial was going on. He had asked to be 
 pointed out " the Agitator," but when we got into 
 
38 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Court, O'Connell was sitting there, and said in his 
 rather foreign accent, " Who's that handsome boy ? " 
 
 I said, " He is the son of Mr. L , who was in the 
 
 House of Commons with } T ou." " Oh, I knew him 
 well," said Dan ; " shake hands, young man ; I knew 
 your father," and he put out his hand, but the boy 
 drew his back. " Shake hands," Dan said again, and 
 again the boy drew back. But a third time Dan said 
 " Shake hands," and the Etonian gave his, and even 
 said as we came away, " Well, I don't believe he's 
 half as bad as I was told." ' 
 
 Shell's oratory helped to keep the country in 
 flames, in spite of an organic defect which made Mr. 
 Gladstone say that his voice was like a ' tin kettle 
 battered about from place to place.' I hear, from 
 one who was present, of a dinner at his house in 
 Dublin. Some one observed that there were thirteen 
 at table. ' Whoever makes that objection,' cried Sheil 
 in his high-pitched voice, ' has the removal of it in 
 his own power.' 
 
 George Villiers had been the first to ask him to 
 dine at a Protestant house, when an Irish Com- 
 missioner of Customs, and had thereby got into hot 
 water with the Duke of Wellington. But he became 
 the fashion afterwards, and dined with successive 
 Viceroys. 
 
 The same friend who tells me of his dinner tells 
 me also of having called at his house to know if he 
 was likely to speak at some meeting next clay. ' I'm 
 sure that he is,' said the servant who opened the door, 
 
SIIEIL 39 
 
 'for lie didn't get up to-day, and it's always in bed 
 that he makes up his speeches.' 
 
 An old farmer, who attended the Catholic meetings 
 on many a hillside, tells me Shell was ' small, dressed 
 very neat, with knee breeches and a full vest and a 
 lonof skirted coat. He had a long nose, and was not 
 
 O O J 
 
 much to look at till he began to speak, and then 
 you'd see genius coining out from him. His voice 
 was shrill, and that spoiled his speech sometimes, 
 especially when he got excited and raised it at the 
 end. But O'Connell's voice you'd hear a mile off, 
 and it sounded as if it was coming through honey.' 
 
 He has left more to us than his contemporaries, 
 in his sketches of politics and of the Bar. His fame 
 as an orator had preceded him to the English House 
 of Commons, and there was a rush to hear him speak. 
 But his voice and rapid utterance were against him, 
 and Lord John Russell, asked what he thought of 
 him, said, * It seems to me that he is a man in a 
 very unnecessary hurry.' 
 
 But in Ireland his name is revered as only second 
 to O'Connell. 
 
40 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 LORD WHITWORTH, PEEL, AND THE 
 FEAR OF FRANCE 
 
 When Mr. Gregory became Under Secretary in 1813, 
 the Viceroy alty was held by the Duke of Kich- 
 mond, but I find but little in the letters in my 
 hands to throw light upon his character or adminis- 
 tration. He was considered weak and in the hands 
 of Dr. Duigenan, who in spite of being married to a 
 Catholic and allowing her confessor to live in the 
 house, was of ultra-Orange type. He, however, only 
 consulted him on ecclesiastical matters, giving rise 
 to a sarcastic comparison by O'Connell of the Eev. 
 Doctor to ' a tanner's dog, kept chained all day and 
 only let loose at night.' 
 
 He was 'irresistibly convivial,' and was some- 
 what free in conferring knighthood when on tour in 
 the provinces. Saurin was the real Governor in 
 those days, his Excellency leaving him a free hand. 
 
 O'Connell in his speeches in the libel case brought 
 by the Viceroy against Magee of the ' Weekly Post ' 
 sluices him with violent abuse, and accuses him of a 
 ' sullen and sulky opposition to the Catholics of 
 Ireland.' But we instinctively discount O'Connell's 
 immense and perennial issue of invective. 
 
LORD WHITWORTH 4L 
 
 Mr. Gregory seems to have held him in warm 
 personal regard, and his friendship is said to have 
 been prized because it was personal, not political. 
 But he left but little mark on the country at a time 
 when in the new relations between England and 
 Ireland a greater statesman might have done much 
 to turn the bitter waters to sweet. So at least we in 
 the last decades of the century are inclined to think, 
 looking back regretfully at the first and adapting in 
 a new sense the words ' Si jeunesse savait — si vieil- 
 lesse pouvait ! ' 
 
 He was succeeded by Lord Whitworth, w r it, 
 diplomatist, man of the world, and evidently a kindly 
 gracious English gentleman. He was accused of 
 want of energv, though soon in antagonism to 
 O'Connell, putting down the Catholic Board in his 
 first year of office. But he was without bigotry or 
 bitterness. The island government probably seemed 
 a small tiling to him who had been the voice of 
 England at the Courts of St. Petersburg and Paris. 
 He had indeed all but measured swords with 
 Napoleon at the Tuileries when he railed at England 
 for not having evacuated Egypt and Malta, accused 
 her of having violated treaties, and ended by flourish- 
 ing a cane in his hand dangerously near the face of 
 the English Ambassador. Lord Whitworth put his 
 hand on the hilt of his sword. ' What would you 
 have done if the Emperor had struck you ? ' he was 
 afterwards asked. ' I would have felled him to the 
 ground,' was his reply. 
 
42 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 There is a story told also of how at the Russian 
 Court his quick wit disposed of a rival. Fox had 
 sent Adair, whose father was a surgeon, as a sort of 
 Ambassador of his own. ' Est-ce un liomme tres 
 considerable, ce M. d' Adair ? ' asked the Empress. 
 ' Pas trop, Madame,' replied Lord Whitworth, 
 ' quoique son pere fut grand saigneur.' 
 
 After holding his own with the great monarchs 
 of Europe he probably did not take the invective of 
 Dublin orators much to heart. He entertained with 
 great splendour, but perhaps with a little disregard 
 of small distinctions, and there were complaints of 
 people being asked ' in and out of their turn.' His 
 friends seem to have been devoted to him, and 
 watched his health with critical care. When he talks 
 of going to Naples for sunshine, Lord Talbot writes to 
 Mr. Gregory, ' I have had a letter from Verulam, 
 who does not approve of what he calls a frisky 
 fidgety scheme in our friend Lord W. to leave his 
 comforts and his splendours at home.' 
 
 There was something of splendour about his 
 whole career. When he went to Copenhagen to 
 arrange a treaty for the searching of Danish ships, he 
 was escorted by a squadron of ' nine sail of the line, 
 four bombs and five frigates.' When he took unto 
 himself a mate she was a Duchess, and his home was 
 at magnificent Knole. 
 
 But in Ireland his administration is less remem- 
 bered as his, than as a part of the administration of 
 his great Chief Secretary. 
 
PEEL 43 
 
 Of Teel, so much lias been written that it would 
 be an impertinence to add to the folios already 
 heaped over his name. 
 
 Every Harrow boy knows how 
 
 Peel stood, steadily stood 
 Under the name in the carven wood, 
 Reading rapidly, all at ease, 
 Pages out of Demosthenes — 
 Where has he got to— tell him not to- 
 All the scholars who hear him cry — 
 That's the lesson for, lesson for, lesson for — 
 That's the lesson for next July ! 
 
 and how in after-life 
 
 Peel stood up on the famous floor, 
 Euled the people and fed the poor. 
 
 This last line might stand for a summary of his 
 work in Ireland. He was able to say in the House 
 of Commons, ' My constant object in Ireland was a 
 fair administration of the laws as they exist, and I 
 challenge the country to produce any instance in 
 which, while I held office, an impartial administration 
 of those laws was denied.' 
 
 The greater number of his letters to Mr. Gregory 
 which contain matter of general interest have 
 already been published. Of those that remain I give 
 one or two, which show him as indeed ' a man 
 diligent in his business.' One letter in my hands on 
 the subject of seed oats runs to twenty-five closely 
 written pages. And one to which he adds : ' Pray 
 show this letter to the Duke of Richmond, or if you 
 doubt his being able to decipher it, for I have 
 written in a great hurry, apprise him of the substance 
 
44 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 of it,' runs to thirty-three. It was in his time that 
 the lean years began, and the feeding of the poor is 
 his chief preoccupation. How to get meal, oats, 
 potatoes to the famine-struck districts, letter after 
 letter refers to this. 
 
 There is a later letter of his, written to my 
 husband in 1844, which foreshadows the Landed 
 Estates Act. 
 
 He says, ' It certainly is a great misfortune that 
 there should be superadded to so many other causes 
 of social disunion and disorganisation as exist in 
 Ireland a state of things in respect to the tenure of 
 landed Property which would without any other 
 cause be a great obstacle to any permanent improve- 
 ment in the condition of the country. 
 
 ' I have not much confidence in the efficacy of 
 
 great works undertaken by the Government, or in 
 
 any extensive scheme for the reclamation of waste 
 
 lands excepting through the agency of individual 
 
 enterprise, and with a good prospect of individual 
 
 gain, but I do think that the equitable commutation 
 
 of the present complicated interests in and Tenure of 
 
 Land in Ireland into a fee simple Tenure would lay the 
 
 foundation of great good. I would not attempt too 
 
 much at first, for I should fear the introduction of 
 
 any arbitrary principle in respect to the disposal of 
 
 landed property in Ireland — but I think with the 
 
 encouragement of Government, and the cordial 
 
 co-operation of Equity Lawyers (if that could be 
 
 had) there might be found with the willing assent 
 
 \ 
 
THE ' PEELERS ' 43 
 
 of proprietors and mortgagees a gradual improvement 
 in the Tenure of Landed Property. 
 
 ' If there could be created in each county in 
 Ireland a considerable number of bona fide fee simple 
 Properties or rather Properties without perplexed 
 derivative interests (for I would not limit the Eight 
 of entail) there would be new securities for peace, 
 and new temptations to the application of Capital to 
 the improvement of the soil.' 
 
 His secretaryship is perhaps best kept in mind in 
 Ireland by the ' Peelers,' who have become a part of 
 every landscape and are a sort of visible emblem of 
 Government throughout the country. Lonely indeed 
 must be the road, deserted the railway station, where 
 two dark figures with short capes and inadequate 
 caps do not sooner or later appear, ostentatiously 
 fingering their rifles and patrolling the Queen's 
 highwa} 7 . Sober, peaceable, well behaved, they 
 form a happy contrast to the ' barony constables ' of 
 the pre-Peel period, whose only necessary qualifica- 
 tion was a certificate of having received the Sacrament 
 at the parish church, and who were obliged to eke 
 out their scanty pay by a recognised game of ' open 
 your hand and shut your eyes.' Lord Cloncurry 
 tells us how in swearing in one of these worthies 
 and expounding his official duties he came to that of 
 preventing the straying or grazing of cattle on the 
 public roads, and was interrupted with : ' And where 
 am I to keep my own little cow, my Lord ? ' 
 
 In all the letters I have looked through I never find 
 
46 ME. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Mr. Peel's name mentioned except with affection and 
 warm regard. Lord Talbot is grieved and saddened 
 by his defection, but still holds him in his heart. In 
 letters to each other he and Mr. Gregory refer with 
 much disturbance to a letter received from Mr. Peel 
 soon after his departure from Ireland, which I have 
 not found, but which seems to have reproached them 
 for having neglected to provide for some old servant 
 of his. They feel the accusation is unjust, no suitable 
 place having become vacant, but are hurt and 
 distressed that he should for a moment think they 
 have neglected a wish of his, whose memory they 
 hold so dear. 
 
 Vesey Fitzgerald writes to Mr. Gregory in 
 February 1819 : 
 
 ' Everyone is looking to Peel, and you I know will 
 be gratified to learn that every day adds strength to 
 his reputation. He has already distinguished himself 
 greatly in the Chair of the Bank Committee, and 
 surprised those who did not know him. We knew 
 before his extraordinary power of mind, when he 
 applies it to the transaction ot business, or the 
 investigation of truth.' 
 
 And Mr. Goulburn in 1822 : 
 
 ' You will be glad to hear that Peel is very well, 
 and does the business of Secretary of State here as 
 well as he did that of Secretary in Ireland.' 
 
 His nature may probably have hardened in the 
 years following his Government of Ireland, for he 
 must have suffered keenly, first from having taken up 
 
PEEL IN GALWAY 47 
 
 a bad cause, and then in the breaking away from it. 
 But he had already offended Irish Orangeism by not 
 holding its Shibboleths in sufficient reverence, and 
 great must have been the relief of cutting the rope 
 that held him to intolerance. This must have in 
 some part made up to him for the unfriendly and 
 reproachful looks turned on him, when he brought in 
 the Bill of which he said, ' If it succeed, the credit 
 will belong to others, if it fail the responsibility will 
 devolve upon me,' and when he sat ' with folded arms 
 and compressed lips listening to the reproaches hurled 
 at him.' 
 
 Here in Galway the moist Atlantic air that 
 softens our voices and rounds off our asperities as 
 well as our energies, may have had a mellowing effect 
 upon him, and some pleasant traditions still 
 linger round his name. He came sometimes from 
 his Castle duties to shoot woodcocks with Mr. Daly 
 of Dunsandle, M.P. for the county and his close 
 friend. ' Is there anything I can do for you ? ' he is 
 said to have once asked, when taking leave of his host. 
 
 ' Oh, you might as well make Denis a peer and 
 Jim a bishop ! ' was the laughing answer. But in 
 later years, when the Chief Secretary had become 
 Premier, he did both. 
 
 And there is still to be seen a ring brought to 
 the west by him as a sort of apple of the Hesperides, 
 and given to the fairest of three fair sisters, and now 
 treasured by her descendants. 
 
 Lord Whitworth was the last viceroy in whose 
 
48 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 time the danger of French influence and French 
 invasion came within the line of practical politics. 
 In England, the danger was from outside, and the 
 people of her seaboard had long shuddered at the 
 fear of invasion. But in Ireland the danger lay 
 deeper, and within her own coasts, and when accounts 
 came of Buonaparte's successes, and the wind blew 
 from the south, hearts beat high, and the ' Shan van 
 Voght ' was again the song of the moment : 
 
 ' Oh ! the French on the sea, 
 They'll be here without delay, 
 And the Orange will decay, says the Shan van Voght ! ' 
 
 A landing of the French seemed a very present 
 hope or danger, as the case might be, to those who 
 had seen French ships off Bantry in 1796, or French 
 troops at Killala in 1798. And there is no doubt 
 that, counting by numbers, hopes were in the 
 majority. 
 
 In the home of my childhood there was an old 
 Catholic nurse whose upstair teachings tempered the 
 strict Orangeism of the drawing-room, and whose eye 
 would flash as she told of the triumphant shouting 
 she had heard in 1798 when it was told at a theatre 
 she had been taken to that the French had landed at 
 Killala. She was only a child herself then, but she 
 remembered how all the audience had stood up and 
 cheered and waved their handkerchiefs at the joyful 
 news. 
 
 It is striking in these letters of Lord Whitworth's 
 how he takes for granted that the Irish will rejoice 
 
UNEASINESS IN IRELAND 49 
 
 at the escape of England's enemy, and only ventures 
 to hope their joy may not take too practical a form. 
 Taking all the affairs of his Government easily, how- 
 ever, he is not seriously alarmed. He had some 
 time before written to Peel, who told him the 
 Catholic Board thought of calling for the interven- 
 tion of Spain and Portugal in support of Catholic 
 claims, ' I do not understand how Spain and Portugal 
 are to assist unless they send a detachment of 
 inquisitors.' Accustomed as he was to follow 
 all the movements of Napoleon on the European 
 chessboard, he probably realised how small and in- 
 significant a pawn Ireland was considered in the 
 game. 
 
 Yet no one who knew what was going on in the 
 country could be quite free from uneasiness. In 
 March 1813 Mr. Gregory had written to Peel: 'I 
 have this day read a letter to Lord Castlemaine from 
 the neighbourhood of Athlone. If the Contents be 
 true, matters are more formed in that county than 
 any of us could have supposed. It represents a 
 system of Organization matured, and Delegates 
 assembled at Athlone from Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow 
 and King's County, various signs of fraternity, with 
 an oath of allegiance to Buonaparte. The writer of 
 the Letter I know well. He is a discreet, active, 
 bold Magistrate.' 
 
 He gives less heed to the alarm sounded by a 
 noble lord, who had already been dubbed by Mr. 
 Peel ' that great alarmist,' and says : ' Wherever 
 
 E 
 
50 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Field Marshall Funck commands, the Enemy is sure 
 of appearing formidable.' But no warning was ever 
 quite neglected. In another letter to Mr. Peel in 
 June 1814 he says : ' A most absurd report was 
 brought yesterda)^ evening from some of the alarmed 
 magistrates in the town of Naas that a rising was 
 certainly to take place during the night in the county 
 of Kildare. This was sent to Commander of the 
 Forces and Sir E. Littlehales, in consequence of 
 which strong patrols were sent forward and every 
 Precaution used as if the Story had been believed. 
 . . . Tho' I attached no credit to the story, yet 
 I remembered Emmett and the Castle caught 
 
 i t> j 
 
 napping. 
 
 In June of 1813 he had written : ' If Buona- 
 parte is successful, the standard of disunion between 
 Ireland and England will soon be raised.' In July 
 Mr. Peel, announcing the ' glorious and unex- 
 pected ' news of the battle of Vittoria, orders a 
 Gazette extraordinary to be published — ' I am sure 
 the expediency of giving all the publicity possible to 
 good news in Ireland far outweighs every other 
 consideration.' And on Oct. 1 he writes : ' I am glad 
 to hear that O'Connell and the other itinerant dema- 
 gogues made little impression in Galway, or if any an 
 unfavourable one. I hear that at Mallow and in that 
 neighbourhood the Gang was more successful. The 
 reverses, however, of their good friend and ally in 
 Germany will damp their efforts in the good old 
 cause of riot and insurrection.' 
 
A MEETING INTERRUPTED 51 
 
 The Government informers were constantly kept 
 at work. A memorandum is sent by Mr. Peel from 
 the Irish Office in 1814: 
 
 ' Memorandum. — June 11, 1811. Information has 
 been for some time received by the Irish Govern- 
 ment that a system of organization was forming 
 among the lower orders in the County of Kildare 
 and that frequent meetings of the disaffected took 
 place. The person from whom this information 
 principally came, and who is himself implicated in 
 the proceedings of the disaffected, was desired to 
 give notice of some specific meeting about to take 
 place in order that measures might be taken for the 
 apprehension of the persons and papers of the parties 
 assembled. He stated that there would be a meeting 
 in the town of Kildare on Sunday June 5, and a 
 Magistrate was directed to be in readiness with a 
 party of Military at the time appointed. 
 
 ' It appears from the report of the Magistrate that 
 on entering the House where it was reported that the 
 meeting of the disaffected was to be held, he im- 
 mediately went upstairs and found in an upper room 
 several people who were in great confusion on 
 hearing of the entrance of the soldiery, and destroyed 
 several Papers which were on the Table. Seven of the 
 persons present were arrested, and two papers seized, 
 which are considered by the Attorney-General of 
 Ireland to be decidedly of a treasonable nature, and 
 to afford sufficient evidence with the testimony of 
 the informer for the conviction of the persons 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 apprehended, who are committed on a charge of 
 High Treason. 
 
 ' The papers are written by illiterate persons — 
 they refer to orders given by the executive Directory 
 that the Officers should meet once a week until July 5 
 — that no arms should be given out until the Insur- 
 rection is to take place — as if they were sent before 
 some parts of the Country would be in a state of 
 Eebellion too soon. They state that the delegates 
 from Dublin, Longford, Louth, Meath, Westmeath, 
 Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, 
 demand clothing, arms and ammunition immediately. 
 
 ' It appears from the magistrates of the Queen's 
 County that that County is in a disturbed state. 
 That on Sunday night the 30th May eleven houses 
 were robbed of arms and Money by a party of the 
 disaffected — nine on Monday night and three on 
 Tuesday.' 
 
 A report docketed 1814, and signed only Q., says : 
 1 1 went yesterday according to promise to the 
 County Kildare, and remained there until yesterday. 
 I spent the first day in Farrellstown with a weaver 
 named Donelly who works for me, and from whom I 
 received the following information. That there was 
 a system lately introduced in the neighbourhood 
 which he understood to be somewhat similar to the 
 Defenders of '96. That is that none but Catholics 
 were admissible, and that their object was to protect 
 themselves against the Orangemen or to retaliate in 
 case of necessity on either themselves or families, 
 
AN INFORMER ON HIS ROUNDS 53 
 
 and that they were bound to do this by an oath. 
 Donelly told me that it was a certainty a Mr. 
 Richardson who now lives in Robertstown did belong 
 to a Regiment named the Foxhunters who killed some 
 Rebels in the Curragh in '98, the friends of whom 
 are determined to have revenge (these are his own 
 words). He also mentioned to me that Thos. 
 Beaghan, a Farmer, who formerly lived on the 
 grounds Mr. Richardson lately purchased, with some 
 others similarly circumstanced, were determined to 
 banish him out of the country at the risk of their 
 lives ; however, that since the soldiers went into the 
 neighbourhood they were more cautious in com- 
 mitting themselves. From Robertstown I went to 
 Kildare, and immediately repaired to the public house 
 next the post office, as directed. There I found six 
 or seven persons drinking round a kitchen fire, and 
 from their appearance and manner of conversing 
 I immediately suspected them to be friends of the 
 persons arrested. One of them wished that instead 
 of the horse race on the Curragh to-morrow it might 
 be the general Race, and the last Race and big Race ; 
 at this kind of nonsense they continually kept laughing. 
 Rankin, the Bricklayer, stated that there was no one 
 concerned in it but the lowest order of Spalpeens 
 whom the sight of a Soldier would frighten to Death's 
 door, and that since their arrival one of them was 
 afraid to raise their voice. He likewise mentioned to 
 me that they took the name of Ribbonmen amongst 
 themselves. I slept at Connell's, a shopkeeper to 
 
 * E 3 
 
54 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 whom I sold some goods not long since, and he con- 
 firmed me in the opinion that the above system was 
 confined to the lowest orders of the people, and 
 appeared to be happy that the soldiers were sent to 
 preserve the peace of the county, stating from what 
 he heard occasionally in his own shop that there was 
 very little to be expected from the Humanity of those 
 concerned. I traversed the town the next day, but 
 could not fasten upon anyone who would commit 
 themselves or that I could get the exact form of their 
 oath from. I went from this to Eathangar, where I 
 saw Locke ; he acknowledged that the above system 
 reached the verge of the Town, but that when he 
 came to know it he did all in his power to put it 
 down, that there were no one but farmers' boys and 
 the like in that neighbourhood knew of it until they 
 heard of it through the Magistrates at Eathangan. 
 [ went next day to Prosperous. . . . From Pros- 
 perous I went to Eathcoffee and found that a man 
 assuming the character of a deserter had passed 
 through Clone about six weeks ago and endeavoured 
 to tamper with some people on the Common. He 
 said he was from the North, and came to warn the 
 people of their danger, that the Orangemen were to 
 rise and murder the Catholics on the same night 
 all through Ireland, but it appears he did not meet 
 with much encouragement there, for he did not stop. 
 This I had from a Schoolmaster named Hogan, who 
 has lately come into Clone. He is a Wexford man 
 and a Eebel ; my brother employed him to measure 
 
SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT 55 
 
 some work he done for Mr. Kenny, the Jesuit in 
 Castlebrown. Old Eaddy of EathcofFee told me that 
 the name of the Irish Legion in France had been 
 changed to the third Foreign Eegiment and that a 
 letter had lately been received by the friends of 
 Eeilly of Kilcock to that effect, but that as yet they 
 have not heard anything of war.' 
 
 In September 1814 Lord Whitworth writes in good 
 heart : 
 
 ' I rejoice to hear that you are so likely to bring 
 your business to a conclusion — good to you as taking 
 a heavy burthen from your mind, and to me as 
 enabling you to return soon to this country. 
 
 ' I natter myself, or rather I should say we may 
 flatter ourselves, that it is getting into a state of more 
 perfect tranquillity than it has known for many years. 
 The Bill has operated wonderfully in Middlethird. 
 They, the Farmers, begin to feel the necessity of look- 
 ing after those in their employ, and are ready to hand 
 up those by whose misconduct they will continue 
 liable to the Imposition. This acts as it should do, 
 and will be a good example to others. 
 
 ' We passed a most delightful month in the Co. 
 of Wicklow. We were enchanted with its beauties, 
 and the Duchess has laid in such a store of health 
 as will I hope carry her through her winter Cam- 
 paign. 
 
 ' I think I have nothing new to tell you. It was 
 not fair to send Lady Anne and your family so far off, 
 depriving us of the pleasure of seeing her, and of 
 
56 Mil. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 paying her all those attentions which from our real 
 regard for her we are both so much inclined to do.' 
 
 When the moment of danger actually arrived, in 
 1815, it happened that the Under Secretary was alone 
 in office at the Castle, in consequence of the sad 
 tragedy that had cast a gloom over the Viceregal 
 household. 
 
 There is an entry in Mr. Gregory's note-book, 
 dated November 30, 1814. 'Dined with the Lord 
 Lieutenant. Duke of Dorset of ajje.' 
 
 Three months later, the young Duke was killed 
 by a fall from his horse. He had been staying at 
 Powerscourt, and joined in a hunt near Kiliney. His 
 horse fell in jumping a stone wall, and he was 
 thrown, but said he believed he was not much hurt. 
 He was taken to a house near, and his mother and 
 Lord Whitworth sent for, but before they could 
 arrive he said quietly, ' I am off,' and passed away. 
 
 His short life is best remembered through Byron's 
 friendship for him in their Harrow school-days, and 
 the verses he addressed to him. 
 
 Moore, on his death, laid aside for the moment 
 his political sarcasms and wrote some lines of sym- 
 pathy to the Duchess : 
 
 ' We saw the hope you cherished 
 For one short hour appear, 
 And when that hope had perished, 
 We gave you tear for tear.' 
 
 The following note seems to have been written on 
 the day of his death : 
 
DEATH OF THE DUKE OF DORSET 67 
 
 ' My dear Gregory, — Will you have the goodness 
 to put up these letters in a packet to Sir C. Flint, and 
 send it by an Express. 
 
 ' You will guess the melancholy news they bear 
 and judge of our feelings. I can no more. 
 
 ' ever yours, 
 <W. 
 
 6 There are two which I will beg of you to direct and 
 seal ; as were I to do it they might be opened by 
 those to whom it will be necessary to communicate 
 the fatal Intelligence with great caution.' 
 
 The next letters are on the same subject. 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 February 15, 1815. 
 
 ' As the Lord Lieutenant writes to you by this 
 Express, I have nothing to add to respecting the most 
 melancholy occurrence of yesterday. The Duke 
 lived upwards of an hour after his fall, but suffered 
 no pain. He was sensible of his approaching death a 
 few minutes before he expired. The horse fell upon 
 him and crushed everything inward. The Lord 
 Lieutenant is quite wretched, she, poor soul, has cried 
 much during the night ; but for several hours she 
 could not be brought to believe her son was dead. 
 He was surely a most inimitable young man in every 
 good quality.' 
 
58 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 February 16, 1815. 
 
 * The Lord Lieutenant writes to you by this Post 
 respecting his Intention of applying for Leave to 
 go to England for three months. Although Lord 
 Justices have not yet been resorted to, yet from the 
 peculiar distress of the Duchess and her repugnance 
 to leaving Ireland without her Husband, I think the 
 greatest allowance should be made to the Indulgence 
 of any thing which could alleviate her affliction. She 
 would derive no Benefit from her Departure unac- 
 companied by Lord Whitworth, deprived of his tender 
 Attention she would derive but half consolation in the 
 society of her surviving Children. Add to all these 
 Considerations which certainly are only private (yet 
 deserving great weight) the present appearances of 
 the Country are tranquil, nothing alarming from the 
 interior, and scarce a smoke from the ashes of the 
 Board portending a Phoenix in the new association. 
 I certainly write under the Influence of strong feeling 
 to promote any object which may tend to alleviate 
 the sufferings of that unhappy Mother, but in so doing 
 I trust I am not wishing for the adoption of a measure 
 which would be likely to produce any evil conse- 
 quences to the State. 
 
 ' It was originally intended that the Eemains of 
 the Duke should be conveyed privately from the 
 Castle on Board the Yacht. That plan has been 
 altered, first as not suitable to his Eank, and next to 
 gratify the wishes of all the Gentry of this City who 
 have expressed the most anxious desire to testify their 
 
FUNERAL OF THE DUKE OF DORSET 59 
 
 respect to his memory, and his Coffin will lay in state 
 to-morrow in the Castle Chapel, and at 10 o'clock on 
 Saturday morning be removed to the Pigeon House. 
 I have sent a short Notice to the Newspapers appris- 
 ing such as wish to attend, which I preferred to any 
 circular Letter to Men of Bank. Some would neces- 
 sarily have been omitted, and Etiquette would have 
 found cause of offence in the solemn Pageantry of 
 Death. . . . There will be very little expense attend- 
 ing the Procession to the Water side, as scarfs and 
 Hat Bands will be given only to the Lord Lieutenant's 
 family. Had the Distribution been extended beyond 
 the Castle it would not have been possible to draw 
 any Line of Distinction. Grievous as is the face of 
 Woe, yet Melancholy is gratified by one sentiment of 
 sorrow which affects the upper Classes of this City — 
 no Dinner Parties etc., all put off, and really no topic 
 of Conversation but the one. . . .' 
 
 February 18, 1815. 
 
 ' The last sad tribute which a pitying Metropolis 
 could pay to youthful virtue, was this day testified by 
 the inhabitants of Dublin in the numerous, decent, sad 
 procession from the Castle to the Yacht; all the shops 
 in the streets through which the Funeral passed were 
 shut, and I believe there was scarce a gentleman's 
 Carriage in the City which did not accompany it ; 
 even Scully and O'Connell were in theirs. The 
 Duchess has desired to see me to-morrow after church. 
 From the accounts Lord Whitworth gives of her 
 
60 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Composure and Kesignation I fear she is making too 
 great an Exertion over herself, but sincerely hope her 
 mind is calmed by the Influence of Eeligion. They 
 are both gone to your house in the Park, which was 
 equally necessary for both.' 
 
 Mr. Peel answers : 
 
 Mr. Peel to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Stanhope Street : February 20, 1815. 
 
 'Lord Whitworth's natural wish to accompany 
 the Duchess to England is acceded to without diffi- 
 culty. I am truly glad of it on his account, and 
 still more on hers. I should have been a strenuous 
 advocate for a compliance with that wish had I fore- 
 seen much greater difficulties than I now do from 
 the temporary transfer of the Government into other 
 hands. I am perfectly satisfied with the proposed 
 arrangement, and I need hardly tell you how much 
 my confidence in you contributes to the composure 
 with which I contemplate it. The letter in which 
 you sent me the affecting details of the removal of 
 the Duke's body from the ' Castle ' has been of the 
 greatest service. You cannot conceive with what 
 interest it has been read by his friends here, and 
 what a melancholy consolation it has afforded them. 
 Poor Lady Delawarr's greatest and only pleasure is 
 in reading every line and word that is written upon 
 her brother's loss. 
 
 ' I was very much pleased with the anxiety of the 
 
LORD WHIT WORTH DESIRES LEAVE 61 
 
 Duchess of Rutland ; I enclose a note from her which 
 if you think fit you may show to Lord Whitworth. 
 It is one out of a thousand proofs of the deep impres- 
 sion which has been made on the public by this most 
 unfortunate and untimely loss. 
 
 ' Yours ever, my dear Gregory, 
 
 'Eobert Peel.' 
 
 Lord Whitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 February 20, 1815. 
 
 ' I have the pleasure to assure you that the 
 Duchess is as well as can be possibly expected, much 
 the better for the change of air and place. We had 
 letters from the Delawarrs and some others yesterday 
 by the express. Poor Lady Delawarr is as well as 
 can be expected. Lady Plymouth was not yet made 
 acquainted with her loss. 
 
 ' I had a most feeling and amiable letter from 
 Peel. It gave us both great comfort. What an 
 excellent Creature he is ! But my dear Gregory he 
 is not the only one. We have met with some here 
 who will be for ever entitled to our warmest and 
 most sincere affection. 
 
 ' The Duchess desires to be most kindly remem- 
 bered to Lady Anne and to your daughter. 
 
 ' I find that our friend the Chancellor has only 
 told the Miss Guns, Lady Eossmore, and about a 
 dozen more, of our intention of going to England. 
 I hope I shall be able to avow it as more than an 
 eventual intention in a day or two.' 
 
62 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 The desired leave was readily granted, and on 
 March 13 Lord Whitworth writes : 
 
 Lord Whitworth was met in England by the 
 tremendous, or as Mr. Peel calls it, the ' extra- 
 ordinary and affecting ' news of the escape of 
 Napoleon, and his landing at St. Juan. 
 
 His letters which follow, and Mr. Gregory's to 
 
 
 ' I return you the papers signed. I wish I could 
 as easily express to you the sincere Esteem and 
 regard I feel for you. We are both very grateful for 
 your kind wishes, and shall be both of us happy to 
 be re-united to you and Lady Anne, to whom the 
 Duchess desires to be most particularly remem- 
 bered.' 
 
 His next note is from Holyhead. 
 
 Tuesday, 9 a.m. 
 
 ' Here we are, so you may begin swearing as soon 
 as you please. 
 
 1 1 conclude of course that your Triumvirate will 
 be fairly established this day. 
 
 ' We got over in Six hours, plenty of wind, plenty 
 of sea, and plenty of miseries of all kinds. 
 
 ' The Duchess is nevertheless very well, she is 
 now writing to Lady Anne. 
 
 ' Believe me, my dear Gregory, here as in Dublin 
 and everywhere, 
 
 ' most truly yours, 
 
 ' Whitworth.' 
 
 
 
RETURN OF BUONAPARTE 63 
 
 him, show the extreme anxiety felt in London and in 
 Ireland. 
 
 Lord Whitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford Street : March 18, 1815. 
 
 ' I have the pleasure (if the word pleasure can be 
 used under so many circumstances of distress) to tell 
 you that we arrived here last night after a prosper- 
 ous journey. The news from France was the first to 
 salute me on getting on shore at Holyhead, and the 
 formidable accounts of the Kufnan's progress has met 
 us at every stage. 
 
 ' What a Catastrophe, but indeed no more than 
 could be expected from such a wretched want of 
 foresight, or rather such a stupid and fatal forbear- 
 ance. 
 
 ' By this time he is, I doubt not, reseated on his 
 throne, where he will remain unless he is torn down 
 by the hand of an assassin, which is supposed not 
 unlikely to happen. 
 
 ' I expect that our friends on your side will be 
 all alive. However, I do not fear them. He will 
 never be able to assist them effectually, though it may 
 be his policy to excite them. 
 
 ' I do not believe that any line of conduct is 
 decided on here. We shall of course be influenced 
 by that of our allies. 
 
 ' I suppose the Lords Justices, but more particu- 
 larly the Chancellor, will be in a fine fuss with all 
 these accounts from France. It will be too cruel to 
 
64 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 avail myself of the whole term for which I meant to 
 be absent. I shall certainly shorten it in considera- 
 tion of all these events. 
 
 ' P. S. 6 o'clock. I think I have much more com- 
 fortable accounts to give you than I had in the morn- 
 ing. In the first place I have been almost all the 
 morning with Lord Sidmouth, and we have agreed, as 
 Peel will tell you, to keep all the militia, English and 
 Irish, assembled till further orders. Sir G. Hewitt 
 will receive his instructions to suspend the circula- 
 tion of the orders which he received a few days ago, 
 relative to the partial disembodying of the Irish, and 
 the sending home of the English, provided that they 
 are not actually embarked or in such a state of 
 preparation as to render any change particularly 
 inconvenient. Now for the news from France, which 
 is to-day much better. Letters of the 15th from 
 Paris say that the people of Paris and of the country 
 are recovered from their first consternation, that the 
 population of Paris is arming for the defence of the 
 King, that Bonaparte is still at Lyons, and had got 
 no more than 8,800 men with fifty pieces of artillery 
 very imperfectly equipped. That Massena was 
 advancing from the South upon Lyons in pursuit, 
 and that Key was coming across from Besancon with 
 13,000 men, to get if possible between him and Paris 
 should he be disposed to advance to that City. Upon 
 the whole therefore we may consider things as bear- 
 ing a favourable aspect. The game is not up, and 
 we may hope. I do not venture further. 
 
 
ADVANCE OF BUONAPARTE 65 
 
 ' This goes by the express, which it was deter- 
 mined to send off at our Conference of this morning.' 
 
 Hertford St : March 20, 1815. 
 
 * You will of coarse hear from Peel on business, 
 so that I only write two lines to give you the latest 
 intelligence from France. 
 
 ' I am this moment come from the Eegent, so 
 that it may be depended upon. 
 
 ' A messenger arrived at 12 with letters stating 
 that Bonaparte had advanced from Lyons on the 
 road to Paris with about 10 or 12,000 men, harassed, 
 ill appointed, and dejected at not finding the 
 Enthusiasm and confidence they expected in Bona- 
 parte's quarters. Marshal Ney is now very close to 
 him with a very superior force, and other Corps are 
 coming against him from all quarters. If numbers 
 are to decide the contest the event cannot be 
 doubtful. It remains to be seen how they will 
 behave when they come into contact with their own 
 Companions in arms. It is thought they may be 
 depended upon. In the meanwhile Paris is perfectly 
 quiet, and every measure of precaution and prepara- 
 tion taken which can ensure its safety. In short 
 the thing looks well, and people are in tolerably 
 good spirits. A very short time must decide whether 
 we have more to hope or fear. 
 
 ' Peel, who lives very near, calls here every 
 morning after the receipt of the post, so that we talk 
 over your business very comfortably.' 
 
 P 
 
66 ME. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 March 20, 1815. 
 
 ' Our Babble are all ears for news of Buonaparte's 
 success, and have already reinstated him on the 
 Throne of France. There has been a scandalous 
 aquittal of two men at Longford on the clearest 
 evidence for attacking the House of a farmer 
 named Goulding, who defended himself gallantly, 
 killed one, wounded another, swore informations and 
 prosecuted the two men aquitted. A Eevd. Mr. 
 Moffett gave the prisoners an unimpeachable cha- 
 racter, and the Jury believed the probably perjured 
 Divine, and discredited the gallant farmer.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lord Whitworth 
 
 Dublin Castle : March 20, 1815. 
 
 ' I was made very happy by the receipt of your 
 letter both on private and public grounds, first to hear 
 that you and the Duchess had arrived in London, and 
 next for the cheering Intelligence that Buonaparte had 
 not re-ascended the throne of France. We were in 
 the lowest state of Depression from the accounts 
 of yesterday, but there is now great Life in the 
 Game. 
 
 ' It will be necessary to keep up a strong military 
 force whether Buonaparte succeeds or not ; there was 
 a restless disposition amongst the people before any 
 hope was cherished by them of his Enlargement, the 
 
 
 
ENTHUSIASM IN IRELAND 67 
 
 surprize and Joy which that Circumstance has 
 excited naturally has made them more sanguine, 
 and although their hopes and Expectations will, I 
 trust, soon be extinguished so far as Buonaparte is 
 concerned, yet the Country will require a strong 
 force and much vigilance to prevent disturbance. 
 
 ' Castlemaine writes terrific accounts from West- 
 meath, but his Insurrections are all in Anticipation of 
 what are to result from Buonaparte's success; however, 
 upon such certain and definite Grounds of alarm, 
 there is to be another memorial from the Countv for 
 the Insurrection Act. 
 
 ' I received a letter this day from Euniskillen ; he 
 had proposed going to England with his family early 
 in the month, but as he thinks the country may be 
 disturbed, like a good and loyal Paddy, he has 
 deferred his journey and proposes to remain at 
 home. 
 
 ' How preferable this to the pugnacious Peer who 
 proposes to fight for Ireland in the House of Lords.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 March 21, 1815. 
 
 ' None of our County Correspondents gives any 
 account of the apprehended disturbances; yet every 
 one from the country states the general Joy of the 
 lower orders on Buonaparte's Reappearance in France, 
 and their readiness to manifest that disposition on 
 the first favourable opportunity. However, I cannot 
 
 f2 
 
68 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 think they will do more than express their satisfac- 
 tion by words, unless their Favourite is successful.' 
 
 Mr. Peel to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Irish Office: March 22, 1815. 
 
 ' . . . We must, I fear, make up our mind for the 
 possession of Paris by Buonaparte, at least I think it 
 is the opinion of the best informed that in the 
 calculation of Probabilities the chances are in his 
 favour. I hope that the possession of Paris will 
 not imply the possession of the throne of France. 
 With the present feelings of the French marshals 
 who are faithful to the Bourbons, it is on the whole, I 
 think, prudent in the king to rely on them for his de- 
 fence, and not to wound their pride by invoking the 
 aid of foreign arms. I think it may be prudent not to 
 allow a foreign arm} 7 to cross the frontier even until 
 after the surrender to Bonaparte of Paris, then all 
 scruples must be at an end, nor will the most deli- 
 cate of French honour have a right to take offence, 
 if the king calls in those who gave him his crown, 
 to maintain — perhaps I should say to recover — it.' 
 
 Lord Whitworih to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : March 22, 1815. 
 
 ' I have just received yours of the 20th by 
 Express, and as Peel was with me, I have also seen 
 what you have written to him. 
 
 ' I think, all circumstances considered, that you 
 
PREPARATIONS AGAINST BUONAPARTE 69 
 
 are going on well. We must be prepared for and 
 indeed make allowance for a little Exultation on the 
 return of their friend Bonaparte to power, but I 
 trust their triumph will be of short duration. 
 Should he arrive at Paris and reseat himself on that 
 devoted throne, it is decided that the whole strength 
 of Europe, that is of Eussia, Austria and Prussia, 
 with the assistance of what we have in Belgium, 
 shall be exerted to pluck him down. We know that 
 we shall have the hearts of the whole nation with us, 
 and I hope the co-operation of some force in Brit any 
 and the Vendee, if not in other parts of Prance. 
 
 ' It is supposed by those who are best informed 
 to be about an equal chance whether he gets to 
 Paris or not. Ney, who is in his rear, will not attack 
 until he has the Co-operation of the strong force 
 assembling near Paris, and with which Bonaparte 
 must come in Contact before he gets there. Should 
 Ney be able to fall upon him while he is so engaged, 
 the result can scarcely be doubted. There are, 
 however, fears that Ney's army is not so trustworthy 
 as that which is assembling near the Capital. Upon 
 the whole I see no reason for utter despair. We 
 have yet a chance of checking his progress, and at 
 all events of totally destroying him whenever the 
 armies that have lately triumphed over him can be 
 brought back to action. The Emperor of Eussia has 
 declared his determination to exert the whole 
 strength of his Empire for the maintenance of the 
 treaty of Paris, which he considers as his more 
 
70 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 immediate Act, and for which he is more personally 
 responsible.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 Dublin Castle : March 23, 1815. 
 
 ' Had the gloomy Intelligence of yesterday been 
 confirmed, I had intended writing to you this day 
 to put into execution what your Letter received on 
 Saturday suggested. I began to be alarmed that 
 something might have occurred requiring immediate 
 decisive Action, in which your Aid would have been 
 necessary. The Care of Eesponsibility I do not 
 shrink from, but Authority is always wanting in a 
 moment of Danger. Buonaparte is the Barometer 
 by which we must judge and Act in this Country, 
 should He (which God Avert) be successful, Disturb- 
 ance would break out unless kept down by the 
 strong hand of Power. ... I find several For- 
 eigners arrived in the Yacht from Holyhead. I have 
 sent for Sproule to endeavour to find out who they 
 are, and have directed an official Letter to be 
 written to him to send a Return of Passengers He at 
 any time brings to Dublin. I have directed the 
 Police to watch them closely, also Arthur O'Connor's 
 wife, who I am sorry to find is invited to our best 
 Houses ; she dined last week at Lord Castlecoote's. . .' 
 
 Lord Whitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : March 23, 1815. 
 
 ' Alas ! it is over. We last night received the 
 fatal news of the King's having been obliged to leave 
 
 
' POPULAR JOY ' 71 
 
 Paris, and he is perhaps at this moment at Dover. 
 Bonaparte has allowed him fourteen days to secure 
 his retreat. 
 
 * I do not think that this Event creates such a 
 sensation here as might have been expected. The well 
 disposed are of course much depressed, but I see no 
 great exultation amongst those who are otherwise. 
 I hope and trust it will be the same with you. We 
 must expect some triumph, and that some hope will 
 be raised — but I cannot believe that it will go farther. 
 Should it be otherwise, both Peel and myself will be 
 immediately with you. Little did we imagine that 
 the Lords Justices would have such times to en- 
 counter. Should the lower orders, contrary to ex- 
 pectation, be inclined to pass the bounds of moderate 
 Joy and triumph, we must immediately apply the 
 Insurrection Act wherever it may be applicable. 
 But Peel will write to you upon this subject more 
 fully.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 Dublin Castle : March 25, 1815. 
 
 ' I communicated your Letter of the 22nd to the 
 Lords Justices, thinking that they ought to be 
 apprised of your opinion of what might probably 
 be the success of Buonaparte's progress to Paris, and 
 also to take such measures as might be thought 
 necessary for protecting this Metropolis from any 
 sudden ebullition of popular Joy at the triumph of 
 the Enemy. 
 
72 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' It has been thought prudent not to make any 
 display of cautionary measures, but without seeming, 
 to have an increased vigilance. . . The three Magis- 
 trates of the Head Police Office were this day with 
 the Lords Justices, and unanimously agreed that 
 there was no danger to be apprehended from any 
 disturbance in the city ; that the rabble would 
 doubtless testify their exultation at the success of 
 their favourite, but they were decidedly of opinion 
 this would not break out into any act of Outrage. 
 However, it happens that these bad accounts arrive 
 at an unlucky Crisis, the eve of Easter, when the 
 lower Orders testify their piety and faith in Drunken- 
 ness for two days. . .' 
 
 March 29, 1815. 
 
 ' Capt. Sproule, in justification of his conduct, says 
 he was requested by Capt. Fellowes to bring over the 
 French Consul and his friends. I have directed a 
 constant watch on the French Consul's house, he has 
 taken up his residence in one of the outlets of the 
 town. What are the strange stories of Lord 
 Kinnaird, I heard some time ago that his Language 
 in Paris was most extraordinary, abusing the 
 Bourbons, and extolling Buonaparte, with whose 
 avowed friends he constantly associated. 
 
 ' I received an invitation some time since to dine 
 with Lord Castlecoote this day. I last night was 
 told that Mrs. Arthur O'Connor 1 was to be of the 
 
 1 Note. — Arthur O'Connor, one of the leaders of the United Irish- 
 men, had gone to France with Lord Edward Fitzgerald in 1796 to try 
 
MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR 73 
 
 party, upon which I called this morning to ascertain 
 the fact from him. He told me she was not. He 
 then wished to know my reason. I immediately 
 answered, if she did, I should not. I then ventured 
 to ask him if she had already dined with him. He 
 answered in the Negative, but said she was to do 
 so. I have perhaps gone out of my way in this 
 communication with Castlecoote, at the same time I 
 should have felt unpleasant in dining in company 
 with a Woman whom I might in a few days receive 
 orders to send out of the kingdom, and who with 
 due deference to my superiors, should never have 
 been admitted into it.' 
 
 Lord Whitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : March 27, 1815. 
 
 * Both Teel and myself are very anxious to learn 
 the effect which the news of Buonaparte's success 
 will have in Dublin and the Country, and I think we 
 have partly agreed that Peel shall go over, if it 
 should be at all likely to lead to anything unpleasant, 
 and that I should relieve him, so that he may be 
 here to finish any Irish business in Parliament. 
 
 ' In a few days I shall expect to hear what the 
 Lords Justices decide of the offer which I beeped of 
 you to make to them in regard to myself. Unless it 
 
 and persuade the authorities to help a rebellion in Ireland with French 
 troops. After the rebellion he was disbarred, and lived in exile in 
 France, becoming a General in the French army. He married a 
 daughter of the Marquis of Condorcet. 
 
74 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 should be absolutely necessary I should wish to 
 remain in this Country a month or six weeks longer, 
 but I would most cheerfully give up every concern 
 should it be conceived that my presence at my post 
 at this moment might be useful. Therefore I am 
 sure you will tell me candidly what you think. 
 
 ' We have no further news to-day from France ; 
 neither indeed is it to be wished. I am sure we can 
 have none good. I hope the Police will keep a good 
 look out after the Emissaries who may be sent to 
 Ireland. Capt. Sproule deserves to be hanged at his 
 own yardarm if he suffered any to come over in his 
 yacht.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lord Whitworth 
 
 Dublin Castle : March 29, 1815. 
 
 ' The reports from the Country and in the Town 
 continue the same, the expression of Joy which at 
 first declared itself in Dublin has subsided, tho' I 
 am confident the Joy is the same. The affray in Cavan 
 would have occurred whether Buonaparte was in 
 Elba or Paris ; in short, nothing has yet occurred to 
 create any alarm. Do not, however, agree to any 
 reduction of our military forces, our Country is full 
 of mines which may explode in spite of the most 
 vigilant care, and although I do not as yet apprehend 
 any attack from without, still if Buonaparte is seated 
 in power he will not again overlook Ireland.' 
 
 
LORD WHITWORTH MORE HOPEFUL 
 
 Lord Whitworih to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : April 1, 1815. 
 
 ' I am quite satisfied to remain here for some 
 time longer, altho' perhaps not so long as I originally 
 intended, on your statement. I quite agree with 
 you in thinking that there can be no present danger 
 of disturbance, neither do I think that a bare promise 
 from France will be sufficient to excite any o'reat 
 signs of Commotion. I hope we may always depend 
 upon a good military force, and that is the best 
 Constitution for Ireland under its present Circum- 
 stances. . . 
 
 ' We have no particular news from France. The 
 old Women and Children in the street may be im- 
 posed upon by the pacific language of the Usurper, 
 but he will impose ou no others. I have reason to 
 believe that the most effectual means are in progress 
 against him. No doubt is entertained of the steadi- 
 ness of either of the allied Powers. His efforts to 
 disunite them will only convince them the more of 
 his present inability to make head against him. 
 
 ' Peel has been unwell for the last two or three 
 days, but is much better. 
 
 ' Our kindest remembrances to Lady Anne. I 
 know from the best authority that whatever may be 
 the result of the Congress of Vienna, the services and 
 zeal of Lord Clancarty are appreciated. How could 
 Capt. Sproule be such a blockhead as to bring over 
 
76 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 such fellows ? I am quite sure they will be well 
 looked after, but I had rather send them back again. 
 Peel is this moment gone down to Lord Sidmouth to 
 see what can be done.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lord Whitworth 
 
 Dublin Castle : April 6, 1815. 
 
 ' I was enabled to exhilarate the spirits of the 
 Lords Justices by reading to them your Letter of the 
 3rd, it gives fairer prospects than We have for some 
 days seen. . . The friends of Opposition in Ireland 
 anticipate the most happy result to their Party ; they 
 have created a serious misunderstanding between 
 Lord Liverpool and his Colleagues in consequence 
 of which a change of administration must follow. 
 Plunkett, who like Mother Carey's chickens never 
 appears but before a storm, is gone over to Parlia- 
 ment. He who so ably advocated the Cause of the 
 Catholics is to fulminate against the unconstitutional 
 Declaration of the Allies in daring to interfere with 
 the free Government of France. . .' 
 
 Lord Whiticorth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : April 6, 1815. 
 
 ' I have to acknowledge yours of the 3rd. I 
 entirely approve of the measure which you have 
 recommended, with a view to give more solemnity 
 and Importance to the Trial of the murderers of the 
 Sergeant in the Co. of Cavan. It ought and I trust 
 
 I 
 
' THE MONSTER ' 77 
 
 will be productive of a good effect in that disturbed 
 County. . . 
 
 ' I hope I have said nothing in the course of my 
 correspondence which could induce a belief that 
 there was the least hesitation on the part of our 
 Government to adopt the most prompt and strenuous 
 measures for the destruction of Bonaparte. All his 
 arts and wiles are duly appreciated, and have no 
 effect whatever, even I hope and believe on the minds 
 of the most vulgar and uninformed. Upon those of 
 a higher description I am perfectly sure they have 
 none. The message from the Eeo-erit is to be 
 delivered this day in the two Houses. If I can get 
 it in time I will send it to you from the House of 
 Lords. In the meantime I can assure you that it 
 will be such as you will approve of. Nothing can 
 be better than the state of affairs in France, the 
 South in Insurrection, the nation recovering from its 
 panic and ready to second any attempt from without. 
 I was assured last night from the very best authority 
 that we had already in Belgium quite sufficient to 
 resist and probably to expel any force which Bona- 
 parte can send there, should he be disposed to do so, 
 and others drawing near from all quarters. In short 
 you may depend upon it that it is meant by all 
 parties to act vigorously, and not to relax until the 
 monster is totally destroyed.' 
 
78 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Lord Whitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : April 7, 1815. 
 
 ' I hope you got the Prince Regent's message 
 yesterday, both Recket and Flint promised me they 
 would send it by the Express. 
 
 ' It will be considered to-day in both Houses, and 
 if we may judge from what passed yesterday in the 
 House it is likely to pass with unanimity. We must 
 not however expect the same concurrence when we 
 come to discuss the measures which are to be pur- 
 sued in furtherance of this preliminary step. Every 
 member of the Administration, and the Prince Eegent 
 at their head, are, I thank God, most decidedly 
 for War. Lord Granville is, I believe, of the same 
 opinion, he would be too inconsistent were he to 
 entertain any other. Lord Grey would be equally 
 inconsistent were he not to profess a bias in 
 favour of peace. 
 
 ' Two days ago these Leaders were decidedly at 
 issue. It is supposed they have compromised the 
 matter ; and this night will probably shew in what 
 manner. In the meantime all the accounts from the 
 Allies, and most particularly from Vienna, where it 
 has been very industriously reported that a contrary 
 sentiment prevailed, are as favourable as the most 
 sanguine can expect or desire. 
 
 ' We are already very strong in Belgium. The 
 Prussians and Austrians will have to the amount of 
 at least 200,000 men in France in a very short time, 
 
RIBBONISM IN ME A Til 79 
 
 and the Russian advanced Corps of 50,000 men will 
 be up by the 15th of next month, and a regular 
 succession constantly following.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lord Whitworth 
 
 Dublin Castle : April 10, 1815. 
 
 'I received your two letters of the Gth and 7th. . . 
 
 ' Nothing but the hearts of Jacobins could have 
 refused obedience to the noble heroism of the 
 Duchess of Angouleme at Bordeaux. The conduct 
 of the troops was worse than treason. . . 
 
 ' I received this day a letter from Mr. Buxton, 
 Chairman of the Sessions for the County of Meath, a 
 very sensible discreet man, giving a melancholy 
 account of that part of the County which borders on 
 Cavan and Longford, from whence the Ribbon System 
 has been introduced. They are in great want of 
 troops and Magistrates, the first may with difficulty 
 be supplied, but I do not know how the other can. 
 
 ' Waterford has continued quiet since the severe 
 Examples at the late assizes, the same Good would 
 no doubt result from the same measures in other 
 Counties, if the Parties injured were not afraid to 
 prosecute. Yet whenever they do, Reward and 
 Protection is always afforded.' 
 
 Lord Whitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : April 13, 1815. 
 
 ' I have not written to you for some days, as I 
 literally had nothing worth sending you. I mean as 
 
80 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 to common occurrences, for I am sure you and Lady 
 Anne would have been kind enough to consider a 
 favourable account of the Duchess' health as a matter 
 of sufficient interest. 
 
 ' I thank God she is as well as I can possibly 
 expect, as are her daughters and grandsons. . . 
 
 ' I am happy to tell you that everything is going 
 on well. The Eegent told me last night that the 
 Court of Vienna was as determined and as zealous in 
 the Cause as he, or if possible anyone more anxious 
 than himself, can wish or desire. I suppose in the 
 course of the next week we shall hear what is to be 
 done. 
 
 ' No thing can be a stronger proof of the zeal of the 
 Court of Vienna than this determination to augment 
 their armies on the Rhine at the expense of that of 
 Italy ; no stronger proof can be given of Austrian 
 disinterestedness. 
 
 ' I am sorry to find from all the letters which 
 Peel receives and which I myself receive, that the bad 
 spirit in Ireland does not improve. As long, how- 
 ever, as we can find employment for their friend 
 Bonaparte at home, and I trust he will soon have 
 much more than he will be able to meet, I do not 
 apprehend anything serious. 
 
 ' There was an angry discussion last night in the 
 House of Lords on what should have been done to 
 keep Bonaparte in Elba. It put one in mind of the 
 old saying, " It is too late to shut the stable door when 
 the steed is stolen." The French call it preparing a 
 
 
 
WANT OF ORGANISATION 81 
 
 bouillon pour un mort, and so it is. In fact the 
 Opposition knew well that Government dared not 
 avow the real cause of mischief, which was the stupid 
 magnanimity of Alexander, lest they should indispose 
 him now when it is so important to conciliate him. 
 Such is the liberality and candour of politicians ! ' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 Dublin Castle : April 19, 1815. 
 
 ' The official Letter from the Lords Justices will 
 declare their apprehensions of withdrawing 5,000 
 troops from Ireland at this critical Period. . . . 
 
 ' Although it was my Duty to word my official 
 Letter in such manner as the Lord Justices directed, 
 yet I should ill repay the Confidence placed in me 
 by Lord Whitworth and you, if I allowed it to pass 
 as my own opinion. I perfectly agree that the 
 Lower Orders are most dreadfully bent on Mischief, 
 that in many places the Catholic population are 
 united by the most horrible oaths of Association, 
 that there are great numbers of concealed Arms in 
 their possession, and that no Man can foresee when 
 this Madness may break out into open Insurrection. 
 Yet I can never believe there is any formidable 
 State of Organization. The most timid and the most 
 zealous have never been able to discover any Leader 
 beyond the lowest description of Persons — no Depot 
 of Ammunition or Arms, no Committees, nothing 
 resembling the systematic plans of the Rebellion of 
 
 G 
 
82 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 1798, but the Evil Spirit which pervades the 
 Country. If an Insurrection should break out under 
 these Circumstances it might be fatal to many valu- 
 able Members of Society where it appeared, and the 
 greatest care could be taken to prevent its appear- 
 ance. But I never can suppose it would be of that 
 general tendency as could endanger the Govern- 
 ment, unassisted by foreign force. Nothing can be 
 more obvious than the best mode by which the 
 Agents of Buonaparte can serve him, by creating 
 every possible alarm of domestic Insurrection, by 
 which a powerful Diversion will be made in keeping 
 our Troops at home, and preventing our adding to 
 the strength of the alliance abroad. . . .' 
 
 Lord Whitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : April 17, 1815. 
 
 'We are going down to Knole and to Buckhurst 
 for the week, therefore I shall have nothing to trouble 
 you with until my return. I think of setting off on my 
 return to you about the 8th of May, so as to be in 
 Dublin by the 12th or loth — and I can with great 
 truth assure you that I shall feel very comfortable in 
 living with you. The Duchess is, I thank God, 
 tolerably well, and looks to her return to Ireland 
 without any unpleasant feeling. 
 
 ' I have great pleasure in assuring you that 
 everything is going on as well and as expeditiously as 
 can possibly be. It is not at all unlikely but I may 
 
 I 
 
INCREASE OF OUTRAGES 83 
 
 bring you the news of the opening of the Campaign. 
 Without reckoning the Eussians (who will not be on 
 the Rhine before June) we shall have on French 
 ground in the course of the first week in May, at the 
 least 250,000 men — of which upwards of 100,000 
 will be under the immediate Command of the Duke 
 of Wellington. It is supposed that Bonaparte cannot 
 muster together above 100,000 men fit for service, 
 and that he is in great want of artillery and all 
 belonging to it. We begin therefore under good 
 auspices, and God grant us a favourable issue.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lord Whitworth 
 
 Dublin Castle : April 18, 1815. 
 
 ' I am sure you would not believe me if I denied 
 being glad that you had shortened the period of your 
 absence from Ireland. Without feeling any imme- 
 diate Disturbance in the Country, I can easily 
 account for your anxiety to return during this 
 critical time of general uneasiness. I wish it was 
 in my power to give a more favourable Impression 
 of the State of the Country, but I should not be 
 warranted in so doin^. 
 
 ' Our Eeports of outrages rather increase than 
 diminish, and the enclosed Copy of a Letter from 
 General Barry represents the County of Limerick to 
 be in a very bad state. . . . 
 
 ' Should the Insurgents dare to try their strength 
 singly, unaided by their Friend Buonaparte, which I 
 
 92 
 
84 mr. Gregory's letter-box 
 
 do not think they will, I have no fear of the result, 
 although 5,000 Troops are to be taken from us. 
 We can ill spare them, but it is quite impossible not 
 to approve of their being sent to fight when the 
 Battle is to settle everything.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 April 20, 1815. 
 
 ' I have this day had a very long conversation 
 with M. G. ; ! he is fully satisfied that there is not at 
 present any direct agency from Buonaparte in this 
 Country, that if his power is established, or even 
 continued for any time, he has no doubt that Emis- 
 saries will be sent. He appears to hold in great 
 contempt any Effort which the low Associations can 
 make against the Government, and gives no credit to 
 their being led or directed by any Description beyond 
 the Eabble. The Ribbon system which is now 
 become so general has, he says, two objects, the first 
 Extirpation of Hereticks, which arises from religious 
 hatred, but the second and more powerful is the 
 possession of Protestant property when the present 
 owners are disposed of. This thirst for the property 
 of others has excited the fever of even the middling 
 classes of Catholics, and prevented them associating 
 with Eibbonmen, as they apprehend that when the 
 poor get possession of Protestant lands, if they are 
 not sufficient to satisfy them they will help them- 
 
 1 One of the secret agents of the Government. 
 
ALARMISTS 85 
 
 selves without any religious distinction. Under the 
 circumstances he does not think any alarming Insur- 
 rection can break out. 
 
 ' O'Connell, he says, is again becoming very bold, 
 and the new Association is filling fast — 150 names are 
 already to it, but no one is admissable who was not 
 a member of the Catholic Board. Young Grattan, 
 because he gave intelligence of Buonaparte's Escape 
 from Elba, is branded with the name of an Informer, 
 and in the Irish phraseology it is added, " No wonder, 
 it was a kind father for him." ' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lord Whitworth 
 
 Dublin Castle : April 21, 1815. 
 
 * The table talk and Garrulity of those who 
 should inspire confidence instead of increasing fear, 
 adds much to the General Consternation which 
 prevails. Although the judicial charges from the 
 Bench to the Grand Juries of Westmeath and Dublin 
 are much admired, and are thought to act as antidotes 
 to Judge Fletcher, I cannot approve of the Wisdom 
 of informing our Enemies foreign and domestic that 
 this whole Kingdom is in that state of prepared 
 Treason that it requires only a spark to make it 
 break out into open Eebellion, this too at a time 
 when the alarmists are ready to believe that the 
 whole Population is not only armed but disciplined, 
 and that Bonaparte has fleets and armies ready to 
 send to their assistance. I trust an early and decisive 
 
86 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 blow in France will quiet the fears of one Party 
 and destroy the hopes of the other. But should 
 Matters unfortunately prove unsuccessful abroad, 
 still we are not to suppose consequent success must 
 await the malignant efforts of our domestic foes. 
 There is abundance of Power, Strength, and Courage 
 in the Loyalists of Ireland, and if the Battle is again 
 to be fought, I have not the slightest doubt that it 
 will again be won by those who deserve success. . .' 
 
 Lord Whitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : April 23, 1815. 
 
 * Peel communicated to me all your letters whilst 
 I was at Knole, and I have to thank you for one, and 
 a very interesting one, which I received yesterday by 
 Express. 
 
 ' I hope, my dear Gregory, that from very kind 
 feeling towards us, or reluctance to bring me, or 
 rather us (for the Duchess is determined not to let 
 me go alone if I was to set out to-morrow), sooner 
 than we intend, you do not disguise the real state of 
 things, or speak more lightly of the state of the 
 Country than you are warranted to do. I should be 
 inconsolable if anything whatever took place during 
 my absence. My private opinion, and it has hitherto 
 been supported by yours, leads me to think that 
 even the most disaffected will not venture to stir 
 untill {sic) they see a little clearer how matters are 
 likely to go on in France. I agree also in opinion 
 
 
CONTINUED UNEASINESS 87 
 
 with you that although much individual mischief 
 might accrue vet that with the Force we have and 
 the inadequate means which the disaffected can 
 command, nothing very serious could be the conse- 
 quence of a sudden rising. But notwithstanding all 
 this I shall not be easy until I am with you, and 
 some observations which you make in your letter of 
 yesterday increase my uneasiness. Nothing surely 
 can be more imprudent, but from that quarter we 
 have witnessed the same on every occasion. Our 
 good friend the Attorney should never let him out of 
 his sight. 
 
 ' Peel and myself have talked over the necessity 
 of calling out some of the best of the Yeomanry, 
 chiefly with a view to enable the regular force to 
 concentrate itself, and to be ready to act in Bodies 
 where it may be wanted. Our present necessity 
 arises from the dispersed state of our regular force. 
 I shall urge this very strongly when I return, and I 
 know Sir George Hewitt will concur with us most 
 heartily. 
 
 ' You may depend upon it that Peel will be over 
 as soon as it is possible to leave the business here 
 where he is most usefully employed. Had it not 
 been for his diligence and observing eye the Alien 
 Bill would have passed in such a shape as to be, as 
 far as relates to us, a perfect dead letter. He has 
 proposed a Clause which sets the matter right, and I 
 hope that in a few days we shall be able to avail 
 ourselves of it. 
 
88 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' I am much obliged to you for reserving Mr. 
 Lloyd's pension until I return. 
 
 ' Pray send over Law the messenger, as we find 
 him very useful on the road. On this day fortnight 
 we set out, and on the 11th we shall be at the Head.' 
 
 Lord Wlcitworth to Mr. Gregory 
 
 Hertford St. : May 4, 1815. 
 
 ' Everything relating to the War is going on as 
 well as possible. The defeats of Murat are most 
 fortunate. The advance of the Allies, that is of the 
 Duke of Wellington and Blucher, will commence 
 about the loth. Soon after my arrival we shall, I 
 trust, receive such accounts as will enable us to look 
 forward with confidence to a favourable result. 
 Bonaparte is completely in the hands of the Jacobins, 
 and they furnish him with the means of defending 
 himself with a sparing hand. I do not think the 
 business can last long, and when it is settled, we 
 may have as many troops as we please in Ireland. 
 In the meantime everybody but Sir George agrees in 
 the expediency of employing the Yeomanry, and I 
 shall be prepared immediately on my arrival to give 
 full effect to the measure. 
 
 ' The Carlton House politicks, which I mentioned 
 to you a few days ago, seem to be all getting right 
 again.' 
 
THE YEOMANRY 89 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 June 1815. 
 
 ' I cannot help feeling much Anxiety for imme- 
 diately placing a large Yeomanry force on permanent 
 Duty. I know we are to have a very considerable 
 military augmentation, but until that is ready we are 
 nearly defenceless. The Yeomen are quite sufficient 
 to meet their domestic adversaries, tho' despicable in 
 opposition to regular troops. Nothing may occur, 
 and fears of insurrection may be groundless, but 
 in the present fever of disappointment which the 
 Catholic cause has sustained in Parliament, it is im- 
 possible to say what mad enterprise may not be 
 undertaken. The distance between a furious Dema- 
 gogue and a bitter Traitor is very short, and we have 
 never doubted the bad principles of our Irish Leaders 
 to be deterred from anything which could injure 
 England even through their own country. I confess 
 that my anxiety is kept alive by the apprehension of 
 being caught sleeping as in 1803, and to have the 
 first news of the attack on our capital communicated 
 by Sir Stuart Bruce. I think the Lord Lieutenant 
 most desirous for augmenting the Yeomanry force, 
 and I wish facilities, and not difficulties, were 
 presented to meet his views.' 
 
 June 19, 1815. 
 
 1 1 have received some letters lately from Lord 
 Annesley, with folios of references, of the organised 
 
90 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 state of his neighbourhood in the County of Down ; 
 indeed, if his informer is to be credited, they fre- 
 quently appear in military array. He has stated 
 that they are to assemble in great force at Milltown 
 on Midsummer Eve. Now that is a most artful day 
 for them to fix upon, as throughout the whole kingdom 
 it is observed with the most general superstitions of 
 bonfires. However to satisfy myself I shall have a 
 person there to ascertain whether the assembly will 
 be more than what will occur in every hamlet of 
 Ireland.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel 
 
 Dublin Castle : June 9, 1815. 
 
 ' I had yesterday a long conversation with M. G. 
 which I now communicate as briefly and as accu- 
 rately as I can. Flyn, the Brother in Law of 
 O'Connell, has been for some time in France, and 
 spent some months in Paris since Buonaparte's 
 return. Flyn is now in Dublin, holding forth on the 
 great military strength of Buonaparte. So little is 
 he apprehensive of the allies that instead of keeping 
 his whole force in the interior he has marched 
 80,000 men to the Coast ready for any foreign 
 expedition. M. G. entertains very little doubt that 
 a Negotiation has been opened between some of the 
 Leaders in Dublin and Buonaparte ; this he thinks 
 is confined to a very few, nor is it necessary, he says, 
 to divulge it to many, as the Mass of the People 
 require no Organisation, being perfectly ready to 
 
AFTER WATERLOO 91 
 
 join any foreign force which may land. He is con- 
 firmed in the opinion of this negociation from the 
 recent cordiality of some of the Catholic Leaders in 
 Dublin, and the original Presbyterian Malcontents of 
 Belfast, between whom no good understanding has 
 subsisted since 1798. Nicholas Mahon said lately 
 sneeringly how confident the Government now felt 
 of the Loyalty of the Catholics, as they had sent all 
 the regular Troops out of the Country, had not 
 embodied the Militia, nor even called out any of the 
 Yeomen on Permanent Duty, consequently they felt 
 secure that no attempt would be made by the 
 Catholics. Whatever is doing he feels satisfied is 
 with the full knowledge of Scully, but from him 
 nothing can be extracted, and he is too cunning to be 
 implicated until success is almost certain. Whether 
 if it shall happen that when Buonaparte finds him- 
 self beaten by the allies and unable to keep his 
 power in France, he may be tempted in the wild- 
 ness of Despair to try his fortune with some troops 
 as desperate as himself to embark for Ireland, is 
 a speculation I shall not attempt to form, the Game is 
 in the Cards, and Buonaparte's adherents would (I 
 have no doubt) induce him to play it.' 
 
 After Waterloo any fear there had been of a 
 rising in Ireland died away. Foreign stimulus was 
 wanting, and the arms imported and hidden away in 
 bogs and ditches became rusty and useless. But a 
 black thread of crime and disorder is woven into all 
 
92 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 the records of these years, and however sorrowful a 
 subject to dwell upon, it cannot be left unnoticed. 
 
 Whiteboys, Eightboys, Threshers, Whitefeet, 
 Blackfeet, Terry Alts, these are some of the names 
 of the bands that formed this lawless army. Poverty, 
 want of work, the land hunger, or as it was more 
 simply put, ' the want of a bit of ground for pota- 
 toes,' seem to have been the chief causes of or 
 excuses for crime. Where landlords lived at home, 
 gave work to their people and treated them fairly, 
 trouble was less acute. ' The whole of that part of 
 the country is destitute of resident gentry, the People 
 are lawless and the middling farmers are afraid to 
 prosecute,' Mr. Gregory writes in 1818, and this is a 
 summary of many of his letters. 
 
 It is not always easy to distinguish between the 
 various shades of disorder and disaffection. The 
 ' Defenders ' mentioned in the following report from 
 Monaghan, sent to Mr. Peel, seem still to have 
 thought of a rising ; while the Tipperary factions 
 mentioned by Mr. Willcocks had merely local 
 aims. 
 
 The report, dated May 4, 1816, gives an account 
 of a meeting of delegates held at a house in Carrick- 
 macross, all the delegates being from the northern 
 Counties. They were all Eibbonmen, but it was 
 proposed at the meeting that they should take the 
 name of Defenders, which was agreed to. The 
 delegates seen by the Informer were gentlemanlike 
 looking men, and rode good horses, but from an 
 
A SECRET SOCIETY 93 
 
 alarm of spies, they did not arrive at the meeting. 
 A delegate from Down proposed that there should 
 be an immediate insurrection, and mentioned that a 
 great many of the people of Down were ready to 
 rise, and were well armed with guns, pikes and 
 bayonets and had ammunition in abundance. Other 
 delegates opposed this, and there was a warm debate 
 thereon. It was said that other counties were as 
 well prepared as Down, but that it was useless to 
 rise until the attention of Government should be 
 drawn off. 
 
 They then proceeded to change the words and 
 sions by which Defenders should be made known to 
 each other. The meeting dispersed before resolu- 
 tions could be passed, in consequence of the arrival 
 of a detachment of the 62nd Eegiment in the town. 
 All the delegates present were decent respectable- 
 looking men. The object of the league seemed to 
 be the overturn of the Government. 
 
 The new signs were : the ring finger of the left 
 hand placed in the left ear ; answered by the fore- 
 finger of the right hand placed in the mouth. 
 
 Words used by Defenders : — ' There is a change 
 in the times.' 
 
 ' Then may I hope for the better.' 
 
 ' Well it never was more wanting.' 
 
 ' If a change does not come, Ireland is destroyed.' 
 
 'If the Americans would lay off the duty on 
 linen.' 
 
 ' If they would, all would be right, my friend.' 
 
94 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Mr. Willcocks writes at the same time, in answer 
 to questions put by Mr. Peel as to the state of the 
 people in Tipperary : — 
 
 ' With respect to their providing themselves with 
 firearms, it has been a species of crime committing 
 in this county for several years back, and when I 
 was stationed in this county about four or five years 
 ago in a magisterial capacity, their desire for arms 
 was very great, and numbers of persons were forcibly 
 deprived of their arms ; but their desire for arms at 
 that period I am fully persuaded sprung from party 
 feeling and faction purposes. At that time the entire 
 of the lower classes, and some of the better sort of 
 farmers, were divided into two parties, one called 
 Shanavest, and the other Caraval. These parties 
 met at almost every fair and public place in this 
 county, and fought with arms in the open day, and 
 in many instances several deaths ensued at both sides. 
 This system of outrage has since been put down, 
 but the greater part of the arms remained in their 
 possession. This late desire for arms which has been 
 so warmly manifested in the county I am fully per- 
 suaded rose for very different purposes ; for I enter- 
 tain no doubt upon my mind but that it was the 
 intention of the leaders of those armed Banditties, to 
 regulate both Tythe, Eent, and labour according to 
 their own wishes (and possibly their views went 
 farther), in endeavouring to effect which, many valu- 
 able lives would have been lost, had it not been for 
 the timely arrival of those Statutes, the operation of 
 
STATE OF TIPPERARY 95 
 
 which I trust has met and totally defeated their law- 
 less and diabolical views.' * 
 
 But though the end of the long war had lessened 
 the fear of rebellion, it brought new troubles to 
 Ireland, and Lord Whitworth's last year of office was 
 darkened by the shadow of famine, for the farmers 
 had already begun to suffer from the fall in prices. 
 
 We owe to Mr. Peel a picture of the state of the 
 peasantry in this year, which followed the conclusion 
 of peace. Some accounts of distress having reached 
 him, he writes to Mr. Gregory early in 1816 : — 
 
 ' Facts are more valuable than declamation, and 
 therefore I should like to make enquiries with respect 
 to some portion of the Country, and I know none 
 where more impartial sources of information could 
 be found than Tipperary, and I should also select 
 this part of the country on another account, namely 
 that as it is the most disturbed, the presumption is 
 that the Peasantry are as badly off as in most other 
 districts. The sources from which I would propose 
 to collect information are Wilcox, Wills, and Wilson, 
 and it would probably be extracted from them in 
 answer to such questions as the following, as well as 
 in any other words : Are the lower orders of the 
 peasantry generally in possession of a piece of land, 
 and of what extent ? What is the usual rent paid 
 
 2 Until I read the above I had been puzzled by a passage in a letter 
 of Mr. Peel's, ' Young Gee says he has shot a Caraval. Has he done 
 so ? ' Knowing of Mr. Peel's interest in woodcocks and grouse, I 
 fancied this might be some new species of game or wildfowl. 
 
93 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 by them for land, and if no average can be given let 
 the amount be stated in different individual cases, so 
 much for a half acre here, so much there. What is 
 the price of daily labour, and do the common people 
 support themselves in general by the wages of labour, 
 or the cultivation of their plot of ground. What is 
 their food in addition to potatoes ? The more minute 
 the answer to this question the better. How are 
 those of the Poor who are incapable of working from 
 age and infirmity supported ? 
 
 'What is the tenure on which they hold their 
 land ? I presume lease for lives. Are all those who 
 have land, be its amount what it may, registered as 
 40 shilling freeholders ? What description of people 
 does the population of the villages and small towns 
 consist of? Is there a class of people, as there is in 
 England, called Labourers, without any land what- 
 ever ? 
 
 ' What is the age at which the Common People 
 usually marry ? Is not marriage almost universal, 
 and do not the sons of a common labourer shew the 
 greatest disposition to marry and settle in the place 
 they were born, much more than to enlist or seek 
 employment in England ? 
 
 * Do the people seek much employment elsewhere, 
 and quit their habitations for a time ? Is there not 
 great honesty among the lower orders, and great 
 fidelity in their dealings between each other ? Have 
 yon known many or any instances of petty theft 
 committed upon each other's property? Are the 
 
MR. PEEL'S QUESTIONS 97 
 
 common people sullen and discontented, or lively 
 and civil to the upper orders in the common inter- 
 course of life ? . . . 
 
 ' . . . How are the people as to lodging, and what 
 is the rent of a cabin ? How as to fuel, what is the 
 price of it ? Have they generally a right to cut turf 
 on some neighbouring bog, and in what mode do 
 they settle for the payment ? 
 
 ' Is the land in Tipperary generally let directly 
 by the Landlord to the cottier, or through the inter- 
 vention of middlemen ? I wish particularly to know 
 to what extent the practice of letting land through 
 the agency of middlemen prevails. 
 
 ' Other questions may occur to you, and pray add 
 them. This information drawn fresh from the spring 
 will be very valuable to me. . . 
 
 ' Have the goodness to write a line to Wilcox &c. 
 &c, explaining to them my object and requesting 
 them to add any other information which they may 
 think valuable, and which they may have acquired 
 in other parts of Ireland. For instance, I should like 
 to know very much whether much difference prevails 
 between the state of the people in Longford and 
 Westmeatli and that in Tipperary. To this they 
 would be competent to speak. 
 
 ' Wills must know a great deal, but unfortunately 
 he thinks himself rather a fine writer. I would give 
 a great deal for his facts, but nothing for his 
 eloquence. ' 
 
 ii 
 
98 MR. GREGORYS LETTER-BOX 
 
 Mr. Gregory, in forwarding the answer, writes : 
 
 April 20, 1816. 
 
 ' I send you the answers to the queries put 
 Willcocks ; many of them were answered in the 
 letter to the Att. General sent yesterday. I have 
 received no answer from Wilson or Wills, but I 
 attach more Weight to any opinion of Willcocks on 
 these points than either of the other two.' 
 
 Cashel : April 17, 1816. 
 
 ' Sir, — I have had the honour to receive your 
 letter of the 11th instant, requesting that I would, 
 for the information of Mr. Peel, answer certain queries 
 therein mentioned. In reply to which I beg to 
 acquaint you for Mr. Peel's information that I have 
 collected the best authentic information in my power, 
 which together with my own information makes me 
 to answer the queries in the following manner : — 
 
 ' The Labourers in this Barony, and I believe in 
 general throughout the country, are paid in two ways. 
 Some hold a Cabbin and from half an acre to an 
 acre of ground, for which they pay 2 to 4 guineas 
 a year. The persons who pays two guineas a year 
 for such Cabbin and Ground works the year round 
 with his employer for sixpence a day. He who pays 
 3 guineas a year gets eightpence a day, and if the 
 labourer pays a higher rent he gets tenpence a day 
 the year round. In general the labourer also gets 
 the grass of a cow from his employer, for which he 
 
 
MAJOR WILLCOCKS' ANSWERS 99 
 
 pa}'S from two to four guineas a year, which is also 
 taken out in labour at the same rate as for the 
 Cabbin and Land. He also gets potato ground at 
 a fair price. These labourers get no lease from their 
 employers. 
 
 ' The other class of labourers who hold no land, 
 and who are the more numerous, generally get from 
 eightpence to tenpence a day the }-ear round, but at 
 the time of making up the harvest, and the digging of 
 the potatoes, the labourers who come into the county 
 from Limerick and Kerry and those of this county 
 who are not bound by the year, get much higher 
 wages, such as from two and sixpence to two 
 shillings a day. It is my opinion that the labouring- 
 classes of this county are fairly dealt with, and 
 taking all circumstances into view, they have no 
 reason to complain of their state or condition, they 
 are in general well clothed, and their food plenty and 
 wholesome. 
 
 'As to the poorest and lowest order of farmers, I 
 take their state and condition at present to be very 
 pitiable, particularly those who have taken lands 
 within the last 6 or 8 years. Farmers of this 
 description hold from 10 to 30 or 40 acres of land, 
 for which they pay 40 shillings to four pounds an 
 acre, according to the quality of the land, and from 
 the present prices for the produce of land it is im- 
 possible that those rents can be paid. I consider 
 the condition of poor farmers for years back to 
 be bad. In order to pay a high rent, tithe and 
 
 H 2 
 
100 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 county charges, and to support a wife and from 
 three to five children, he was obliged to bring every 
 article of produce to market, even the straw that 
 ought to make his manure, all which did not leave 
 him a surplus to lay out or expend on the improve- 
 ment of his land, and the consequence is that the 
 land has become quite worn out and exhausted, and 
 don't produce half the crop it would, had it been 
 treated as it ought. 
 
 ' I find that some years back, and before lands 
 became so very valuable as they lately have been, 
 the Leases granted by the Landlords were in 
 general three lives or 21 years, but latterly the general 
 run of leases has been for one life or 21 years. And 
 the rate of Tithes for some years back has been 
 about twelve shillings an acre for wheat, bere, 
 barley and potatoes ; oats or meadow land eight 
 shillings an acre, sixpence the ewe, and one shil- 
 ling the lamb. It does not appear to me that 
 there has been much variation in the rate of tithes 
 latterly. 
 
 ' There is a difference made in the rent of lands 
 titheable, and those which are not. I have been 
 informed that the lands or the greater part of them 
 in the parish of Holy Cross, part of which is in the 
 Barony of Middlethird, are tithe free, and that those 
 lands have hitherto set from six to eight shillings an 
 acre higher than lands titheable of equal quality in 
 the adjoining parish, and I believe in general this is 
 about the difference in rent in such cases. 
 
 
» . » 
 . . . 
 
 . V • • • . ' 
 
 THE LAND IIL^GER 101 
 
 5 Upon the whole, taking into view the last G or 8 
 years, I think the petty farmer has now a right to 
 complain, for although he got high prices for the 
 last 5 or 6 years, it is well known that lands carried 
 an equal rise in rent, and it is equally well known 
 that the prices of the present day will not pay half 
 the rent which the farmer is bound to pay by the 
 leases granted within the last 8 or 10 years. 
 His exertions to cultivate the land, if bound to this 
 hi"h rent, will cease and his inevitable ruin must 
 follow unless the prices of the produce rise or 
 the Landlords lower their rents. In my opinion 
 much remains to be done on the part of the Land- 
 lord to ameliorate the condition of this class of 
 men. It appears to me that the high rents are by 
 far a much greater grievance than, and infinitely 
 more oppressive than, the Tythes. 
 
 'There is an immense population in this part of 
 the Country, and land is the only manufacture in the 
 south of Ireland, so that having no other means of 
 employment, by which they could support their 
 families, the tenants would give any price for land 
 sooner than be without it, for let their ability be 
 what it may to pay the rent by having possession of 
 the land, they were certain of having the means of 
 supporting their families. . . . 
 
 ' As regards honesty. I think in general there is 
 great honesty among the lower orders from one to 
 the other, and fidelity in their dealings. 
 
 ' Disposition of the people. I think in general the 
 
• • • ( 
 
 * # . . 
 
 « f « * ! 
 
 
 • « 
 
 102 ' 'M'^VCiflEaOlVrS-iETTEL'-EOX 
 
 common people are civil and respectful to the upper 
 classes, except when unlawful combination gets 
 among them. They are in general lively, and fond of 
 rural sports and amusements. . . . 
 
 ' Lodging and fuel. The habitation is a small, and 
 
 Co 7 
 
 I am sorry to say in general a filthy Cabbin, which 
 very often contains a cow or a pig in the same 
 appartment with some of the family. Their beds are 
 in general straw, or the chaff of oats in a coarse 
 bed-tick. Their fuel, if convenient to a bog, is plenty, 
 but in many places scarce and dear when at a distance. 
 The lower orders in general have not a right to cut 
 turf, but the farmers when they take land get from 
 the Landlord the right and privilege of cutting turf, 
 and the poorer class purchase from them, and 
 either pay in work or money, but I cannot say at 
 what price. 
 
 ' Middlemen. The land in Tipperary generally is 
 not let directly by the landlord to the Cottier, but 
 most certainly through the intervention of the 
 middlemen, and in many cases heretofore the middle- 
 men had a greater income out of the land than 
 the head landlord. The middleman will take a 
 piece of land from 100 to 200 acres, and will job 
 this out to Cottiers at more than double the rent 
 which he pays himself, but I think this grievous 
 system of high setting practised by the middlemen 
 is now likely to be crushed or put down, for there is 
 now large arrears of rent due to them by the Cottiers, 
 which I believe they are not able nor do they intend 
 
A LEAN YEAR 103 
 
 to pay. The Land therefore will fall back upon the 
 middleman, and he must make a new setting at a 
 fair price. 
 
 ' R. Willcocks. 
 
 ' Chief Magistrate barony Middlethird.' 
 
 In 1817 the harvest was a very poor one. Crops 
 failed, and the fall of prices after the war had already 
 impoverished the farmers. The lean years seemed to 
 have begun. Mr. Peel put his hand vigorously to 
 the work of supply. He writes to Mr. Gregory, 
 March 11,1817: 
 
 ' I had desired Crofton to write to you the 
 enclosed, fearing I should not have a moment to 
 write. 
 
 ' There was no time to be lost in deciding upon 
 the purchase of the corn for seed. There was no 
 question between immediate purchase and abandon- 
 ing the idea altogether, for delay of reference was 
 from the lateness of the season tantamount to 
 abandonment. 
 
 ' However, from the general tenor of your Letters 
 and Lord Whit worth's ; from the statements of the 
 Dean of Eaphoe with respect to his own parish, 
 which he says is the best in Donegal, and which 
 statements I conclude you thought to be well 
 founded, from the Plan of Mr. Rawson for granting a 
 bounty on the sowing of oats, from all these circum- 
 stances we have inferred that there must be a great 
 
104 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 deficiency of seed corn, particularly in the North of 
 Ireland, and therefore the Government here have 
 consented to go into the market. 
 
 ' The only place where we can get any quantity 
 of seed corn is the Eastern Coast. 
 
 ' The only expeditious way of sending it, is in 
 vessels which can pass the Scotch Canal from Edinbro 
 to Glasgow. 
 
 * To Glasgow I propose for the present to direct 
 such corn as is procured to rendezvous, and I must 
 leave it for you in great measure, who are on the 
 spot, to determine on the best mode of applying it to 
 the purposes for which it is intended. . . . 
 
 If the Western parts of Donegal are in absolute 
 want of seed corn — and if there be a quantity fit for 
 seed at Sligo, and about to be exported from thence, 
 I really think you might purchase a limited quantity 
 — a thousand barrels or two — on the same principles 
 on which the purchases here are made. You might 
 send this supply to Killybegs under the same 
 regulations that must apply to the corn sent from 
 hence. 
 
 * Is Hamilton or Letterkenny a fit place for the 
 landing of corn ? But instead of asking individual 
 questions I will ask you to let me know in what way a 
 quantity of corn, suppose 20,000 quarters or thirty 
 being at Glasgow in a fortnight or three weeks at 
 the utmost, and some part much sooner, can be 
 applied to the best advantage as seen in the North of 
 Ireland, and to what places it would best be sent. 
 
LOUD WniTWORTH'S HEALTH 105 
 
 ' We will sell it at a price wliich will bring it 
 within the reach of the little farmer.' 
 
 The vigorous means used, and a better harvest, 
 tided over this year of leanness. Lord Whitworth's 
 viceroyalty was not marked by any further events 
 of note. His health began to give way, and the 
 monotony and ceremony of official life in Dublin must 
 have become a weariness to him. 
 
 In February 1817 Mr. Gregory writes to Peel : 
 
 ' The Lord Lieutenant had yesterday a very 
 crowded Levee, he did not look well, the Boom was 
 extremely hot, and he left it soon. He is this day 
 perfectly well, and feels no inconvenience from the 
 fatigue ; I was apprehensive of a return to illness. 
 He has determined not to dine out with anyone, of 
 which I am very glad, as it will save him from passing- 
 many irksome hours.' 
 
 And a week later : 
 
 ' . . . I am sorry Lord Whitworth's looking ill 
 at his Levee was conveyed to London, as it really 
 was of no consequence. The room was very 
 crowded and hot, and he was staying too long, but 
 retired certainly before many had arrived. He was 
 oppressed and looked ill, but he had only just before 
 undergone an Essay from Slade of fifty minutes in 
 the Castle chapel. I will say confidentially to you 
 that I am sometimes uneasy at seeing him look so 
 very yellow, but that appearance goes off and his 
 tekin is again clear. He eats and sleeps well, and is 
 

 106 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 in excellent spirits, but he does not gain flesh, nor 
 has he by any means improved since he came to the 
 Castle. Every public consideration, every private 
 feeling make Lord Whitworth an object of most 
 anxious solicitude. He has made an excellent rule 
 of not dining with anyone, yet he is more in Eepre- 
 sentation with his own Dinners, Drawingrooms &c, 
 and last and not least fatiguing, Charity Sermons, 
 than is quite fitting for a Convalescent.' 
 
 In October of that year Lord Whitworth bade 
 farewell to Dublin, taking with him the ' respect 
 and regard ' of the people. 
 
 The ' Dinners, Drawingrooms and Charity ser- 
 mons ' we can hardly expect him to have regretted, 
 but he kept up to the end a warm interest in 
 Ireland, and in the friends he had made there. 
 
 His health improved after his retirement, for 
 Lord Talbot writes later : 
 
 ' I returned to-day from Knole, where you will 
 be glad to hear, I found our amiable friend as well 
 in health and spirits as I ever saw him. He rides 2 
 or 3 hours without fatigue, eats a hearty dinner, and 
 sleeps perfectly well. You will scarcely believe that 
 he again weighs lost. 21b., his former weight. 'Tis 
 to me the most delightful part of my existence that 
 I pass with him. To know Lord W. is to love him, 
 and to know those / loved is a double bond of union 
 to him with me.' 
 
 
 
 
lord wumvoim-i ON EMANCIPATION 107 
 
 How strong was his feeling against Catholic 
 Emancipation may be judged by this letter to Mr. 
 Gregory, written in 1819 : 
 
 'As matters now stand, I confess I am not without 
 some apprehension as to the event here. You see 
 what a force is mustered under the banners of 
 opposition. If 186 can be got to oppose so trifling 
 a question as whether a few thousand pounds shall 
 be taken from the right or the left hand pocket, what 
 may we not expect when the important and specious 
 question of Catholic Emancipation is brought before 
 them. I rest my hopes on the House of Lords. But 
 even there I dare not look with any great degree of 
 Confidence. The obstinacy of many people with 
 whom I converse on the question, can only be 
 equalled by their Ignorance of its real tendency and 
 of the consequences to which it must ultimately 
 lead in Ireland. Peel will, I am sure, stand in the 
 gap, but I scarcely know what he can add to what 
 he so forcibly said when the subject was last agitated, 
 and opposition is now much stronger. 
 
 ' I often think of my good and valued friend the 
 Atty. Genl. How vexed he must be at all this. Pray 
 remember me most kindly to him, and tell him that 
 I add my prayers to his and yours and all well 
 wishers to the Cause, " that all those Evils which the 
 Craft and subtilty of the Devil or Man worketh 
 against us may be confounded and brought to 
 nought." '. . . 
 
108 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 LORD TALBOT 
 
 LORD TALBOT AND MR. GRANT 
 
 Dublin Castle : October 9, 1817. 
 
 ' The Earl Talbot, who embarked at Holyhead at 
 five o'clock on Wednesday, the 8th inst., on board 
 his Majesty's yacht the William and Mary, arrived in 
 this harbour at one o'clock this day. . . . His lord- 
 ship, attended by a squadron of dragoons, proceeded 
 to the Castle, and the Council having attended at 
 four o'clock, was introduced in form to his Excellency 
 Earl Whitworth, who received him sitting under the 
 canopy of state in the Presence Chamber, from 
 whence a procession was made in the usual state to 
 the Council Chamber. The Council sitting, his lord- 
 ship's commission was read, and the oaths being 
 administered to him, his lordship was invested with 
 the collar of the most illustrious order of St. Patrick, 
 and received the Sword of State from the Earl 
 Whitworth.' — Ann. Register. 
 
 I have read through a great mass of letters from 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. Some are too trivial 
 and some too personal for publication, but all radiate 
 kindliness and a sense of duty. 
 
Ml}. GRANT 109 
 
 Though he set his face from first to last against 
 the claims of the Catholics, O'Connell gives him the 
 credit of impartiality, and Lord Cloncurry speaks of 
 him as ' an honest, high-minded gentleman.' The 
 King's visit and the famine of 1821 are the chief 
 landmarks of his administration. His wife's death, 
 and his sudden and ungracious dismissal saddened 
 and, for a time, embittered his memories of the 
 viceroyalty. Had Mr. Peel continued Chief Secre- 
 tary, Lord Talbot's four years in Ireland would 
 probably have been one long ' Amen ' to his clear, 
 prompt decisions. But in May, 1818, Mr. Peel 
 resigned. 
 
 With the appointment of ' the amiable, clever and 
 irresolute Charles Grant,' began what I may call the 
 sandwich system of government in Ireland, of which 
 Lord Grenville writes : ' What can exceed the ridi- 
 cule of thus systematically coupling together a friend 
 and an enemy to toleration, like fat and lean rabbits, 
 or the man and his wife in a Dutch to} r , or like fifty 
 other absurdities made to be laughed at, but cer- 
 tainly never before introduced into politics as fixed 
 and fundamental systems for the conduct of the most 
 difficult and dangerous crisis of a country.' 
 
 It was natural that the Orange party should feel 
 aggrieved at his appointment, but he seems also by 
 his unpunctuality, carelessness and neglect of answer- 
 ing letters to have offended his own supporters. 
 Some resolutions against him were even carried at 
 a Catholic meeting at Athenry, 'but,' writes Mr. 
 
110 MR. GREGORYS LETTER-BOX 
 
 Gregory, ' though aimed at Grant, they, according to 
 our national Blunders hit the Lords Justices.' 
 
 Ministers called out that he did not keep them 
 informed of the state of affairs, and complained of 
 his indecision, now blowing hot, now cold, at one 
 moment declaring no troops were wanted, the next, 
 clamouring for them. It must in any case have been 
 uphill work for him. He came over primed with 
 theories of popular government, but found small 
 obstacles in his way at every turn. To understand 
 his position one may imagine how Mr. Morley would 
 have felt when holding office in Ireland, had he been 
 flanked with Lord Londonderry as a Viceroy, and 
 Colonel Saunderson as an Under Secretary. 
 
 Groans for ' Popish Grant ' were given at the 
 decoration of King William's statue, and the corre- 
 spondence of Lord Talbot and Mr. Gregory shows 
 how little they welcomed this advanced ' Catholic ' 
 thrust between them. Dublin Castle cannot have 
 been for him a bed of roses. 
 
 Mr. Grant was all for turning his theories to 
 practice without loss of time, while Mr. Gregoiy, 
 fulfilling the usual role of the permanent official, 
 acted as a practical, restraining Sancho Panza to the 
 new Quixote. Mr. Grant, anxious to seize the first 
 opportunity of showing confidence in the Catholics, 
 proposes to make Lord Gormanstown a Commissioner 
 of Fisheries. Mr. Gregory replies that no one could 
 be more respectable, ' but I doubt whether he would 
 be gratified by being named as a Commissioner. His 
 
MR. GRANT 111 
 
 habits are very retired, and lie lias never accustomed 
 himself to publick business. You have already two 
 Commissioners for that immediate neighbourhood.' 
 
 He proposes what he believes to be a benevolent 
 reform, of sending female convicts to Cork by ship 
 instead of by road. But Mr. Gregory convinces him 
 that the present mode of conveyance ' in covered him 
 cars, on springs,' is much more comfortable, and 
 much preferred by them. 
 
 He had at Cambridge written a prize poem on 
 the restoration of learning in the East, and was 
 anxious to repeat his triumph by devising in prose 
 a system of education that would satisfy all creeds 
 in Ireland. But it did not need a touch from the 
 Under Secretary to make this castle in the air come 
 tumbling down about his ears. 
 
 In Parliament, to his dismay, instead of enlighten- 
 ing the world as to Catholic claims, he finds his time 
 occupied in defending details of expenditure of which 
 he knows nothing. He writes (1819): 'You have 
 no idea of the temper of the House on the Irish 
 Estimates. If I had not assured them of my inten- 
 tion to examine and reduce, they would have divided 
 and thrown some of them out.' And again in 1822 : 
 1 How I am to defend the expense of 5,300/. for our 
 coals and candles I know not.' 
 
 Extravagance in writing materials can hardly 
 have been his besetting sin, but Mr. Gregory confronts 
 him with an entry in the stationery account for 
 ' cutlery, 23/. 17.9. 5t/.,' and asks if he is to pay it, 
 
112 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Vesey Fitzgerald, in 1819, writes little hits at him 
 from London. ' I have not seen Grant except once 
 en passant ; and Peel told me to-day he had seen him 
 but once.' ' Your friend Grant seems to have let 
 the Irish representation slip out of his hands com- 
 pletely.' And on the proposed abolition of the still 
 fine system (of which Sir G. Hill writes : ' It means 
 the destruction of the revenue, but the Saints and 
 the Squires will have it so ') he writes : ' Vansittart and 
 Castlereagh had matured a plan with Leslie Foster, 
 in a consultation at which Grant assisted (if I may 
 apply that term to his having been present and dis- 
 senting, as I believe, from everything except relin- 
 quishment of the whole system).' 
 
 Lord Talbot often receives and joins in com- 
 plaints of his procrastination and carelessness. He 
 writes to Mr. Gregory : 
 
 ' Sir G. Hill has written a long letter of complaint 
 that his Memorial sent in six weeks ago has not been 
 answered. I told Grant I thought he had fair right 
 to complain. That the protestants were as much 
 entitled to justice at least as the Catholics, and that 
 so far as I could judge this was an atrocious attempt 
 to vilify Sir G. and his Yeomen. VYe shall see what 
 it will produce.' 
 
 And again : 
 
 ' Grant desired me to send the Primate his answer 
 to his Grace's Letter commenting upon his original 
 
MR. GRANT'S CARELESSNESS 113 
 
 statement of the Galway troubles. I did so, saying 
 it was at Grant's special request that at so late a date 
 I transmitted the Communication. 
 
 ' By return of post the Primate returned it to 
 me with this letter. 
 
 ' " I return Mr. Grant's Letter dated the 2nd of 
 June, which I received last night, and beg your 
 Excy. to accept my thanks for the Communication. 
 ' " I have the Honor to be, etc. 
 
 "<W. Akmagh." 
 
 ' His Grace's style is better than mine. I will 
 therefore take the hint and — remain 
 
 ' most faithfully.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory writes to Lord Talbot : ' Grant was 
 punctual to-day at the Archbishop's Levee, I hope 
 he will continue so.' l 
 
 And to Mr. Grant himself on some appointments 
 under the Law Courts Bill : — 
 
 1 It would not be right for me to conclude this 
 already long letter, and conceal from you that the 
 Chief Justice is very much annoyed at the manner 
 in which you have treated him. 
 
 ' He wrote to you two or three weeks since a long 
 Letter on this Bill, and requested to have the earliest 
 Intimation of when it passed into a Law. . You 
 
 1 ' They say of the two Grants, Robert and Charles, who are both 
 very careless and unpunctual, that if you ask Charles to dine with you 
 at six on Monday, you are very likely to have Robert at seven on Tues- 
 day." — GreviUe Memoirs. 
 
 1 
 
114 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 answered him that he should. On Monday evening 
 he received a Copy of the Bill, with some marginal 
 manuscript alterations, but without one line from 
 you notifying whether it had received the Eoyal 
 Assent, nor has he since received the slightest Com- 
 munication from you on the subject. 
 
 ' However painful it may be to you to know that 
 you have offended this most excellent man, I feel it 
 my duty not to conceal it from you.' 
 
 And acrain : — 
 
 'Very great dissatisfaction is expressed by the 
 Judges, and all persons having anything to do with 
 the Courts of Law, as to the manner in which this 
 Bill has passed. It is enacted to take immediate 
 Effect ; it is Law before it can reach Ireland, and 
 although the Papers announce it to have received 
 the Eoyal Assent, it has not been transmitted to 
 Ireland. Great public inconvenience is stated to 
 have incurred, and great Clamour is consequently 
 raised. 
 
 ' After I had written the above I received yours 
 of Sunday, and also (as I had hoped) the Law Courts 
 Bill, as it had received the Eoyal Assent. But what 
 you enclosed was only the Bill as ordered to be 
 printed by the House of Commons, on the 2nd of 
 April last.' 
 
 Croker declared that Ireland was going to the 
 bad in consequence of Grant's indolence. 'He 
 
MR. GRANT'S MISFORTUNES 116 
 
 thinks of nothing but devotion, he is a saint, and 
 can and will do no business whatever.' 
 
 But this is evidently unjust ; he was filled with 
 zeal, but some fatal want of backbone, or of the 
 belief in himself which is as necessary for current use 
 as the alloy in minted gold, kept him from attain- 
 ment. And sometimes an element of ill-luck seemed 
 to hang about him. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel, in a letter to Oroker, gives an 
 account of him at a shooting-party at Drayton : 
 ' Grant took the field yesterday, and the moment we 
 left the phaeton and joined the keepers we were 
 attacked by an infuriated ivasp's nest. . . . Grant's 
 whiskers have been recently dyed black, 2 J0SS ibly 
 with some redolent mixture, but this will not account 
 for the attack, which was impartially directed against 
 all.' 
 
 Soon after his arrival in Ireland he went with 
 his sister for a tour in the North, and writes 
 to Mr. Gregory from Donaghadee in great wrath, 
 their trunk having been stolen from the back of the 
 carriage. He suggests strong measures being 
 taken for its recovery, even that a policeman should 
 be sent specially to Belfast for the purpose. But 
 after all has been done, Mr. Gregory writes to him : — 
 ' I enclose a note from the Sovereign of Belfast about 
 your Trunk. I am sorry you will not see it or its 
 contents a^ain.' 
 
 One is irresistibly reminded of Moore's story of 
 
 Sir St. George, ' who came to a Catholic meeting 
 
 i 2 
 
116 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 very drunk — lost his hat and called out ' D — nation, 
 to you all. I have come to emancipate you and you 
 have stolen my hat ! ' 
 
 I possess a print of him after a portrait by 
 Thompson, in which there is a hint of instability even 
 in his attitude, and in which his hand rests for 
 security on a volume entitled ' Ireland,' as if he 
 was content to base his reputation upon its contents. 
 
 Traditional gossip says that when he came to 
 Dublin his heart was captured by a beauty of the 
 Viceregal Court. But he could not quite make up 
 his mind to irrevocably fix his destiny, so turned his 
 attentions to her equally beautiful married sister. So, 
 wavering between the two, he kept his affections to 
 an even balance ; but the sisters were never quite 
 the same to one another again. 
 
 O'Connell found him ' the mildest, kindest, and 
 best mannered man Ireland has ever yet seen,' but I 
 think his letters to Mr. Gregory are a little dry. It 
 is only in 1821 that ' my dear Sir ' is replaced by ' my 
 dear Gregory,' and if, rarely, he sends a message of 
 politeness to Lady Anne, he docks her name of its e. 
 He more than once, indeed, inquires with interest 
 for Miss Gregory's horse, but I find it had been a 
 present from the Lord Lieutenant, which may have 
 given it a sort of official complexion. 
 
 Friction on the Catholic question of course soon 
 arose, and Lord Talbot and Mr. Gregory sadly shake 
 their heads over their restive colleague. ' Galway 
 is the most Catholic county in Ireland, and now is 
 
MR. GRANT'S INFLUENCE 117 
 
 in a state of almost open rebellion, yet Grant wants 
 to work through the Priesthood,' writes Mr. Gregory. 
 And Lord Talbot, giving an account of the Lord 
 Mayor's dinner of 1819, says : — 
 
 ' We had a famous protestant dinner yesterday — 
 excellent dinner but bad wine. Alderman Archer 
 when half drunk talked some nonsense about the 
 necessity Government was under of supporting the 
 Corporation of Dublin if they meant to subsist as a 
 Govt. — which I thought I had better permit to pass 
 unheeded. The glorious pious and immortal memory 
 was drunk as it ought to be. 
 
 ' Peel was given with loud huzzahs. Poor Grant's 
 health passed without notice. 
 
 ' Duke of Eichmond and one Win. Gregory were 
 not forgotten. . . .' 
 
 A meeting called soon after this by the new Lord 
 Mayor at the Eotunda in favour of Emancipation 
 was attributed to the fillip given to the agitation by 
 the new Chief Secretary, and Mr. Gregory indignantly 
 writes to Lord Whitworth : — 
 
 Dublin Castle : February 22, 1819. 
 
 ' We have in this Country little to communicate, 
 and all our political concerns are being confined to 
 one Question, are scarcely considered beyond the 
 Parties who are engaged. In proportion to the High 
 Station you filled here, so -must be to you the satis- 
 faction at having withdrawn from it without witness- 
 
118 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ing those disgusting scenes which have lately dis- 
 graced this heretofore Protestant City. The Change 
 appears to me as sudden as the shifting of the scenes 
 in a Harlequin farce ; and when in a few Months the 
 Glorious Memory is banished from the Mayoralty 
 house, and the Lord Mayor calls an aggregate Meeting 
 to support the Catholic Claims, is it too much to 
 expect the Elevation of the Host in the streets before 
 the expiration of the year ? But I trust the day of 
 triumph is far off. The paltry Prints on the popish 
 side take great pains to impose on the public Mind 
 Lord Talbot's strict neutrality, and almost attempt to 
 mix him up with those who are emancipators, but you 
 require no assurance to be satisfied that such Insinua- 
 tions are grossly false, though he has a delicate card 
 to play which prevents his shewing his hand, yet 
 everyone here knows his political principles are 
 strictly Protestant. . . . The hopes of the Catholics 
 have been raised by Blandishments which they 
 readily consider overtures for Conciliation, and the 
 Opposition, who only espouse their cause for the 
 Embarrassment it creates, feed their expectations to 
 increase their disappointment.' 
 
 Lord Whitworth replies sympathetically : — 
 
 ' I confess, my dear Gregory, I did anticipate 
 all the mischief which I see gathering in Dublin and 
 spreading all over the Country. But how could it be 
 otherwise ? It is matter of much Eegret, but nut uf 
 
 
CATHOLIC AGITATION 119 
 
 surprise. I confess it did appear to me so long ago 
 as when that in itself nonsensical toast of Glorious 
 Memory was omitted at the Mansion House in the 
 presence of the Lord Lieutenant, that advantage 
 would be taken of it, and inferences drawn from it. 
 Considering the principles of the person with whom 
 Lord T. was obliged to act, I think he should have 
 given ten times more publicity than ever to his own 
 lest he might be supposed to acquiesce in those 
 principles, or at least to be indifferent on so vital a 
 question.' 
 
 Vesey Fitzgerald writes at the same time from 
 London : — 
 
 1 You seem to have had a stormy meeting in 
 Dublin for the purposes of reconciliation ; the 
 Catholics and their friends seem to me to have been 
 madmen in their attempt. Everything was pro- 
 ceeding quietly for them, and they have now 
 awakened what will not be quenched easily. I 
 speak only as I see at a distance, and judging men 
 from their own reports.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory writes to Mr. Grant : — 
 
 February 23, 1819. 
 
 ' It is very painful, but still my Duty, to communi- 
 cate to you the great agitation with which this City 
 is troubled from the Effects of that ill-advised Meeting 
 called by the Lord Mayor. That spirit of animosity 
 which had so much subsided has ao-ain been called 
 
120 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 into action, and the greatest party violence now 
 prevails in a City which was lately so quiet, and 
 which animosity will soon diffuse itself through the 
 Country. I did not think it possible that in a few 
 short days such a change could be effected, but the 
 catholic Question now engrosses the attention of all 
 Banks, and the hopes and fears of the opposite parties 
 interest the highest and lowest orders. All this from 
 a senseless meeting whose opinion could not weigh a 
 feather in the decision of the measure. If the expecta- 
 tions of the Catholics are disappointed (as I trust 
 they will) they of course will be more than usually 
 irritated ; but let the Decision be as it may, every- 
 thing now assumes a very angry and unpromising 
 appearance.' 
 
 Mr. Grant writes more calmly : — 
 
 London : March 1, 1819. 
 
 ' I am much obliged by your letters. I regret to 
 hear of the agitations excited by the Meetings, and 
 ardently hope they may be somewhat allayed by this 
 time. 
 
 'Altho' the Anti-Catholics may say and justly, 
 that all this has been begun by the other side, yet I 
 trust they will also see that it may in some degree 
 depend upon their own moderation and quietness, 
 whether the evil shall continue or subside. It will of 
 course be natural for them to take strong measures 
 when provoked to do so by the example of the other 
 party ; and therefore one can hardly expect them to 
 
 
MR. GRANT AND THE PRESS 121 
 
 abstain from any other public efforts if the friends of 
 the Catholics continue to resort to such efforts. It is, 
 however, a very distressing event.' 
 
 Mr. Grant, on his side, was aggrieved by the tone 
 of the Protestant newspapers, and writes to Mr. 
 Gregory in March 1819 : — 
 
 1 1 have been for some days wishing to say a few 
 words on the manner in which the Government papers 
 have spoken of the Catholic question and its suppor- 
 ters. The Hibernian Journal, for example, which 
 arrived yesterday or the day before, has some expres- 
 sions like this : — " On such a day the Catholic Ques- 
 tion will be decided in the negative, and we firmly 
 believe there is not a man in the Empire who is not 
 stupefied and blinded by bigotry who will not rejoice 
 at the event." Opinions like these occur frequently 
 in that paper and in the Correspondent. I need not 
 multiply them. " We do not think the Church is in 
 danger, because we are aware of the strength opposed 
 to its enemies, &c." I do not of course mind such 
 expressions as relating personally to myself ; but I 
 really think such words coming from a Paper notori- 
 ously paid by Government when one of the members 
 of that Government is known to be of the opinions 
 thus attacked, are likely, if allowed to continue, to 
 lower in the public view, not only the Eespectability 
 of that individual, but also the character of the 
 Government itself. Here are the words in which the 
 Hibernian Journal speaks of the Irish supporters of 
 
122 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Grattan's motion. " The Irish members who are 
 chained down to a promise by the ill-advised measure 
 of enfranchising 40-shilling freeholders, the rotten 
 fragments of mistaken policy and the deadly foes of 
 British Liberty, chiefly engendered under the banners 
 of Eoman Catholic Influence." I think with submis- 
 sion, that this is a sentence which no Government, 
 even if it was completely and in the strongest sense 
 anti-Catholic, should permit to appear in a Paper 
 which goes to the public sanctioned by their support.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory answers : — 
 
 March 25, 1819. 
 
 ' I have spoken to the Editor of the Hibernian 
 Journal to avoid Personalities, which he has promised 
 to do. I really am not aware of any of the gross 
 terms used by the Correspondent as applied to Mem- 
 bers who support the Catholic Claims, except to the 
 opposition Party, who take it up as a political matter, 
 to embarrass a Government so divided on such a vital 
 Question. The Catholic Papers are certainly no 
 models to imitate, but they call those who support 
 the Protestant cause by no other name than Incen- 
 diaries.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory had used stronger language in writing 
 to Mr. Peel in 1813 :— 
 
 ' The Hibernian Journal has made another attack 
 upon the Correspondent, for which he shall get con- 
 
MR. GRANT AND COERCION 123 
 
 dign to-morrow. He is the most impudent and most 
 useless tributary scribbler that was ever employed.' 
 
 Mr. Grant, however, carried his point, for Torrens 
 says : — * The Hibernian had no circulation worth 
 mentioning, and no contributions worth reading. The 
 patronage of the Castle was withdrawn from it by 
 Mr. C. Grant, and the following week it had ceased to 
 appear.' 
 
 A little storm in a teacup arose in 1821. The 
 Viceroy and Chief Secretary both being in London, 
 the executive power was as usual put in the hands of 
 the Lords Justices. One of the first demands made by 
 them to the Home Secretary seems to have been an 
 extension or renewal of ' Coercion ' in some parts of 
 the country. Mr. Grant was obliged to forward this 
 letter, but accompanied it with one of his own, 
 intended to neutralise it. 
 
 Great was the indignation of Lord Talbot and Mr. 
 Gregory, and very great that of the Lords Justices. 
 Mr. Grant had mentioned as his reason for demurring 
 to the demand of the Lords Justices that ' W. Pole 
 expressed his astonishment at the proclaiming of the 
 barony of Upper Ossory, as his account represented 
 that part of the country as perfectly quiet,' and Mr. 
 Gregory writes to Lord Talbot, ' You will be surprised 
 to hear from whom Pole received his information ; I 
 had it yesterday from the Author himself, General 
 Cockburn, who lives near Bray, but who added, " You 
 were quite right in proclaiming Upper Ossory, as it 
 
124 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 was not possible for a peaceable inhabitant to reside 
 in it." Mr. Grant says neither Colonel Trench nor 
 Sir W. Parnell had heard of any disturbances. Very 
 extraordinary ; Pole has not been in Ireland since his 
 election, Trench is a decided absentee, and Parnell 
 has been attending Parliament for several months. . . 
 Mr. Grant wrote to me on the 29th of May, expressing 
 how much he was shocked at the number of Baronies 
 recently proclaimed, and desiring that before any 
 more places are proclaimed the documents on which 
 the Proclamation is to be founded should be sent to 
 him. He never could have reflected on the insult 
 such a proposal would be to the Authority and Judg- 
 ment of the Lords Justices, and how evidently they 
 would stultify their understandings and humiliate their 
 power by submitting for his decision matters on which 
 they may be presumed to be capable of forming at 
 least as sound an opinion as himself.' 
 
 Lord Talbot writes at the same time from 
 London: — 
 
 June 4, 1821. 
 
 ' I never was more astonished and confounded than 
 I was on hearing from Grant yesterday that he had 
 regularly protested against the Letter of the Lords 
 Justices to Lord Sidmouth. On cross-questioning 
 him, he had no ground, or at least gave me no reason 
 for this extraordinary opinion, beyond " its being 
 very odd that they should make such a representation 
 the moment they began to act." When he takes a 
 
 
MR. GRANT AND THE JUSTICES 125 
 
 dislike to any person or suspects their motives, he 
 has not mind enough to give them credit for 
 correctness of judgment in anything. As soon as 
 he sends me a Copy of this document, unless I have 
 it " confidentially " I will send it. 
 
 ' Half past six o'clock p.m. — Since writing the 
 above I have seen Grant and Lord Sidmouth ; the 
 former told me he had had a conference with Lord S. 
 and read to him the letters he wrote to you, which 
 communications Lord S. reprobated nearly in the 
 same terms that I did, for I told him most cordially 
 how injudicious and insulting to the Lords Justices I 
 thought his letter was.' 
 
 But Mr. Grant, who had been ready to flout the 
 Viceroy and snub all Protestant Ireland, had mean- 
 while climbed down, though in his usual vacillating 
 manner, before the rumoured resentment of the Lords 
 Justices. Such divinity in Scottish eyes doth hedge 
 the law. He writes to Mr. Gregory on June 6 : — 
 
 ' On the whole what I wish to suggest to you is, 
 that if you have not already made the proposal to the 
 Lords Justices the best way perhaps would be not to 
 make it formally as from me, but while discussing the 
 subject with the Lords Justices you may perhaps be 
 able to throw out that you have heard from me about 
 the Proclamations, and that considering how likely 
 I am to be attacked in the House, it might perhaps be 
 as well to send the papers to me. But I feel this may 
 be more unpleasant to you than a direct proposal 
 
12G MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 from me, and therefore let me beg you to do as you 
 think best. Favor me as much as you can, and as 
 your kindness would lead you to do, in the way of 
 making the Communication ; but above all do not 
 put yourself to any inconvenience or awkwardness in 
 order to break the blow on me. If the thinsf can be 
 done in any way without exciting much irritation, 
 choose that way. 
 
 ' Should you have already stated my proposal 
 to the Lords Justices you will be so kind as to 
 say that I do not wish to press the thing at all 
 pertinaciously. I am sensible there may be exi- 
 gencies which will not brook delay. All 1 wished to 
 say was that where no inconvenience would be 
 incurred by a reference here, it would certainly be 
 more agreeable to me to be a party to proceedings 
 which I am the person that must defend. 
 
 ' In case you have not yet made the Communica- 
 tion to the Lords Justices and had rather not make 
 it from yourself, will you present to the Lords Justices 
 from me the expression of my utmost respect, and of 
 my earnest request that if any more requisitions be 
 made and it be found necessary to comply with them, 
 (which I ardently hope will not be the case) I may 
 as speedily as possible be put in possession of the 
 grounds of such opinion, and the facts or documents 
 on which it rests, or should the public service admit 
 of the delay of a few days, I should esteem it a great 
 mark of confidence to be allowed a sight of the 
 papers even before the measure is determined upon. 
 
ME. GRANT'S INDECISION 127 
 
 ' Let me add that if you have not said anything 
 from me to the Lords Justices, and can substantially 
 without saying anything procure that which I wish, 
 that is to check their rage for proclaiming, and to 
 give me in fact a veto on the proceedings before they 
 are actually in progress, I had much rather not have 
 my name mentioned to their Excellencies, nor appear 
 in any position of personal altercation with them.' 
 
 The same indecision is seen in more serious 
 cases. On hearing of an increase of disturbance he 
 writes a letter full of flustered suggestions. ' That 
 system of Eibbandmen must be checked. Could any- 
 thing be done in Mayo to meet them ? Do you think 
 Sir S. O'Malley is quite to be credited ? Would it not 
 be right to recommend all our correspondents to 
 administer the oath of allegiance as Strickland has 
 done ? Could not some communication be made to 
 the Catholic Bishops, urging them to swear their people 
 to keep peace ? ' There is a striking contrast between 
 the above note, and the firm handling by Peel of any 
 matter that came before him. 
 
 Lord Talbot's dissatisfaction with his Chief 
 Secretary travels with him across the Channel. He 
 writes from Ingestre, ' I will consult with Grant 
 about the police magistrates. Is it not strange that 
 although he must know I am here, as my papers 
 from the Irish Office come here daily, that he has 
 not written me one line ? ' And from London he 
 writes : — 
 
128 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Lord L. and I had no conversation respecting G., 
 but with Lord S. I had some confidential discourse. 
 I was on my guard, and said no more than I would 
 say to Grant himself. We both concurred in 
 bearing the amplest testimony to his amiability, 
 talents and honourable policy. But we agreed that 
 the C. Question was a stumbling Block.' 
 
 And again, ' I yesterday saw Lord Sidmouth, to 
 whom I spoke without reserve on the subject of our 
 Chief S. I told him that we felt he had no confi- 
 dence in us, and that however well disposed we were 
 to him for his many amiable private qualities, we 
 could not but sensibly feel, that there was no point 
 of union as to the conduct of Public affairs between 
 him and the rest of the Government. But I find 
 that as Lord S. is about to do what I mentioned to 
 you was the case, we have no further hope of redress 
 than that he, Lord S. will mention my complaint of G.'s 
 want of cordiality towards us. I am to see Lord Sid. 
 upon the army reduction to-morrow. He is decidedly 
 averse to the measure, but Lord L. is desirous of 
 pursuing reductions wherever practicable — here as 
 well as with you. This may be right and even 
 necessary, but I should be more uncompromising ! 
 However, I will protest as strongly as I can against 
 the too rapid and extensive withdrawing of troops 
 from Ireland.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory, though he sadly writes, ' Grant, 
 though tired to death of his unsuccessful work, has 
 
 
CHURCH PATRONAGE 129 
 
 not the least notion of resigning,' welcomes signs of 
 conversion, and hopes he may yet return to the fold 
 — ' I trust he is sensible of the fatal error with which 
 he undertook the government of this Country, and 
 no longer believes that Protestant Tyranny and 
 Catholic slavery are the causes of Disturbance in 
 this Country. Should he be so convinced and that 
 he returns again to Ireland, I hope the Tide of 
 Popularity may be turned in his favour and that he 
 may receive that Public esteem to which his many 
 excellent qualities entitle him in Private.' 
 
 But the sandwich experiment does not seem to 
 have been a happy one for any of the parties 
 concerned. 
 
 Lord Talbot, continued. 
 
 Church patronage was in Lord Talbot's eyes one 
 of the most troublesome duties connected with 
 the \'iceroyalty, and 1819 was a busy year in that 
 respect. 
 
 In August the Bishopric of Clogher fell vacant, 
 and Mr. Peel writes to Mr. Gregory from Pitmain : — 
 
 'Pray let me know what is done or what is 
 intended to be done with respect to Clogher. 
 
 ' I have a letter from the Bishop of Cork, who 
 wants a translation, and from Magee, who is as 
 anxious for a Bishoprick, and wishing to avoid the 
 possibility of creating any embarrassment by my 
 
 K 
 
130 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 answer, will postpone a reply to their letters until I 
 hear from you. Pray address to me, Post Office 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 ' Apsley Yates and I are here shooting by 
 Huntley's permission. The weather is so hot that 
 it is almost impossible to do anything till the 
 evening. 
 
 ' We have been out seven days, and killed about 
 720 Grouse. 
 
 ' Lord Bury killed the other day at Kinrara for a 
 wager of ten guineas 07 brace with one gun and two 
 dogs. Prince Leopold shot at Dalwhinne yesterday, 
 and goes on to Kinrara to-morrow. 
 
 1 P.S. — The weather is so hot that our birds 
 scarcely reach Edinbro', so I am afraid of inflicting a 
 box full of maggots on you.' 
 
 (Note by Lord Talbot.' — ' I wish this had come 
 sooner or that the good Bishop had not applied 
 distinctly for Clogher .') 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 September 10, 1819. 
 
 ' I regret to say that the melancholy news of the 
 good Archbishop of Tuam's death came to Town this 
 morning. . . . 
 
 ' I really most unfeignedly lament the loss of this 
 excellent man, in which feeling I am well aware you 
 participate. We must, however, in public Situations 
 
ARCHBISHOP TRENCH 131 
 
 check the Tear of Sympathy, and proceed to the 
 filling up of Situations which become vacant by the 
 Death of those whose characters we esteem, and 
 whose loss we regret. 
 
 ' I shall by this day's post advert to my former 
 letter to Lord Sidmouth, and beg for the opinion of 
 the British Government upon my suggestion as to 
 His Grace's successor. 
 
 ' The Provost should, I conclude, be named as a 
 candidate for the Bench. Should the Dean of 
 Achonry be named — and Guinness ? 
 
 ' They have the merit of thinking their own 
 pretensions valid. 
 
 1 1, 1 am sure I do not know why, have a sort 
 of feeling that none of these three are very desir- 
 able.' 
 
 The Archbishopric of Tuam was very well filled 
 after all by the appointment of Dr. Trench, Bishop 
 of Elphin, brother of Lady Anne Gregory. He had 
 known some ups and downs in life, for his education 
 had been begun at Harrow, and was finished at a 
 school at Castlebar, and having begun life as a land 
 agent, he finished as an Archbishop. 
 
 He won the affection of the people in both 
 capacities. As agent it was said of him : ' He never 
 driv any of the tenants, nor sent a poor man's cow in 
 pound during them three years, nor offended a poor 
 man during that time, but would take him as grand 
 as the best, and any man who paid his rent regular, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 lie would not let him a;o without a shilling or 
 eighteenpence to refresh himself on the way.' 
 
 He belonged to the Church militant, and soon 
 after his appointment, hearing that a house some 
 miles from Tuam was to be attacked by Eibbonmen, 
 he put himself at the head of a detachment of the 
 3rd Light Dragoons, there being no Magistrate at 
 hand, and rode off to the rescue. Nevertheless, 
 when some Eibbonmen he had helped to capture 
 were publicly flogged at Tuam, he would not attend 
 the flogging, but the moment it was over he appeared, 
 gave wine and food to the sufferers, and fed and com- 
 forted their wives and children. 
 
 His whole heart was in his diocese, and once 
 when on a health trip to Cheltenham he writes : ' I 
 pant to be at Tuam.' 
 
 The Archbishopric of Tuam had hardly been 
 filled when that of Dublin became vacant, and Lord 
 Talbot writes from Marble Hill, Co. Galway, where 
 he was shooting woodcocks : — 
 
 December 13, 1819. 
 
 ' I really fear as much from the having another 
 Bishop to make, as I should do at the intelligence of 
 a row. 
 
 ' Kenny will stand high, and Bagwell will be 
 pressed. Both of them are equally indifferent to 
 me. Pray pursue your enquiries as to Bagwell. 
 Who the Devil is to be raised to the Archiepiscopal 
 Crozier I own I am at a loss to divine. 
 
 
LORD TALBOT IN THE NORTH 133 
 
 1 Can Fowler be conscientiously recommended ? 
 Jocelyn and Warburton are the only two besides 
 that have activity, the first of whom I take to be 
 too soft, the latter too unfit. 
 
 ' Would it be expedient to ask for an A.B. from 
 England ? ' 
 
 But an English Archbishop could not be found, 
 and after some delay Lord John Beresford received 
 the appointment. Two years later he became Primat e 
 of Ireland. He only died in 1862. It is estimated 
 that the amount of Church revenue which he received 
 during his lifetime was not less than 700,000/. But 
 he used it generously, and for the good of his various 
 dioceses. He was much looked up to until 18C0, 
 when, having recognised the fact that the Church 
 schools in his diocese could not, through want of 
 funds, compete in efficiency with the secular ones 
 established by Government, he advised their being 
 placed under the National Board. He was for this 
 denounced by his clergy as Judas Iscariot. 
 
 Lord Talbot had many connections and friends 
 in Ireland, and visited many of their houses. But 
 the following letter shows that in spite of his good 
 Protestant principles the North did not smile upon 
 him : — 
 
 Hillsborough : July 22, 1819. 
 
 ' When a man is made a d d fool of, the 
 
 sooner he unfools himself the better. My friend and 
 relation magnified amazingly, may I not add very 
 
134 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 unfairly, the expectations that existed in this part of 
 the Country for my presence. In good truth there is 
 no person of consequence beyond the Dufferins and 
 the Dean of Downshire. I was dragged to an 
 ordinary Dinner and Ball, without a single soul 
 there beyond a Dam Corporation member, so when 
 I found that the same pleasure awaited me for to-day 
 and to-morrow, Friday and I believe Saturday, I 
 ventured to put in my protest, and said that as Lord 
 Lieutenant I could not think of again attending these 
 seats of Northern festivity. 
 
 ' The sovereign of Belfast waited upon me yester- 
 day to apologize for not giving me the dinner to 
 which He and the neighbouring gentlemen had 
 invited me. The reason, the melancholy Event that 
 lias occurred in the Donegal family. 
 
 ' I am delighted at the excuse, tho' I am not 
 quite sure it is a valid one for a public body who 
 had invited a public man to an entertainment at 
 which he had notified his intention to assist. 
 
 ' I am wavering between Dublin and the Giant's 
 Causeway, but I think Dublin will possess. 
 
 ' Talbot. 
 
 ' P.S. Dublin has it — to-morrow.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Grant. 
 
 July 24, 1819. 
 
 ' The Lord Lieutenant returned last Night, he had 
 been invited by the Sovereign to dine at Belfast, but 
 
LORD TALBOT LN GALAVAY 135 
 
 the unfortunate Discovery of the Invalidity of Lord 
 Donegal's Marriage has thrown that Town into the 
 greatest Dismay. 
 
 'I understand large sums of Money have been 
 paid for Eenewals of Lease in consequence of Lord 
 Belfast having levied lines with his Father.' 
 
 In Lady Morgan's Autobiography the following- 
 passage occurs in a letter from Lady Charleville, 
 dated July 13, 1819:— 
 
 'Lord and Lady Westmeath's separation for 
 temper, and the overthrow of Lord Belfast's marriage 
 and fortunes by Lord Shaftesbury having discovered 
 that the Marquis and Marchioness of Donegal were 
 married under age by licence and not by banns, 
 which renders it illegal, and bastardizes their children 
 irreparably, is the greatest news of the upper circles 
 at present. The young lady had said she married 
 only for money, therefore, for her no pity is 
 shown ; but poor Lord Belfast, to lose rank, fortune 
 and wife at once at twenty years of age, is a strong 
 and painful catastrophe to bear properly. I hear 
 Mr. Chichester (rightful heir) behaves well, but he 
 cannot prevent the entail affecting his heirs, nor the 
 title descending to him from his cousin.' 
 
 The west, with its woodcocks, proved kinder to 
 the Viceroy later in the year, and he writes from 
 Clonbrock, Co. Galway, on December 7 : — 
 
 ' The Country, Clonbrock says, will not do with- 
 
136 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 out a police, and as oppositionists are ever stronger 
 in their memories than ministerialists, He laments 
 that the insurrection Bill was suffered to expire, 
 partially at least. 
 
 ' He says imprisonment and whipping are not 
 sufficient correctives to the spreading Sedition, and 
 that transportation should be in some Cases the 
 punishment. To this, I believe, little objection would 
 really be made, and I like to hear such sentiments in 
 the Opposition Mouths. 
 
 ' 1 have desired him to write to me his opinion, 
 which I would lay before Grant ; perhaps this may 
 induce our Secretary to look upon the Peelers as a 
 milder species of force than he seems to do now. 
 
 'Lord C. touched upon the expence of the 
 Peelers, and wished to know what Govt, might be 
 inclined to do. I told him Govt, was in all cases 
 disposed to attend to any representation which 
 tended to preserve the public tranquillity, and also 
 to relieve as far as was practicable (agoodBakerism) 
 the pressure upon any class of Society, but that he 
 must be sensible that we could make no promise, nor 
 hold out any encouragement to any District to apply 
 for the Police ; this was always left to the unbiassed 
 decision of the Magistracy, but that when the measure 
 was decided upon, and the request was made, that 
 the Govt, would be disposed to examine into the 
 state of the Case, with every wish to be indulgent, 
 etc. etc. He agreed, but I think expected more. 
 
 4 1 congratulate you and the Country on Peel's 
 
DEATH OF LADY TALBOT 137 
 
 brilliant speech. It ranks amongst the best of the 
 day. 
 
 4 Considering the Wood is in my view, and is, I 
 hear, full of Cocks, I have written at length. 
 Whether you will be able to read it is another thing.' 
 
 December 12. 
 
 1 You will not have requisition for the peelers 
 here. 
 
 ' Clonbrock begins to flinch, and the more so as 
 
 Mr. , who was strenuous in his wish to have them, 
 
 has now changed his opinion. Locally speaking he 
 is right, and if all your Galway friends were as stout 
 in heart and body as he seems to be, certainly there 
 would be no necessity for them. He has established 
 a chain of signals by Bonfires, and patroles at the 
 head of forty well-armed followers every other night 
 at least, and on the least symptom of the approach of 
 these rascals a fire is lighted and 300 or 400 fellows 
 are, and have been, in less than an hour, at some 
 specified rendezvous.' 
 
 He had good shooting at Garbally, Marble Hill, 
 and other Galway places, and seems fully to have 
 enjoyed his days there, the last happy ones he was to 
 know for a long time. 
 
 Lady Talbot, whose health had for some time 
 given cause for anxiety, died December 30, 1819. 
 She had given birth to a son in October. There is an 
 entry almost two years later in Mr. Gregory's note- 
 
138 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 book, ' Gerald Talbot christened at the Lodge in the 
 Park. Duke and Duchess of Leinster and the Chan- 
 cellor sponsors.' 
 
 A month after her death Lord Talbot writes from 
 Hatfield :— 
 
 January 23, 1820. 
 
 1 It is now very long since I either wrote to or 
 heard from you. I am much as usual, calm at times, 
 wretched at others — such must be my Lot for a long 
 long time. But a truce to my misfortunes, for which 
 no one more sincerely feels than you do. I will pro- 
 ceed to tell you that I went to Town yesterday, where 
 I saw Lords Liverpool and Sidmouth, from both of 
 whom I experienced the kindest reception, and heard 
 that I had had the good fortune to give satisfaction 
 during my stay in Ireland, and I ascertained what 
 you will not dislike to hear, that as far as our friends 
 are concerned, no change of opinion has taken place 
 respecting the Catholic Question. Indeed, Lord Sid- 
 mouth distinctly said, " He would not stay in any 
 administration that would concede that vital point." 
 
 ' So much for that. This was obtained by my 
 asking distinctly if we were to apprehend a change of 
 opinion on it, as from Grant's speech we really were 
 a good deal alarmed.' 
 
 And from Ingestre on February 1 : — 
 
 ' So our poor dear old King is gone. If this event 
 should make any difference as to my return, i.e., if I 
 
 
 
THE NEW KING 139 
 
 ought on account of it to come back directly, pray 
 say so. 
 
 ' I write by this post to Lord Sidmouth, to say I 
 am ready to go if Government wish me to do so.' 
 
 Ingestre : February 4. 
 
 ' Well, my dear Gregory, here we are living under 
 the auspices of a new King, who I am sorry to say 
 has been (I believe very) ill at the commencement of 
 His reign. 
 
 ' By a letter from Bloomfield yesterday, I learn 
 that H. M. is better than even the bulletins report 
 him to be. I called twice at Carlton House, but 
 owing to the Duke of Kent's death I did not ask to 
 see the then Eegent. 
 
 ' I trust our good King will emulate the virtues of 
 his good and moral Father. I hear that he was very 
 much affected on reading His address to the Privy 
 Council. 
 
 '. . . Pray also be active about Dr. Lloyd. He, 
 I imagine, would expect to be the provost in the event 
 of Ebrington's moving to the Bench, to which I see less 
 objection than to anybody on our list, and to which 
 our Masters here are inclined. Be careful in ascer- 
 taining Lloyd's tenets as to Catholic matters, for 
 Plunkett will be zealous, you know, on that point, and 
 he is in high favor with Government. But I do not 
 think anything is in immediate contemplation for him 
 here. Lord Sidmouth distinctly told me He would not, 
 were he in my situation, consent to any person being 
 
140 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 made Provost who was not a staunch protestant. 
 Depend upon it we are well backed in that Quarter, 
 
 as also at Carlton House — at least so said Lord S . 
 
 * I am so much out of the way of hearing news, I 
 can find you none, but from what Lord Harrowby 
 said before the late King's death had occurred I 
 should not wonder if parliament were to be dissolved 
 very soon. It will turn upon what is to be done with 
 the Queen ; I believe the people of England are very 
 indifferent upon this question. 
 
 ' God bless you.' 
 
 The King's Visit. 
 
 Lord Talbot, after a short visit to Ireland, writes 
 again from Ingestre, March 15, 1821 : — 
 
 1 We had a most delightful passage of fourteen 
 hours and a quarter, and had I been told that I was 
 to be at Dunleary at 7 o'clock one evening, and find 
 myself at home at 11 o'clock on the next, I should 
 not have believed the possibility of such an event. 
 
 ' Yet such was the fact — under the space of 30 
 hours I crossed the Channel and travelled 72 miles in 
 England, and 7 in Ireland.' 
 
 ' Pray order me half a pound of Irish Snuff to be 
 sent.' 
 
 On March 19, Lord Whit worth writes to Mr. 
 Gregory from Grosvenor Square : — 
 
LORD LIVERPOOL 141 
 
 ' At present it seems decided that you are to 
 have a visit from Eoyalty towards the end of May. 
 It will be a Troublesome one for Lord Talbot and 
 for all concerned, but I think it is a good thing, tho' 
 he may not bring the boon of emancipation with 
 him. 
 
 ' He will not have a Table of his own, altho' he 
 will send his Cooks, &c, &c, but it is to pass for the 
 Lord Lieutenant's table, in order that H. M. may be 
 supposed to be himself a guest, and so not give offence 
 to many who might expect to be invited. Several 
 coach and saddle horses are also to be sent, although 
 his stay in Dublin would not exceed two or three 
 days. 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 London : June, 1821. 
 
 'I only came back last night from Hatfield. 
 Hitherto I have not bothered you with the reports of 
 the day, which succeed each other with unabated 
 celerity. One thing I believe is certain, that the 
 Ministers are completely out of favour, and that the 
 favourite's influence, unbounded as it is, is thrown 
 into the scale against them. 
 
 ' Lady Liverpool's death causes much speculation, 
 but I (from pretty good authority) have been told 
 
 that Lord L , much as he loved his wife, he loves 
 
 place better. I will permit myself no observation on 
 this. I hope it is so for the Country's sake. Sid- 
 
142 ME. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 mouth wishes to go, and if the King would let Can- 
 ning into the Admiralty, Lord Melville would succeed 
 to the Home Department. 
 
 ' Last night the King gave a ball to the young Chips 
 of the old Stools of Nobility, to which many of the 
 Whig Lords and Ladies went. To-day H. M. dines 
 with the Duke of Devonshire, no Ministers asked but 
 Lord Melville. What all this forebodes I know not, 
 but I am enjoying my Visit without any observation, 
 which I might not do in quieter moments.' 
 
 'June 4, 1821. ... I saw Lord Londonderry 
 yesterday. He has expressed a wish that Downshire 
 should be Governor of the County Down. He is a 
 deep Politician. I told him I had rather speak to D. 
 than write upon the subject. I recommended to him 
 the curtailing of the royal visit to 10 days or 14 at 
 most. On this subject I am persuaded the K. is his 
 sole adviser. The different great Men vary so much 
 in their statements that it is evident he does not speak 
 equally openly to all. Yet what is more probable, 
 he changes his mind every day. 
 
 Bloomfield told me yesterday the preparations for 
 the Coronation would be completed by the 3 0th inst., 
 that the Ceremony would take place the first week in 
 July, and that the King having held a Levee and 
 Drawing-room naturally consequent on it, would lose 
 no time in setting out. That H. M. was bent upon 
 going by sea, but hoped that if I concurred in the 
 opinion that a Land journey would be better, H. M. 
 
 
THE KING'S VISIT 143 
 
 would consent to go by Land. I had no difficulty in 
 saying, I thought anything that tended to ensure 
 punctuality would be beneficial, and that if the 
 Westerly Winds we had a right to expect were to set 
 in, that H. M. might be a week at sea. 
 
 The prevailing public opinion is, we shall have no 
 Coronation. And again, the Abp. has been told to 
 have his sermon ready by the 16 th of July. From these 
 conflicting reports 'tis hard to draw any certain 
 conclusion. But I think the great Man will be 
 with us currente July. 
 
 There is to be an installation. The Dress of the 
 Knights is to be altered, from silk to Poplin — at least 
 so said Bloomfield. He brings about 17 Officers of 
 State and 4 or 5 private friends in his suite. He 
 will be at the Park, and means to make his Entree 
 into Dublin by the Circular road (as I recommended) 
 by Sackville Street, as Grand as possible. He has 
 determined not to sleep out of Dublin. He is to go 
 to the Curragh, and will I believe look at the Boyne ! 
 Proh pudor ! and the Wicklow mountains. I think 
 I have tried you long enough at this moment, so adieu. 
 The person you and I should wish to see in office 
 does not come in, when the Event I named takes 
 place. This is all I have to say at present. 
 
 ' Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 1 Talbot. 
 
 ' I shall be badgered again about the Attorney, 
 Plunkett, Bushe, Norbury, and Downes, but I shall 
 be stiff and true to my friends. 
 
144 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' 5 o'c. — I have seen Lord Liverpool. He has 
 authorised me to give orders for the brushing up the 
 Castle — painting is out of the question ; but the walls 
 may be distempered afresh and the hangings in the 
 public apartments replaced by new ones. I told Lord 
 Liverpool that this would cost 600/. or 700/., but that 
 I thought it would not be right that old things should 
 appear. You must give general order to every 
 inhabitant of the Castle to provide themselves with 
 Lodgings, as the Officers of State are to be lodged in 
 the places they now occupy. A new Bed, &c, should 
 be provided for the Lodge in the park, where the King 
 will probably be. The Lady Lieutenant's sitting-room 
 had better be appropriated for his Majesty when at 
 the Castle, and fitted up accordingly. I have written 
 an official Letter to you, thinking you would like to 
 have it to show. 
 
 ' Lord Castlemaine, Monck, O'Neill, Westmeath, 
 Ennismore, Kilmorey, Mount Earl, are to have steps 
 in the peerage. If any other applications have been 
 made, write to me. Young, Shand to be Baronets. 
 
 ' With regard to Plunkett, that you may be satisfied 
 is settled. He is to be Attorney General. Say 
 nothing till you hear further from me. They are 
 ready to give Saurin an assurance that Plunkett shall 
 not be put over him as Chancellor. This may soften. 
 Lord L. told me there were two ways of meeting this 
 point, one to have a confidential communication made 
 to him, Saurin, thro' me, the other to write me an 
 official letter stating H. M's positive intentions. I 
 
 
THE KING'S VISIT 145 
 
 made no answer, although I stated what it is obvious 
 I should do, about Norbury, Downes, &c. The fact 
 is, P tt is necessary here.' 
 
 June 6. 
 
 ' I had a most satisfactory conversation with 
 Lord Sidmouth yesterday, who has been commanded 
 by the K. to remain one of his Government. This 
 will enable him to come over with the great Man to 
 us. A point of no small interest and comfort. 
 
 ' I have not time to tell you all I hear, but I am 
 sure great ivant of concord exists — and some changes 
 would take place if the Successors could be agreed 
 upon. I hope P — 1 is not so far from office as I thought 
 when I last wrote. Lord S.'s successor was named 
 to me — but by the information I now send, it should 
 seem he was not approved of. More when we 
 meet. . . . 
 
 ' The reductions in the army will take place ; I had 
 a long discussion thereupon with Lord Londonderry, 
 who laments the necessity of diminishing the troops, 
 but says, it is imperative. He will come to Dublin. 
 
 ' Lord S. will be in Grant's apartments, this I am 
 to manage, to be near you and John, by both of 
 whom he means to be assisted in his Addresses. 
 
 ' I can not see the King. He is in bed with the 
 Gout. The regnante is in high favour. 
 
 ' Whatever I must do with The Marquess in 
 Ireland — here I do not know him. D — n his 
 import inence. 
 
 L 
 

 146 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' Should there not be a new Throne and new 
 Hangings in the presence Chamber ? Things should 
 be handsome and put in execution even for the 
 name of the thing. 
 
 1 G.30 p.m. — Nothing more was said by Lord S. I 
 am, however, sure much negotiation is going on. I 
 think the Lady thwarts Ministers, and they her. The 
 K — g has not seen me yet, surely there must be minis- 
 terial trouble or illness at the bottom of seclusion. He 
 has some Gout, I believe. To-day I dine with the 
 Spanish Minister in this House, to-morrow I go to 
 Epsom, for which the weather is not favourable, it 
 having rained very hard most of the day.' 
 
 Boodles', Thursday. 
 
 ' The list of the King's attendants appearing so 
 extravagant I deemed it my duty to submit it to 
 Lord S., who will converse with Lord Liverpool (who 
 resumes his official duties on Tuesday next) on the 
 subject. I hope next week the Ministerial arrange- 
 ments will be completed by Wednesday, as on 
 Thursday or Friday I shall bid adieu to London, on 
 my way to Ireland, where I shall arrive in nine or 
 ten days after. 
 
 ' I have just left our friend Lord Whitworth and 
 the Duchess of Dorset. Of the latter I will only say 
 I never saw her better. Of the former, he is well, 
 but quantum mutatus ab illo. I am happy to think 
 he is perfectly cheerful, with a comfortable flow of 
 spirits, good appetite, and enjoying the comforts of 
 
THE KING'S VISIT 147 
 
 life, the sight of his friends, &c., but he is much 
 reduced, and he seems to want energy, and his usual 
 vigor of body. Yet I do not apprehend any change, 
 and if the summer ever gets like itself, I should hope 
 he will rally sufficiently to make a successful stand 
 against the rude attacks of winter. I thought we 
 did him good — Slade, the Verulams, Drummond and 
 I, the party. Grant looks worn to death.' 
 
 H. Square : 2o'c, June 11. 
 
 ' I am just arrived ; if I collect anything you shall 
 have it. 
 
 ' I understand the Coronation is to precede the 
 Irish Trip, common report says so. 
 
 ' P.S. — I have seen Lord Sidmouth, but in the 
 turmoil of the House of Lords. I gather from him 
 that H.M. certainly comes to us, but not till the end 
 of July or beginning of August, after the Coronation. 
 He said he was in a scrape for having allowed me to 
 come over at this Juncture. I answered that I 
 thought it would prove a great convenience, and save 
 volumes of letters. Lord S., " Yes, on that score alone 
 must I rest my justification, and write you a letter 
 nunc to be dated tunc? 
 
 'Grant has heard the Irish Government is to 
 defray all the expence on the other side of the "Water 
 for the K. 
 
 ' Unde ? . . . ' 
 
 L 2 
 
148 MR GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 H. Square : June 27. 
 
 ' I must write you two lines to say that I think 
 we are all in a very uncertain State. 
 
 ' The Ministers I saw yesterday were terribly out 
 of sorts, Lord Grey and Tierney in apparently 
 high spirits. The K — g has seen and caressed Lord 
 Jersey. Nothing appears of rumoured change in the 
 opposition papers — and I was told yesterday by a 
 friend of Government, but not immediately connected 
 with us, " our friends are all in a great fright." 
 Certain it is the K — g was to have seen Lord S. 
 yesterday, who appointed me to hear the result of the 
 conversation, but He was put off. 
 
 ' The real truth is, the influence of the favourite is 
 unbounded. Ministers set themselves against this 
 (in vain). She rebels and predisposes H.M. against 
 them. Others tell you He is only playing this game 
 to keep the world quiet for the Coronation. 
 
 ' I know he has said — "I will shew Liverpool I have 
 two strings to my Bow." 
 
 ' I am to see Lord S. to-day, who did see Lord 
 Liverpool last night, and is to see the K. to-day. If I 
 learn anything you shall have it. 
 
 ' All this for yourself, as at best it is but surmise.' 
 
 June 27, 1821, 6o'c. 
 
 ' I have seen Lord S., who has seen the K — . In 
 furtherance of a suggestion of mine, I hope we shall 
 be spared some of the Myrmidons I had a list of. In 
 confidence, I am to be one of the Knights of St. 
 
 
THE KING'S VISIT 149 
 
 Patrick. You will readily believe I had no wish for 
 honors, but as H.M. lias been graciously pleased to 
 honor me with an order connecting me for ever with 
 a Country to whom I am for ever attached, I cannot 
 but prize the distinction. 
 
 ' The King's horses will move in detachments, the 
 first I believe move Monday — they will come by 
 Liverpool per steam. 
 
 ' I think Lord L. is in force since H.M. has seen 
 him. All difficulties are not got over, but are, he 
 told me, in a way to be so. I hope they are. 
 
 6 To-morrow I am ordered to Carlton House at 2 o'c. 
 Much will then be settled, I hope.' 
 
 Ingestre : July 5, 1821. 
 
 . . . . ' The King said nothing to me at all. He 
 kept me two hours before he saw me, and then only 
 expressed his satisfaction at the thought (as he was 
 pleased to say) of meeting me so soon again. I tried 
 to bring him to arrange some points, but was as 
 often foiled by "You and Bloomfield or Lord Sidmouth 
 will arrange for me." In fact, things are to fall out 
 as they may. Pray say that the King's horses are at 
 first to occupy the Castle stables. When I leave the 
 Lodge they may occupy those. 
 
 ' I have returned to all my lone and bitter recol- 
 lections, which the very perfections of this old place 
 powerfully call into action. Oh, how happy, 
 supremely happy, could I have been ! But I will not, 
 dare not murmur. God's will be done.' 
 
150 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Haw Lea (?)July 12, 1821. 
 ' I have little to add to what I wrote yesterday. 
 It appears to me, the political horizon is much 
 clouded ; how the storms will be dispelled I know 
 not. It appears to me there is a decided disincli- 
 nation to almost the whole of the Cabinet on the part 
 of a certain great personage, excepting to Lord S. 
 whose retirement annoys all parties, not so much on 
 account of any strong personal attachment towards 
 himself as on account of his being less exceptionable 
 to the different interests than they are to each other. 
 
 'I shall not see Lord Sidmouth again till Thursday. 
 I heard that the K — intended to confer honours, 
 either of supernumerary Eibbons, Butlerships or 
 something of this class, on peers. I have therefore 
 submitted to Lord Sidmouth the names of Lord 
 Courtown, Lord Wicklow, Lord Clare, Lord Glengall, 
 Lord Downshire, Lord Meath, Duke of Leinster, 
 Clonbrock — these with a query if H.M. means to 
 conciliate everybody — and two or three more whom I 
 do not immediately recollect. If you will tell me of 
 any persons more I will thank you. I have omitted 
 all those who gain promotions in the peerage. Did 
 I name them to you ? 
 
 ' If there is any other person whose services, 
 Character, conduct, or merit, entitle him to Considera- 
 tion, pray mention him, that I may communicate 
 his name. I think I can obtain almost anything in 
 the way of dignity now, for a man of character. . . . 
 I heard from the K. himself there will be an installa- 
 
 
THE KING'S VISIT 151 
 
 tion, but I dare not consider this authority sufficient 
 to act upon. 
 
 'I go to-day to Hatfield to witness the ceremony of 
 Lord Salisbury's receiving a piece of plate from Hert- 
 fordshire, over which he has presided 50 years as 
 Lord Lieutenant. Honorable to both parties ! On 
 Tuesday the 19th I go to Knole, and that day week 
 put my horses' heads towards you, whom I shall be 
 very glad to see.' 
 
 The hopes of the Catholics were raised to their 
 climax in 1821, when George the Fourth came over, 
 it was supposed with the desired gift of Emancipation 
 in his hand. 
 
 What hopes were raised by his Majesty's visit ! 
 The Catholic Bishops, the Catholic nobility and 
 gentry came from the provinces to hear the message of 
 peace and goodwill. The peasants of Galway and Mayo 
 laid by their pikes and blunderbusses and listened 
 for it. Good Dr. Doyle, called by Sydney Smith ' the 
 Tope of Ireland,' came to Court in gleeful spirits, 
 chaffing a foolish young sprig of nobility till the 
 company choked with suppressed laughter. He 
 might better have kept in mind the words, ' Put not 
 your trust in princes,' he had so often heard chanted 
 in his poor cathedral. I see no sign in the glimpse 
 we get of the King's counsels in these letters that 
 such a point was even considered amongst his 
 arrangements. His cooks were to be sent, and his 
 horses ' from Liverpool by steam * (more fortunate 
 
152 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 than their Eoyal Master when the westerly gales 
 came on). A clerk from the Chamberlain's office, 
 'a vulgarish fellow but accustomed to hunt up 
 upholsterers etc.,' is to be attended to and ' given 
 every facility,' and the inevitable Irish ' lick of paint ' 
 is to be applied wholesale. Stars and ribbons were 
 to fall and nutter on to the breasts of titled expectancy. 
 But the great question as to whether the promise 
 given by England twenty-one years before was now 
 to be considered as come of age, and kept no longer 
 in abeyance, was, so far as we can see, not even 
 seriously considered. 
 
 The incidents of the King's visit are well known. 
 
 He arrived after a good passage, during which 
 much goose pie and whisky had been consumed. 
 Word had just come of the death of Napoleon at St. 
 Helena. The story goes that ' Sire, your enemy is 
 dead,' were the words he was greeted with. ' When 
 did she die ? ' was his response. But the Queen was 
 indeed also dead, and his Majesty was persuaded to 
 wear a piece of crape round his arm during the 
 festivities, which were in no way curtailed. 
 
 He had a tremendous ovation from the crowds 
 thronging the roads, though Croker tells us they did 
 not know how to cheer, but shouted ; ' they have not 
 had much practice in the expression of public joy.' 
 The streets, as Lord Norbury observed, if ill paved 
 were well nagged, and his Majesty had to undergo 
 some ' oppressive loyalty.' At Slane Castle, the only 
 private house where he stayed, he not only capti- 
 
THE KING'S VISIT 153 
 
 vated Bushe but Saurin, delicately hinting tliat he 
 bore liim no grudge for his resistance to the Union, 
 and ' pleasantly asking his legal opinion as to 
 whether he might not stav where he was and send 
 Lord Talbot as Lord Lieutenant to England.' He 
 complimented Lady Conyngham on the cookery, 
 comparing it favourably with that of ' my cousin, 
 the Duke of Gloucester, who has a talent for giving 
 bad dinners.' At the University dinner he bore 
 without flinching an ode composed for the occasion 
 (presumably by Dr. Parkinson), which, though we see 
 Bushe was pleased with it, made some less kindly 
 critic remark that when the Silent Sister opened her 
 mouth, the voice was that of Balaam's ass. With 
 his own royal hand he helped up Lord Norbury, who 
 slipped and fell at the levee, giving occasion to that 
 inveterate punster to say ' This is not the first lift 
 your Majesty has given me ! ' He graciously accepted 
 offerings, the marble chimney-piece hewn from the 
 quarries of Connemara, which still adorns the Carlton 
 Club, the laurel crown presented by O'Connell upon 
 his knees, and still kept up hope as he left by 
 whispering aside to Lord Cloncurry, ' I am sure you 
 will be pleased with my letter to-morrow.' 
 
 When to-morrow came he had faded from the 
 view of the Irish people. ' He embarked at Dunleary 
 at seven in the evening,' writes Mr. Gregory. ' An 
 immense concourse of persons, and it was the most 
 grand and affecting spectacle I ever witnessed.' 
 
 The Lord Lieutenant and the Chief and Under 
 
154 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Secretaries having all been at the Castle during the 
 King's visit, there are naturally no letters from one 
 to the other giving any record of it. But I have 
 been allowed to use the following letter from Chief 
 Justice Bushe to his wife, by the kindness of his 
 granddaughter, Mrs. Martin of Eoss : — 
 
 From Chief Justice Bushe to his wife. 
 
 Dublin : August 28, 1821. 
 
 ' I have staid at home to-day in the hopes of 
 getting through some study business which has 
 accumulated upon me during the Carnival, for it is 
 nothing else. Our College Dinner to the King 
 yesterday was magnificent, and the singing of the 
 Choir excellent, and delighted him much. The Foxes 
 have gone to St. Patrick's Church to see the Installa- 
 tion. ... I fear poor Arthur will be drenched by 
 this dreadful rain at the Curragh. When I proposed 
 it as an amusement to him I speculated upon better 
 Weather. 
 
 ' I wish I had time to gratify the anxiety you will 
 feel about the visit to Slane, but I must postpone 
 particulars till we meet, and only tell you in general 
 terms that there could not have been a pleasanter 
 party. From its nature I feared it would be awful 
 and formal, and it was as much the reverse as if we 
 had been in Kilfane or Kilmany. 
 
 ' In two minutes after the king came into the room, 
 he thawed the ice and put everyone at ease, and 
 
THE KING'S VISIT 155 
 
 before we were well seated at dinner we were not 
 merely cheerful but joyous, a character which was 
 not lost during the Evening. He is a perfect master 
 of Society as far as it can depend upon Art, but it is 
 plain that his success very much is to be attributed 
 to his nature, which leads him to delight in it. The 
 French word enjoue was never so applicable to any 
 man. Upon serious subjects, he is pointed and even 
 eloquent, but it is the eloquence of conversation and 
 not at all declamatory, and the pleasantry with which 
 he intermixes them is snven with all the advantages of 
 great quickness with natural humour, a wonderful 
 memory, the opportunities he has had of hearing, 
 witnessing and collecting all the good anecdotes of 
 every kind, and a talent for mimickry quite surpris- 
 ing. He talks a vast deal, but I think not from 
 natural garrulity, but because his rank makes it 
 necessary for him to originate every subject, and 
 perform a kind of solo to which what others say is 
 little more than an accompaniment. He listens with 
 great good breeding, however, assents in an encourag- 
 ing manner when he agrees with you, and his con- 
 tradictions, tho' politely given, are frank and per- 
 emptory. He is a perfect story-teller, and has the 
 art which nothing but constant living in good com- 
 pany gives, of keeping out of view all the flat parts 
 of a narrative, and only showing you the points of 
 the picture upon which the light falls. His attentions 
 are very seducing and impartial. He contrives to go 
 round the whole table and bring forward everyone 
 
156 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 in turn and with the share of notice due, never miss- 
 ing deal by giving a card too much or too little, and 
 letting no one feel that he is forgotten or held cheap. 
 For instance, I was much struck after he had 
 amused us, his subjects, with English and Irish 
 stories, by his turning to the Foreigners, and for a 
 time giving them French ones, which he does 
 admirably, and with the accent of a Parisian, and 
 perfect power over the language. How he manages 
 to get over in a few minutes the space between intro- 
 duction and familiarity, which it takes some so much 
 more time to leave behind, and which others never 
 can pass, I cannot tell, but I certainly in less 
 than half an hour was as little surprised by his call- 
 ing me Bushe without any other addition than if I 
 had known him twenty years. I must not, however, 
 conceal that part of his captivating Nostrum is the 
 same secret practised by Sterne's Beggarman on the 
 Pont Neuf, and that in the slyest way possible he 
 insinuates very intoxicating, though almost imper- 
 ceptible flattery, and with a Grace that would almost 
 make poison irresistible. Think of my poor hot 
 ears and my fry when he began to talk to me across 
 the dinner table of my speeches on the Union, which 
 I had supposed no one now living remembered. You 
 are not to suppose from all this praise of his Convivial 
 powers that his Dignity is for a moment even 
 adjourned, and I cannot conceive how anyone could 
 venture, as they say some have, to take advantage of 
 his condescension and take liberties, which I think 
 
 
THE KING'S VISIT 157 
 
 of all men I have seen his manners are most calculated 
 to repel. 
 
 ' The Postman's Bell reminds me that I have been 
 running on in unmerciful scribbling ; as to anything 
 he said, either to myself or others, I must reserve 
 them till we meet, when, like the old lady of Tilly- 
 tudlam, you may expect me to talk for ever of my 
 dinner with his great and Eoyal Majesty. The 
 company was sixteen in number, Prince and Princess 
 Esterhasy and the Dutch Ambassador, Baron Fagel 
 were the Foreigners, and the Attorney General and 
 myself the strangers. I sat next, at one side, to Sir 
 Andrew Barnard, John Power's great friend, who is 
 a charming fellow, and we talked much of Kilfane 
 people. Adieu, dearest Nan. I fear I am late for 
 Post. 
 
 ' Ever yours, 
 
 <C. B. 
 
 ' P.S. The Bell man is off, and as I must send this 
 to the office and the Foxes have not come, I shall 
 scribble on. The King thinks Slane the most 
 beautiful place in the world, and from being only 
 used to flat views about London, says the scenery is 
 bold, a name we would not give it. The house he is 
 justly delighted with, especially one round room, and 
 he praised the good taste (mind Mrs. Bushe and 
 Mrs. Power) of a drawingroom in the Country having 
 no window curtains but white muslin, like the white 
 parts of Anna's at BaltydufF. Oh, but you must 
 
158 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 know how the king eats and drinks, I suppose. 
 Well he does both very heartily, but nothing like 
 excess, eating a little bit of almost all the made dishes, 
 hobnobbing with everybody, mostly in Sherry, 
 after dinner beginning with hot Potteen Punch and 
 ending with Claret, and breaking up in about an 
 hour after the ladies, who had sat about an hour with 
 us after dinner. From that the Drawingroom scene 
 continued till half past one in the morning. One 
 tray was brought in for supper, which no one touched. 
 Anna and Mrs. Power would never forgive me if I 
 omitted these details tho' I know they have no 
 curiosity to know how Lady Conyngham and her 
 Daughter and Princess Esterhasy were dressed, and 
 therefore I say nothing about them, which I am sure 
 the}' will thank me for.' 
 
 Lord Talbot's Dismissal. 
 
 The ' Annual Register,' at the end of its account 
 of the King's visit, says : — ' It is melancholy to be 
 obliged to add that the events of October, November, 
 and December destroyed all the splendid anticipa- 
 tions to which His Majesty's visit had given rise in 
 the minds of those who possessed a superficial ac- 
 quaintance with the character of that people. The 
 gaudy and hollow bubble of conciliation soon burst, 
 and a system of outrage, robbery, murder, and 
 
RENEWED DISORDER 159 
 
 assassination commenced, scarcely to be paralleled in 
 the annals of any civilised country. . . . Notwith- 
 standing every precaution and every remedy that 
 could be devised, the country continued to the end 
 of the year in a very unquiet state.' 
 
 A letter from Mr. Gregory to Lord Sidmouth, 
 dated November 9, 1821, confirms this account : — 
 
 ' Mr. Grant having written to you yesterday on 
 the state of the County of Limerick, it is not neces- 
 sary for me to say anything of that part of the 
 Country except to send you a copy of a notice to 
 which he alluded in his letter, in which you will read 
 that in addition to the rewards offered by the Banditti 
 for the assassination of Magistrates and Policemen, 
 they call to their aid the powerful excitements of 
 religious hatred. I send you a copy of a letter 
 received this day from a Magistrate of the County of 
 Cork, enumerating the many houses deprived of arms, 
 and of Acts of outrage committed in the parts of that 
 County bordering on Limerick. These accounts have 
 been confirmed by letters from several other Magis- 
 trates, all stating the rapid progress of the Evil 
 through that County. 
 
 ' . . . I feel no apprehension for the safety of the 
 State, and do not think that the utmost efforts of the 
 present Agitators can shake the Government of the 
 Country. But success creates courage, and from the 
 rapidity of the movements of the Insurgents a country 
 is overran and sworn before it is possible for the 
 
160 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Government to bring any force to meet them — meet 
 them indeed the King's troops seldom can ; their 
 Secrecy is wonderful, and Death is the inevitable 
 consequence of even suspected Information. The 
 System of organisation is carried on by powerful 
 Allies, Terror and Inclination, the lower orders are 
 afraid to refuse to be sworn, and when they are 
 sworn they are very ready to obey. 
 
 ' The disturbances have commenced at an un- 
 favourable period to quell them, the great length of 
 night leaves the Country for so many hours in the 
 possession of these marauders, and as soon as the 
 Potatoes are dug, there will be no employment for 
 the People until Spring. Everything that exertion can 
 effect will, I am confident, continue to be used to put 
 down the evil, but I must express my own opinion 
 that we shall have a very troublesome Winter.' 
 
 The friction between Lord Talbot and Mr. Grant 
 seems to have unfortunately lasted into these 
 troubled times, when the strength given by unity 
 was especially needed by the executive Government. 
 
 On November 19, Lord Talbot writes to Mr. 
 Gregory : — 
 
 P. Park : November 19, 1821. 
 
 ' The accounts fromWarburton are not satisfactory 
 which have come this morning. He writes from 
 Ennis. 
 
 ' Willcocks has been employed in organising and 
 revising his police establishment, which evidently 
 
MR. GRANT AND THE YEOMANRY 161 
 
 wanted a strong hand over it. Some measures should 
 be adopted in the Castle to ensure the reception of 
 correct returns from the police magistrates, as by 
 Wilcocks' statement nothing can have been so 
 irregular as everything relating to the interior of poor 
 Going's establishment. 
 
 'An anonymous correspondent gives notice of 
 nightly meetings in Tipperary. This, as it points out 
 a man's house as a place of meeting and refers to 
 any Magistrate who may be appointed to examine 
 into the alleged facts for corroboration after the 
 enquiry shall have been made, has been sent either 
 to Wilson or Willcocks for investigation. 
 
 ' Grant feels some doubt of the expediency of 
 calling out the Yeomanry lest it should create irrita- 
 tion. " Where ? " said I. " Among the Catholics," 
 replied he. But I think this week will hardly elapse 
 ere they will be called upon. 
 
 'Sirr, I think, appears to have been a little 
 hasty or alarmed or perhaps jealous of others. Yet 
 attention to all points can do no harm at this critical 
 period. 
 
 ' There appears to be a design afloat to get a 
 5th Major General established permanently in this 
 country. But this is mere suspicion. 
 
 ' We do not want you yet ! 
 
 ' Dennis Brown told Grant Saturday that Mayo 
 was quiet.' 
 
 M 
 
162 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 And on November 20 : — 
 
 6 One of the resolutions at the meeting of the 
 Magistrates at Butte vant was this (the first resolu- 
 tion indeed) : — 
 
 ' " That a petition be presented to Government 
 requesting, as the only efficient means of preserving 
 the peace of the Country, that the provisions of the 
 Insurrection Act lately repealed (bravo !) be im- 
 mediately acted upon." Is not this capital. 
 
 ' These gentlemen abuse the Peace Preservation 
 Bill, in which sentiments I am sorry to observe Lord 
 Aylmer is rather inclined to concur. 
 
 ' I could not have supposed that our premier 
 would have ventured to have sent his opinions to 
 Government respecting the danger of calling out the 
 Yeomanry, but faith he has done so at no small 
 length. 
 
 ' In postscript No. 1 he is candid enough to admit 
 that I have differed from him in the view he takes of 
 the subject, and in a subsequent paragraph says the 
 Attorney and Solicitor General both dissent from 
 him, and agree with me in opinion. I saw neither of 
 them. 
 
 ' In a second postscript he intimates that he be- 
 lieves it will be necessary to run all risks and call 
 upon the Yeomanry. 
 
 ' When, my good friend, shall we cease to see such 
 vacillation and stupid prejudice in our councils? 
 Truly it is a lamentable circumstance to be bound 
 to such creatures. 
 
 
 
 
MR. GRANT AND THE YEOMANRY 163 
 
 ' Adieu, I am off to Carlow, where I shall stay 
 to-morrow, and if I do not hear anything to recall 
 me, I believe I may stay over Thursday with Bruen 
 if he presses. I understand that people begin to be 
 alarmed in Dublin. 
 
 ' But altho' I am not yet inclined to think we are 
 
 in a deuced Scrape, I own I shall do so if no benefit 
 
 is derived from the strong measures pursued in the 
 
 South. Lord Aylmer and Willcocks ought to be in 
 
 activity now, as the former has got his Troops with 
 
 him and the latter must have reorganised his Police 
 
 Establishment. 
 
 ' God bless you.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory replies : — 
 
 Palace, Kilkenny, November 21, 1821. 
 
 1 Mairy thanks for the perusal of the different 
 Letters which I herewith return. Mangin sent me a 
 copy of Mr. Grant's Letter to Lord Sidmouth. It is 
 quite disgraceful that after a measure had been 
 maturely considered and finally decided, and orders 
 issued for carrying it into effect, it shall suddenly 
 be suspended from apprehension that it may give 
 offence to the Catholics, who (Mr. Grant says) are 
 already very jealous of the Yeomanry. Their 
 services were not thought of except as a dernier 
 ressort, when the military force was expended, and 
 they were not even intended to be employed against 
 the popish Insurgents of the South. Will he wait 
 until Dr. Woodward has educated the Toor ? It is 
 
 M 2 
 
164 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 quite impossible for any man with common sense and 
 common Feelings not to see and to bitterly deplore 
 the lamentable poverty of the Irish Peasants, and 
 none but a Brute or an Absentee would refuse his 
 money, his Labour and his time to promote any 
 rational System for their amelioration. But what 
 nonsense is that sympathizing, philosophizing Pranc- 
 ing, when Insurrection of the most sanguinary spirit 
 has manifested itself in so many acts of Outrage and 
 is nightly and rapidly encreasing — an Insurrection 
 into which the Peasants have not been goaded by 
 any immediate pressure of Want, since provisions 
 have not been so cheap for many years as now, but 
 which has been long in its organisation and is con- 
 ducted with an impenetrable Secrecy and unrelenting 
 Cruelty, how lamentable is it that the efforts of the 
 Government (feeble as they are from the small means 
 at their command) should be paralysed by one whose 
 Duty it is to give Energy and Spirit. But from the 
 suspicions contained in Col. Hodder's Letter, and 
 which are felt by the great Majority of the Protes- 
 tants, there is no Confidence placed in Mr. Grant.' 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 November 24, 1821. 
 
 Mangin sends you a copy of our proclamation 
 offering a reward of 2,000/. in certain proportions for 
 the discovery of the murderers of poor Shea. 
 
 'T. have determined and given out that I shall 
 
RECALL OF LOKD TALBOT 165 
 
 have an audience every day. Grant does not give 
 satisfaction. 
 
 * By a letter from Lord Oriel I learn the meetings, 
 swearing in, &c, have begun at Ardee. He is aware 
 of them and who the people are. The life of Mr. 
 Filgate, the Magistrate who excited himself so much 
 about the Wildgoose business, is threatened, Lord 
 Oriel says. Wills says the evil is peeping out in 
 Eos common. 
 
 ' In short, the whole Kingdom is infected, and I 
 doubt we shall have a troublesome winter.' 
 
 The winter proved troublesome enough, but Lord 
 Talbot was not destined to deal with its troubles in 
 Ireland. The ' Annual Eegister,' after the notice of 
 the disorderly state of the country quoted above, 
 adds : — ' Among other measures adopted was that 
 of sending the Marquis Wellesley to replace Lord 
 Talbot as Lord Lieutenant.' 
 
 The letters of recall came December 1, 1821, and 
 were followed so quickly by Lord Wellesley's 
 arrival that there was not even time for the formal 
 honours usually paid to a departing Viceroy. Lord 
 Talbot held an undress Levee at the Castle, which 
 .Mr. Gregory notes was ' numerously and respectably 
 attended,' but withdrew as soon as possible to 
 ( larton, the house of his friend and relative the Duke 
 of Leinster. 
 
 Lord Talbot had reason to be angry about his 
 political treatment. He had not been ambitious or 
 
L66 MR, GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 sought office. He was taken from the pastures of 
 Ingestre, and set on high in the throne room of 
 Dublin Castle, and then suddenly, after all the 
 King's fair speeches and compliments, flung back 
 again into country life. We see from his letters how 
 deeply he took his recall to heart. In an undated 
 note to Mr. Gregory he says : ' The accompanying 
 letter I mean to send unless I receive your veto. I 
 have boldly challenged his Majesty's approval of my 
 conduct, and have endeavoured to separate myself 
 from all collision with the Beast himself (Lord 
 Liverpool). 
 
 The Government had not, when they recalled 
 him, the intention of giving in on the Catholic 
 question. Lord Talbot had only a year more of 
 office before him. The apparent cause of his recall 
 was his having drunk to the toast of the ' pious, 
 glorious, and immortal memory,' at the Lord Mayor's 
 dinner. But the toast was proposed by the Lord 
 Mayor himself, and though Lord Cloncurry and other 
 decided ' Catholics ' turned down their glasses, the 
 King's representative may not have felt free to refuse 
 the toast to one of the King's predecessors. 
 
 His letters show what a warm spot there was in 
 his heart for Ireland, and how sore he is for a time 
 after his recall, but he ' goes to look at flowers,' at 
 the wonderful scarlets and crimsons flaming over the 
 grey mud of Holland. Then he takes up the threads 
 of country life again, attends the Magistrate's meet- 
 
LORD TALBOT AT INGESTEE 167 
 
 ings, looks after his property, establishes a sheep 
 show, and does his duty. 
 
 The following letters were written in the first 
 soreness of dismissal. He may have found comfort 
 in the fact that Mr. Grant was also recalled, and 
 succeeded by Mr. Goulburn, but he does not allude 
 to it. 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 Ingestre : January 2, 1822. 
 
 ' I enclose a letter which I have found here, from 
 our dear friend Lord Whitworth. What comfort 
 does it not brino- to me. It almost reconciles me to 
 my fate. 
 
 * You will be glad also to hear that persons of all 
 parties in this County are indignant at the treatment 
 I have experienced, and I have heard it whispered 
 that a public dinner is in contemplation to me ex- 
 pressive of their regard, and to assure me I hold the 
 same place in their Esteem I ever did. This (if true) 
 is most gratifying. You shall of course hear more 
 when I do. I long to hear the arrangements in all 
 your departments. If Phillimore is right as to the 
 sensation felt in England about our good Attorney, I 
 fear others will soon follow me and him. 
 
 ' Lord W. told me he meant to lose no time 
 about Saurin's business. I thought Goulburn par- 
 ticularly cordial at taking leave. He'll soon go.' 
 
J (38 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 [Enclosure] Knole : December 2, 1821. 
 
 ' I will tell you candidly why I have not written 
 to you. I was so hurt and disgusted at what had 
 occurred, that I could not trust myself to mention it 
 to you until I heard from yourself how you felt 
 about it. I am not surprised at your feelings, and I 
 partake them most sincerely. In all the course of 
 my political life I never knew anything more unjust, 
 more unmerited, more illiberal, or more absurd. I 
 ask of everybody what Lord Wellesley can do, or 
 will do, that Lord Talbot has not done, or would do, 
 if you gave him power to act. If they mean to give 
 him powers which you have been asking for in vain, 
 they will add still to their injustice, for why should 
 not you carry these powers into effect as well as he. 
 
 ' It is cruel and barbarous usage, but such only as 
 those who engage in politics must expect, and par- 
 ticularly with such people as those with whom we 
 have now to do — whose principle it is to give up 
 everything and everybody rather than give up their 
 places. 
 
 ' But, my dear Talbot, I will not add to your spleen 
 by venting my own. Come and see us as soon as 
 vou can. ' W.' 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 Boodles : Jan. 10, 1822. 
 
 ' Here I am after a semi-conversation with Lord 
 Sidmouth — which was interrupted by the Duke of 
 York's coming into the room. The meeting was 
 
LOUD TALBOT A^D LORD SIDMOUTII 169 
 
 most distant on my part, Lord S. saying " Little did 
 I think, Lord T., that you and I should meet with 
 painful feelings." " Most painful indeed, my Lord," 
 returned I. 
 
 ' " Have you heard of the King's gracious inten- 
 tions towards you ? " " No, my Lord." " I wrote to 
 you at Ingestre." " I had left home before your 
 Lordship's communication arrived, I suppose." 
 " Well," said Lord S., " the purport of the letter 
 was to express H.M.'s commands to you to go to 
 Brighton to be His Guest at the Pavilion." 
 
 ' To which I answered, " I can set out this moment 
 or to-morrow, whichever day your Lordship may 
 instruct me to go. Am I " (said I coldly) " to go 
 in Uniform or in frac." This hit. But after a little 
 Lord S. said, "We must talk over the matter 
 unreservedly." " My Lord, the matter is soon dis- 
 cussed. I have been turned out of office in less time 
 than I should deem it right to turn a servant away, 
 without having been told Why — in other words I 
 have been condemned unheard. Had Lord Grey 
 come into power he could not have treated me more 
 unceremoniously. It is for your Lordship to tell me 
 How I have deserved this treatment. I thank God 
 I do not feel conscious of meriting it." I then added 
 that I had been taken out of my County with an 
 unspotted Character, that whatever might be the 
 opinion of the public respecting me, still I was 
 returned to that County with an imputation, if not 
 stigma, cast upon my public conduct. Lord S. then 
 
170 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 talked of the impossibility that I could seriously 
 entertain such an opinion, the respect, etc., felt for 
 me by the whole Cabinet must satisfy me. I said 
 "Respect, my Lord, is a cold word, and what we 
 perfectly understand — it is better earned by actions 
 than words." 
 
 ' The Duke of York then came in. 
 
 ' I am to go to Brighton Monday to be hum- 
 bugged. I think they are ashamed of themselves — 
 as well they may be. I shall get no redress (indeed, 
 what can be offered to me for the outrage put upon 
 my feelings ?) but Blarney. They may offer me a 
 Marquisate because they know I will not accept it. I 
 go to Knole to-morrow. As soon as I see Lord S. 
 again I will again trouble you. John has written me 
 word that Saurin is out — pray say everything from 
 me to our excellent friend. The on dits of the day 
 report, too, that you are off the stage, my good 
 friend.' 
 
 Ingestre : January 16, 1822. 
 
 ' What a system of H — b-g seems to be the order 
 of the day now. 
 
 'I have been to Brighton. The King gracious 
 enough, but tho' he expressed himself sorry my 
 feelings had been wounded, and allowed me to say 
 that I had not been removed on account of any 
 disapprobation of his, still he made no attempt to 
 heal the wound his ministers have inflicted. Indeed, 
 I do not see how reparation is to be obtained, 
 perhaps it cannot be. 
 
LORD TALBOT AND LORD LIVERPOOL 171 
 
 ' Teel I have seen by chance this morning. He 
 has been to Staffordshire, and finds his father 
 greatly changed, he says. I presume he cannot last 
 long. 
 
 ' Eely upon it, Peel is as sincerely attached to you 
 as either Lord Whitworth or myself. 
 
 ' I have received your letter mentioning your 
 conversation with Saurin. He will be satisfied, I 
 hope, that I only consulted His feelings or what I 
 thought his feelings would be, in keeping the 
 business a secret from him. I can have but one 
 feeling, that of respect and attachment, for this most 
 excellent amiable person. 
 
 ' You can have no idea of how I feel to want 
 the Home I have lost. 
 
 ' I am lonely, without object, and almost nerveless, 
 and unable to do anything. Had I not these emo- 
 tions to unman me, I should soon get over this rub ; 
 but the coming to what is not a home to me is of 
 hard digestion.' 
 
 Berkeley Square : January 17, 1S22. 
 
 ' This is the last letter from me respecting my 
 dismissal, and this shall be short. 
 
 4 1 am just returned from Lord Liverpool, to whom 
 I expressed myself in strong and indeed indignant 
 terms. If I do not mistake, Lord Liverpool felt 
 (you'll say can stone feel) the hardship of my Case, 
 and is either to write to me on the subject, a letter 
 which I am to be at liberty to make public, or say 
 
172 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 something in his place to remove all suspicion of 
 disapprobation from me. The former will, I think, 
 be what he will do. 
 
 ' If he does not, questions will be asked in the 
 House of Lords by my friends. 
 
 ' Now God bless you. I thank you for all the 
 kindness and support you have ever afforded me, 
 and if I know myself I shall not bring any portion of 
 a public man into private life, but always gratefully 
 acknowledge you as one of my best and dearest 
 friends. 
 
 ' With Peel I am more than satisfied. I told 
 Lord S. that were it not for Peel's being the organ of 
 communication I believe I should resign my Lieuten- 
 ancy of Staffordshire. But enough of this nefarious 
 sacrifice, I am sick of them, and lest you should be of 
 me I will conclude with assuring you of the sincerity 
 with I am, and ever shall be, my dear Gregory. . . . ' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lord Talbot. 
 
 Jan. 19, 1822. 
 
 ' I did not answer your former Letters from 
 London and Knole, not knowing where to address 
 you, but yours of the 16th received this day removes 
 an} 7 doubts on that account. 
 
 ' Your reception in London and Brighton was such 
 as might have been anticipated. Civility is cheap, 
 and Flattery is only at the trifling expense of 
 character in the Giver. I do not think you will 
 
MR. GREGORY PIQUED 173 
 
 receive either the Letter or an explanation in the 
 House of Lords from Lord Liverpool, to which Lord 
 Sidmouth thinks you entitled, and what has already 
 been said will be considered quite sufficient Satisfac- 
 tion for any reasonable man, to which class you will be 
 voted not to belong. But let me beg of you to throw 
 away all care on that account, and seek no more for 
 redress in consequence of the ungracious treatment 
 you have received. It cannot reflect any disgrace on 
 you, you cannot lose the esteem of any honest man 
 in the world, and why should you any longer feel 
 one moment's uneasiness. There were two ways 
 of removing you, one might have equally promoted 
 every object the Government had to gain, and 
 perfectly in accordance with your feelings. The 
 Minister took another line, regardless of your feelings. 
 Attribute it to the awkwardness of Lord Liverpool, 
 who never was taught to dance. . . . 
 
 ' I like Goulburn very much. Of his Excellency I 
 know nothing, as I have never as yet been honoured 
 by an admittance to an audience. I never met him 
 but once, in a private room, at Dinner at the Chan- 
 cellor's yesterday. I do not wish this to be 
 mentioned, as it would appear that I was piqued, 
 and which is probably intended. I am so undoubt- 
 edly, but there is no necessity for putting it into the 
 orderly Book. I have not touched on the point to 
 Goulburn, nor shall I, but that my removal is intended 
 I have no doubt. 
 
 'Everything as unknown about A.D.C.'s House- 
 
174 MR GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 hold &c. as when you sailed. The countr} T not 
 improved, on the contrary the evil spreading.' 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 Ingestre : January 25, 1822. 
 
 ' Many thanks, my dear Gregory, for your kind 
 letter and valuable advice, which I will endeavour to 
 follow to the utmost of my power. 
 
 ' Is it not strange that two such extremes should 
 exist in my mind at once as the perfect oblivion of 
 office, and as perfect a recollection of what my life 
 and habits were here previous to my beginning 
 public life. . . . 
 
 ' I send you Lord Livernool's letter, which says 
 little more than that which recalled me. I have 
 thanked him in his own cold words. 
 
 ' Forbes writes to complain of Lord Granard's not 
 having been included in the recent promotions in the 
 Irish Peerage — and says I had promised to name his 
 wishes. I agree to this, with the addition " if the 
 subject was first mentioned by the Government in 
 England " — or in other words that I would sanction 
 the advancement if applied to by Lord Liverpool for 
 my opinion. 
 
 ' I have written to Lord L. and to Lord Forbes 
 stating how I conceive the matter stands, and which 
 I believe I have correctly stated. . . .' 
 
LORD TALBOT AND HIS TENANTS 175 
 
 Ingestre : March 28, 1822. 
 
 ' . . . Lord L.'s answer to my application has not 
 surprised, although it has hurt me in the tenderest 
 point. Why did they select me as a proper person 
 for the distinguished situation they were pleased to 
 appoint me, if they intended to make me sensible by 
 every possible means of my insignificance. But I am 
 humbled ! 
 
 ' By private letters (I believe from a sure and wary 
 person) I hear a certain illustrious person is turning 
 Swaddler fast, a sermon of Dr. Pearson's and the 
 preaching of a certain Marchioness have rendered him 
 melancholy, I am afraid. He suffered so much from 
 the violent tossing he got last year on his return 
 home, that he is not to sail again. 
 
 ' You will be sorry to hear that I have been 
 obliged to reduce my rents full 15 per cent., so that I 
 shall be annually more than 2,500/. minus. The 
 Tenants are satisfied, but they express their fears the 
 diminution will not be sufficient. But, however, they 
 also express their hopes that I may soon put them up 
 to their actual rents again. This proves that my 
 land in common times has not been too high let, 
 which I was at one time almost assured was the case. 
 Nothing can be more satisfactory than the manner 
 in which these poor Creatures have received the 
 indulgence. What I cannot understand is the total 
 cessation of demand. An abundant harvest, an 
 excessive importation may account for the lowering 
 of price, but why people are to eat less when your 
 
176 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 population is increased and your manufacturers are 
 flourishing, I cannot comprehend. . . . 
 
 ' I have had a most friendly letter from our friend 
 Saurin — he is not fond of Humbug — no more am I — 
 but truce to this. 
 
 ' . . . I go to Town the week after Easter, and to 
 Holland after I have shown myself. I cannot yet bear 
 to be stared at as an X.X. — or to go into families by 
 myself where I went as a happy husband — so I shall 
 look at flowers, and then home again.' 
 
 Berkeley Square : April 25, 1822. 
 
 ' I have been to Court twice, having obtained the 
 Entree, and was kindly received. I have also left my 
 name with the Ministers, so that almost all the 
 ceremonious part of my coming to Town has been 
 accomplished. 
 
 ' Peel I have seen ; he was looking harassed when 
 I first saw him, but he has rallied, and is remarkably 
 well. Of Lord Whitworth's health I cannot speak in 
 terms sufficiently strong. He is wonderfully well 
 indeed, in spirits and strength equally so. It is quite 
 delightful to see him. 
 
 ' I presume your friends in the House of Commons 
 send you word what passes there, at least they used 
 to do so. They of course have told you how severely 
 handled Master Ellis was by the Attorney General on 
 Sir J. Newport's motion. 1 I have heard that Sarcasm 
 was never bitterer — he talked of his raising "a stupen- 
 
 ' On the renewal of the Insurrection Act. 
 
MR. CANNING'S MOTION 177 
 
 dous superstructure of falsehood upon a scanty basis 
 of truth," and equally strong was he on other points. 
 It was rather supposed possible they might have met 
 the next morning. 
 
 ' I shall be curious to hear Canning's speech, 
 which I mean if possible to do. No one seems to 
 know whether he will carry his object through the 
 House of Commons or not. Opinions are very much 
 divided upon it, that is to say, some people that wish 
 for the complete emancipation of the Catholics think 
 this a half measure ; others say that it is unobjec- 
 tionable as being purely aristocratical ; others, friends 
 of Plunkett's, that it is taking the subject out of his 
 hands — while the protestants inveigh against it as a 
 side-wind mode of carrying the Catholic Question. 
 
 ' My own Idea is, that it may be considered as a 
 parting blessing from Mr. C, who is determined to 
 set the Cabinet by the Ears, as he does not belong to 
 it, which in some degree it will, I think, effect. 
 
 ' We are unquiet in Staffordshire, though the last 
 accounts are better. I told Peel I was ready to go 
 there on receiving a hint from him, relying on him 
 alone not to be superseded. He laughed. I have 
 been obliged to reduce my rental very seriously 
 indeed, which coming at a moment I had given up 
 (like my Sovereign) 30M (?) a year, is inconvenient. 
 
 'My best regards to Saurin. Do he and the 
 Chancellor set their horses together tolerably well 
 again ? ' 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 ME. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 May, 1822. 
 
 ' I hear various rumours, but I believe it is certain 
 that there was a determination expressed at the meet- 
 ing of Ministers at Fife House on Friday last for their 
 going out, if they are beat upon three or four questions 
 now about to be discussed. The truth is they are all 
 
 at sixes and sevens, and our old friend C h plays 
 
 too refined a game, notwithstanding his pliancy, for 
 John Bull now grumbling and groaning under 
 pecuniary embarrassments arising from agricultural 
 distress. The country Gentlemen are dissatisfied 
 beyond measure, and if we could peep behind the 
 scenes I doubt not we should see discussion and 
 disunion among the first-rate Actors in the political 
 drama. I believe I told you I surmised Canning 
 meant to leave the poisoned Garment behind him as 
 a legacy, when he made his motion respecting the 
 Catholic peers, and full well has he succeeded. Of 
 Peel I believe I may speak satisfactorily, and I think 
 and hope he will rise. He has in no way forfeited 
 the public esteem, he stands up to his man like an 
 honorable and decided character, and will, I have no 
 doubt, maintain unsullied his reputation. Certain it 
 is there is a feverish disposition abroad in the world, 
 and if the opposition could make itself respectable, it 
 would soon oust our present Administration. I write 
 to you what I hear, and will not affect to say you 
 may rely on any part of what I have stated, more 
 than as the gleanings of public conversation. 
 
 ' The Gouty symptoms of the King have left H.M., 
 
A CATHOLIC DEBATE 179 
 
 and he is better I understand, but they say H. M. 
 has not yet quite recovered the effects of his passage 
 from your dear Island last Autumn. La dame is in 
 favour still.' 
 
 Thursday, May 4, 1822. 
 
 ' I am ordered off to quell riots in Staffordshire, 
 for as Fanny says, rebellion follows my steps. 
 
 ' The colliers are up in arms. Unfortunately 
 there has been a man killed, which has excited a great 
 deal of ill will. I hope, however, to put an end to it. 
 'Tis delightful to have to do with Peel. 
 
 4 You can have no idea of the powerful speech 
 which Peel made on the Catholic Peers motion. He 
 really surpassed all ideas I ever entertained of close 
 and successful argument. I believe dispassionately 
 speaking that he had the best of the discussion, tho' 
 it must be owned that Canning was very great. I 
 met the latter at dinner yesterday surrounded with 
 his satellites. I am sorry to say they calculate on 
 an addition of ten next division — tho' Hobhouse told 
 me this morning that he heard it would have a 
 different result when the question was next argued. 
 God grant it may. 
 
 ' I was so happy to do business again with Peel, 
 'twas done a la Gregory, which is to the mind of your 
 affect. 
 
 ' Talbot.' 
 
 ' We have been enlivened by a duel this morning. 
 The Duke of Buckingham called the Duke of Bedford 
 
 s 2 
 
180 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 out for his observations on the Grenvilles in his 
 speech at Bedford, which his Grace refused to recall. 
 The Duke of B — m fired once, and the Duke of Bed- 
 ford then fired in the air and exeunt omnes.' 
 
 London : May 27, 1822. 
 
 6 We are about to have a splendid Ball for our 
 distressed Countrymen. I hope too much money 
 may not be expended in decoration. The night after 
 the Fete we are to have our Catholic debate. I hope 
 we shall have a fair majority, from 30 to 40. But I 
 learn to my surprise, and, faith, indignation too, if 
 true, that one of our high dignitaries of the Church, the 
 Archbishop of York, has been persuaded to stay away. 
 I cannot conceive it. The new peers are in our 
 favour, 1 believe 9 out of 11. The City is in great 
 uood humour with Vansittart, and so will the whole 
 Country be at the remission of taxes. I do from my 
 heart believe the Country is in a most flourishing 
 state, with the Exception of the landed interest, who 
 will be swept away to make room for others, who 
 coming into the occupation of the farms upon reduced 
 terms and an unimpaired capital, will flourish at the 
 present prices. The cold-blooded politician will not 
 care for the individuals who may be sacrificed, as the 
 general results must be in favour of national pro- 
 sperity. ' General Humbug ' is as much in vogue as 
 ever. In Norfolk alone there are 11 Gentlemen's seats 
 to be let. In Cambridgeshire and Sussex I have heard 
 
MR. REEL'S PROPHECY 181 
 
 of money being offered to Tenants to farm their Lands. 
 os. and even 5s. an acre has been mentioned. I have 
 not had any farm thrown up, but my reductions are 
 great. If they continue, I must shut up and retire, 
 God knows where, notwithstanding the 70,000/. 
 H.K.Ii. the Duke of Sussex says I realised while 
 in Ireland. Others have said 1 made 100,000/. with 
 equal truth. The country is in great beauty. I 
 think of going to fish to-morrow near Uxbridge, at a 
 famous trout stream. I fear I cannot get a Trout like 
 your son Eobert's from the Belvidere Lake.' 
 
 Astley Castle : July 27, 1822. 
 
 ' I saw Peel well I think on my leaving town. lie 
 is in good spirits about things in general, and privately 
 may I say it, supposes the present system of concilia- 
 tion will be as prevalent in 1922 as in 1822. He 
 sees through the humbug. The discovery of Saurin's 
 Letter to old N. has occurred since we corresponded. 
 I wish the Letter had never been written — although 
 it may be immaterial, as I hear our friend says it is 
 to him. Still publick Considerations induce me to 
 wish it had not met the Eye of the World. Ingestre 
 had talked of going to see you &c, but I have 
 prevailed upon him not to go at present, as my 
 Character might suffer from a Son of mine returning 
 immediately to your hospitable Shores. I fear that 
 my spirits on my return home may flag, therefore I 
 write to you when that is not the case. I mean to 
 
182 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 occupy myself with my Children. My farm I shall I 
 think diminish, I cannot stand the loss on it ; this I 
 regret as it will diminish the interest and the occupa- 
 tion I used to find at the old Shop. But as all is for 
 the best I shall try to live a harmless and I hope not 
 altogether useless life, though I do not see exactly 
 how the ball is to be kept up. 
 
 
 
183 
 
 LORD WELLESLEY AND MR. GOULBURN. 
 
 It must have been an unpleasant change to Mr. 
 Gregory, after his cordial intimacy with Lord 
 Talbot, to find himself treated de kaut en has by 
 the dictatorial and autocratic Lord Wellesley, who 
 had arrived ' boasting of his past victories over Indian 
 cabals and anticipating his future ones over Irish,' 
 and who, as Sir Walter Scott observed, talked politics 
 like a Roman Emperor. 
 
 Mr. Wynn tells of having met Lord Wellesley at 
 Dropmore, with five servants, two of whom were in 
 the habit of making his bed, and is highly pleased at 
 his having, notwithstanding, to carry his own candle- 
 stick upstairs. 
 
 There is something domineering in his pencil notes 
 on the business letters sent back by him. ' Approved — 
 let this be done ' has a sort of air of ' Fiat lux. 
 Even his W has an autocratic flourish compared with 
 the unassuming W of Lord Whitworth, the easy 
 man of the world, secure of his position. 
 
184 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' The Irish Government, sir ! / am the Irish 
 Government,' was his exclamation once and his 
 persuasion at all times. Great things were expected 
 of him. He was not only Viceroy of Ireland, but an 
 Irish Viceroy. He had made his state entry with 
 bunches of Shamrock at his horses' heads and in 
 his attendants' button-holes. He was a prominent 
 champion of Emancipation. He was hailed as a 
 deliverer by the Catholics, and intimated to their 
 Prelates that addresses such as are presented to the 
 King would be acceptable to him. And when the 
 Prelates came, he received them in his private room, 
 with marked attention. 
 
 He was expected to call a new world into being 
 and to invert the official pyramid with a nod. But 
 these expectations were not fulfilled. When it came 
 to practical details Lord Wellesley, like all who have 
 had a hand in imperial government, well knew what 
 danger lies in lightly meddling with the delicate and 
 complex working of the machinery of administration. 
 
 In Mr. Gregory's little note-book for 1822 I find 
 'Jan 9. Dined with the Lord Mayor. Disgusting 
 speeches of Flattery to Lord Wellesley.' He might 
 have made a still more severe entry, for even Sheil 
 laughed at the Viceroy's oratory and self-complacency 
 at this dinner, and tells how he affably assured the 
 company that the Duke of Wellington was not 
 ashamed of his country. 
 
 Plunket, however, whose sense of honour some- 
 times failed, declared he was too much overcome by 
 
 1 
 
LORD WELLESLEY AND COERCION 185 
 
 ' tlie delightful scene he had witnessed that evening ' 
 to express his feeling in words. 
 
 There are other notes : ' Feb. 4. My first meet- 
 ing with the Lord Lieutenant on Business. A great 
 Talker.' ' April 23. — King's Birthday not celebrated 
 by the Lord Lieutenant.' ' Dec. 24th. — Attended 
 the Lord Lieutenant in full Dress to St. Patrick's Ball, 
 where he received a fulsome Address and returned 
 an absurd answer.' 
 
 But entries of ' Dined with the Lord Lieutenant ' 
 become more frequent as time goes on. No doubt 
 Lord Wellesley's interest in the little fair-haired 
 4 fisherman,' the Under-Secretary's grandson, to 
 whom he gave daily lessons in the classics, 1 brought 
 about a more kindly feeling between them. In 1825 
 I find the entry : ' Oct. 29. — Dined with the Lord 
 Lieutenant. His excellency was married in the even- 
 ing to Mrs. Patterson.' 
 
 o 
 
 But if Lord Wellesley gained friends in one direc- 
 tion it was not long before he lost them in another. 
 He had not been long in office before a Coercion 
 Act was pressingly needed. 
 
 Mr. Gregory writes to Mr. Goulburn : — 
 
 April 15 1822. 
 
 ' Three baronies in Kilkenny were proclaimed this 
 da} T , I do not know how many in Tipperary, but all 
 for which applications were made. 
 
 1 See Autobiography of Sir William Gregory. 
 
186 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' The Council assembled in the Lord Lieutenant's 
 dressing Eoom, as he is not well enough to leave his 
 bed, and the door of his Bed Chamber being open, 
 the Proclamation was read so as to be heard by his 
 Excellency. 
 
 ' It was absolutely necessary to pass the proclama- 
 tions, as very general and loud Complaints were made 
 by some of the most respectable Gentlemen of the 
 Country in consequence of the Delay.' 
 
 He would by no means put up with government 
 by disorder. He receives a complaint that the parish 
 priest of Ballyhooly has refused the last rites of the 
 Church to his flock, unless they take their names off 
 an address to Lord Ennismore, and writes ' Enquire 
 into the facts stated ' in his peremptory way. Lord 
 Courtown writes to tell of some veiled threats of ' a 
 convulsion' used by the priest of his parish. The 
 Prelates he had admitted to his private room would 
 hardly have been pleased with the Viceroy's note on 
 the letter : — ' I think the Priest should be required 
 to make a full explanation of his language, and after 
 the matter is fully ascertained, he should be punished 
 and exposed.' 
 
 At first Mr. Goulburn was blamed, and looked on 
 as the log attached to him to restrain his free action. 
 But his health was failing, his energy had evaporated. 
 O'Connell declared the Orange faction had locked him 
 to their chariot wheels and draped him to their 
 
 Do 
 
 Orange Club feasts, that he had only come to Ireland 
 
 
THE BOTTLE RIOT 187 
 
 to enjoy his ease — that he had descended to trail his 
 laurels and his honours in the dust and mire of that 
 party which insulted his person and would sully his 
 fame.' The Orange Party, on the other hand, looked 
 on him as little better than a Jesuit. He was much 
 influenced by Blake, the brilliant sagacious barrister, 
 ' the backstairs Viceroy of Ireland,' whose elasticity 
 was shown by his belonging to two Corporations so 
 far apart as the English Bar and the Galway Militia, 
 and who was labelled ' dangerous ' by good Protes- 
 tants, though I find that Mr. Gregory could not resist 
 dining at his house to meet Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 The Viceroy's refusal to allow what was irreve- 
 rently called ' Old Glorious ' to be decked as usual on 
 the anniversary of the Boyne, led to the celebrated riot 
 in the theatre, where a whisky bottle, presumably 
 empty, was aimed at his head by an exasperated 
 Orangeman. 
 
 Lord Talbot writes to Mr. Gregory on this subject 
 from Sand well, December 20, 1822 : — 
 
 ' Although I had purposed keeping the most pro- 
 found Silence on the subject of the attack at the 
 Theatre on Lord W. your Lord Lieutenant, I cannot 
 see the account of Lady Anne's having been carried 
 out in a state of insensibility without feeling the live- 
 liest interest about her, and wishing to hear that she 
 has not materially suffered from the alarm, and that 
 she has recovered from the shock. 
 
 ' You are strange people, ye Irish. Is it possible 
 that so much fuss, so much illwill, can be excited by 
 
188 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 the mere question of whether a few tawdry trappings 
 shall be put on a carved piece of stone, or whether 
 the health of a King who certainly saved you from 
 slavery shall be drunk or not ! On their heads be 
 the responsibility who have agitated the question. 
 Far preferable do I hope was the noiseless tenor of 
 our way, to the humbugs and advertizing puffs of the 
 present times. 
 
 ' What will our gracious Sovereign say when he 
 hears that one of the effects of his beloved concilia- 
 tion was an insult to his person in the dangerous 
 attack made upon his representative ? 
 
 'I cannot, however, quit the subject without 
 expressing the strongest regret and indignation at 
 this unworthy treatment of Lord W., much more 
 disgraceful to the perpetrators than to the object 
 against whom the injury was levelled. What inflated 
 language will C. Grant now indulge in ! Indeed I 
 regret the occurrence in every account. . .' 
 
 Lord Wellesley's pompous and abortive prosecu- 
 tion of the Bottle Eioters as ' murderers in intention ' 
 filled all Protestant Ireland with wrath and the 
 English Ministry with inextinguishable laughter. Mr. 
 Wynn writes : — ' Wellesley is making too ridiculous 
 a parade even for the taste of Paddy ; ' and Mr. 
 Fremantle on the same occasion, ' There never was 
 such an ass.' 
 
 He had at least silenced one set of his accusers, 
 who declared that he never promoted a Catholic 
 
LORD WELLESLEY'S INDOLEXCE 189 
 
 lawyer unless he had a Protestant wife, by choosing 
 a Catholic bride to share his own throne. 
 
 lie had found at Calcutta the advantage of 
 governing without close communion with home, and 
 would fain have followed the same course in Dublin, 
 to the great indignation of the Ministry. 
 
 In 1824 Wynn writes, on the 24th January, 'The 
 silence of Lord Wellesley is really unparalleled. 
 Conceive that since the 20th May, when he wrote 
 that he required nothing but the renewal of the 
 Insurrection Act, and another request (since supplied 
 to him) not one line official or private has been 
 received from him.' And in April, 'I find the 
 Orange party are loud in their abuse of Lord 
 Wellesley for shutting himself up in the Phoenix 
 Park, seeing nobody, and only communicating with 
 Secretary Gregory by letter. Indeed, I believe that 
 the latter is more than he often favours Secretaries 
 Peel and Goulburn with.' 
 
 I may give in this context an application from 
 Mr. Goulburn to Mr. Gregory for fuller information 
 for himself and Mr. Peel, and his Excellency's note on 
 it to the effect that they get quite as much as is good 
 for them: — 
 
 June 18, 1822. 
 
 ' You must excuse my anxiety about the state of 
 the country, for I am persecuted nearly to death both 
 in and out of Parliament, and am supposed to be the 
 most inhuman and unfeeling of men because I have 
 not <nven an assurance that the Government of 
 
190 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Ireland can or will feed all the people. Pray send 
 me a return of all Works on which people are 
 employed in any of the distressed Counties, and a guess 
 at least as to the numbers employed. It will be of the 
 greatest use to receive such accounts from time to 
 time.' 
 
 Lord Wellesley writes on the back of this : — ' Mr. 
 Goulburn and Mr. Peel receive regularly by every 
 mail every necessary and practicable information.' 
 
 Even in 1822, Mr. Gregory writes on April 22, 
 ' Saw the Lord Lieutenant for the first time since the 
 10th inst.' And on Jan. 31, 1823, ' Saw the Lord 
 Lieutenant for the first time since 31st December.' 
 
 Wynn writes again in 1824 : — 
 
 ' Plunket arrived Monday night, and we received 
 the next day half of Lord Wellesley's long promised 
 despatch, in which at great length he very elo- 
 quently states all the difficulties of the Burial 
 question, but unfortunately breaks off in consequence 
 of an interruption before he proceeds to suggest any 
 remedies.' Then in November, ' I have seen no 
 letter from Lord Wellesley, and I believe none has 
 arrived, but that a grand epistle is on the anvil.' 
 
 Lord Wellesley was at the same time, however, 
 able to find leisure to pour forth his griefs to 
 Plunket. ' Your generous attachment,' he writes 
 in 1823, 'is one of my great consolations in this 
 troublesome and thankless station ! ' And in the 
 
MR. PLUNKET 191 
 
 following year : — ' This country is in the most tre- 
 mendous condition, and I am left without support or 
 countenance to submit to the kicks of the ass and 
 the dirt of the monkey. The suppression of my 
 despatch on this great question is an ignominy, an 
 insult not to be endured. It is a sequel to the same 
 plan of extinction which, on the question of the 
 Statue, the Eio<", the Orange, the Eibbon confedera- 
 cies, by concealing my opinions reduced me to the 
 condition of a villain and slave on a mock throne, 
 and rendered me an object of ridicule and contempt 
 to a country which would have hailed me with 
 respect and gratitude if I had not been crushed by 
 pretended candour at Whitehall ... I am indeed 
 most unhappy here — degraded, vilified, an object 
 of scorn and detestation . . . frustrated, baffled and 
 betrayed by all my own agents ; encompassed by 
 traitors even at my own table . . . and in England 
 ... a contemptuous silence even of my name . . . 
 From such a condition I pant for release.' 
 
 Plunket was Lord Wellesley's chief guide, 
 counsellor, and friend all through his term of office. 
 
 Though Mr. Plunket had nominally taken 
 Grattan's place as representative of the Catholics in 
 the House of Commons, he never quite won their 
 confidence. Perhaps in spite of O'Connell's success, 
 a lawyer is by profession too much inclined to believe 
 there are two sides to every question to make 
 a Heaven-sent leader, inspiring confidence in the 
 
192 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 infallibility of his cause. Or the expectations from 
 him may have been in the beginning too high to be 
 fulfilled. In Trinity College he had been the close 
 friend of Wolfe Tone and Thomas Addis Emmett. 
 He, like all other eminent Irish lawyers, had ' behaved 
 nobly' at the time of the Union. He had even 
 denied the right of the Irish Parliament to vote away 
 its own existence. ' As well,' he said, ' might the 
 frantic suicide hope that the act which destroys his 
 miserable body should extinguish his immortal soul.' 
 His popularity came to its height when he defended 
 the Sheares brothers on a charge of high treason. 
 
 But in one way or other he gave offence to 
 the Catholics, even while they were trusting their 
 cause to his hands. They were glad of his voice 
 and his vote, but the ' authoritative frigidity ' of his 
 manner, in a country where manner counts for much, 
 repelled them. Even their dearest foe Saurin won a 
 warmer place in their hearts, with the charm he had 
 brought from his cradle in Languedoc. 
 
 It was felt that although Plunket was sincerely in 
 favour of religious freedom, he had as their leader 
 too much of a Moses-like sense of spiritual superiority. 
 He wished to emancipate them first and to Protestan- 
 tise them afterwards. He was the friend and patron of 
 Archbishop Magee, a bigot among bigots, who would 
 not allow a Catholic priest to read so much as a 
 Latin Psalm over one of his flock, when laid in a 
 Protestant churchyard. He was a keen champion of 
 the ' second reformation,' the last serious attempt to 
 
MR. PLUNKET 193 
 
 change the faith of the people. He was known also 
 to cherish the bugbear of ' foreign influence,' as a 
 danger to throne and constitution. He proposed 
 fresh safeguards which O'Connell indignantly rejected, 
 declaring them to be nothing less than the re-enacting 
 of the penal laws. Brought up a Nonconformist, he 
 had accepted the beliefs of the Church of England, 
 but as if to restore a balance was ready to over- 
 turn those of the Church of Eome. Had he been a 
 Catholic, Sheil declared he would have been the chief 
 demagogue of the people. 
 
 Croker writes of him : ' Plunket is said to be 
 dissatisfied, and when he is sulky no one is so sulky. 
 But among his intimate friends he threw off his reserve, 
 and was as full of quips and puns as Lord Norbury 
 himself. 
 
 Blake, whose fascinating humour and practical 
 sagacity there seems to have been no resisting, was 
 said to keep his mind in his breeches pocket. But 
 he must have nodded for a moment when he allowed 
 his two proteges, Plunket and Lord Wellesley, to 
 embark in the bottle prosecution already mentioned. 
 On the other hand, Mr. Plunket began an abortive 
 prosecution of O'Connell and the Catholic Association, 
 and the disorderly element in the country complained 
 of his being as strict in the administration of justice 
 as Saurin himself. The conduct of the Catholic 
 case was taken out of his hands in the House of 
 Commons, and he did not himself lead the people 
 into the promised land. He held to the cause, how- 
 
 o 
 
194 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ever, and witnessed its success, and, as a peace-giving 
 measure, one must sorrowfully confess its failure. 
 
 His promotion did not come rapidly. In 1827 
 the King refused to have him made Chancellor, 
 because of his championship of the Catholics, and the 
 English Bar, whose members had so often found a 
 comfortable seat on the Irish woolsack, struck against 
 his being appointed Master of the Eolls because he 
 was an Irishman. 
 
 He attained to the Chancellorship at last in 1830. 
 But in 1811 he was thrust out of it by his own 
 party, who wanted the place for another. He never 
 recovered from this wound received in the house of 
 his friends, though his old jesting habits clung to 
 him for a time. 
 
 It was during a short period, in which he had 
 been replaced by Sugden, that he met his old friend 
 Nicolas Ball abroad, with a newly grown beard, and 
 shook his head at him in mock warning. ' Ah, there's 
 a shaver in Ireland will never let you appear before 
 him like this.' 
 
 Like so many great lawyers, his mind failed at the 
 last, but he never lost the authoritative character 
 that had belonged to him. Once a curate who had 
 incautiously included him in a petition for sinners 
 was obliged to make a precipitate retreat through 
 the window. 
 
 An old member of the Irish Bar, to whom I was 
 talking of him, said, ' I would not say he had a 
 disagreeable manner, but I saw him verv much out 
 
SAURIN 195 
 
 of temper twice : once when he gave his farewell 
 charge to the Bench, and was raging against the 
 Government for having turned him out in favour of 
 Campbell — not that he had anything to complain of, 
 for he had feathered his nest well ; and once when 
 
 we dined at Judge 's, and after dinner came family 
 
 prayers. When we knelt down, his chair was next 
 mine — oh, he was very angry indeed ! ' 
 
 The chief feat accomplished by Lord Wellesley 
 in Ireland was the dethroning of Plunket's rival, 
 Saurin, the Attorney-General. 
 
 His removal was decided on in 1821, but not 
 carried out until the following year. No one, it is 
 said, had courage to say the word of dismissal until 
 Lord Wellesley arrived. The secret kept itself, and 
 no one, friend or enemy, ventured to hint to him 
 that it was in the air. The following letters show 
 how even the loyal and official mind of Mr. Gregory 
 is moved when Saurin is first threatened, to try and 
 stir up the Viceroy to mutiny on his behalf. 
 
 He writes to Lord Talbot June 0, 1821 : — 
 
 ' Your letter of the 4 th has filled me with great 
 alarm, as the Conduct intended to be pursued towards 
 the Attorney-General satisfies me that a new system 
 of Government is to be adopted in Ireland, and that 
 the old and faithful supporters of the Crown must 
 make way for recent Converts.' 
 
 And on July 7 he writes : — 
 
 ' I cannot say how much your letter from Sher- 
 
 o y 
 
196 MR GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 borne has distressed me, as it discloses an unfeeling 
 Perseverance on the part of Ministers to remove a 
 faithful and invaluable servant of the Crown, from 
 no other than the selfish motive of gaining the par- 
 liamentary support of a powerful Advocate, who has 
 for so many years been a powerful Antagonist. In 
 my mind you can at once put an end to this dis- 
 graceful transaction by declining to be the Channel 
 of Communication, whether official or not, and by 
 declaring that it cannot be made so long as you re- 
 main Viceroy of Ireland. I do not think after such a 
 Declaration the measure would be persevered in, 
 nor do I think they would venture on your Eemoval 
 for the sole Purpose of carrying it into effect. I am 
 aware that this is bold and hazardous Counsel, but 
 you will, I am sure, give me the Credit of its being 
 disinterested.' 
 
 Lord Talbot writes on November 21 : — 
 
 ' Saurin's fate is sealed We (the Chancellor and 
 I) have received a Communication on the subject. 
 But as yet we are only to proceed and obtain 
 Donner's resignation of the C. Justiceship, which is 
 then to be offered to Saurin (in pretty decided lan- 
 guage tho'). Bushe is either to have Norbury's 
 situation if he will resign it, or be promised the 
 succession to it. I have written to the Chancellor 
 requesting his assistance. I am very happy in the 
 reflection that I made a stand for Saurin last year.' 
 
 But Mr. Gregory refuses to be comforted : — 
 
SAURIN 197 
 
 November 22. 
 
 '. . . Yet when these two very important objects 
 (resignation of the Chief Justice and the Attorney- 
 General) are surmounted, if they can be, what is to 
 be done with Bushe ? I shall be surprised if he 
 agree to abide the Disgrace of being superseded by 
 Plunkett, and be satisfied with a promise of dead Nor- 
 bury's shoes. It is a vile transaction, and will over- 
 whelm the administration with Eeproach and shame.' 
 
 Lord Talbot writes with evident relief on Novem- 
 ber 24, 1821 :— 
 
 ' I am not to be the Channel of communication 
 with poor Saurin. The Chancellor, who is so much 
 better qualified, has undertaken it. So far I disagree 
 with you, that I do not think Saurin is the first to 
 whom the Business should be communicated. The 
 Chief Justice, in my opinion, and in that of Lord 
 Manners (to whom I read parts of your Letter), is 
 the person with whom he will begin. If the Chief 
 resigns, to whom the whole case is to be made known, 
 then there is a something to offer to the Attorney. 
 If the Chief will not resign then the whole thing 
 stops, for a while at least. 
 
 ' I do not think the Attorney will be Chief Justice. 
 What do you say ? Then what a business. I en- 
 close to you Lord L.'s Letter to me, by which you 
 will perceive it is a measure of Government. 
 
 ' However much I deprecate this transaction, and 
 believe me I do so as sincerely as you do yourself, I 
 
198 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 still think that a Government has a right to expect 
 that an Attorney-General should accept the situation 
 of Chief Justice when offered, and not consider the 
 office he holds a permanent one. What the devil is 
 to be done with Bushe and Norbury I know not.' 1 
 
 Of the minor personages, if indeed I may place 
 him among them, mentioned in the letters, Saurin 
 stands out as the most striking. There seems to be 
 a ring of affection in the voice of such different 
 personalities as Peel, Lord Whitworth, Lord Talbot, 
 Mr. Goulburn, when they speak of him. 
 
 He was of mixed race. The grandson of a 
 French Huguenot, he had a quick eye for a possible 
 assassin in every Papist, and had St. Bartholomew 
 always in his mind, while some drops of Scottish 
 blood in his veins gave him tenacity. 
 
 At the time of the Union he had been its vehement 
 opponent, had scorned bribes of high place, and 
 declared it to be a violation of every moral principle, 
 and even doubted whether it ought not to be resisted 
 by force. He had turned the Irish Bar into a volun- 
 teer corps when a French invasion was expected, and 
 may have hankered to lead it into action in one 
 
 1 ' My belief is that Lord Liverpool will offer you the Home Depart- 
 ment, all the formerly existing reasons for which are increased by the 
 alarming state of affairs in Ireland. Grant is certainly to be recalled. 
 And I believe Lord Liverpool will again apply to Goulburn (or has 
 already) to succeed him. ... I have not heard distinctly what Plun- 
 ket is to have, but I hear Attorney-General Saurin being promoted to 
 be Chief Justice. I learn also that old Norbury has been asked to 
 retire, and that he has declined, I daresay not without a jest.' — Croker 
 to Teel, November 1821. 
 
SAUHIN 199 
 
 direction or another. A saying of his at this time 
 was often quoted against him afterwards, that ' de- 
 bates might sometimes produce agitation, but that 
 was the price necessarily paid for liberty.' 
 
 In the Duke of Richmond's time, however, he 
 came into collision with O'Connell, and soon lost, 
 in the eyes of the people, the name of patriot. 
 
 He was the Hercules of Orangeism. No sooner 
 did O'Connell re-establish the Catholic Board or 
 Catholic Committee by some new name, than 
 Saurin's quick eye saw the new head rising, and 
 springing upon it destroyed it with the sword of the 
 law. 
 
 He and Lord Manners were called the Gog and 
 Magog of the Orange Party, and were often carica- 
 tured as they walked arm in arm to the Four Courts 
 as * the brothers in law.' 
 
 In spite of ' a certain sweetness in his glance,' his 
 expression struck a stranger as harsh and stern, and 
 his foreign blood was very noticeable. Having 
 walked down Piccadilly one day in his blue coat and 
 buff waistcoat, arm in arm with the Duke of Bedford, 
 a friend said to his Grace when they parted, ' I sup- 
 pose that was your Jew.' 
 
 This extract from one of Mr. Gregory's letters to 
 Lord Talbot will show his conservatism on matters 
 of religion : — 
 
 April 27, 1814. 
 
 * The Attorney General was in my room when 
 the Express arrived ; I read to him your observations 
 
200 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 on Insolvent Debtors. I also read to him what you 
 said of assimilating the Law in Ireland to what passed 
 last year in England, for relieving the Persons from 
 Penalties who impugn the Trinity. He shook his 
 head at the Introduction of any religious novelties in 
 Ireland, but will look into the Act. I think the 
 Athanasian Creed will stand in the Statute Book as 
 well as the Liturgy.' 
 
 However, he agreed to the innovation, for a letter 
 of May 9 says : — 
 
 4 The Attorney-General says he has written to 
 you on the Insolvent Act. Townsand is preparing 
 the two bills, one respecting the Trinity, and the 
 other for recovering Labourers' Wages.' 
 
 He had a distaste for criminal business. Bushe 
 tells of the indignation of Admiral Packenham at his 
 not coming in person to lead some prosecution, and 
 his still greater indignation at the reason. ' I have 
 no idea,' he cried, ' of a sentimental hangman' 
 
 Those who cared for him would have acted a 
 kinder part if they had given him some warning of 
 his approaching fate. Even his second self, Lord 
 Manners, resisted the usual impulse of a friend to 
 hint at coming misfortune. He was stunned when 
 Lord Wellesley struck the unexpected blow. In his 
 first soreness he refused the Chief Justiceship and 
 the proffered Peerage. They seemed to him a poor 
 consolation for the authority he had seized as Attor- 
 
SAURIN 201 
 
 ney-General in the time of the easy-going Duke of 
 Eichmond, and had held unquestioned ever since. 
 
 Iiord Wellesley told Mr. Lamb afterwards : — ' I 
 think it right before leaving Ireland to prepare you 
 for hearing it asserted by Mr. Saurin's friends that 
 he was an ill-treated man. Now I offered him the 
 office of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. 
 That was not ill-treating him. I further offered him 
 a peerage. In truth I had nothing else to offer 
 except the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland. To that, 
 however, there were two objections — First, he had 
 already held the office for fifteen years ; and next, I — /, 
 was the Viceroy ! ' 
 
 Saurin's imprudent letter to Lord Norbury urging 
 him to use his influence while on circuit for political 
 ends, or rather the discovery of that letter, had given 
 occasion to the enemy to triumph. Lord Norbury, 
 who was of an economical turn, had stuffed this 
 letter with others under the lining of his armchair 
 to make up for some deficiency of horsehair. The 
 chair in process of time being beyond amateur efforts, 
 was sent to an upholsterer, who discovered and 
 published the letter. Such at least was the story, 
 and it may have suggested the famous ' black bag ' 
 to the mind of the late Mr. Pigott. 
 
 But though his friends lamented this indiscretion, 
 they still held him dear, and grieved at his fall. 
 Even the Catholics spoke gently of him. Sheil says : 
 1 Whatever were his faults, duplicity was not one of 
 them. I saw him in the height of his power and in 
 
202 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 his fall. He was meek in his prosperity, and in his 
 adverse fortune he was serene.' 
 
 And he gives a touching account of him after his 
 deposition : — ' When he was first deprived of office I 
 watched him in the Hall. The public eye was upon 
 him, and the consciousness of general observation in 
 calamity inflicts peculiar pain. The joyous alacrity 
 of Plunket was less a matter of comment than the 
 resigned demeanour of his fallen rival. Eichard was 
 as much gazed on as Bolingbroke. It was said by 
 most of those who saw him that he looked as cheer- 
 ful as ever. In fact he looked more cheerful, and 
 that appeared to me to give evidence of the constraint 
 which he put upon himself. There was a forced 
 hilarity about him, he wore an alertness and vivacity 
 which were not made for his temperament. His 
 genuine smile is flexible and easy, but upon this 
 occasion it lingered with a mechanical procrastination 
 upon the lips, which showed that it did not take its 
 origin at the heart. There was also too ready a 
 proffer of the hand to his old friends, who gave him 
 a warm but a silent squeeze. I thought him a subject 
 for study, and followed him into the Court of Chan- 
 cery. He discharged his business with more than 
 his accustomed diligence and skill, but when his part 
 was done and he bent his head over a huge brief, the 
 pages of which he seemed to turn without a con- 
 sciousness of their contents, I have heard him heave 
 at intervals a low siffli. When he returned again to 
 the Hall I have observed him in a moment of pro- 
 
 
SIR HARCOURT LEES 203 
 
 fessional leisure, while he was busied with his own 
 solitary thoughts, and I would perceive a gradual 
 languor stealing over the melancholy mirth which he 
 had been personating before. His figure too was 
 bent and depressed as he walked back to the Court 
 of Chancery, and before he passed through the green 
 curtains which divide it from the Hall, I have seen 
 him pause for an instant and throw a look at the 
 King's Bench. It was momentary, but too full of 
 expression to be casual, and seemed to unite in its 
 despondency a deep sense of the wrong which he had 
 sustained from his friends and the more painful 
 injury which he had inflicted upon himself.' 
 
 Mr. Saurin never held office again. He died in 
 1839. 
 
 In early life he had been ill-treated in love, having 
 been thrown over by a young lady to whom he was 
 attached in favour of a future Earl of Limerick. But 
 with more philosophy than he showed in his other 
 great reverse he did not waste his time in sighs, but 
 married and lived happily with a sister of the Marquis 
 of Thomond. 
 
 Lord Wellesley was less successful in dethroning 
 another potentate. An amusing account of a ball at 
 Dublin tells how, seated on his throne, he ' shot his 
 fine and indignant eye into the soul of Sir Harcourt 
 Lees, who received it with a grin and showed that a 
 theologian was not to be put down by a frown.' 
 
 This Sir Harcourt Lees was no doubt a thorn in 
 the side of the Viceroy, being the oracle of the 
 
204 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 militant Orange party, an excitable man who 
 believed that every ' Papist ' in Ireland was thirsting 
 for his blood, and was so nervous that he could not 
 sleep in a house where even the striking of a clock 
 was heard. He had great influence in Ulster. There 
 is a story that my grandmother, a sister of Chief 
 Baron O'Grady, her son being quartered in the 
 North, wrote to beg Sir Harcourt ' not to let the 
 riots begin till William's regiment had left.' 
 
 Saurin's companion at arms, the Chancellor, Lord 
 Manners, was an English importation, described as 
 looking like the ghost of Charles the First, and was 
 pelted with descriptive burrs by the Catholics. 
 O'Connell, taking the lead, declared him to have ' the 
 natural propensity of a small mind to the practical 
 details of intolerance,' and said with some felicity of 
 expression, ' He is a bad lawyer, but the most sensible- 
 looking man talking nonsense I ever saw.' 
 
 Sheil said he made the administration of justice 
 in the Irish Chancery ' the subject of Lord Eedesdale's 
 laughter and Lord Eldon's tears.' Curran said ' He 
 is ready for any mischief. In private he is a 
 pleasant dull man.' The most congenial side of his 
 character in Irish eves was his love of woodcock 
 shooting, which he was able to gratify during the 
 Christmas holidays. He was always said to be irri- 
 table and fidgety as that time drew near, lest any 
 drawn-out suit should interfere with his anticipated 
 sport. Mr. Plunket used to declare that on the 
 name of Mr. Hitchcock, a member of the Bar, being 
 
LORD NORBURY D05 
 
 suddenly called he would start, under the illusion of 
 its being the ' Hish ! Cock ! ' of the beaters. 
 
 He was said to suffer from ' inertness of intellect.' 
 Plunket would torture him by subtle reasonings he 
 could not follow. Then he would look appealingly 
 at Saurin, and ask for twenty-four hours to clear his 
 thoughts. 
 
 He set his face steadfastly against emancipation. 
 He had given Lady Morgan a lesson in salad making, 
 but afterwards, on reading her book ' O'Donnell,' he 
 found her sympathies were with the Catholics. 
 Thereupon he ordered the book to be burned in the 
 servants' hall, and said regretfully to his wife, * I 
 wish I had not given her the secret of my salad ! ' 
 
 For all that, he became infected by the natural 
 tendency to rebellion that lurks in Irish air, and he 
 for some time refused to put the great seal to the 
 appointment of Doherty as Solicitor-General. 
 
 He was succeeded in 1827 by Sir Anthony Hart, 
 whose short history as Chancellor might be made up 
 of negatives. He had no religious or political sym- 
 pathies, no wife, gave no dinners, and no one of his 
 decisions was ever reversed. O'Connell said of him 
 and his predecessor that one was law without 
 manners, and the other manners without law. 
 
 Lord Norbury was another ingredient of what 
 one must call the upper crust of bigotry. He was 
 indifferently called the hanging, the duelling, and 
 the punning judge. He was the Jeffreys of '98, and 
 the country people say of him even now that ' he 
 
206 ME. GREGORYS LETTER-EOX 
 
 would hang a man as soon as cut the head off a 
 rush.' 
 
 I had in my childhood an old nurse who had 
 lived in the family of the pardoned rebel, Hamilton 
 Eowan, and I remember her telling that she had 
 come to the breakfast room one morning with the 
 children, when suddenly Eowan flung away the 
 newspaper he was reading, and seizing a knife dashed 
 it at a picture of Lord Norbury, that hung on the 
 wall, and slashed it across the face. It was probably 
 some harsh judgment or decision of his that had 
 stirred the bile of the old patriot. 
 
 He was certainly left upon the Bench too long — 
 Brougham showed that he had fallen asleep in Court 
 during a trial for murder. ' I'll resign to demand 
 satisfaction,' said Lord Norbury, who had been out 
 with Fighting Fitzgerald in his day. ' That Scottish 
 Broom wants to be made acquainted with an Irish 
 stick.' 
 
 Tradition says that when his dismissal was 
 hinted at, he called on Mr. Gregory and said ' I 
 began life with 500/. and a case of duelling pistols. 
 Here they are — and if I get a letter from the Castle 
 that I don't like, whoever writes it will have to deal 
 with them.' 1 
 
 Mr. Gregory writes to Peel in 1816: 'Lord 
 Norbury has got the whooping cough — do not laugh, 
 the fact is positively so — but he will not give in, and 
 proposes attending the Court to-morrow.' 
 
 It is to be hoped Mr. Peel did not laugh, for I 
 
BUSHE 207 
 
 find by sympathetic allusions in Lord Talbot's letters 
 that about a dozen years later he was himself afflicted 
 with the same malady, which seems in those days to 
 have been ambitious in its choice of victims. 
 
 Lord Talbot writes on April 16, 1824 : — 'I con- 
 gratulate you upon Lord Norbury's resignation. 
 Eeally this is a blessing to Ireland ! Poor old man, 
 his mind has long been unequal to the arduous 
 duties of a Judge.' 
 
 Of ' the silver-tongued Bushe,' nothing but good 
 is to be heard. The letter written by him describing 
 the impression made on him by the king at Slane 
 shows that he possessed a silver pen also. It has 
 been given to me by his granddaughter, who writes, 
 ' It affords a curious proof of the effect of manner, 
 for the charm of the finest gentleman in Europe 
 evidently blinded my grandfather to the terrible 
 defects of a character which was " Charles to his 
 subjects, Henry to his wife." I suppose two better 
 bred men never met, but the one was a heartless 
 reprobate, the other nearer perfection than any man 
 who in the course of a long life I have ever known.' 
 Against him at least no Devil's Advocate has arisen. 
 
 Curran says of him ' He hands up a point of law 
 with as much grace and pliancy of gesture as if he 
 were presenting a Court lady with a fan.' He was 
 one of the great orators before the Union. An old 
 lady, an aunt of my husband's, used to tell of a ball 
 she had been at in Dublin, which was suddenly 
 broken up because word had come that Bushe was 
 
208 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 going to speak. Even the ladies hurried off in their 
 ball dresses to the House of Parliament to hear him 
 who, as Grattan declared, spoke with the lips of an 
 angel. 
 
 Mr. Goulburn was sent as a pendant to Lord 
 Wellesley, to keep even the balance between Protes- 
 tant and Catholic claims. It would indeed hardly 
 have been possible to have carried on business had 
 Grant and the new Viceroy been left to work 
 together. Their mutual distaste for pen and ink 
 would soon have made Ireland become an unknown 
 country to the Cabinet. 
 
 Mr. Goulburn's letters breathe benevolence. He 
 and the Under-Secretary at once became friends. He 
 stayed at Mr. Gregory's house while his own was 
 being made ready, and even extended his amiability 
 so far as to act as escort to the little grandson coming 
 back from school. He was sent to smooth down the 
 feelings of Protestants, somewhat ruffled by Grant's 
 treatment, and he won golden opinions even from the 
 other side from his mastery of the routine of busi- 
 ness, and attention to detail, as befitted a future 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 O'Connell, however, sneered at his 'limited 
 intellect,' and described him as ' a hired advocate 
 whose official duty obliged him to act as protector of 
 abuses in Ireland,' and as having been sent as ' a check 
 over the Lord Lieutenant, fearing his Excellency would 
 be too favourable to liberty.' 
 
 And more lately he has been written of as 'a 
 
MR. GOULBURN 209 
 
 member of the Orange Society who will long be 
 remembered with a chill.' 
 
 He showed more bigotry than one likes to 
 hear of in refusing naturalisation to the Italian, 
 Bianconi, who by his public car system had done so 
 much in opening up the country, on account of his 
 religion. His not being a winebibber was probably 
 looked on as a more serious cause of offence in the 
 Dublin society of that day, and Mr. Gregory must 
 have grieved to find so unusual a lack of appre- 
 ciation of his carefully bottled hogsheads of claret. 
 
 Moore wrote of him in ' Captain Eock : ' — 
 
 * A Secretary worthy of the good old Anti-Popery 
 times, and to whose spirit I would ensure a safe 
 passage over Mahomet's bridge into Paradise, if 
 narrowness (as is probable) be a qualification for the 
 performance of that hairbreadth promenade.' Mr. 
 Goulburn, however, bore no malice, and afterwards 
 amiably hobnobbed with the satirist, meeting him 
 one evening at a dinner party. 
 
 In spite of his ' narrowness ' on the subject of 
 emancipation, Mr. Goulburn conferred real benefits 
 upon Ireland. He put the Constabulary system on a 
 more secure basis, and began the formation of a 
 stipendiary Magistracy, still one of the chief pillars 
 of law and order. It was not only Mr. Grant who 
 had complained of the existing Magistracy. Mr. 
 Gregory had written to Mr. Peel so early as 1813 : — 
 ' Indeed, I am sorry there is a mulish conduct here 
 which is quite unwarrantable, and only because 
 
 i' 
 
210 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 everything is not carried on exactly as they wish, 
 whether with or without law.' This letter is docketed 
 ' Mulish conduct on the part of the Magistrates of 
 Westmeath.' 
 
 And in 1814 he wrote, with reference to threat- 
 ened disturbance in Co. Cavan : 'The Magistrates, 
 knowing the temper of the people in those counties, 
 ought of themselves to assemble with an armed 
 force to preserve the peace of the country, but every 
 man has discharged his Duty when he has made a 
 Communication to the Castle. We, or rather I, have 
 grievously offended Colonel Wolfe for presuming to 
 communicate with any Magistrate but himself in the 
 Co. of Kildare. He is the most huffy and impracti- 
 cable man I ever met with — he does not require the 
 Kind's licence to change his name to Goose.' 
 
 To Mr. Goulburn may also be given the credit of 
 the improvement in the gaols. He reformed the Acts 
 relating to them in 1826. 
 
 In 1815, Mr. Gregory had written of them : — 
 
 ' I have this day visited Newgate and the Sheriff's 
 prison ; they are disgraceful to Humanity, nor do I 
 know how they can be improved, as they are so much 
 too small for the number of prisoners confined. lam 
 going to make some room in Newgate by removing 
 many of the Convicts to Kilmainham ; but I want the 
 City Grand Jury to present a sufficient sum to cloath 
 them in any coarse apparel from this to the time of 
 transportation. It is scandalous that they have not 
 
ME. GOULBURN'S REFORMS 2!1 
 
 good clothing. New prisons ought to be built, 
 instead of presenting for useless Bridges.' 
 
 And in 1821 Commissioners had been appointed 
 to inspect the prisons, and found them with very few 
 exceptions ' scenes of filth, fraud, without accommo- 
 dation, clothing, classification, employment, inspec- 
 tion, school instruction, order, or cleanliness. The 
 law totally disregarded, male and female prisoners 
 often not separated, spirits sold openly in many gaols, 
 and frequently by the under officers. . . . The fami- 
 lies of prisoners were often fed from the overplus food 
 furnished to each prisoner, who kept little bags of 
 meal in their rooms to hand over to their relatives on 
 market days.' 
 
 The Act of 1826 provided for the necessary 
 reforms, and for matrons for the female prisoners, 
 whom the Quakers took under their wing. Hospitals 
 were provided, and discipline was restored. The local 
 ' Black Holes,' where prisoners were kept for months 
 without trial, and only saved from suffocation by 
 being allowed to sleep out at night on parole, were 
 swept away or reformed. Mr. Goulburn took great 
 pains with the Act, altering, correcting, and word- 
 ing it himself. He also reformed and added to the 
 number of lunatic asylums. 
 
 The most pressing and important work that fell 
 on Mr. Goulburn on his arrival in Ireland was the 
 feeding of the people, and to this both he and Mr. 
 Gregory set their hand vigorously, not I think with 
 any ulterior idea of ' killing emancipation with kind- 
 
212 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ness,' but because of natural goodness of heart, and 
 because it was the duty that lay straight before them. 
 
 A bad harvest and a threatened famine had caused 
 the bubble of enthusiam created by the King's visit 
 to burst. The people no longer believed that the 
 royal touch was to bring a cure for all their ills, and 
 the scarcity of 1817 proved to have been but an 
 undress rehearsal for the famine of 1822. 
 
 It almost seems as if Sir Walter Kaleisrh, when 
 he butchered in cold blood the garrison of Smerwick, 
 did a less grievous wrong to Ireland than on the day 
 when he planted the first potato in his garden at 
 Youghal. 
 
 It was so easy in a good year to scratch up the 
 soil, put in the seed, and then sit down or wander 
 away during the ripening of the crop, that the effect 
 on the industrial habits of the people was disastrous. 
 Mr. Gregory, in a letter to Mr. Peel, gives an account 
 of the usual mode of proceeding : — ' A stranger may 
 not know that after planting the potato gardens, the 
 cabins are shut and the male adult population go to 
 England or the vicinity of Dublin for work, and the 
 women and children traverse the country as beggars 
 and return home when the potatoes are ripe.' Thus 
 families multiplied, each new generation scratched up 
 another patch of ground, planted more potatoes, and 
 started life with no better outlook than their fathers 
 had done. 
 
 The ' Lumper ' was one of the unlucky gifts 
 brought to Ireland at the birth of this century. It 
 
 
THE FAMINE OF '22 213 
 
 was a large, coarse, innutritious potato, only thought 
 fit for pigs, but so easy to grow even on poor soil, 
 and with little labour, that it largely took the place 
 of better sorts, and encouraged more than ever the 
 setting up of homesteads built on so insecure a 
 foundation. 
 
 But in 1822, after many warnings, came a wet 
 season, blight, and failure of the means of existence. 
 The potatoes had rotted in the ground in the preced- 
 ing autumn, so that there was but a short supply on 
 which to live until the coming in of the new crop. 
 When the spring came, the little stock saved for seed 
 was sacrificed to the calls of hunger. By the middle 
 of April potatoes had risen from a penny to sixpence 
 or even eightpence a stone. Meal grew dear also. 
 The people had no means of earning money to buy it, 
 no work or wages were to be had. Some crowded to 
 the towns, fearing to be left face to face with their 
 gaunt enemy, but only to be seized by fever and 
 scrofula. Some looked to crime and the consequent 
 imprisonment as preferable to immediate death. 
 When meal was sold at a low price by charitable 
 effort, police and yeomanry had to keep the pur- 
 chasers back by force from a famished rush at 
 the food they were within reach of. The accounts 
 published from the different counties were heart- 
 rending. Sir Edward O'Brien is said, when reading 
 to the House of Commons the accounts he had 
 received from Clare, to have burst into tears and 
 been unable to go on speaking. 
 
214 ME. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 And Vesey Fitzgerald writes from London to Mr. 
 Gregory, ' The accounts from Clare make one's heart 
 sick. I should have gone over instantly on my 
 arrival if I could have been liberated here. But I 
 have not yet seen the King, and he is now for a week 
 at Windsor.' 
 
 This is from a Mr. Colpoys to Sir Edward 
 O'Brien :— 
 
 ' " What are we doing in Clare." I can assure 
 you, My Dear Sir Edward, we are most of us working 
 like horses. I give out oatmeal here to our poor 
 starving parishioners (assisted by Vandeleur and 
 Howitt) on Mondays and Thursdays to a late hour, a 
 third day is devoted to attending the Central Com- 
 mittee in Ennis, and a fourth to the Baronial Commit- 
 tee in Newmarket. This is an exact picture of what is 
 doing throughout the County ; but unless you saw 
 them you could not conceive how painful a duty it is 
 to serve the poor creatures. When you come amongst 
 us you will see many a lengthened visage and sallow 
 cheek in place of the round face and ruddy counte- 
 nance you left behind you. The amount of the local 
 subscriptions is in most Baronies exhausted, and the 
 impoverished gentry of the Country are unable to 
 afFord more — not a penny of rent to be had, so that 
 many of our men of moderate fortunes who could 
 and would readily have given their fifties and hundreds 
 last year find it difficult now to pay twenties and 
 thirties. The supplies afforded us by our generous 
 
THE FAMINE OF '22 215 
 
 friends in England come in as yet but slowly. We 
 have had, for example, three orders on that fund in 
 this parish hitherto, each received only the day before 
 that of distribution, when we had to send to Limerick 
 for the meal, and this keeps us in a constant state of 
 alarm as the numbers in want of relief are increasing 
 every day. Many, many of the poor creatures had 
 pawned or sold their clothes or bedding before they 
 asked for gratuitous relief, and unless employment is 
 immediately found for them so as to enable them to 
 buy they will all soon be complete paupers.' 
 
 The good old Archbishop of Tuam writes from 
 Castlebar to the Chief Secretary : — 
 
 June 6, 1822. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, — I pray you forgive this importu- 
 nity — the urgency of the case requires it. 
 
 ' I am just returned from Westport and Newport, 
 and a tour of 24 miles through crowds of half 
 starved miserable men, women and children. I 
 assure you, Sir, hundreds and thousands are depend- 
 ing upon half a Meal of oatmeal and water per day, 
 and many have not even that, and are feeding upon 
 nettles ; this, rely upon it, is no exaggeration. 
 
 ' Upon you I feel at this moment depend the 
 lives of multitudes of our people. Thousands of pounds 
 alone will save them, a proportion of 50,000/. to each 
 of the distressed counties (if they are all like Mayo 
 and Galway) will not answer the purpose. I now 
 
216 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 leave these unhappy quiet patient sufferers in your 
 hands, and pray God may direct your determination. 
 
 ' &c. &c. &c. 
 ' Power Tuam.' 
 
 And again next day : — 
 
 ' If it were possible to strengthen my statement of 
 yesterday, I have now most frightful means. Here 
 I am in the midst of approaching general starvation 
 and passed through large bodies of half famished 
 people seeking a most scanty meal from feeble but 
 utmost local efforts to relieve them. I again say if 
 Thousands are not sent into the County of Mayo and 
 the County of Galway immediately, Thousands will 
 die of actual hunger. The 50,000/. already voted to 
 afford employment to the distressed counties in 
 Ireland (and how and upon what conditions we as 
 yet know not how to seek for a proportion of it) is 
 totally inadequate. Four times that sum would be 
 little enough if I am to judge of what is called the 
 distressed Counties in Ireland by these two unhappy 
 Counties. Instances already have occurred of death 
 by actual starvation, what must be the event before 
 the end of Ten weeks which we must be prepared to 
 meet. I repeat what I did last night, that all this 
 sad visitation of Providence is suffered with perfect 
 patience by the unhappy sufferers, and all is yet 
 peace and quiet. I visit Westport and Newport to- 
 morrow, where I know I shall find matters worse if 
 possible than what I have already seen.' 
 
THE FAMINE OF '22 217 
 
 I am sflad to be able to oive the answer : — 
 
 o 
 
 Irish Office : June 10, 1822. 
 
 ' My dear Gregory, — I enclose another letter from 
 the Archbishop received this morning. Do not, I 
 entreat, let any circumstance prevent a liberal supply 
 to him either of money or of provision or both with- 
 out delay. 
 
 'Henry Goulburn. 
 
 (Note.— 2,000/. to A. B. Tuam without delay.) ' 
 
 Mr. Teel during the scarcity of 1817 had laid 
 down the principle of finding out to what extent 
 the local gentry could or would help the people, and 
 advancing from public funds sums of money in aid of 
 their subscriptions. 
 
 Mr. Gregory was strongly in favour of this policy. 
 In 1819, during a partial famine, he had written to 
 Mr. Grant : — 
 
 ' . . . I confess to you that I am adverse to the 
 plan of sending Potatoes to the South in the Manner 
 you propose, not from any doubt of the great partial 
 Distress, but from the principle that the Govt, are 
 not on all occasions to be the first resort when any 
 pressure occurs without the Gentry contributing to 
 the relief of their impoverished Tenantry. Some of 
 the Letters I receive on this subject are very 
 distressing, but they generally couple the want of 
 

 218 MR. GREGORYS LETTER-BOX 
 
 Employment with the want of food. The former 
 the Government cannot supply, and without it how 
 can the Poor purchase food even if brought in 
 abundance to their Door. . . .' 
 
 And again : — 
 
 ' . . . I send you my answer to the Memorial 
 from certain Baronies in Wexford, requesting Aid 
 from the Government for the purchase of Potatoes. 
 It would be impossible and impolitic to yield to such 
 partial applications. The Gentlemen of the Country 
 should make some Exertions themselves, and not 
 expect only to draw Eents from their Tenantry and 
 lean on the Government to relieve their Wants. . . .' 
 
 I see little difference between the above sentence 
 and the famous ' Property has its duties as well as 
 its rights,' of a successor of Mr. Gregory, which 
 caused so much commotion. The change of ideas 
 on the subject is so complete that to-day the Irish 
 landowner has vainly to proclaim to an unlistening 
 world that property has its rights as well as its 
 duties. 
 
 Disaffection, as usual, came in with hunger, but I 
 need only give one or two letters indicating the 
 different quarters in which it was giving cause for 
 anxiety. 
 
 Mr. Gregory writes to Mr.Goulburn, March 5, 1822: 
 
 ' I regret to communicate to you that the Ribbon 
 
RIBBONISM IN THE ARMY 219 
 
 system has found its way into the army, and that 
 some soldiers of the 44 th Eegiment quartered in this 
 City have been sworn. 
 
 ' The report was made to us by one of the Informers 
 a few days since, but I delayed writing to you on it 
 till I was satisfied of the Fact, of which there is no 
 longer any doubt. The number sworn is not yet 
 ascertained, but I understand Colonel Morrison the 
 commanding officer thinks it has spread amongst 
 many of them. I fear the Publicity of this matter, 
 as it may produce injurious Consequences — but that 
 it will soon be known there is no doubt — our Cabinet 
 for the Investigation of these matters consists of too 
 many members, and I find there is no State Secret in 
 Dublin. . . In addition to this information, the same 
 informant has communicated that six men of the 29th 
 regiment, also quartered here, have been sworn. 
 This I will have investigated, and hope it may not 
 be so well corroborated as the account of the 44th.' 
 
 And on March 6 : — 
 
 ' I am sorry that the accounts from the County of 
 Cork are again assuming an unfavourable appearance. 
 Enclosed is a letter from Mr. Otway, a Eoman 
 Catholic Gentleman living in Kanturk, oivino' accounts 
 of several outrages in that neiohbourhood. These 
 are confirmed by a letter from the Eevd. Mr. Cope, 
 protestant Clergyman of the same Town, who thinks 
 his representations are entitled to great Authority as 
 he is in no danger from its behii* known that his 
 
220 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 sentiments are in favour of the Catholics — a proper 
 Goose. 
 
 ' From the mode of robbing for provisions and 
 killing the live Cattle and salting them, the taking of 
 Blankets and bedding, it appears that the Malcontents 
 are looking to take the field. Great numbers of Cattle 
 have been taken and disposed of in the same manner 
 in the County of Limerick, and several good houses 
 burned near Newcastle.' 
 
 And again : — 
 
 ' July 11. — Sergeant Lefroy returned yesterday 
 from Kilkenny, where he prosecuted in the criminal 
 Court, in consequence of the Chief Justice's illness, 
 lie gives an alarming account of the state of that 
 county, and amongst the many bad symptoms he con- 
 siders the interruption to the administration of Justice 
 the worst. Every Protestant was challenged as a 
 Juror, and none but Catholics left to try the Prisoners, 
 some acquitted of atrocious and already proved 
 murders, and frequently the Jurors became parties 
 in the trials, and examined the Witnesses as if they 
 had been counsels for the Prisoners. 
 
 ' I do not know whether you are aware that the 
 city of Kilkenny is supposed to contain more dis- 
 affection than any part of Ireland. Happ} 7 spot ! ' 
 
 By the help of Government and still more of private 
 charity the people struggled at last through this dark 
 year. It is almost forgotten now in the greater horrors 
 of the famine of the forties. 
 
THE CATHOLIC QUESTION 221 
 
 Last May, I was looking across Galway Bay to 
 the Connemara Mountains, and an old fisherman, 
 following my thoughts, said, ' There's many gardens 
 over there where the pitaties is not sowed at all yet, 
 by cause of the rain. But with the will o' God the 
 harvest might be good yet, and there's no use in 
 giving up. But it's there they had the bad time in 
 the famine ! It was bad enough here, an' hardly two 
 families left in some o' the villages that were in it a 
 hundred years ago. But over there in Connemara, 
 it's the dogs that brought the dead bodies out of 
 the houses, and asked no leave.' 
 
 Mr. Goulburn's letters, being written during his 
 attendance in Parliament, are chiefly occupied with 
 the proceedings there. I give some that bear on the 
 question of Catholic emancipation. 
 
 Irish Office : May 27, 1824. 
 
 'Nothing can have been more judicious than your 
 whole course of proceeding with the Chancellor. 1 
 We had to a degree anticipated your suggestion, and 
 the King has personally directed Lord Eldon to 
 state as from him the reason which induced him to 
 insist upon the Chancellor remaining another year in, 
 or until the Catholic Question be one way or other 
 decided in the course of next session. In this 
 feeling the whole Cabinet, Catholic as well as Protestant, 
 
 1 The King had refused to make Plunket Chancellor because of his 
 Catholic sympathies, and, in spite of Canning, had desired the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury to write and desire Lord Manners to hold the 
 seal for another year. 
 
222 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 concur. All alike deprecate a change now ; a dis- 
 cussion whether Lord Gifford should take the office 
 or whether it should be conferred on the Attorney- 
 General could not take place at a more inconvenient 
 moment to all. Many reasons induce me to hope, 
 and I do believe that Lord Manners will remain. 
 Lady Manners wishes it, the King has asked it, there 
 are no more questions of appeal from his decisions 
 until next year, he has no gout, but little business, 
 and a prospect of a better flight of cocks next year 
 than he had the last. As soon as you can set us at 
 ease on this point let me hear from you. 
 
 ' 1 have written to-day to the Lord Lieute- 
 nant to inform him of the new Peerages which are 
 to take place on the dissolution. Lord Clanricarde 
 of course is to be an English peer, and to keep the 
 Balance even, Lord Thomond is to receive a similar 
 honor. These will not excite any observation. The 
 antiquity of the family of Lord C. makes his eleva- 
 tion not unreasonable, independent of his connection 
 with Mr. Canning, and Lord Thomond is on every 
 account much respected, and has the strongest claim 
 to the distinction. Lord Northland is to be an 
 Earl. This is not quite so happy or so reasonable. 
 Lord Liverpool's only defence of it is that it has been 
 the dying request of Lord Granville to redeem a 
 pledge many years before made by him that the 
 Knox family in addition to all their other honours 
 and advantages should have an Earldom also. 
 
 ' The King has acquiesced, but not very generously 
 
THE CATHOLIC QUESTION 223 
 
 (and for reasons which I will state to you when we 
 meet), in the Irish peerage for Fitzgerald's mother. . . 
 ' We are to be dissolved on 2nd June, Cambridge 
 election is on the 13th, and on the 20th I hope to 
 be with you, if not a successful at least a respectable 
 candidate. Pray send over all Cambridge voters 
 whom you see in Dublin, Blosse excepted, who 
 votes for Palmerston.' 
 
 Irish Office : May 19, 1825. 
 
 ' The decision in the Lords will have sufficiently 
 shewn you that there is still a feeling for the Con- 
 stitution as it stands in that body ; and from all I can 
 collect I believe that their feeling is in unison with 
 the feelings of this country. The decision surprised 
 me as much as it has done those who espouse the 
 Eoman Catholic cause. The latter had deluded 
 themselves, or at least had deluded others, by the 
 most absurd and exaggerated accounts of conversion, 
 and of Lord Liverpool's change of sentiment. The 
 result has proved that they were deluded. Our 
 Majority would have been 51 but for the unfortunate 
 death of Lord Whitworth and the foolish conduct 
 of the Duke of Northumberland and his brother, 
 who declined giving their proxies in deference to a 
 supposed feeling in favour of the E. Catholics on 
 the part of the French King. At the same time, 
 however, that this majority proves the feeling of 
 a large portion of the Legislature and Country 
 on this question, it has not removed the embar- 
 rassments of the situation in which we stand. I 
 
224 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 might say it has increased them. Had the majority 
 been very small, or but little more than the Bishops, 
 I think it would have been clearly the duty of those 
 who opposed the E. Cath. question on principle to 
 have left an opening for a settlement of the question 
 by withdrawing from the Government and allowing 
 an experiment to be made by those who thought 
 they could conduct it as to Catholic emancipation 
 with adequate securities. If the Country was inert 
 on the subject, it was fair to calculate that they 
 desired such an experiment, and under those circum- 
 stances I should undoubtedly have counselled the 
 resignation of Peel, Lord Liverpool and Lord Eldon. 
 But the propriety of such a course appears to me to 
 be now much altered. I believe that a Government 
 could not make an arrangement of the Question in 
 the face of the decision of the House of Lords and of 
 the growing feeling all over this country against it. 
 The effect, therefore, of any Govt, undertaking it 
 would be to overturn them and to leave the King in 
 the situation of having no materials out of which 
 to form a Govt, to succeed them. Under these 
 circumstances I think it may be a public duty to 
 continue the Government as it is, and although 
 many circumstances which have occurred make it 
 extremely unpleasant personally to those whom I 
 have mentioned to continue in the Government, } T et 
 upon the whole I think it may be their duty to do 
 so. What their decision will be I do not at present 
 know, reel's situation as the Irish Minister is the 
 
LORD LIVERPOOL'S ILLNESS 225 
 
 most awkward and the more embarrassing as beinsi 
 the only Protestant Minister in the House of Commons. 
 But he will not do anything rash, though his feeling 
 is undoubtedly for retirement. Should Lord Liver- 
 pool and Peel retire, it is most probable that I shall 
 accompany them. Should Peel alone withdraw I 
 shall be in a most disagreeable difficulty, as his 
 withdrawal would rest upon purely a personal 
 feeling. Should they decide upon continuing in 
 office things will for the present remain as they are, 
 and all these disagreeable contests and divisions will 
 have to be renewed in the ensuing session of Parlia- 
 ment. You shall be the first to know what step is 
 likely to be taken. I have given you very hastily 
 an outline of what is under deliberation. You will 
 of course consider it quite confidential, and say 
 nothing yet to any one whatever.' 
 
 Irish Office : February 17, 1827- 
 
 4 1 called this morning upon Peel, with a view to 
 the discussion of the course proper to be pursued on 
 the Roman Catholic question, when in the middle of 
 our discussion a message was brought to us that 
 Lord Liverpool had been attacked by Apoplexy. 
 He had as usual received his letters at breakfast, 
 and not having rung his bell as usual afterwards, 
 was found by his Servant senseless on the Floor. 1 
 Remedies were immediately applied, and he is par- 
 
 1 The letter found in his hand was one from Stapleton, giving an 
 unfavourable account of Canning's health. 
 
226 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 tially restored to his senses, but his right side is 
 disabled, and the hopes of his further recovery very 
 slight. As a public man he may be reckoned as 
 dead. He has long been advised by his physicians 
 to give up public business, as likely to produce a 
 seizure of this kind, and whatever reasons he may 
 before have had to neglect their injunction will of 
 course cease to operate now. 
 
 ' I have lost in him a kind and amiable friend, 
 whose sound principle and practical piety entitled 
 him to every confidence and respect, and the Country 
 has lost an able and successful Minister, whose in- 
 tegrity never was questioned, and whose motives of 
 action were always pure and just. 
 
 ' It is useless to conceal from you (though, of 
 course, it is to you alone that I make the disclosure) 
 my opinion that this will break up the Government. 
 The embarrassments of the King in making a new 
 Government will be extreme. He cannot find Protes- 
 tants enough to make a Protestant Government, he 
 will not like a Catholic one, and I think that a mixed 
 one can go on no longer, deprived as it must be of 
 the Lord Chancellor and Lord Liverpool. At the 
 present moment all are too much stunned by the 
 blow to be able to form any rational calculation as 
 to the probable march of events. I will, therefore, 
 hazard no opinion. You may depend upon hearing 
 from me the moment I see even a ray of daylight. 
 
 ' As far as regards the E. Cath. question, the 
 death or retirement of Lord L. will be a serious 
 
 
SUGGESTIONS OF COMPROMISE 227 
 
 blow. It would appear as if God had determined to 
 punish us by depriving us of those best calculated 
 to defend the Church in the danger with which it is 
 threatened. But it is vain to attempt to scrutinise 
 his purpose. Before this event I had reason to 
 believe that we had a majority in the House of 
 Commons. I cannot say what may be the result 
 now. 
 
 ' Canning still continues ill, but they say he is 
 better. How wonderfully the removal of Lord 
 Londonderry and Lord Liverpool has opened the 
 path to his ambition, and how fearfully it will show 
 the vanity of human objects, if at the moment when 
 everything appears within his Grasp his health should 
 prevent his availing himself of the opening ! ' 
 
 Irish Office : March 9, 1827. 
 
 ' I write to you for information on a subject on 
 which your knowledge of Ireland may enable you to 
 give me an answer, and on which I think from some- 
 thing which I have heard to-day, that it may be 
 necessary to form an opinion. 1 have heard it sur- 
 mised from various quarters that it would be desirable 
 to compromise on the Catholic question by making 
 some concession on an assurance of no further as'ita- 
 tion of the question, and I am sure from what I have 
 observed of our opponents in the Government, that 
 many of them would willingly propose such an 
 arrangement. How far it would be possible to agree 
 to such an arrangement must necessarily depend upon 
 
223 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 its terms, but I should like to know your opinion of 
 what might safely be conceded. My own opinion at 
 present is that the Parliament, Privy Council, and 
 Bench must be exclusively Protestant. But I may 
 possibly over-estimate the danger, and I should be 
 very glad to know what you think of it. If we 
 could secure the points which I have mentioned, and 
 have a truce from further agitation of the question, 
 it would be perhaps worth while to open all other 
 offices to E. Catholics. But I only throw this out 
 for consideration, and should be glad to know what 
 would in your opinion be the effect of doing so. 
 The office of Sheriff is certainly an important one, 
 but if the Bench be Protestant there is less danger in 
 making a E. Cath. eligible to it, as the Protestant 
 Judges would not lightly select a bad Sheriff. 
 Turn the thing, however, in your mind, and let 
 me know your opinion, which I ask merely for my 
 own information.' 
 
 I. 0. : April 12, 1827. 
 
 ' The Duke of Wellington, Peel, Lord Bathurst, 
 Lord Westmorland, and Lord Melville, have deter- 
 mined to decline to be members of Canning's Govern- 
 ment. My own mind was previously made up, but 
 this confirms my determination. I expect, therefore, 
 to be out of office in a few days, but as no communi- 
 cation whatever has been made to me I go on as if I 
 were permanently fixed, and therefore you will not 
 mention the subject of this note to any one. It may 
 be that Canning may give up the attempt to form a 
 
MR. GOULBURN'S RETIREMENT 229 
 
 Government, but I think not. I can truly say that 
 we have not declined merely with a view to such a 
 result, but merely from a feeling that whatever his 
 wishes might be as to impartiality on the Eoman 
 Catholic question, it would be impossible for him to 
 prevent its material advancement by his elevation, 
 and to the material advancement of that question I 
 cannot consent. 
 
 ' You shall hear again from me to-morrow, or as 
 soon as anything definitive is known.' 
 
 Irish Office : April 14, 1827. 
 
 'Having received no application from Mr. Can- 
 ning, I to-day requested a common friend to intimate 
 to him that my office was at his disposal whenever it 
 suited his convenience to fill it up. I have written 
 to the Lord Lieutenant to apprise him of the step 
 which I have taken. I therefore consider myself in 
 effect out of office, though I continue to do the duties 
 of it until a successor shall be appointed. The 
 formation of the new Government proceeds rapidly. 
 Lord Granville, Foreign Affairs ; Mr. Huskisson, Home 
 Department ; Mr. Eobinson, Colonies with a Peerage ; 
 the Duke of Clarence the Admiralty, as Lord High 
 Admiral; Lord Anglesea, the Ordnance. I have 
 desired Bowles to go over to Dublin and collect my 
 private papers. I wish you would put that old 
 Housemaid at the Park, Mary Walsh, on an allowance 
 from office disbursements of 20/. a year. She is too 
 old and blind for a successor to maintain, and if 
 
230 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 removed she will have no subsistence whatever. I 
 wish this to be done because I am myself too poor to 
 make her such an allowance. 
 
 ' If I were to say that I did not regret my retire- 
 ment from Office, I should not say the truth. I have 
 formed many friendships in Ireland which I value 
 most highly, none more so than yours and Lady 
 Anne's, and it is a painful feeling to think how rarely 
 it may hereafter be my fortune to meet you. You 
 run no risk, I believe, from the new Government, 
 because we all part on friendly terms. . . . 
 
 ' Let me, my dear Gregory, in conclusion thank 
 you for all your kindness, your assistance and advice, 
 to which I feel more indebted than I can express, 
 and of which I can only say I shall always retain the 
 most grateful recollection.' 
 
 12 Manchester Square : May 1, 1827. 
 
 ' On my return from Cambridge I found Mr. W. 
 Lamb in possession of the Irish Office, and I therefore 
 presume that his appointment has either actually 
 taken place or is on the point of being effected. But 
 I have not had a line either from the Lord Lieutenant, 
 Mr. Canning or any other person connected with the 
 Government upon the subject, or indeed since I 
 intimated my determination to quit. The only mark 
 of attention which I have received is the sending 
 down the Solicitor-General to oppose me at Cambridge 
 — which, but for Mr. Canning's orders, I firmly 
 believe he would not have attempted. The conse- 
 
 
ME. PEEL'S RESIGNATION 231 
 
 quence is that my prospects of success, which were 
 otherwise most gratifying, are now very much the 
 contrary, and unless Mr. Bankes will consent to 
 withdraw, which I fear is not likely, the probability 
 is that I shall fail. Under these circumstances I 
 shall not attempt to come to the Poll, the expense of 
 a second contest being very ill accommodated to an 
 out of office income. I have opened a negotiation 
 with Bankes, but without much hope of success, he 
 being extremely obstinate and wrong-headed, and his 
 leading friends quite as much so as himself. 1 
 
 ' To-night will be interesting in the House of 
 Commons. Peel intends to make a statement on 
 behalf of his Colleagues and himself which will do 
 away the gross misrepresentations of the Venal 
 London Press and disabuse the public mind. When 
 he gave up the seals yesterday the King told him 
 that he was sorry for his resignation, that he had 
 considered him as a friend as much as a Minister, and 
 did not expect his withdrawal from office ; and he 
 
 1 Moore wrote some lines on the Cambridge election : — 
 
 ' G — lb — n of the Pope afraid is, 
 
 B- — kes as much afraid as he ; 
 Never yet did two old ladies 
 
 On this point so well agree. 
 Choose between them, Cambridge, pray ; 
 Which is weakest, Cambridge, say. 
 
 Each a different foe doth damn 
 When his own affairs have gone ill : 
 
 B — kes he damneth Buckingham, 
 G — lb — n damneth Dan O'Connell. 
 
 Choose between them, Cambridge, pray ; 
 
 Which is weakest, Cambridge, say.' 
 
232 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 added that lie himself was as firm a Protestant as 
 ever. To which Peel merely answered that he con- 
 sidered his power of serving His Majesty depended 
 entirely upon his preserving his own public charac- 
 ter, and regretted that he (as he stated from the 
 first) considered it incompatible with that Character 
 to form part of a Government of which Mr. Canning 
 was at the head. I have been down to take a place 
 at the House. Brougham and Burdett have taken 
 seats behind the Treasury Bench, a tolerable indica- 
 tion that nothing but cowardice prevents the intro- 
 duction of the Whigs into the Government at the 
 present moment. They are to come in at the end of 
 the Session. Pray send me the date of my Successor's 
 appointment whenever it takes place. 
 
 12 Manchester Square : June 29, 1827. 
 
 ' . . . I have no news to tell you beyond what 
 you will learn from the newspapers. Lord Wellesley 
 is permitted to remain for a few months, and is then to 
 give way to Lord Anglesea. The Knight of Kerry is 
 to be a Lord of the Treasury, and Whigs are to be 
 infused into the Government as fast as places can 
 be made for them. You may conceive the want of 
 places when you hear that Canning had the folly to 
 offer Lord Palmerston the Government of Jamaica, 
 which considering that he refused last year the 
 Governor Generalship of India and is now Commander 
 in Chief as well as Secretary at War, is, I should say, 
 
r 
 
 s 
 
 AN INTENDED ATTACK 233 
 
 an egregious act of folly and not by any means 
 palatable to the noble Lord.' 1 
 
 Betchworth, October 3, 1827. 
 
 ' You are quite right in not supposing my silence 
 to have arisen from any cessation of that affection 
 and regard which I shall always feel for you and 
 your family under any circumstances. I thought it 
 better under all circumstances not to keep up too 
 frequent an intercourse. I was well aware that there 
 was a very strong wish on the part of the Whig 
 portion of the Government to make an attack on you, 
 and I thought that a very active correspondence 
 between us might afford that pretext which your 
 absence seems to have afforded them. I congratulate 
 you upon the foolish choice of topic which your 
 adversaries have made. It is not the only instance 
 in which the folly of a Whig has defeated his wicked- 
 ness. I ought perhaps to have informed you before 
 that you were an object of present jealousy and 
 intended attack, for Lamb confessed it to me previous 
 to his departure for Ireland, and I was satisfied that 
 feeling was indulged in by members of the Govern- 
 ment who were ci-devant Whigs. But I was satisfied 
 from a conversation with Lamb that he was not 
 disposed to encourage such a feeling. I believed 
 
 1 ' Some weeks after this Canning sent for me again to say he had 
 a proposition to make to me which he should not himself have thought 
 of, but that the King had said he knew, and was sure that it was just 
 the very thing I should like, and that was to go as Governor to 
 Jamaica. I laughed so heartily that I observed Canning looked quite 
 put out, and I was obliged to grow serious again.' — (From Lord 
 Palmerston's Autobiog ra phy .) 
 
234 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 that he went away from me determined to resist it, 
 and I therefore thought it better not to excite 
 suspicions in your breast which I was anxious to 
 avert. 
 
 ' I was quite confident that your conduct un- 
 embarrassed could give no cause for just attack. 
 Whether I acted right or not, you must decide. 
 
 ' I was very glad to hear that you had had an 
 interval of relaxation in the society of your friends. 
 From Peel you must have heard all that you could or 
 would wish to know respecting the late changes and 
 future prospects. I will not trouble you therefore 
 with my speculations. A Chancellor for Ireland has 
 at last been selected. It would have been, I suppose, 
 an insult to Lord Manners to have put it in the 
 power of his successor to have arrived in Ireland, 
 more than a day before the sitting of his Court. Of 
 Sir A. Hart I know nothing either personally or 
 politically. I presume he is a Protestant, but he 
 may be quite the contrary. Eeport says that Lord 
 Wellesley will not much prolong his stay in Ireland. 
 I suppose that he will not wait to surrender in 
 person to his successor. He will not leave Ireland 
 with the consolation of having tranquillised Tipperary, 
 even though he has had the advantage of a Catholic 
 Secretary. I do not think, however, that we shall 
 ever see that object attained. Sure I am it will not 
 be attained by those who profess to support the K. 
 Catholics while they do not go the full length of the 
 Priesthood or Demagogue. 
 
LORD WELLESLEY'S DEPARTURE 2.35 
 
 1 1 have seen nobody lately. I was in town 
 yesterday, and only met Frankland Lewis, but I 
 learnt nothing from him. Lord Goderich is most 
 happy in the birth of a son. Most sincerely do I 
 rejoice in his prosperity, for putting public questions 
 out of view there is not a more amiable person in 
 private life than he is. We are all very prosperous, 
 and have had a most riotous party by the union of 
 my Brother's children to mine. That has been 
 broken up by the commencement of the law term, 
 and we are now limited to our family party.' 
 
 Betchworth : January 8, 1828. 
 
 ' Eeport gains ground here that Lord Wellesley is 
 to be Prime Minister. I know not what truth to attach 
 to it. I called on him the day after his arrival in 
 London, and found him very civil, in very great 
 force, and evidently anticipating that he was to hold 
 a very high situation in the Government, though when 
 1 saw him he had neither seen the king nor Lord 
 Goderich. I should not be surprised if in all the 
 embarrassments which exist as to making a Govern- 
 ment some attempt was not to be made under his 
 leadership.' 
 
 Lord Wellesley was not destined to become Prime 
 Minister, but he had in December, 1827, the happiness 
 of leaving Ireland, where he had perhaps neither 
 friend nor foe but wished him away. The Protestant 
 party could not be reconciled to the first ' Catholic ' 
 Viceroy of the century, and he had exasperated the 
 
236 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Catholics by his abortive attempts to put down the 
 Association. Mr. Lamb wrote just before he left :— 
 ' Lord Wellesley waxed more and more impatient to 
 be relieved of his office. His successor had been 
 some time announced, and men's eyes were turning to 
 the new Viceroy, Lord Anglesea, whose influence was 
 already discernible in the horizon. The position of 
 superseded satrap did not suit the conqueror of Tipu 
 Sahib.' 
 
 I am glad to think that he and Mr. Gregory 
 parted on friendly terms after all, with the offer, made 
 and refused, of a baronetcy. 
 
 I see in the note-book for 1833, ' October 4. — 
 Had an interview with Lord Wellesley at his 
 audience. He was very gracious.' 
 
 And I find a note written from London : — 
 
 ' I shall be happy to hear of the health of yourself 
 and your family in this 'Annus Mirabilis' (seeDryden's 
 verses). I am particularly anxious to know how 
 " The Fisherman " progresses. Whenever he is in 
 London I should be happy to see him. 
 
 * Always, my dear Sir, with true regard and esteem, 
 ' Yours most faithfully, 
 
 ' Wellesley.' 
 
237 
 
 LORD ANGLESEY AND MR. LAMB. 
 
 Lord Anglesey came over with the cood militant 
 principles that had been usually held by Lords 
 Lieutenant in days when their temporary subjects 
 devoutly prayed on Sundays that they might ' use 
 the sword committed to their charge for the protec- 
 tion of the true religion established amongst us.' 
 
 He had said in the House of Lords that if the 
 Irish wished for war, the sooner they drew the 
 sword the better, and the King had given him his 
 parting blessing as ' a true Protestant.' 
 
 But even in crossing the Channel he seems to 
 have drunk of that mystic love-compelling draught, 
 of which Ireland since the days of Iseult has held the 
 secret. Like many a previous invader, the gallant 
 soldier who had left his leg under a willow tree 
 at Waterloo became llibernis ipsis Dibernior, and 
 his lips breathed blessings where curses had been 
 looked for. 
 
 He tried nevertheless to act impartially at first, 
 and boasted to Croker in 1828 of being ' not only well 
 with both parties but in their confidence,' and of 
 having persuaded both the Catholic Association and 
 Sir Harcourt Lees to moderation. But it was well 
 
23S MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 known that at his little dinners a sort of inner 
 Cabinet met, Lord Cloncurry, George Villiers, 
 Anthony Blake, W. H. Curran, all of whose names 
 stank in the nostrils of good Protestants, and that 
 many weighty matters were there decided. 
 
 He fascinated Sheil among others by his frank 
 manner and sunny smile, and made him a regular 
 attendant at the Viceregal parties. Sheil indeed was 
 one of the few who held staunchly to him to the end, 
 laying the mistakes of his second administration at 
 Stanley's door, and declaring him to be the most 
 chivalrous and high-minded nobleman he had ever 
 come across. 
 
 Lord Talbot writes to Mr. Gregory after his 
 installation : — 
 
 ' Your letter received to-day has been very satis- 
 factory indeed. I do augur well from your beginning. 
 Lord Anglesey is so straightforward that I am sure, 
 however strongly he may express his feelings, he 
 never will condescend to assume what he does not 
 really feel.' 
 
 O'Connell hoped great things from him, and 
 afterwards, at the news of his recall, was ' so low that 
 C. Villiers and Shiel had to go and dine with him to 
 calm him down.' 
 
 G. Ensor, however, wrote with some bitterness of 
 him as 'the satrap of England,' and sneers at seeing 
 ' the surprised Irish rush into his arms and sob their 
 unalterable gratitude in his bosom.' His attempts 
 
LORD ANGLESEY 239 
 
 at impartiality were not always graciously ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 He writes to Mr. Gregory August 4, 1828 : — 
 
 1 A Cus. Rot. of Mayo must be appointed. . . . He 
 must be a resident, influential and of good character, 
 and then I care not whether he be Whig, Tory, 
 Catholic or Protestant in principle. Only I would 
 avoid a violent Orangeman, or a furious Liberal, as 
 being two mischievous animals. I am actuated by a 
 similar feeling in regard to the Colonelcy of the 
 Militia.' 
 
 The Tories did not bear snubbing well after their 
 long ascendency, and a Liberal deputation from Cork 
 fared no better, for Lord Anglesey, having lost his 
 temper with them, threatened in his high-handed way 
 to seal up the Irish ports, and cried, ' I will put you 
 both down.' 
 
 ' For myself,' he says later, ' I am suffering 
 martyrdom between the parties.' 
 
 What he intended to make a well balanced 
 administration was criticised as one of see-saw, and 
 Moore sarcastically compared him to a circus rider 
 at Astley's on two horses : — 
 
 ' So rides along, with canter smooth and pleasant, 
 That horseman bold, Lord Anglesea, at present ; 
 Papist and Protestant the coursers twain 
 That lend their necks to his impartial rein, 
 And round the ring, each honoured as they go 
 With equal pressure from his gracious toe, 
 

 240 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 To the old medley tune, half "Patrick's Day" 
 And half " Boyne Water," take their cantering way ; 
 While Peel, the showman in the middle, cracks 
 His long-lashed whip to cheer the doubtful hacks. 
 
 ' If once my lord his graceful balance loses, 
 Or fails to keep each foot where each horse chooses, 
 If Peel but gives one extra touch of whip 
 To Papist's tail or Protestant's ear-tip, 
 That instant ends their glorious horsemanship — 
 Off bolt the severed steeds, for mischief free, 
 And down between them plumps Lord Anglesea.' 
 
 But, as is the way with new converts, his zeal was 
 too fervid to be quite judicious, and he showed him- 
 self ere long to be wholly on the Catholic side, as an 
 ardent partisan. The Duke of Wellington grew 
 seriously angry. It was perhaps not a very happy 
 experiment to have one soldier as head of the English 
 and one of the Irish Government. Each expected to 
 be absolute in his own camp. Lord Anglesey com- 
 plained of getting only official letters from England, 
 and the Duke on his side complains of the insolence 
 of his replies. The Duke complained, probably with 
 reason, of his private letters being shown to members 
 of the Catholic party, and Lord Anglesey of not 
 being made acquainted with the intentions of the 
 Government. The King had his own grievance, 
 declaring that his Viceroy acted as if he were King 
 of Ireland. Smaller causes of friction arose, such as 
 his refusal to remove O'Gorman Mahon from the 
 magistracy, or to grant Lady Westmeath's pension. 
 His imprudence and unreserve were crowned by his 
 letter to Dr. Curtis, advising the Catholics to renew 
 
LORD ANGLESEY'S RECALL 241 
 
 their agitation. Mr. Gregory notes on December 30, 
 1828, ' I dined with the L.L. He received a letter from 
 the Duke of Wellington of his recall.' 
 
 And he writes to Mr. Goulburn : — 
 
 1 1 cannot write to you upon such a trifling matter 
 as is contained in my note to you of this day and 
 leave unnoticed all the important concerns that have 
 lately occurred here. As soon as I was informed of 
 the answer Lord Anglesea had written to a letter 
 from the Duke of Wellington previous to my return 
 from England, I was satisfied of the impractibility of 
 those two Persons continuing together in their relative 
 situations, and under the impression that a change 
 must unavoidably be made here, I refrained from 
 writing either to Peel or to you until the matter was 
 decided. No considerate or impartial Person but 
 must be satisfied, not only of the propriety but of the 
 necessity of the course adopted by the Duke. 
 
 ' There has been such a persevering perverseness 
 which has of late actuated the conduct of Lord 
 Anglesea, he had not one who could dissuade him 
 from committing any of the rash acts into which he 
 had plunged himself and from which he never can be 
 extricated. The failure of the attempt to excite the 
 regret and sympathy of the Country on his departure 
 must have been very mortifying, but I fear he has 
 greater trials of mortification before him. Personally 
 I feel very sorry for his degradation, but it is quite 
 impossible for me not to be glad that he has been 
 
 R 
 
2i2 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 removed from the Administration of this Country. 
 The imprudence of his expressions (which were faith- 
 fully repeated) on public matters would shake the 
 stability of any Government. ' 
 
 Lord Talbot writes to Mr. Gregory : — 
 
 January 6, 1829. 
 
 ' Astonishment cannot be deemed a sufficient 
 expression to signify my surprise at the Letter I have 
 seen in the papers from the L.L. to D. of W. Had I 
 taxed my imagination to have devised an impolitic 
 composition I think I could not have equalled this. 
 I say this, for upon my Honor, had it been upon our 
 side of the Question I should deprecate it with equal 
 sincerity. 
 
 'Whether this arose from the circumstances of 
 his Excellency's recall or whether he was recalled in 
 consequence of it, Dates do not authorise us on this 
 side of the Water to judge. Of course we have our 
 opinions. 
 
 ' Personally I admire Lord Anglesey's Character as 
 a Nobleman, as a Gentleman, as a Soldier, as a Friend, 
 I believe he is hi TrpajroiaL, but as a conciliator or 
 a politician I cannot say so much. Who will succeed 
 him will not be known till it is declared. Our Chief 
 is a man who does not permit his measures to transpire 
 till they are perfected. 
 
 ' Lord Melville, I conclude, from what I once heard 
 Teel say (some years ago), is not unlikely to be the 
 man — this, I should say, was only an expression that 
 
LADY WESTMEATH'S PENSION 243 
 
 he thought Lord Melville (though a Catholic) would 
 make a good L.L. — this was to shew that he should 
 not object to any person on the score of his Cat. 
 Eman. principles, if in other respects he deemed him 
 to possess the requisites of the situation. 
 
 'I have had a fall from Nancy since I wrote, 
 blackened my Eyes and cut my nose, but no worse. 
 I have been dancing too to-night with Lamb, and I 
 fear my old sinews have given way. Vive l'Allegresse ! ' 
 
 And on February 1, 1829 :— 
 
 ' My dear G, — I anticipate much sparring between 
 Lord Anglesea and the Duke. Yesterday I was told 
 by a soi-disant friend of the former that there had 
 been a serious misunderstanding relative to Lady 
 Westmeath's pension, 1 which Lord A. had refused 
 to place upon the list, but which had been effected 
 by an order of an illustrious person, whose sign 
 manual had been sent to Lord A. commanding it. 
 I am too old to believe half I hear, but have been 
 also told by another person, a friend of the Duke's, 
 that he (my informant) was afraid the Duke was in a 
 scrape. From all I have seen and observed, I must 
 
 1 • Lady Westnieath was the woman meant in the article in the 
 Times, frorn Ireland, about the pension to which Ld. Anglesey would 
 not agree. There was 700Z. disposable on the Pension fund, and the 
 D. of W. desired 400?. might be given to Lady Westnieath, which Ld. 
 A. and the Secretary both protested against, and were resolved to resign 
 rather than agree to it. The Duke gave in, but it caused an aliena- 
 tion.' — Grcvillc Memoirs, January 16. ' This pension of Lady West- 
 meath's makes a great noise, and it is generally believed that when 
 Ld. Anglesey refused to grant it, the Duke got the K.'s sign manual 
 for it, and the job was done.' — lb. January 25, 1829. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 say that the Duke appears to me to be too wise a 
 man, and too experienced a politician to commit 
 himself beyond the power of satisfactory explanation. 
 That that little Cousin of mine would embroil a 
 Universe I doubt not, but fortunately she has not the 
 power. 
 
 'Adieu.' 
 
 Lord Francis Leveson had found Lord Anglesey 
 after his dismissal ' very smiling and glorious, but 
 angry, and deciding that he would do just the same 
 again if he had to choose his line of conduct.' 
 
 It would have been better for his happiness if, 
 having left Ireland with that ' smiling and glorious ' 
 halo of martyrdom round him, he had never set foot 
 on her fickle shore again. 
 
 The removal of Mr. Gregory, for which he stipu- 
 lated on his return in 1830, does not seem to have 
 helped him much. He quarrelled with O'Connell, 
 who threatened Eepeal, Lord Anglesey bringing out 
 his old threat of force, and they parted, O'Connell 
 travelling as an avant-coureur to raise Irish feeling 
 against him. 
 
 He who had boasted that he could lead the Irish 
 with a silken rein, had to re-enter Dublin in a 'jog- 
 trot carriage,' and was even advised by friends to 
 make his entry a secret one. The Protestant papers 
 pelted him with abuse, the Catholic population with 
 stones. Only his beautiful horsemanship, so much 
 admired by Sir Walter Scott at the Coronation, saved 
 
ME. LAMB 245 
 
 him from being thrown over Carlisle Bridge. There 
 is no need to speak of the measures of his second 
 viceroyalty, or what O'Connell, with his usual over- 
 loading of epithet, called ' Lord Anglesey's ludicrous 
 yet ensanguined career.' 
 
 There is a glimpse of him later on in Mr. 
 Gregory's note-book. 'June 21, 1833. I went to 
 Dublin and returned. The Lord Lieutenant, who 
 lives in a small house within a few yards of the hotel, 
 sent for me. I had not seen him for upwards of two 
 years, and was greatly shocked at his altered appear- 
 ance. His manner was very cordial, and he seemed 
 fully sensible of the perilous state of the country, but 
 not that it was owing to his misgovernment. He 
 said to me : " You see a poor Devil broken in body 
 and mind." ' 
 
 Lamb had seen the old year out with Lord 
 Wellesley, and the new year in with Lord Anglesey, 
 as Chief Secretary. 
 
 ' William Lamb, William Lamb, put him anywhere 
 you like,' said the King when Canning proposed him 
 for Ireland. So he was put in Ireland, but only for 
 six months, leaving in January 1828. He had 
 already shown interest in Irish character, having 
 written a sketch of Sheridan's political life, which he 
 afterwards handed over to Moore. 
 
 He is one of the happy officials who had no 
 history there, earning no anathemas, nor even a nick- 
 name. Hyde Villiers reported him to Greville as 
 being ' popular beyond all precedent.' He was a 
 
246 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Liberal as far as Emancipation went, but of Eepeal he 
 spoke as ' d d nonsense.' He proposed with- 
 drawing subsidies from the Press altogether, but even 
 Plunket, when he heard this, burst out laughing, and 
 s«,id ' Oh, this is Utopian ! ' 
 
 Lady Caroline, of course, did not come with him 
 to Ireland. There is a glimpse of her in a letter of 
 Yesey FitzGerald's to Mr. Gregory in 1819. 
 
 March 4. 
 
 ' The Whigs are exulting in their Westminster 
 triumph, one enjoys the defeat of the Anarchists 
 without participating in the boasts of Brookes's. I 
 am consoled for a great deal in its being shown what 
 the disposition of the populace is towards these 
 popular leaders. Yesterday they were cruelly assailed 
 inter primos. Domk. Browne fell, and it was no 
 immaterial hand that subverted him and Lord Sefton. 
 For near five hours Lamb was imprisoned in Hen- 
 rietta Street. Had they known that he was there his 
 fate had been inevitable. He was at length rescued 
 and escorted to Whitehall by the lifeguards. I do 
 not suppose that Lord Essex or Folkestone will com- 
 plain now of military intervention. When the 
 popular Candidate was thus brought home, he found 
 Lord Sidmouth sustaining and administering eau de 
 luce to Lady Caroline ! What a picture ! But 
 Gilleray is no more. . . .' 
 
 On his appointment he wrote to Mr. Gregory : — 
 
MR LAMB 247 
 
 May 2, 1827. 
 
 '. . . I cannot close this, the first communication 
 which I feel myself called upon to make to you, 
 without expressing my satisfaction that the Country 
 is to continue to have the benefit of your abilities 
 and experience, and I beg leave to subscribe myself, 
 
 ' with great respect, 
 
 * your faithful servant, 
 
 'Wm. Lamb.' 
 
 He was at home to all who came to his door, 
 ' Show him in ' being ever on his lips, for he wanted 
 to see and learn everything for himself. 
 
 Torrens says ' Old Mr. Gregory groaned, melan- 
 choly Mr. Mangin sighed,' over this new order of 
 things. But I hear no hint of a groan in the tone in 
 which Mr. Gregory invariably speaks of Lamb. They 
 had probably many a good laugh together, and in 
 spite of Lord Lansdowne's letter, and Mr. Canning's 
 advice as to the re-making of the pack, he apparently 
 took no step towards displacing the old secretary, 
 who for his part was won over by ' his frankness and 
 love of honour ' and good looks. 
 
 Mr. Goulburn writes of him to Mr. Gregory, 
 May 26, 182S :_ 
 
 ' The newspapers will probably inform you of all 
 that I am about to tell you, but I nevertheless have 
 been so long in the habit of intimate communication 
 with you that I cannot but state to you how the 
 Government now stands. Huskisson has resigned 
 
248 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 his office most foolishly in my opinion, and I believe 
 in his own also ; but having resigned he would not 
 recall his resignation, and the Duke would not solicit 
 him to remain, and I think could not consistently 
 with his own character do so. He is therefore out. 
 Palmerston has done the same, so has Lamb, which 
 is more interesting to you and to me, a subject of 
 sincere regret ; he is a man of perfect honour and 
 frankness, and you will not find another who in 
 these times will so impartially administer the difficult 
 office of Chief Secretary.' 
 
 And Mr. Gregory answers : — 
 
 ' Amidst your Political anxiety I feel very much 
 obliged by your finding time to write to me, and most 
 sorry I am at one part of your communication, 
 which is the resignation of Lamb. He is, I think, a 
 serious loss to this Government, not from his aptitude 
 or inclination to business, but from his open manly 
 and honourable Character, and possessing an excel- 
 lent understanding he was daily gaining unprejudiced 
 knowledge of this Country, and the leading Men in it.' 
 
 It was not the first or second, but the third 
 time in the first three decades of the century, that 
 through the Chief Secretary's lodge had lain the 
 path to glory, to the Premiership of England. And 
 among Premiers, Lord Melbourne's position as keeper 
 of the young Queen's conscience was ' the most 
 despotic the world has ever seen.' 
 
249 
 
 THE CARRYING OF EMANCIPATION AND 
 THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND 
 
 The Duke of Northumberland's short viceroyalty did 
 not give him much chance of working out a policy, 
 But we must not speak ill of the bridge that carried 
 us over the water, and his term of office arched the 
 agitated year that brought Emancipation in. It is 
 necessary to look back and note the steps that finally 
 led to the acceptance of the measure, both in Ireland 
 and in England. 
 
 The King's visit having led to no good result, 
 O'Connell again became the mouthpiece of the 
 people's wrongs and not of their adulation. Lord 
 Talbot's sudden dismissal was but a flash in the pan, 
 and Lord Wellesley's apathy was a sore disappoint- 
 ment. O'Connell and Sheil formed the Catholic 
 Association, an open club, protesting against landlord 
 and magisterial as well as religious injustice. It 
 used its influence against violence and agrarian crime, 
 the truth being perceived that every man who 
 broke the law gave an advantage to the enemy. 
 
 Then in 1826 came the revolt of the forty-shilling 
 freeholders against the landlords. Estates had been 
 
250 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 stocked with them for the sake of their vote since 
 the granting of the franchise. Now the force the 
 landowners had brought into being was turned 
 against their own body. The first blow was struck 
 in Waterford, the stronghold of the Beresfords. An 
 Emancipator was elected against a member of the 
 dominant family by a majority even of their own 
 tenantry, and Louth, Monaghan, Westmeath followed 
 suit. The landlords resisted in vain. Eviction was 
 tried, but the Catholic Association supported the house- 
 less tenants. Agitation was renewed when the Duke 
 of Wellington came into power. Canning's appeals 
 for moderation had to some extent kept it in check. 
 The power of peace and war was in the hands of 
 ^ O'Connell — he blew hot or blew cold, and the people 
 followed his lightest hint. 
 
 His power reached its climax in 1828 at the Clare 
 election, where he stood against Vesey Fitzgerald, 
 some extracts from whose letters are given in this 
 book, a member of the Government, the great friend 
 of Peel, a popular man, with great charm of 
 manner He had been Chancellor of the Irish 
 Exchequer until its amalgamation with that of 
 England in 1816, and had protested against the 
 preposterous over-taxation of Ireland since the 
 Union. But both then and later, when he spent 
 three years at the Swedish Court trying to recover 
 the money advanced to Bernadotte for the war with 
 Napoleon, he experienced the truth of the homely 
 proverb, ' It is hard to get butter out of a dog's 
 
THE CLAKE ELECTION 251 
 
 mouth.' He was a Christ Church man and a trustee 
 of the British Museum. Not only did O'Connell, 
 though disqualified for taking his seat in the House, 
 head the poll, but the vivid glimpse given on the 
 day of the election of his power and the unity of the 
 people on the Emancipation question startled all 
 those in England who had eyes to discern the signs 
 of the times. Lord Palmerston says in his journal, 
 ' The Clare election began a new era, and iocls an 
 epoch in the history of Ireland. . . . There were 
 30,000 Irish peasants in and about Ennis in sultry 
 July, and not a drunken man among them save 
 O'Connell's own coachman, and not a blackthorn.' 
 And again he writes : — ' I speak of the election for 
 Clare which led to Catholic Emancipation, which led 
 by a new defection in the Tory party to the Eeform ^ 
 Bill, which led to a complete social and political revo- 
 lution in our country.' The fire had indeed begun 
 to burn the stick, and the stick to beat the dog, and 
 the dog to bite the pig, if we may so term the long- 
 obstructed bill for Catholic Emancipation. 
 
 O'Connell had done his share of the work, but he 
 was not without helpers. A petition in favour of the 
 Bill was now presented by the Protestant landowners 
 of Ireland, representing more than three fourths of 
 its landed property. Peel's own brother-in-law, 
 Dawson, speaking at Londonderry, avowed himself 
 a convert to Emancipation. The stars in their 
 courses fought for it. Of the Archbishops, Magee 
 was too old and Beresford too gentle to direct the 
 
252 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 canons of the Church against the enemy. Eank, 
 talent, property, all had come round to the Liberal 
 side. 
 
 Those who still held out, the members of the 
 Brunswick clubs in Ireland, held a meeting, to raise 
 their voices for the last time against relief, but their 
 thinned ranks proclaimed that the hour of dissolution 
 was near. 
 
 Moore, who had been singing down anti- 
 Catholic feeling in London drawing-rooms, sharply 
 satirised the gathering in his Letter from 
 Beelzebub — 
 
 ' Who the devil, he humbly begs to know, 
 Are Lord Glendine and Lord Dunlo ? 
 Or who with a grain of sense would go 
 To sit and be bored by Lord Mayo ? 
 What living creature — except his nurse — 
 For Lord Mountcashel cares a curse ? 
 Or thinks 'twould matter if Lord Muskerry 
 Were t'other side of the Stygian ferry ? ' 
 
 Not names, one must confess, that have had ' buoy- 
 ancy to float down the stream of time.' 
 
 In England the Bill had been brought forward 
 again and again with varying fortunes. Grattan had 
 for the last time introduced it in 1819. In March of 
 that year Vesey Fitzgerald writes to Mr Gregory : — 
 
 ' Grattan has just given his Catholic notice for 
 the 22nd of April. They rumour here that they are 
 to make the greatest division that they have ever 
 made. I believe it not. Nor do I portend anything 
 but angry exasperating discussions. I do not envy 
 
 i 
 
THE EMANCIPATION BILL -253 
 
 you your situation in Dublin, or in truth just now 
 your responsibility.' 
 
 And Mr. Gregory writes to him in May : — 
 'After all the vaunted Expectations of a great 
 Majority against the Catholic Claims I cannot by any 
 means attribute to accident or trick that they were 
 rejected only by two. I much fear the apathy of the 
 Protestants, and that the present House of Commons 
 is more Popish than the last. Here all is quiet, though 
 the Protestants are much dismayed, they have no 
 democratic Leaders to inflame the Minds of the 
 People as their adversaries practice.' 
 
 At Grattan's death, Plunket succeeded him as the 
 Irish advocate of the measure in the House of Com- 
 mons. The Catholic leaders, however, became dis- 
 satisfied with him after a time, and chose Sir Francis 
 Burdett as their representative. 
 
 In 1821 it was lost on the second reading by a 
 majority of 39, giving rise to a fashionable toast of 
 ' the thirty-nine who saved the thirty-nine articles.' 
 
 In 1825 it passed the Commons, but was rejected 
 in the Lords through the effect of the Duke of York's 
 violent speech against it, concluding with the words : 
 ' These are the principles to which I will adhere and 
 which I will maintain and act up to, to the latest 
 moment of my existence, whatever may be my situation 
 in life. So help me God ! ' 
 
 This was the speech that was printed in gold and 
 distributed widely by the Protestant party. Canning, 
 
254 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 pointing to a copy of it, said ' This is a sign of the 
 times which augurs ill for future peace.' It was a 
 grievous disappointment, for new converts in the 
 Upper House had been rapidly coming over to the 
 Catholic side, and many felt what Lord Lurgan with 
 a pardonable bull expressed, that ' this was the golden 
 moment, when the voice of party is quiet, and 
 nothing is heard but the stillness of suspense.' 
 
 These Irish debates, as may be imagined, were not 
 without their humour. Mr. Battley pointed out the 
 danger of a Protestant king being surrounded by a 
 Catholic Lord Treasurer. Sir G. Wetherell spoke 
 with such violence that Mr. Manners Sutton said ' The 
 only lucid interval in the speech was the interval 
 between the orator's waistcoat and breeches.' 
 Colonel Wilson ended a vehement speech with the 
 lines, presumably original : — 
 
 ' While I can handle stick or stone 
 I will support the Church and Throne ; ' 
 
 and finally Sir J. Yorke expressed his hope that ' the 
 sister Kingdoms might be united, and live hereafter 
 like two brothers.' 
 
 In 1826 the Test and Corporation Acts were 
 repealed, another step in the path of religious 
 freedom. The next year fresh converts declared 
 themselves on its side, and Peel confessed in private 
 that further resistance was impossible, and offered to 
 retire until the question was set at rest. 
 
 In May 1828 Mr. Shawe writes to Mr. Gregory : — 
 
THE GRANTING OF EMANCIPATION 265 
 
 ' The Lords will save you this time — but, as Sir 
 J. Shelly says, " they are sure to be emancipated or 
 damned next year, and he cares not which." ' 
 
 Canning had at last brought the expectant people 
 almost within sight of the promised land when his 
 summons came. It was at last by the reluctant hands 
 of its old enemies, Peel and the Duke of Wellington, 
 that the boon was granted, and that too late to 
 awaken gratitude or to give peace ; now the cry for 
 Emancipation was already almost lost in the cry for 
 Eepeal. 
 
 In the first days of 1829 the King was formally 
 asked to assent to the measure. He refused, and the 
 Duke offered to resign. Then he cried, stormed, 
 and at last was brought to yield, it was said by a 
 new effort of ' witchery ' this time, that of Lady 
 Conyngham. His speech at the opening of Parlia- 
 ment recommended the removal of the civil dis- 
 abilities of His Majesty's subjects. 
 
 Thenceforth, like Giant Pope, he had to content 
 himself with sitting in his cave's mouth, grinning at 
 the Emancipationists and biting his nails because he 
 could not get at them, while Croker writes 'The 
 thing is well over, and will make Windsor as Popish 
 as Downing Street.' 
 
 It was too late for debate to be of much use, but 
 the arguments for and against were roughly put 
 by the Dukes of Cumberland and Clarence, and form 
 a fairly good summing up of the case, as it pre- 
 sented itself to conscientious minds. 
 
256 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 The former (echoing the King's real sentiments) 
 said : — ' I will put it to your Lordships, for that of 
 course is the question, whether this country is to be 
 a Protestant country with a Protestant Government 
 or a Eoman Catholic country with a Eoman Catholic 
 Government. This is the question and none other. 
 The moment that there are Eoman Catholics 
 admitted into this or the other House of Parlia- 
 ment, this House must cease to be a Protestant 
 House of Peers, and the House of Commons must 
 cease to be a Protestant House of Commons.' 
 
 The Duke of Clarence said : — ' I wish to God that 
 his Majesty's Ministers had been unanimous on the 
 question in 1825 — or rather I wish that a united 
 administration could have been formed in 1804 for 
 the purpose of carrying this measure, for from that 
 hour to the present my opinion has invariably been, 
 that what is falsely called Catholic concession ought 
 to be resorted to — I say falsely called concession, 
 because I maintain that that which is asked for is 
 not concession but Justice. It is merely an act of 
 Justice to raise the Eoman Catholics from their 
 present state of degradation. And when an Act is 
 passed for that purpose, I will pledge my life that 
 it will have the effect of uniting and quieting eight 
 millions of His Majesty's subjects.' 
 
 On April 10th, 1829, the Bill passed the House of 
 Lords by a majority of 104. 
 
 And so ended the long struggle. 
 
 The following letter shows that Peel was not 
 
MR. PEEL'S REASONS 257 
 
 unmindful of his old friends in Dublin, who were 
 doubtless mourning over him as a Lost Leader. It 
 was to have appeared in the promised volumes of 
 Sir E. Peel's correspondence, but his son, Lord Peel, 
 has added to other helpful acts in the editing of this 
 book the very kind one of allowing me to use it 
 here. 
 
 Most Private. Whitehall, Jvtly 1 1329 
 
 ' My dear Gregory, — When I have more leisure 
 than at this moment I have, I will send you all the 
 details which have passed respecting my Position in 
 the Government, and respecting the discussions 
 which have preceded the important notice of Ireland 
 which was made in the King's speech. 
 
 ' But overwhelmed as I am with Business I must 
 write you a few lines. 
 
 ' Nothing should have induced me to return to the 
 King's service but the peculiar circumstances under 
 which the Country was placed on the breaking up 
 of Lord Goderich's administration on the eve of the 
 meeting of Parliament. I mean nothing could have 
 induced me to return to it, the Catholic Question 
 remaining in the state in which it was. However, 
 I had no option under those circumstances, and did 
 not hesitate to return. 
 
 ' I was left in a minority on the Catholic question 
 in the course of the Session. 
 
 ' When all the business of Parliament was over I 
 expressed to the Duke of Wellington an opinion, in 
 which he entirely concurred, that matters could not 
 
 s 
 
258 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 remain as they were— that it was discreditable to 
 the Government and dangerous to the Protestant 
 Interest — and prejudicial in every way to the country — 
 with a divided Government on the Catholic question, 
 with a divided Legislature with a majority in the 
 House of Commons voting for the Soman Catholics 
 year after year. 
 
 ' I intimated to him that the time was come for 
 me to retire — that to form an exclusive Protestant 
 Government out of such material as the House of 
 Commons afforded — and in the face of 272 members 
 opposed to the Principle of such a Government would 
 fail — and would deliver up the Government at once 
 into the hands of those who would settle the Catholic 
 question under circumstances most disadvantageous 
 to the Protestant Interest and to the Country. 
 
 ' That to dissolve Parliament — and to permit the 
 E. Catholic association to send fifty or sixty 
 Eadicals from Ireland — ousting the gentry of the 
 Country — would be a fatal measure. 
 
 ' I told the Duke that I was so sensible of the 
 present evils arising out of a divided administration, 
 that I would in a private capacity support any 
 course with respect to Ireland which a Government 
 headed by him could suggest. 
 
 'As the meeting of Parliament drew near we were 
 compelled to decide on the course which should be 
 pursued. 
 
 ' My opinion was, that to meet Parliament saying 
 nothing about Ireland — professing entire content- 
 ment with the state of things— having nothing to 
 
 
MR. PEEL'S REASONS 259 
 
 propose — would be discreditable to us, and would 
 ensure the speedy downfall of the Government. 
 
 'That to propose measures of restriction — the 
 Government being divided, it remaining neutral on 
 the Catholic Question, could not succeed in the face 
 of an absolute majority of the House of Commons 
 which had last Session voted for another course of 
 proceeding. 
 
 * That to propose such measures and to fail would 
 be a serious injury to the best interests of the Country. 
 
 ' The Protestant ministers of the Crown, the Duke, 
 the Chancellor, Goulburn, Herries, Lord Bathurst 
 and myself came to the same conclusions — that 
 things could not remain as they are, and that the 
 formation of a Government united on permanent 
 grounds against further concession, was totally 
 impracticable. 
 
 ' There was but one alternative — to advise the 
 King to permit His Government to consider the 
 whole state of Ireland, and to attempt to make some 
 safe and satisfactory settlement with regard to that 
 Country, excluding nothing from this view. 
 
 ' In the course of the discussions my own Position 
 in the Government occupied a prominent place. 
 
 ' The King called upon us for our advice — and he 
 had a right to call upon us. 
 
 ' The question at last resolved itself into this — the 
 question which I had to decide for myself. 
 
 1 1 cannot let things remain as they are, that is I 
 mean let a disunited Government — having neither 
 
 s 2 
 
260 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Concession nor restraint to propose, meet Parliament. 
 I cannot advise the dissolution of the present 
 Government and the attempt to form an exclusive 
 Protestant Government, from the perfect conviction it 
 will fail. 
 
 1 Will I advise the King to take the only remaining 
 course — I myself shrinking from the sacrifices and 
 the Eesponsibility that it entails — or will I remain in 
 my Post — setting the example of sacrifice to others — 
 and abiding for myself the issue, be what it may ? I 
 have chosen the last alternative — painful as it is to 
 me. I may be wrong, but at any rate I am prepared 
 to make sacrifices which will prove that I think I am 
 right. 
 
 ' I have felt it my duty to tender my immediate 
 resignation of my seat to the University of Oxford, 
 if they shall think fit to accept it. 
 
 'This letter is written in the strictest confidence 
 to yourself, but I beg you will communicate it, under 
 injunctions of entire secrecy, toSaurin. 
 
 ' I doubt whether we shall not find a very 
 prevalent impression among Protestants that anything 
 whatever is preferable to continued disunion and 
 neutrality. 
 
 ' Ever yours most affectionately, My dear Gregory, 
 
 'K. Peel.' 
 
 There is an entry in the Greville Memoirs dated 
 January 21, 1829 :— ' The Duke had never told F. 
 Leveson about the Duke of Northumberland till 
 
TILE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND 261 
 
 Sunday, when lie wrote to announce the appointment. 
 His Grace seems mightily pleased with it, and 
 fancies that his figure and his fortune are more than 
 enough to make him a very good L. L. He says he 
 was obliged to coax him a little to get him to accept 
 it. January 25. — Everybody thinks the appoint- 
 ment of the D. of N. a very good one, and that the 
 Duke is in great luck to get him. It is surprising 
 that he should have consented to go, but he probably 
 likes to do something and display his magnificence. 
 He is a very good sort of man with a very narrow 
 understanding, an eternal talker and prodigious bore. 
 The duchess is a more sensible woman, and amiable 
 and good-natured. He is supposed to be ruled in all 
 things by her advice; he has no political opinions, 
 and though he has hitherto voted against the 
 Catholics, he is one of the people who pin their faith 
 on the Duke, and who are made to vote in any way and 
 upon anything he may be pleased to desire them.' 
 
 Lord F. Leveson Gower writes thus to Mr. Gregory 
 of the coming Viceroy : — 
 
 London. 
 
 ' I think you may reckon on the Duke's arriving 
 in about a fortnight ; I have only had one hour's con- 
 versation with him, and I think it will be useful to 
 you, and consequently to the public service, to learn 
 in strict confidence what I think you will find him. I 
 trust you will have no difficulty in inducing him to 
 take your opinion on all matters of business, but the 
 great difficulty you will find is to give it, for it is 
 
2<i2 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 necessary previously to hear him out, and on this 
 point I Tremble for you and myself. In the few 
 matters I have had to present to him, nothing can 
 have been more obliging than he shewed himself. 
 He has lived a life of state and seclusion, and is, of 
 course, totally ignorant of Ireland. I should there- 
 fore entertain grave apprehensions for him at start- 
 ing if he were to fall into the hands of such an 
 adviser as the Cr. with his posse comitatus notions. 
 I do not, however, think the latter inclined to meddle 
 more than he is compelled to do. There seems to be 
 no different opinion as to the Duchess, who is 
 pronounced to be a delightful person by common 
 consent. I meet them at the D. of W.'s to-day, 1 and 
 if I obtain any new lights which I think may be 
 useful to you I will write further.' 
 
 He was a conscientious Viceroy, and tried to 
 develop Irish industries, and the Duchess made all 
 the ladies of the Court live in poplin dresses, yet 
 Greville writes in August (1829) : — 
 
 ' Melbourne thinks the Government will have to 
 adopt strong coercive measures in Ireland. The D. 
 of N. is an absolute nullity, a bore beyond all bores, 
 and in spite of his desire to spend money and be 
 affable, was unpopular. The Duchess complains of it, 
 and can't imagine why, for they do all they can to 
 be liked, but all in vain.' 
 
 1 Croker was at this dinner, sat between Peel and Archdeacon 
 Singleton, and says : ' For so great a dinner it was tolerably 
 pleasant.' 
 
 
THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND 263 
 
 There seems to have been some gift lacking at 
 the birth of this excellent well-meaning man. Things 
 went wrong with him. He was anxious to make a 
 figure in politics, but when sent as Special Ambas- 
 sador to Paris, he was made a butt for absurd 
 stories. In Ireland his good will and anxiety to 
 please went for nought, perhaps because of that very 
 anxiety. There is a story told, I know not with what 
 truth, that a Viceroy of more recent years failed in 
 the same way, and was criticised by an attendant at 
 the Levee with a sigh of regret for his predecessor. 
 
 ' Give me , scowling at you over his herd as if 
 
 you were dirt.' 
 
 He kept great state. The dazzling effect of his 
 blue and silver liveries is still remembered in 
 Dublin. Mr. Gregory writes soon after his arrival 
 ' Anne and I dined with the L. L. and Duchess of 
 Northumberland, 48 at dinner, the most splendid I 
 ever saw. Gold service of plate.' 
 
 In spite of his well-known munificence there was 
 a standing joke against him of having as an answer 
 to a deputation of distressed weavers given an order 
 for a waistcoat. 
 
 Lady Morgan says : ' Lord Cloncurry made me 
 die by the simple way he told me that when the D. 
 of X. was coming to stay a few days at Maretimo 
 he said to Lord C. : "Do not put yourself to any 
 inconvenience for my people " (his servants) ? ; " they 
 never drink either port or claret." " Upon my word," 
 
264 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 said Lord C, "I am very glad to hear it, for with 
 me they will only get very small beer." ' 
 
 But he did not disdain to do small acts of 
 graciousness, and a young lady who stayed at the 
 Under-Secretary's lodge in his time, owed her first 
 ball, before she had ' come out,' to his kind 
 insistence. And at the ball he found time to look 
 after his shy young friend, offered to find her a 
 partner, and told her an interminable story about a 
 ball in Paris, at which, in spite of dancing not being 
 in his line, he had been ordered to lead out the 
 Duchesse de Berri. 
 
 The late Lord Houghton having asked a friend's 
 opinion as to an official he had been brought into 
 contact with, listened to a string of estimable qualities, 
 but said at the end ' Yes — that's all very well — but 
 has he got imagination ? ' And I am inclined to 
 think that this was the touch of Divine fire needed 
 by the ducal Viceroy to make the dry bones of good 
 intention live. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott had visited him at Alnwick a 
 year or two before his appointment, and speaks 
 warmly of his efforts to improve his estates and the 
 welfare of his people. His woods had been ill 
 planted and neglected, and renovating an old wood 
 is a far more discouraging task than planting a new 
 one, and may account for some depression of mind, 
 but cheery Sir Walter says, 'Jrle seems to despond more 
 than a young man ought to do.' Of the Duchess, he, 
 like every one else, says all that is charming. 
 
LORD FRANCIS LEVESON-GOWER 265 
 
 He was sorry to leave Ireland in the end. Sheil 
 dined at the Castle on the November day in 1830 
 when the news of the defeat of the Tories arrived in 
 Dublin. ' It was an exceedingly dismal festivity. A 
 profound depression was spread over the counte- 
 nances of almost all the functionaries, who were to 
 meet no more in their official gatherings. The Duke 
 himself did not appear to consider his liberation from 
 the Irish royalty of the Castle as a fortunate incident 
 in his life ; and so lugubrious was the feeling which 
 diffused itself over their final conviviality that, with 
 all his fine wit, his admirable humour and mirthful 
 narrative, Sir Philip Crampton, who was there, failed 
 to produce the ordinary results with which his delight- 
 ful hilarity is attended.' 
 
 On the 7th December, the day before the vice- 
 regal departure, Mr. Gregory writes : ' Received from 
 the Lord Lieutenant two splendid silver vases.' Of 
 all the Under-Secretary's high friendships, these 
 ' splendid vases ' are the only visible token that 
 remain to his young great-grandson. So here at 
 least we must hold his memory in esteem. I trust 
 that on his return to Alnwick he found his plantations 
 growing strong and green after his absence on what 
 must have been to him after all uncongenial soil. 
 
 Lord Francis Leveson-Gower. 
 
 Lord Francis Leveson-Gower came to Ireland while 
 Lord Anglesey was still in office, and served both 
 
266 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 under him and the Duke of Northumberland. 
 Coming after Lamb, he was considered ' cold and 
 cautious ' in manner. But his arrival was hailed with 
 delight by Mr. Gregory, who held Frankland Lewis, 
 who had been expected to take the office, in horror. 
 Lord Francis redeemed the Chief Secretaryship from 
 the slur cast upon it by the refusal of Lewis and of 
 Horton, and in doing so earned the gratitude of the 
 Irish Government, though O'Connell contemptuously 
 described him as the barber's apprentice or ' Shave 
 beggar ' of the ministry. 
 
 He had been perhaps best known as a poet, the 
 translator of ' Faust ' and of Schiller's ' Casting of the 
 Bell.' Sir Walter Scott spoke well of these, and also 
 of an original poem, ' A Tale of the Mill,' and says ' He 
 has certainly a true taste for poetry.' 
 
 Lord Francis in Ireland was indeed Pegasus in 
 harness. His poetic mind cannot have found stimu- 
 lating food in the subjects I find treated of in his 
 daily routine — ' Survey of the Antrim Eoad,' 'State 
 of Provisions, Ennis,' ' Stipendiary Magistrates, 
 Eoscommon,' ' Jury Bill,' ' Police of Dublin,' ' Coal 
 Yards,' ' Levying of Cess ' — I take these at random 
 from the dockets on his courteous clearly written 
 letters. 
 
 He did his work well, however, and gave no sign 
 of finding it uncongenial, and it was he who originated 
 the project of paying the Catholic priests by means 
 of a regium donum. 
 
 Mr. Gregory writes of him to Lord Talbot :— 
 
LORD FRANCIS LEVESON-GOWER 267 
 
 ' The conduct of Lord Francis Gower has been 
 manly, discreet, and worthy of a faithful servant of 
 the Crown. I am very glad he remains in his present 
 situation, as I have no doubt he will discharge the 
 duties of his office free from all party feelings, and 
 reserve the expression of his opinion on the E. C. 
 claims to the House of Commons.' 
 
 The Catholics, a little disappointed at the benefits 
 of the long-desired Emancipation Bill not becoming 
 at once visible, were inclined to blame a sympathetic 
 Chief Secretary for not instantly causing their pint 
 of prosperity to hold a quart. But it would have 
 been hard indeed to satisfy the vague expectations 
 that had been raised. An old farmer has told me of 
 the enthusiasm of that time. ' When the bill passed, 
 there were bonfires lit all about the village, and on 
 the top of the hill, and the greatest excitement that 
 ever was. The people didn't know exactly what it 
 was about. They thought O'Connell and Sheil would 
 stream gold into their pockets, and I know some 
 that wouldn't sow a crop in those years because they 
 had been told the millennium was coming.' 
 
 Lord Francis never took very high rank in politics 
 any more than in poetry, but he was held in esteem 
 by both parties, made no enemies, and, as Lord 
 Ellesmere, ended a useful and blameless career in the 
 Nirvana of the House of Lords. 
 
268 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 THE PLACE-HUNTERS 
 
 Swift once prophesied, ' Employment will be in the 
 hands of Englishmen, nothing left for Irishmen but 
 vicarages and tide-waiters' places,' and in looking 
 through these letters one must give him the credit 
 of prescience. A tide-waiter, according to Johnson, 
 is ' an officer who watches the landing of goods at 
 the Custom House.' The duties of a land-waiter seem 
 to have been hardly distinguishable. A. lady now 
 living remembers that when a friend of hers 
 applied for a tide-waiter's place, he was told it was 
 not a gentleman's office. ' Then I will make it one,' 
 he said. And apparently he did so with but too 
 much success, so frequent and eager are the applica- 
 tions for the post. 
 
 The candidates for Church preferment were yet 
 more ravenous. Mr. Arthur French ' intrudes upon 
 Lord Talbot's private hours ' to seek preferment for 
 his son. Dr. Bernard and Dr. Mansell want to 
 exchange livings, and the former applies to Lord 
 Wellesley and offers ' to supply him with any more 
 information about their families and circumstances 
 
PLACE-HUNTERS 269 
 
 he may wish to have,' but is silenced by the peremp- 
 tory Marquis, who absolutely refuses to sanction the 
 change sede vacante. 
 
 ' I have scarce time to write, my room has been 
 besieged by clergy fighting their bye battles for the 
 inferior Livings. I hope the Duke will have them 
 settled to-morrow,' writes Mr. Gregory in 1813. 
 
 The disestablishment of the Church must have 
 considerably lightened the burden of government at 
 Dublin Castle. 
 
 It was impossible to satisfy a tithe of the appli- 
 cants, but they were thrown a bit now and then. 
 ' It might not be amiss to get rid of old Castlecoote 
 by making him a Viscount,' Lord Talbot writes. 
 ' Martin is very pressing to have Martin French 
 appointed Inspector of Stamps in an expected 
 vacancy. Of course I shall give no promise or ex- 
 pectation, but we must do something for Martin soon. 
 Think of his tide-waiter,' writes Mr. Gregory. ' Lord 
 Waterford is refused some unreasonable demand, but 
 the refusal requires sixteen pages of apology. Mr. 
 Lynch wants an appointment in 1822 on the ground 
 of having in 1799 procured an address in favour of the 
 
 Union from the Catholics of Gal way. Captain B , 
 
 who has done a service in reporting police irregulari- 
 ties, wants a place. " His previous conduct is not 
 such as to warrant our giving him employment here, 
 but we might send him to our Colonial possessions." 
 Another applicant " can hardly be appointed to any 
 position of trust, being an uncertified bankrupt." The 
 
270 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 sister of a Kecorder writes to beg for " any place 
 whatever." Such a sentence as this is not infrequent 
 — " is dead — and his place vacant." 
 
 Miss Edgeworth herself, who writes a whole 
 novel on the evils of patronage, cannot even in its 
 pages resist providing for her hero, Mr. Temple, by 
 a Government situation procured by his patron 
 directly from the King. Patronage was in the air, 
 and it will be long indeed before the Irish mind will 
 be convinced that it is now dead. 
 
 No doubt Mr. Gregory inflicted disappointments 
 as courteously as was possible, and I suspect from his 
 note-book that his refusal was sometimes softened by 
 a pleasant dinner. 
 
 I have chosen a few extracts from the mass of 
 letters bearing on the subject. 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel. 
 
 May 21, 1813. 
 
 4 You may expect an angry expostulation from Hans 
 Hamilton in consequence of the County of Dublin 
 Militia being given to Luke White's son. One of his 
 Brothers has this day been pouring out the feelings 
 of the family on the occasion.' 
 
 June 29, 1815. 
 
 ' Since the Publication of your Speech on the 
 proposed Police Bill, the applications for Magisterial 
 appointments with salaries have been innumerable, 
 and every applicant represents his part of the 
 Country as the most disturbed, and requiring the aid 
 
PLACE-HUNTERS 271 
 
 of paid Magistrates. Without the Salary the Country 
 might have slept in peace or been burnt to Cinders. 
 I trust creat care will be taken in the choice of 
 Persons to be selected when occasion may require 
 the appointment of Magistrates under the New Act. 
 You may be assured that County Members will 
 attempt to grasp them as part of their parliamentary 
 opima, in which case the best fitted Person for the 
 magistracy will be according to his number of 
 registered Freeholders. However, it is, I know, 
 needless to dwell upon a point of which your 
 residence in Ireland must have fully satisfied you.' 
 
 May 7, 1814. 
 
 ' Mr. Lynch called upon me. He then asked me 
 to consider the promise binding as to the Chairman's 
 place of Galway whenever it should become vacant. 
 I informed him that the Lord Lieutenant and you were 
 perfectly ignorant of any such Engagement, that 
 should any such vacancy occur his Excellency would 
 feel himself at full liberty to appoint to it any 
 eligible Barrister he should think proper. I reminded 
 him of his Expressions " that should a vacancy occur 
 he should demand it as a right, and not take it as a 
 favour ! " He seemed to regret having used, but did 
 not deny his words, saying the construction put on 
 them by me was not his meaning, which was only 
 to convey that he did not come without pretensions 
 to the situation from the Documents in his possession, 
 but that he should feel equally obliged to the Lord 
 
272 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Lieutenant as if such promise had been made — the 
 Bully failed and he tried the Coax. However, finding 
 the Engagement not considered binding on the present 
 Viceroy, he began loading his Castlereagh, which he 
 will certainly fire at you.' 
 
 May 21, 181G. 
 
 * Sir George Hewitt was yesterday overturned in a 
 Jaunting car with his Daughter Mrs. Carey ; he is 
 much bruised, but no danger apprehended. However, 
 any severe hurt to such an old man may have 
 dangerous consequences. Perhaps you had better 
 not mention this, as it will only set Candidates 
 starting for his place. 
 
 Deer. 1813. 
 
 ' Lady Clare is in town, frantic that the nomina- 
 tion of the Sheriff for Co. Limerick should be given 
 to the Chief Baron. She showed me what is called 
 by her your very impertinent Letter to Odell. 
 Unless she gains her point her son is to go into 
 opposition. She is to have an interview with the 
 Duke of Richmond as soon as he returns from 
 Castletown.' 
 
 On the other hand the Chief Baron (O'Grady) 
 writes on a later occasion : — 
 
 ' I am told that Mr. Henry Baylee, one of the 
 Limerick Psalm singers and Independants, has been 
 recommended to Mr. Grant by Mr. F. L. Price for 
 the office of Inspector of Prisons. Have the kindness 
 to give me a line to say if it be true. To you I need 
 
 
 
 
PLACE-HUNTERS 273 
 
 not express my Surprize and Indignation and from 
 others I will not conceal it when I can speak with 
 effect. 
 
 ' I am not sure that Lord Gort won't have a word 
 to say for himself.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel. 
 
 ' February 24, ] 815. — James Daly called upon me 
 to apply for the Barrack Master's place at Portumna, 
 value 7s. 6d. per day, and did not seem well pleased 
 when I informed him that the Lord Lieutenant had 
 appointed to it. In the first place Barrack Masters 
 were always kept free from the Gripe of the County 
 Members ; in the next, Lord Whit worth felt great 
 anxiety to give some situation to the Gentleman to 
 whose house the poor Duke was taken after his fall, 
 and in which he died. He received from the whole 
 family the most assiduous attention during the short 
 period he lived, and the Lord Lieutenant was anxious 
 to bestow an early mark of his Gratitude. The 
 Gentleman (Mr. Farrell) has seen happier days, and 
 now farms part of those lands of which he was 
 formerly the owner.' 
 
 Mr. Croker to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 Admy, August 31, 1818. 
 
 ' Can you advise me as to the probability of success 
 in the following matters, which I have much at heart ? 
 Old Dr. Bond, the father of Dean Bond, my brother-in- 
 
 T 
 
274 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 law, has a living in the Diocese of Elphin (Sligo) 
 which he would gladly resign to his Son, if the 
 Bishop's consent could be procured. If the Bishop 
 were likely to continue long at Elphin and so to 
 have the free disposal of the living on the old 
 Gentleman's death, I have no kind of pretence for 
 asking him for the favour of giving my brother-in-law 
 this piece of preferment : but if, as I cannot but think 
 likely, the Bishop looks higher, he will probably never 
 have the disposal of this living, and by now consent- 
 ing to the transfer he would confer a very great 
 obligation on me. 
 
 ' Even if Peel were still in Ireland I should have 
 consulted you on this subject first ; now that we 
 have lost him, I have no other friend in the Irish 
 Government than yourself.' 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 ' I have told Lord Waterpark the rule of the 
 Irish Govt., namely that it never listens to negotia- 
 tions in Church preferment, unless the parties are 
 about the same age, and unless a positive and solemn 
 assurance be given that neither of the parties receives 
 or gives any consideration for the exchange. This 
 will settle him I think.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Goulbum. 
 
 Dublin: 1826. 
 
 ' . . . Do not let it be known that this appoint- 
 ment is at your disposal until you have made arrange- 
 
A MODEL LETTER 275 
 
 ments for filling it. There is a powerful Personage 
 here whose Claims you well know are irresistible. 
 He has many Sons yet unprovided for, and their 
 qualifications are indisputable, as they depend not 
 upon themselves but upon the value of the place to 
 be disposed of.' 
 
 The following is worth giving as having roused 
 Lord Wellesley to a compliment. 
 
 Mr. Goidburn to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 Irish Office : April 2, 1824. 
 
 'I have just received the enclosed from the new 
 Member for Westmeath ; considering that he has not 
 yet taken his seat, it promises well ; at least it shows 
 a very perfect idea of that part of his duty which 
 consists in his obtaining offices for his constituents. 
 I enclose also a copy of my answer. Pray show them 
 both to the Lord Lieutenant.' 
 
 [Enclosure.] 
 
 ' Sir, — I have had the honour of receiving your 
 letter of the 29th ultimo making an application in 
 favour of five Gentlemen for whom you are desirous 
 of procuring the appointment of Chief Constable 
 whenever the Lord Lieutenant shall determine upon 
 extending to the Co. Westmeath the Constable Act. 
 
 ' I will not fail to submit your request to his 
 Excellency's consideration, but I should be wanting 
 in Candour if I did not at the same time apprize you 
 
 T 2 
 
276 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 that I do not see much prospect of his Excellency's 
 acquiescence in your wishes, His Excellency having 
 laid it down as an invariable rule that he will not in 
 the appointment of Chief Constables attend to any 
 local recommendation. 
 
 'If, however, among the Gentlemen whom you 
 have recommended for the Co. Westmeath there 
 should be any willing to serve in other parts of 
 Ireland, I am sure the Lord Lieutenant will not be 
 indisposed to give a fair consideration to their 
 pretensions, in common with those of other prior 
 Candidates for the Office. I ought, however, to add 
 that the appointments of this nature at the disposal 
 of the Lord Lieut, are extremely limited, and the 
 number of Candidates beyond all proportion great. 
 ' I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 ' Henry Goulburn.' 
 
 (Note by the Lord Lieutenant.) 'This is indeed 
 a perfect model. Mr. Goulburn's letter is very 
 proper. W.' 
 
 A letter of 15 pages from a Mr. Boyse to Mr. 
 Grant begins with such a flourish that the Chief 
 Secretary must have been relieved to find that the 
 request which is at length arrived at is only for the 
 admission of a friend to the magistracy : — 
 
 ' Sir, — The wise facility of access, which I know 
 that you are disposed to afford to every Irishman 
 who approaches you in the sacred garb of a Lover of 
 
NUMEROUS CLAIMS 277 
 
 his country, has emboldened me to address you, and 
 in doing so I am anxious to guard myself from the 
 imputation of speaking the language of adulation 
 when I say that I am deeply impressed with the 
 conviction that your administration of the affairs of 
 our unhappy Island is conducted on principles of the 
 strictest Public probity, and has been distinguished 
 throughout by the conscientious exertion of Talents 
 as splendid as they are useful.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lady Glengall. 
 
 Dublin Castle, 1819. 
 
 1 . . . Admitting the claims of your family on 
 the Government, I am sure you cannot be aware of 
 the many pressing claims from meritorious officers 
 who have distinguished themselves in the Army and 
 Navy, but who from the late Eeductions are seeking 
 for and gladly accepting the most inferior Situations, 
 to which very small salaries are annexed.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Grant. 
 
 'The Lord Lieutenant desired me to say in 
 answer to the Duke of Kent's application in favor of 
 the Eev. Mr. Miller, that during the last 12 months 
 there has been but one ecclesiastical Preferment 
 vacant in Ireland in the Gift of the Crown, and that 
 amounted to 140/. per Annum. With the numerous 
 list of Claims left by his predecessors and the many 
 strong applications made during his own Administra- 
 
278 ME. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 tion, lie cannot expect to satisfy one fourth of the 
 present Claimants. ' W. Gregory.' 
 
 May 25, 1819. 
 
 ' . . . I do not know where Martin obtains his 
 information respecting vacant Tidewaiters' places. 
 The Board of Customs report only two Vacancies, 
 one at Limerick, the other at Derry. I do not under- 
 stand how it happens that so few Vacancies occur in 
 Dublin, as it is the only place in which the Lord 
 Lieutenant's Patronage is not questioned. . . . Lord 
 Kingston called upon me, and among 100 other 
 points mentioned the supposed sale of Mr. McCarthy's 
 place to Drinan. . . .' 
 
 To Mr. Grant. 
 
 June 7, 1819. 
 
 ' ... If Colthurst cannot recommend a Person 
 duly qualified to discharge the Duties of the Office, I 
 
 should advise your giving the place to Lord . 
 
 I make no comparison between the Men, as Colthurst 
 
 has always been a steady supporter, Lord not 
 
 to be relied upon longer than suits his conveni 
 ence and Caprice, but as he has been allowed to 
 return to the Government Eanks, it may be right 
 occasionally to gratify him, but to satisfy him will 
 be impossible.' 
 
'HUNGRY IMPORTUNITIES ' L'79 
 
 Mr. Grant to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 July 28, 1819. 
 
 < ... I will write to the D. of Kent, as the Lord 
 Lieutenant wishes. Besides what the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant says, it seems that after a clergyman has 
 made a bad bargain for himself, it is no unusual 
 thing for him to try to baulk his parishioners, and 
 get a better living. This motive should be 
 resisted. . . . 
 
 ' I see there is a tide-waitership at Cork. What 
 is the amount? Would it do for Canning's friend 
 Tisdale ? . . . 
 
 ' Owen Wynne has applied thro' Peel, for a land- 
 waitership in Sligo. I send his letter . . . but 
 surely he has no sort of claim, and how can we 
 refuse the local member ? ' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Grant. 
 
 July 30, 1819. 
 
 ' The Bishop of Clogher dead, the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant writes by this Post to Lord Liverpool and you. 
 How fortunate you are being absent from Dublin 
 during the First hungry Importunities for the 
 division of the Spoils. . . .' 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 August 31, 1819. 
 
 ' Henry D 's Letter, I must freely confess, dis- 
 gusted and annoyed me. I am really not aware what his 
 
280 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Brother's Claims are, but as far as I am a competent 
 judge of them, they have not been ill attended to, as 
 they have procured 1,100/. a year in the Church for 
 his Brother. . . . 
 
 ' Did Grant tell you that Lord Liverpool still 
 wished 600/. pension to be given to Lord Brandon. 
 I answered this by saying it was impossible without 
 Lord L. would allow me to give away 1,500/. this 
 year instead of the customary 1,200/. Lord L. should 
 not make positive promises without communicating 
 with us. . . .' 
 
 November 15, 1819. 
 
 'Lord Glerawly presents his compts. to Mr. 
 Grant. . . . 
 
 ' Lord G. has for a long time been soliciting a 
 living for his Brother-in-law, the Eevd. Mr. Johnston, 
 contiguous to Lord Annesley's estates . . . but the 
 Irish Government have not hitherto paid that attention 
 to his request which Lord Glerawly would naturally 
 have expected, especially as Lord G. (tho' not having 
 the honour of being personally acquainted with Mr. 
 Grant) begs leave to inform him that he has for a 
 length of time supported the present administration 
 and had to contest his seat in two successive 
 Parliaments at a most enormous expense and 
 trouble.' 
 
 (Answer. Government will not interfere with 
 the patronage of a Bishop.) 
 
A MEMBER'S CLAIMS 281 
 
 From Col. C. to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 ' Dear Sir, — I had the honour of your last letter, 
 and cannot but observe that I am the only member 
 for a County in Ireland that would have been 
 refused such a request as my last. I have always 
 understood that every one of those small situations 
 that become vacant in the County was and is given 
 to the member who supports Government even 
 without applying for them. I did apply the moment 
 it became vacant and I have been refused. I have 
 experienced similar refusals before. 
 
 ' I wrote to Mr. Peel some time back relative to a 
 conversation that took place between you and me on 
 the subject of Clerk of the Crown for this County, 
 having in consequence of that conversation promised 
 it to Mr. John Hurley should it become vacant. He 
 has now brought me the resignation of the present 
 clerk, which I enclose, and I hope there will be no 
 difficulty in naming this gentleman to the situation. 
 He is in every respect fully qualified to fill it.' 
 
 From Mr. Gregory to Col. C. 
 
 ' Dear Sir, — In answer to your Letter expressing 
 your surprise that you should have been refused the 
 nomination to a small revenue place in the Co. of 
 Kerry, as you considered when such situations became 
 vacant they were always granted to the Member for 
 the county in which they are situated who supported 
 
282 MR GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 the Government, I am directed by the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant to refer you to your letter of the 3rd of 
 February last, to Mr. Peel, in which you declared the 
 conditions on which you had given your support to 
 the Government, and as his Excellency has no pro- 
 spect of being able to gratify your Expectations he 
 concluded it was not your Intention to continue 
 your support.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Mr. Peel. 
 
 March 30, 1816. 
 
 ' Nothing will drive the Irish members to Parlia- 
 ment unless convenient to themselves, and yet if they 
 declare themselves for the Government, they think 
 they are entitled to every branch of Patronage as 
 much as though they gave a useful support.' 
 
 Mr. Peel thus notes some of the letters he returns 
 to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 (Application for increase of pension from a Comm. 
 of Appeals.) ' A modest request ! Use my name as 
 you please in discountenance of it. E. P.' 
 
 (On one from Baron Smith.) ' Dear G., I would 
 rather give Judge Smith 5 Gaugers' places than 
 receive one letter from him.' 
 
 (On Mr. Hans Hamilton's letter recommending 
 Johnston, an honest man, to fill the office of Coast 
 Officer of ruck.) ' Pray reward him then — rari 
 nantes in gurgite vasto. E. P.' 
 
 In reply to Mr. Gregory's question whether the 
 clerkship he had asked for Mr. Sargent should be 
 
MK. PEEL'S NOTES 283 
 
 kept until some work was done, Mr. Peel answered, 
 4 Yes, but it will be kept ad Gra. Calend.' 
 
 May 13. — On the Stamps letter saying that 
 James Norton was unfit for a stamper, and in reply 
 to Mr. Gregory's comment that he must be a wretched 
 devil if unfit for that situation, he observes 
 that he is, and directs that Pole's man may be 
 appointed. 
 
 But the last letter I will give is a kindly one of 
 his, on a case where he thought help ought to be 
 given : — 
 
 [No date.] 
 
 4 1 really think Mrs. Farina well entitled to some 
 provision from the Irish Government. 
 
 ' Poor Farina was a most indefatigable, zealous, 
 and faithful Servant. I am not afraid of any pension 
 granted to his wife being drawn into Precedent, if 
 granted on account of his services. 
 
 ' Few, I fear, in his situation will equally deserve 
 such a posthumous reward . . . and if they do 
 deserve it equally, I hope they will receive it.' 
 
284 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 LORD TALBOT IN ENGLAND 
 
 These comments of Lord Talbot on the changes that 
 led from the old order to the new, and the glimpses 
 given of his own home life, are full of interest and of 
 charm. His life had a fair sunset after the clouds 
 and sorrows we have seen it darkened by. But he is 
 full of anxieties for his motherless children, especially 
 when they grow up and he takes them out in London. 
 He sits down sometimes while they are amusing 
 themselves, and writes his cares and fears to his old 
 friend. But his boys seem to do well as he sends one 
 after another out into the world. As for his adored 
 Cecil, Marchioness of Lothian, though he loses her it 
 is with a smile as well as with a tear. ' Depend upon 
 it,' he writes from her Scottish home, ' this marriage 
 does unco well.' 
 
 There is a packet of letters from her also to Mr. 
 Gregory, whom she claims as ' a second father,' showing 
 much sweetness and nobility of character. 
 
 In 1831 she writes to tell of a sad disappointment 
 she had met with. She had been on her way to Eng- 
 land, meaning to stay with Lord Talbot while Lord 
 Lothian attended the Coronation. ' Well, we were 
 actually at Mounteviot on our journey to Ingestre 
 
LADY LOTHIAN 285 
 
 when I got a letter from Papa, saying he was induced 
 for sundry reasons to go up to town for the Corona- 
 tion. There was no time for communication, so, after 
 having long meditated upon the pros and cons, I 
 settled that I should be more sure of being in nobody's 
 way by remaining in Scotland. I thought that Papa 
 once in London would probably stay to vote on this 
 odious bill, and that there would be some bother of 
 the how and where I was to join my husband. The 
 long and the short of the story is, that I am left here 
 by myself entirely for the two next months, for I fear 
 that there is no chance of the bill's being out of the 
 House, so as to admit of Lothian's return, before then. 
 You may suppose what a bitter disappointment it 
 was to me to miss my looked for visit at Ingestre, and 
 how painful to have to decide on so disagreeable a 
 measure for myself. I feel quite in a strange land 
 here, for I have only been here a week with Lothian, 
 and literally don't know my way about the place 
 (Newbattle), added to which there is not a creature I 
 know about, every face in doors and out is new, and 
 I have no maid into the bargain. I continue, how- 
 ever, to amuse myself very well ; indeed it would be a 
 shame if with young legs and eyes and plenty of books 
 I could not.' But a week later she writes again, ' I 
 really do not deserve to be pitied for having been 
 alone, for I have found plenty to occupy my time 
 fully. I think it has been of service to me among the 
 people about, who rather dreaded that I should be a 
 fine English lady, and that I should induce Lothian 
 

 286 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 to live away from here. This they are now persuaded 
 
 is not the case, and they are all quite fond of me 
 
 already. They are flattered at my having voluntarily 
 
 remained amongst them instead of going to England. 
 
 It has also given me leisure to become personally 
 
 acquainted with my poor neighbours, which I was 
 
 most anxious to do. I am sure you will be happy to 
 
 hear that I expect Lothian back here to-morrow. 
 
 This is a most unexpected pleasure to me, for he had 
 
 intended to go to Norfolk to his Aunt Lady Suffield 
 
 between the Coronation and the ' Bill : ' but finding 
 
 that a fortnight at least will elapse before he is wanted, 
 
 he, like a good dear man that he is, has taken his 
 
 place in the Steam Packet in order to rejoin me. He , 
 
 says he shall carry me off to England with him. That 
 
 we shall see about when the time comes. ... I 
 
 enclose a letter I received yesterday from A 
 
 which explains his History better than I can. I think 
 Lady G. W. has acted a base part by him, and the 
 whole affair has ended as I always predicted it would. 
 Those confidences which women are so fond of 
 receiving about young gentlemen's love affairs, are in 
 fact nothing less than a second-hand flirtation they 
 carry on for themselves, and I think seldom or never 
 end well for the confidante. I think one should 
 endeavour as much as possible to steer clear of all 
 such affairs.' 
 
 In January 1832 she shows the same good feeling 
 and devotion to duty : — 
 
 ' The Cholera is at this moment raging around 
 
LORD TALBOT'S RETURN 287 
 
 us, we have it close to the House on all sides. 
 A poor man was taken ill of it and died in the 
 course of a few hours not 100 yards from our door 
 the other day. I am afraid too that it is only begin- 
 ning, and that we shall have it in all its horrors ere 
 long. Of course we don't see a soul, nobody would 
 come near us, even were we to allow them so to do, 
 surrounded as we are by Pestilence it would not be 
 right to do so. We might go away, but we do not 
 think it right to run away when the chief part of the 
 community are exposed to it without any possibility 
 of escape. Lothian wanted to pack me off, but to 
 this I would not submit. Had I gone I should be 
 much more likely to catch it, for I should be in a 
 perpetual fidget and fright, knowing him here in the 
 midst of it all. Now I am not the least bit frightened.' 
 
 After some years, in the Duke of Northumber- 
 land's viceroyalty, Lord Talbot came back on a short 
 visit to Ireland, but begged that it might be quite a 
 private one. He writes, ' No, my dear Gregory, my 
 visit is purely to you, and has no ulterior object. 
 What shall I do on my landing ? Shall I go to the 
 Hotel or drive straight to the Park chez vous ? ' 
 
 Tradition says that he was so anxious to avoid 
 notice that he came without a servant, hailed a car, 
 put his valise on it, and drove to the Phoenix Park. 
 
 ' I don't think much of your horse,' he said to the 
 driver on the way. 
 
 * Faith, he never did a ha'porth o' good since the 
 
288 M R. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 day your Excellency left,' was the reply. So after that 
 he gave up the attempt at incognito, and even dined 
 more than once at the Castle. Mr. Gregory notes his 
 arrival on October 23, and the friends invited to meet 
 him at dinner during his stay, the Leinsters, the 
 Primate, the Leveson-Gowers, Sir Philip Crampton, 
 Saurin of course on the first evening, and Joy the 
 Attorney-General. 
 
 But as he grows older, the rush and tumble of 
 the times distress him. God knows what will become 
 of the country now Catholic Emancipation is being 
 granted ! And the Eeform Bill coming on too, ' what 
 times we live in ! ' He is not to be persuaded to turn 
 his coat, and writes with a pained and affectionate 
 sadness about Peel's defection. 
 
 Mr. Gregory visits him more than once, and meets 
 other friends there. ' Peel and his Brother William 
 came,' he writes at Ingestre in 1827, on September 19. 
 And next day ' Two Peels Killed forty Brace of 
 Partridges.' He may have taken it as a compliment 
 to his nationality that the battue had been kept for 
 the opening day in Ireland, the 20th. They go over 
 to Drayton also to see the new house ' which when 
 finished will be excellent.' 
 
 The good Earl's pleasures are simple. 'My 
 children, my library, my garden.' He laments a 
 storm in which ' the poplar, you remember it — near 
 the garden wall,' has been struck by lightning. He 
 imports the aboriginal Kerry cows from Ireland, and 
 is ' looking forward to the arrival of my roses from 
 
LORD TALBOT 289 
 
 France.' These pleasures suit him better than those 
 of ' Babylon,' as he calls London. ' Yet one must 
 go there or be counted among the dead.' 
 
 One can fancy when he and Mr. Gregory meet at 
 Ingestre how cordial is the welcome, how courteous 
 the attentions to ' Lady Anne and your daughter.' 
 How the old heads wag over the walnuts and the 
 wine as they look at the political world wholly given 
 to wickedness and the Eadicals nourishing like a 
 green bay tree. 
 
 Well, the world is seventy years older since then. 
 The Catholics have not sold England to the Pope. 
 The House of Lords still stands. Nonconformists are 
 decently buried and the ghosts of good Churchmen 
 have not come out of their graves. The sun has not 
 yet set upon the Empire. 
 
 The wine is older now, but the walnut trees bear 
 fresh fruit. The elders of another generation sit and 
 hear each other moan, and shake their heads over the 
 Local Government and Welsh Disestablishment that 
 will brim? the world to an end. 
 
 E pur si muove. And we still live and plant 
 roses. And the fall of the poplar at Ingestre and of 
 the pocket boroughs moves no one any more to 
 regrets or to fears. 
 
 I have chosen those of his letters which contain 
 matter of general interest to give here. They do not 
 require any comment. 
 
 u 
 
290 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' Boodle's : March 30, 1824. 
 
 ' . . . I am in search of a House for G or 8 weeks 
 to complete my residence in Babylon. . . . 
 
 ' Our friends in Grosvenor Square are particularly 
 well, indeed Lord Whitworth is better than I have 
 seen him for many years. He is lively, upright, 
 riding out in all weathers, and looking younger than 
 ever. It does me good to look upon his cheerful 
 countenance. His appetite is just what it ought to 
 be, and under very fair control. I dined in company 
 with him at Lord Camden's yesterday to meet the 
 Duke of York. 
 
 ' Our politics here are more placid than common, 
 and the State of the Country free from discontent 
 and prosperous. Not that I quite like this philan- 
 thropical System of universal toleration, and levelling 
 all the old fences which have so long protected us, 
 and brought us safe through so many storms. I have 
 heard it said that some of the oppositionists say, 
 Ministers are more opposition than any of their party, 
 and carry reform and liberality and freedom further 
 than they either expected or desired. This is one of 
 the mollifying effects of the C — ites' introduction into 
 office. I never can consider this person but as a 
 slippery friend. Whether I am right or wrong will be 
 seen I think at no very great distance of time. The 
 premier is quite modernized, meaning, I am told, and 
 supported by the Bishops, to vote for the bill Lord 
 Lansdowne is to introduce respecting the marriage of 
 
LORD TALBOT AT INGESTRE 291 
 
 Dissenters. The Chancellor and a few of us old- 
 fashioned politicians will go against the principle. 
 
 ' The King is said to be well, and is to have a Levee 
 before the Birthday. . . .' 
 
 Ingestre : August 28, 1824. 
 
 ' . . . I have been very busy in superintending my 
 agricultural concerns, and thanks to a most bountiful 
 Providence, and a little more personal activity, 
 I should not again have to explain to you why my 
 Eickyard is not full. This year I have not room for 
 my hay, I have one superb rick of 80 yards long. . . . 
 
 ' I have not heard of Lord Whitworth very lately. 
 I did not think him quite well when I last saw him, 
 but I trust the sea air which he went to Sando-ate to 
 enjoy has re-established him. He was sadly feeble. 
 
 ' Peel has been very kind to me, having given me 
 a situation for Ginder's son which has comforted him 
 in his affliction, poor fellow (he has recently lost his 
 wife), and has gratified him very much. The manner 
 in which Peel made me the offer was so peculiarly 
 kind that it reminded me of old and happy Times 
 when he, you and I considered how places were to 
 be disposed of. 
 
 ' The Duchess of K. seems to have behaved herself 
 with great prudence, and if the small number of her 
 husband's friends that remain did not remind her of 
 the rapid change that takes place in human affairs in 
 too melancholy a manner, she must have been 
 gratified by the cordiality with which she was 
 received. . . .' 
 
 u 2 
 
292 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 May 15, 1825. 
 
 ' It is with a bleeding heart that I communicate 
 to you (although you have probably heard it before), 
 the departure from this world to a better of our dear 
 friend Lord Whitworth. " He was taken ill on 
 Wednesday and expired on Friday evening. He had 
 suffered much, but expired without a struggle. He 
 was conscious up to the last, and was not aware of 
 his situation." Thus writes Plymouth from Knole. 
 
 ' I will not attempt the description of my feelings 
 on this painful occasion. They are such as will be 
 common to you and all his friends. A greater 
 private loss cannot be imagined. Honest, upright 
 and sincere, he was a pattern to his equals, benevolent, 
 humane and affectionate ; his loss will be felt by all 
 classes. 
 
 ' In him I lose a second Father, a friend in whose 
 honest judgment I always could depend, and a minis- 
 ter in whose indulgence my failings always found a 
 lenient judge. 
 
 ' May we, my dear good Gregory, be allowed to 
 meet him and others who have preceded us, in 
 regions of happiness, never again to be separated. 
 May God bless you and yours, and believe me 
 always your truly attached and afFectionate 
 
 ' Talbot.' 
 
 Jan. 28, 1826. 
 
 ' . . . The rumour of a change or changes in your 
 executive daily gains ground. I fear this country is 
 
DEATH OF LORD INGESTBE 293 
 
 in a very precarious stale. The extent of distress in 
 the manufacturing districts in Cheshire, Lancashire, 
 and parts of Yorkshire, is, I fear and believe, very 
 great. In Staffordshire we are as yet flourishing, but 
 God knows where the evil of over-speculation and 
 trading upon others' capital may reach. 
 
 ' I had hoped never to be called upon to go out 
 with our local force again, and to repose under my 
 Laurels, faded as they have been. Yet I assure you 
 I am by no means tranquil on the subject. I 
 wish to my heart that Peel would organise and head 
 an administration on old English principles (I mean 
 this expression to be taken in its best acceptation) in 
 our trade and politics, which really alarm the jog- 
 trot friends of the Country, among whom ranks 
 himself 
 
 ' Yours ever affectly., 
 
 ' Talbot.' 
 
 71 Liverpool Street : May 31, 1826. 
 
 ' My dear Gregory, — It has pleased the Almighty 
 once again to visit your poor friend with a most 
 heavy affliction, in having called to Himself my dear 
 Son Ingestre, of whose melancholy death I have this 
 morning received intelligence by express from 
 Vienna. 
 
 ' It appears my poor Boy was in the habit of 
 taking early rides in the Prater (the Park) near 
 Vienna, and that in conformity to this practice he 
 went out on Tuesday the 23rd about lOo'c. — that 
 

 294 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 his Horse was seen to turn restive and to break away 
 with him towards the Town, when he rushed into a 
 muddy pool, where throwing his Eider, my poor son 
 fell into the water and was suffocated in the mud. 
 
 Assistance was procured, but, alas ! too late ; and 
 thus am I once more thrown into the deepest 
 affliction. Of Ingestre's amiability and virtues there 
 is but one opinion, and this carries consolation with 
 it, yet it aggravates my misery at the loss of him. 
 The Almighty gave him to me, it has pleased Him to 
 call him unto Himself. Blessed be the Lord. . . . 
 
 ' I am sure you will feel for yours 
 
 ' Always most affectionately 
 
 ' Talbot.' 
 
 Mr. Gregory to Lord Talbot. 
 
 Dublin : June 18, 1827. 
 
 ' My dear Lord, — Next to seeing you in the 
 situation I most wish will be the gratification of 
 seeing you in my house, and to which I look forward 
 as no distant event. Whoever may be the successor 
 of Lord Wellesley, he could not have the slightest 
 objection to your visiting this Country. As nothing 
 to my knowledge has yet been settled respecting the 
 appointment of Lord Anglesea, I suppose he declines 
 accepting it ; so many Protestant noblemen have 
 refused the Viceroyalty of this Country that I 
 fear the King will find it difficult to nominate one 
 according to the declaration he made to the Bishops ; 
 the objections made by others would not hold with 
 
LORD NORBURY'S REMOVAL 295 
 
 Lord Anglesea, they refused as I understand because 
 they would not act with Mr. Canning. Lord A. has 
 acted with him, and could not therefore refuse on 
 that ground. To you I never scruple to open my 
 mind, and therefore say that if Mr. Lamb is not to 
 remain Chief Secretary, I sincerely hope Mr. Frank- 
 land Lewis will not be appointed his successor. I 
 know your intimacy with him, but you are not aware 
 of the strong line he has taken in Popish Politics in 
 this Country, which in my mind makes him totally 
 unfit for such a situation ; he is far from a moderate 
 Politician, and would be under the influence of 
 Persons the most prejudiced against our Church 
 Establishment. 
 
 ' What a retreat old Norbury has made ! Tho' 
 loaded with so many honors some of his friends are 
 of opinion that he will feel unhappy when out of 
 office. AVhatever may be thought of the terms by 
 which he has been induced to resign, no one can 
 doubt but that his removal at this very advanced age 
 from the judgment seat is a public benefit. 
 
 ' Just as I had finished the last sentence the 
 English mail arrived, and brought an account of the 
 defeat of the Corn Bill. I am aware that the measure 
 was one in the success of which the Ministers 
 were much interested, but being ignorant of the 
 ] i resent state of Parties I am incompetent to form an 
 opinion of the effect such defeat may produce in 
 Ministerial influence. It must be very mortifying to 
 Mr. Canning. ' W. Gregory. 
 
296 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 'P.S. We had yesterday our last Beefsteak 
 meeting for the season ; 1 it was excellent. Your 
 health is never forgotten there, and I am happy to 
 say that at each time it is given the applause with 
 which it is received does not diminish. 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 Ingestre : July 4, 1827. 
 
 ' My Dear Gregory, — I did not obtain a sight of 
 Lord Wellesley's most handsome letter to you until 
 this day. All I can say is that it is strictly what is 
 due to you, and complete triumph as to the correct- 
 ness of your Principles. 
 
 ' I dare not look forward, my dear Friend, to a 
 political future. What is to happen a wiser and 
 greater Power alone can foresee. With a Catholic 
 Home Secretary, a do. Irish Secretary, with Mr. 
 Spring-Bice for an Under Secretary, with a L. L. 
 who alwavs had been a Catholic, who remains till 
 Xtmas, and is to be succeeded by one who, though 
 he has voted against Emancipation, is not a decided 
 Protestant, I lament and grieve from my very soul for 
 poor dear Ireland. 
 
 ' The political changes are to me quite appalling. 
 I feel as if some sad Calamity had befallen me, 
 having for so many years supported, and with all my 
 heart, the Government, I cannot conceive how and 
 
 1 The Beefsteak Club began as a musical, but afterwards became 
 a Tory place of meeting. It was here that, when Lord Wellesley's 
 removal was announced, ' The Exports of Ireland ' was given as a toast 
 to his great indignation. 
 
MR. CANNING'S DEATH 297 
 
 why I find myself opposed to it. You will not, 
 indeed you will not expect it, find me among the very 
 virulent hot-headed opponents of Ministers. But I 
 cannot stomach Whiggism, and Whiggism of the 
 Geneva school too. 
 
 ' You will, I think, have Lewis— but do not mis- 
 understand me — tho' I like him as a man I dislike 
 his political views and principles toto coelo, and 
 since I have known what he has been doing in Ireland, 
 he is just the last man I should (were I L. L.) wish 
 to have as my Secretary. 
 
 '. . . You will be glad to know we are all, thank 
 God, quite well. My little fellows are at home. 
 Gerald comes on the 28th. If Ingestre can be of any 
 use as a resting place to dear little William, you of 
 course will make use of it. Adieu, with kind regards 
 to Lady Anne, your Daughter and Saurin.' 
 
 Cardiff: August 10, 1827. 
 
 ' I last night heard, to my great surprize and 
 concern, of Mr. Canning's Death. The only remark 
 I shall permit myself is, that the ways of Providence 
 are awful and mysterious. Who would have thought 
 that the Successor of a Minister afflicted by a mortal 
 disease should be called to his last account before his 
 Patron and predecessor ! That everything ultimately 
 tends to good I have long been intimately convinced. 
 May this awful Event prove a benefit to the Country. 
 
 We Protestants have another Squeak for our 
 Establishment and principles. 
 
298 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Eemote from my friends, being on a survey of my 
 Welsh Wilds, I have no chance of hearing what is 
 going on in the political World. My confidence is 
 in Peel, whether or not his party be strong enough to 
 carry him through the Struggle I have no means of 
 judging. Sure I am that the Whigs are not popular. 
 I pity the King, he must be in a state of great annoy- 
 ance and distress. . .' 
 
 Jean. 21, 1828. 
 
 ' . . . How shall I frame a letter to you in these 
 eventful Times, 1 and not tell you a thousand Lies ? If 
 I venture to commit anything to paper it shall be 
 without pretending to communicate more than I hear 
 in the streets, for to no other source of information 
 have I any access or pretension. You are aware that 
 every person that tells news either gives it the coloring 
 that best suits his party feeling, or else retails the 
 Gossip he has collected from party followers or 
 persons as ignorant as himself. 
 
 ' I am afraid that all matters relative to the Chiefs 
 of departments are settled, and that the minor depend- 
 encies are now in cogitation. You will have been 
 told that the List in the Chronicle is mainly true, and 
 I believe it is so. Some discussion, report says, has 
 been held whether Mr. Herries shall be in the Cabinet. 
 Lord Anglesey is better ; he was riding yesterday, and 
 intends to assume the reins of his Government in a 
 month or six weeks, if his health permits. Should 
 
 1 Alluding to the fall of the Coalition Ministry under Lord Goderich 
 and formation of a Government under the Duke of Wellington. 
 
A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT 299 
 
 lie not be well enough I have heard Lord Melville is 
 likely to be appointed. Dr. Luton said that as far 
 as Lord Anglesey's Health was concerned, he wished 
 he was on his road now. Some medical men then 
 seem to think he will never be well enough to go. 
 As yet Lord A. has had no communication from Duke 
 of W. This, it must be allowed, is natural, until the 
 Government be formed and the Basis of its policy 
 fixed. Lewis, I think, remains, and there are not 
 wanting those who think that the principles of free 
 trade, &c, which the old Tories objected to so much 
 last year, will now have more free course than before, 
 as Huskisson, Grant and Lewis will be uncontrolled 
 by Herries, whose Mastership of the Mint will not give 
 him that Authority which the Chancellorship of the 
 Exchequer had conferred. 
 
 ' The Duke of Newcastle, report says, is furious, 
 and will not support Government. 
 
 ' Lord Wharncliffe is also violent, deprecating the 
 Desertion of Huskisson from the Canningites, but he 
 will support (p.s. this I hear since is false). 
 
 ' Lord Eldon, / have been assured, has not had any 
 Communication from his old Colleagues, or been 
 consulted in any way. 
 
 ' Much as I respect the leaders, I confess this omis- 
 sion appears ominous to our Cause. I dare not make 
 any Comments upon the public feeling before the 
 whole is settled, yet I think I discern great rancour. 
 
 ' The Whigs are dissatisfied with Huskisson, and 
 some with Lord Lansdowne. The Canningites with 
 
SOU MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Huskisson. The old Tories with the admission of the 
 Leaven of Liberalism in the persons of H. and Co. 
 In short I do not think any party are quite in good 
 humour. 
 
 ' However these feelings may be justified or recon- 
 ciled, it is but fair to say that situated as public men 
 now are, it is extremely difficult to form any Admi- 
 nistration without concession. For myself I feel glad 
 we have such a man of peace and strong commanding 
 Sense as the Duke of Wellington is, at the Head of 
 Affairs, altho' there are some points in the Arrange- 
 ment I should have liked to have seen different, as I am 
 sure some of our friends in power would, if possible, 
 have managed. . . . Lord Liverpool is something 
 better, he has been informed of Canning's Death, and 
 was much affected.' 
 
 Ingestre: Sunday, Janizary 28, 1828. 
 
 ' Many thanks, my dear Gregory, for your kind 
 and satisfactory Letter, which has soothed my ultra- 
 Tory feelings. I do trust to the principles of the 
 Premier and Peel, but I do wish they had been able to 
 form an administration on really pure Protestant prin- 
 ciples, tho' I admit that great difficulties may and 
 probably have arisen to prevent so desirable an 
 Union. 
 
 ' I had nearly forgotten the object of this letter, 
 which was to tell vou that Arthur has been ordained 
 and did duty to-day here ! He really acquitted him- 
 self vastly well. May he prove himself of the 
 Vocation ! ' 
 
 
A MYSTERY 301 
 
 Boodle's : April 17, 1828. 
 
 ' I arrived on Saturday, and have just begun my 
 Town Life. 
 
 ' . . . I was accidentally told a curious tiling to- 
 day from which some little explanation [is furnished] 
 to your Letter requesting to have the one you had 
 written to me, and which you suspected to have been 
 opened, to be returned, to satisfy you on the point. 
 
 6 It appears that there is a solicitor by the name of 
 Talbot, who being accidentally from home left a Clerk 
 in charge to open his letters. Among these it would 
 seem was one from you to me ; this was, the young 
 man says, inadvertently opened in the first instance, 
 but then read as he confesses. Conceiving that some 
 wishes expressed by you to see me in my old post as 
 L. L. again, imported a conspiracy between you and 
 me to rid Ireland of Lord Wellesley, he deemed it 
 right to send this treasonable Document to Mr. Can- 
 ning ! Mr. C. answers him very coolly, telling him 
 he had been guilty of an unpardonable breach of 
 propriety, and that to save all further discussion and 
 difficulty he had burned the Letter in question. 
 
 ' Lewis I believe has seen Canning's answer, tho' I 
 have not this from him, nor does he know that I am 
 in possession of these facts. 
 
 ' Can all this be true ; can it be an answer to my 
 having once inveighed against Letters having been 
 opened ; was the Letter the one 1 have (which I 
 returned to you) ? In fact it is a surprising Mystery, 
 
302 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 and I cannot quite fathom the thing either itself or 
 its being now communicated to me. 
 
 ' I contented myself with the observation that it 
 was passing odd you should have mentioned a wish 
 about my return in that Letter alone. 
 
 ' Can this be preparatory to any attack ? What 
 can it mean ? 
 
 ' I had better tell you that my friend Peploe told 
 me the story under some reservation. To you I have 
 none, in this case I ought to have none. He is 
 incapable of any underhand conduct to anyone, 
 Especially towards myself or you, whom he, I know, 
 likes as a man ; as Tories and Protestants he pities 
 our blindness and Bigotry.' 
 
 London : June 13, 1828. 
 
 ' As Enniskillen wrote to you after our Catholic 
 Debate, and I believe he entertains the same opinion 
 that I do, that the Question is " virtually carried," I 
 did not write to you, especially as I had it in con- 
 templation to go to Tver, and I thought you would 
 like to hear how your Grandson does. I went 
 yesterday, and I can report William is in great health 
 and good looks. He told me he was quite well, 
 which Mr. Ward corroborated. 
 
 * With regard to these catholicks, I can have no 
 doubt that some overtures will be made, and I should 
 not wonder if some measure was brought forward. 
 But you, I think, will agree that until these Gentlemen 
 can be induced to act a little more like good and 
 
1 SEPARATION ' 303 
 
 quiet subjects, there is but little chance of anything 
 like arrangement to be expected.' 
 
 Ingestre : July 11, 1828. 
 
 ' Well, my dear Gregory, things are now assuming 
 a dreadful aspect, and a Crisis which I own I did not 
 expect quite so soon is now at hand, and a dreadful 
 one it will be. Separation O'Connell now avows. It 
 would be heartless that we should triumph in the 
 correctness of our Estimation of the real views of the 
 Emancipators. Their real object is now unmasked 
 by their Idol. ' Separation ' from this Country alone 
 will satisfy these agitators. Good God, what will 
 happen ? It has been remarked in this neighbourhood 
 that fewer (indeed scarcely any) of the Irish laborers 
 have come over this Harvest. This cannot be acci- 
 dental, this is part of the system of the Priestcraft. 
 What security can this Country now pretend to if the 
 Catholic Claims be admitted ? None, but there will 
 be a collision between the 2 Eeligions. 
 
 ' I begin to think that Catholic Emancipation is 
 positively dreaded by the R. C. Clergy, and that they 
 never will consent to any Terms by which their 
 influence would be lessened, if indeed any such could 
 now be devised. 
 
 ' Poor dear Ireland ! I feel for you ! 
 
 ' How the noble Marquess feels I do not presume 
 to suppose, but if this be not dragooning I cannot 
 interpret the word, and if it be, we have his assurance 
 in the II. of Lords that he will not submit to it. 
 
304 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' I do indeed think lie is the last man in the 
 Country that will brook such outrageous conduct. 
 
 ' We have a firm administration too, I think, at 
 head-quarters, and of such a one shall we stand in 
 need. 
 
 ' I enclose a few lines of congratulation to our 
 friend Saurin on his son's Marriage. The Lady is a 
 neighbour of mine, entre nous report says she is 
 rather a swaddler. . . . 
 
 ' How you will like your new Chef 1 I cannot sur- 
 mize. He is a very gentlemanly and clever young- 
 man, but I fear his melancholy cast of countenance 
 vviil scarcely suit your vivacious Countrymen. Henry 
 Greville, his brother-in-law, is a great friend of Jack's ; 
 he is rather a dandy, but I think not an unpleasant 
 man ; he is quite up to the ' Snuff' of the world. I 
 do not think that either of them are strictly men of 
 Business, but both of them are too keen not to know 
 they must become such if they mean to retain their 
 Situation with credit. . . .' 
 
 July 13, 1828. 
 
 ' I told you in my last I should write soon again 
 to you. This I did in the expectation that Ingestre 
 might succeed in obtaining the Consent of Lady Sarah 
 Beresford to become his wife. 
 
 ' This is now effected, and I lose not a moment in 
 communicating the happy event to you.' 
 
 1 Lord F. Levcson-Gowcr. 
 
AN UNEXPECTED CHANGE 805 
 
 Foxley : August 17, 1828. 
 
 ' It has not been without a struggle, I assure you, 
 that I have given up my intention of visiting you 
 this year. . . . 
 
 ' I felt, however, some doubt on the propriety of 
 my arrival in a Country where my political prin- 
 ciples are so well known, at a moment of excitation 
 like the present. . . . 
 
 ' I am afraid of asking you whether you can give 
 us a little of your company. 
 
 ' With a young L.L. and a still younger Secretary 
 your experience will, I fear, be too much wanted for 
 me to expect to see you at Ingestre. 
 
 ' Henry Greville was with me some time before 
 he went over. I hope you like him. He is good- 
 natured, with some cleverness — but very unused to 
 such serious Business as he has engaged in.' 
 
 London : 12 o'clock Feb. 5, 1829. 
 
 ' When I left home on Tuesday I little expected 
 to be greeted on my arrival in London with the 
 Intelligence that the Catholic Question was to be 
 carried, that Peel had offered to resign his seat in the 
 University, and that the King had assented to the 
 Measure. Until this moment I was not aware that I 
 was so sensitive a being — but I confess I am quite 
 overset with this, to me at least, unexpected Change 
 in H.M.'s Councils. What I may do, that is, how I 
 shall vote, I am at present quite ignorant — to exhibit 
 a useless opposition to a measure which both sides of 
 
306 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 the House will unite in defending would be as the 
 expression " useless " imports, nonsense, but if the 
 Veteran protestants who can speak array themselves 
 in opposition to it, I probably shall be found among 
 them. 
 
 ' This is the blessed fruit of Charles Grant's ap- 
 pointment, and thus are Cities often carried by Sap 
 whose fortifications resist the bolder attacks by 
 Storm. . . . 
 
 ' Pray let me have one line from you to this place, 
 where I have not much inclination to dwell, on this 
 important and unfortunate subject. 
 
 1 A casual visitor has just told me our Premier's 
 politics on the Cat. Question are quite changed.' 
 
 London : Feb. 6, 1829. 
 
 1 You doubtless will hear that all our apprehen- 
 sions have been verified, and the great Question of 
 Cath. Eman. is carried. I could not, I would not 
 believe it. 
 
 1 But, alas, the strong Tone assumed by the Duke, 
 and Peel's speech of last night, leave no doubt of the 
 Fact. 
 
 ' I was sorry to observe the Tone in the House of 
 Lords. It should seem we had all been of the 
 opinion now manifested by Ministers since the world 
 began. 
 
 * Yet it may be a politic prudent measure. Then 
 why not state the facts that make it so. 
 
 1 Why throw over your former friends and co- 
 
1 SICK AT IIEAHT ' W7 
 
 operating fellow labourers in opposing the Cath. 
 pretention, by giving them no notice of a change in 
 your policy. 
 
 ' Lord Winchelsea told them it was disingenuous, 
 it was base. Lord Eldon made a good speech — but 
 was rather " wordy." Lord Anglesey spoke with 
 great dignity and ease, and wisely availed himself of 
 this momentous change not to trouble the house with 
 a detail of his personal wrongs, the right to detail 
 which he, however, begged to be understood he would 
 not abandon. 
 
 ' I really am sick at heart. That the measure 
 cannot be successfully opposed I am satisfied. Shall 
 we content ourselves with watching the progress of 
 the measure, or let these protestant ministers defend 
 the Church by themselves. That the opinion here is 
 against the measure I think no one can doubt. How 
 far it will be expressed, Time will show. 
 
 ' For me, I am rather inclined to require no 
 Securities, as if given they will form new reasons for 
 disquiet, and ultimately be cancelled. The word 
 toleration should now be obliterated. We have all a 
 right to everything, and are fast verging to the 
 doctrine of Tom Paine of the rights of man. 
 
 ' But eno' of this d m subject. I saw Lord 
 
 Manners, who appears quite well.' 
 
 Ingestre : Feb. 28, 1829. 
 
 ' . . . I feel acutely the blow that is about to be 
 inflicted on the Country. 
 
 ' As at present informed, my vote will be as it ever 
 
 x 2 
 
308 MR. C4REGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 has been ; but if in a conscientious examination into 
 the Arguments to be adduced and facts which we 
 Hear are to be brought forward, I see reason to alter 
 that opinion, I shall do so. If you ask me what I 
 think, I think you will find me the uncompromising 
 defender of those principles in which I have been 
 brought up and have ever professed. I am not one 
 who will give up deep and firmly rooted principles 
 because a Duke of Wellington may be driven from 
 his post . . . fiat justitia ruat Ccelum. I can safely 
 say I have never felt a political Question so deeply — 
 it has positively made me ill — deprived me of all 
 comfort and peace of mind. 
 
 ' Depressed in spirits, deprived of hope, I wandered 
 about London like one possessed with an Evil Spirit. 
 Yet the Question will be carried at all risks and at all 
 events. I shall be at my post tho' I cannot summon 
 up resolution to speak (tho' I will not say to what I 
 may be goaded). I intend to watch every clause, 
 every word of the intended Acts of Parliament. I 
 cannot but think Peel conscientious — he has lost 
 everything to gain nothing. I have not seen him, but 
 I hear he says he is conscientious in adopting the Line 
 which he has painfully taken. 
 
 ' Hoping your Daughter is restored to you in 
 health, with Cecil's Love to you all, believe me, 
 unalterably yours.' 
 
 London : March 25, 1829. 
 
 * . . . I have not seen Peel, nor do I know that 
 I quite wish to see him — for although I give him 
 
' EXPEDIENCY ' J09 
 
 every credit for honest conviction on his part of 
 the expediency (that is our new and fashionable 
 phrase), if not absolute necessity for a change, I 
 cannot forget he is no longer the bold assertor of 
 those principles in which I have been brought up, 
 and which notwithstanding all his oratory I still 
 conceive to be necessary to the well-being of the 
 Country. But I will call when he is more at leisure 
 to see individuals who have no demands upon his 
 time. 
 
 ' I saw W. Peel yesterday, and I told him I was 
 not yet arrived at that pitch of political proficiency 
 when I could reconcile it to myself to sacrifice 
 principle to expediency, neither would I do so. If you 
 recollect the W. Peel at Grenden you would scarcely 
 recognise him in London. I mean the expression, 
 not the person of the man. 
 
 ' I am told we shall be beaten by a majority of 
 fifty-eight in II. of Lords. I fear the Reaction, for 
 certainly the feelings of the public are against the 
 measure. W. Peel having stated some difficulties 
 which in his opinion justified the bill, said to me, 
 " What would you do ? " I replied, " Upon my word I 
 do not know, but allow me to ask you, what do you 
 expect to do now ? ' : I got as little satisfaction from 
 him. I hear six Irish Bishops are come or coming 
 over to see the King on this business. This is all 
 very well — but they might as well have staid at home. 
 The present Premier will not consent to retro- 
 grade, and the doors of the Constitution are to 
 
310 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 be set wide open to all persons wishing to enter 
 them. Some people doubt of Lord Manners. Surely 
 he cannot after his Uniform opposition to E. C. 
 Emancipation turn round and vote for it. But 
 you will say, " Look at Peel !" I can only shake my 
 head and say, very true ! 
 
 ' Yet I think " Tom " staunch. I have heard the 
 magnificence of your present L.L. 1 is unbounded, 
 quite princely. Yet a more unassuming person 
 cannot exist. I hope you will like them both ! 
 They are amiable in private life. . . .' 
 
 London : April 1, 1829. 
 
 'The bill for E. C. Emancipation was yesterday 
 brought to the Lords, by Peel in person. Little 
 did I ever expect to have seen our friend at the 
 bar of our House upon such an occasion. Had I 
 been told of such a circumstance two years, nay one 
 year ago, I should have scouted it as impossible. 
 
 ' As I have a perfect conviction of Peel's honesty, 
 morality and religious principles, I cannot entertain 
 a doubt of his motives, but perhaps I should say fears 
 which have induced him to sacrifice his Character for 
 consistency and firmness. But having so far given 
 him credit, I hope I shall not be reproached with a 
 wish to derogate from his character if I say that in 
 future I cannot confide in his stability. Expediency 
 is a sorry word. I say give me principle as my 
 watchword. 
 
 1 Puke of Northumberland. 
 
'DUTY' 311 
 
 ' No one in future can be fairly reproached with 
 abandoning principles, friends or party — all, all, 
 must yield to expediency ! Be it so ; when we know 
 whereof politicians are made we can measure the 
 proportion of faith to be reposed in them by that 
 Scale. I am glad you approve of my line of conduct. 
 I wish so to vote that I can say to myself, " You have 
 acted conscientiously and done your Duty." . . . 
 
 ' I hardly know what to think of Lord Manners. 
 He is decidedly against the Bill, but they say he has 
 many crotchets on the subject. 
 
 ' The minority (the other side will far outnumber 
 them) will be very respectable, highly respectable, for 
 independence, character and weight in the Country 
 and public Estimation, but this is of no practical use. 
 
 ' Whenever you come to London you know where 
 to find a Bed. Cecil sends her love to you all — she 
 is well.' 
 
 Lower Grosvenor Place : April 24, 1829. 
 
 ' It is with very sincere pleasure that I have 
 received yours of the 21st, inasmuch as I applaud 
 and concur most truly in all the advice your Friends 
 have given you to remain in office, until at least you 
 know what the Government is. 
 
 * For the sake of Ireland I rejoice, for yourself I 
 hope you have not acted wrong. 
 
 ' Among the many contradictory reports I sent 
 you, the news I collected yesterday proves correct, and 
 it will enable you to form some judgment as to what 
 is likely to be done in Ireland. This much is proved, 
 
312 MR. GREGORYS LETTER-BOX 
 
 that the future administration of that Country forms 
 an important feature in the consideration of Govern- 
 ment. I believe Lewis will be your Chief Secretary. 
 W. Horton and Lord Binning have both been talked 
 of for this Office, but from all I hear and see, Lewis 
 will, I think, most likely be the man. He is a decided 
 Catholic Emancipator, but disposed not to lend himself 
 to any party. 
 
 ' You will have heard with some surprize, I doubt 
 not, of Mr. Plunkett's having declined the Eolls, but 
 this is accounted for by the dissatisfaction expressed 
 by the English Bar at the appointment. I see 
 farther. It may be he does not like to face public 
 disinclination, but, alas ! I fear he has views incom- 
 patible with the Elevation of one for whom I have 
 the liveliest affection, Esteem and Eegard. This may 
 not be the case, but we live in such times of Juggle 
 and Trick that GOD knows how far anyone may 
 look, or what we plain dealers may dare to encourage 
 a hope of. . . . 
 
 ' Public opinion, as far as I can learn, is not in 
 favor of the long continuance of this (by some called) 
 strange coalition. This grand sentiment (pub. opin.) 
 is decidedly in favor of our friend. I saw him a few 
 days since, a more manly, conscientious, distinct 
 Line no man could have pursued. He acted and fell 
 like a man — like a Protestant. 
 
 ' Such conduct must meet with Eeward, the mens 
 conscia recti never needed consolation. The train 
 for all this has been long and deeply laid. May it 
 
HOME POL [TICS 313 
 
 all turn to the advantage of the Country. . . . Peel 
 is very well. Lord Eldon, they say, is equally so.' 
 
 London : June 4, 1829. 
 
 ' O'Connell's impudence is just what I expected it 
 would be. Among the many results of the late Act 
 of Parliament, this I for one anticipated, that the 
 radicals in Ireland would only be exasperated, in 
 short, what can satisfy disaffection ? Nothing but the 
 overthrow of Existing Establishments. 
 
 ' I fear we are not very comfortable in our home 
 politics. Disunion is said to exist in the Cabinet, a 
 want of confidence I am sure prevails among the 
 more moderate partizans of the Government. The 
 Evils of over production and a superabundant 
 population become daily more apparent. How will 
 it all end, Dieu sait. Many changes must take place 
 before all is settled, but among them do not suppose 
 any will take place in the affection of yours truly.' 
 
 London : June 18, 1829. 
 
 ' I hasten to assure you that both Cecil and my 
 self are in good health. She was at the Ball at St. 
 James's. I ivas not, because the invitation did not 
 reach this house till Tuesday evening, and I being at 
 Ingestre for my sheep show (which I have established) 
 did not hear of the command till it was nearly 
 impossible to obey it, which suited my Book indeed, 
 as I had several friends to meet me at home. We 
 sat down 32 to dinner the Friday, the day after the 
 Ball, so that had I attended I must have disappointed 
 
314 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 many people. And as I can conscientiously say, 
 nothing but travelling all night, after having been 
 running about Leicestershire in the morning, could 
 have brought me to Town in time for the Ball, I felt 
 justified in saying I did not receive the Command in 
 time to obey it. 
 
 ' As it was I left my Company early to be in 
 time for a great dinner at Peel's on Saturday — for 
 whom, notwithstanding all that has passed, I cannot 
 help entertaining a sincere regard and perhaps 
 affection. 
 
 ' That circumstances compelled him to do what 
 he did, I must, unless I accuse him of everything 
 odious, believe, but I cannot help feeling that / in 
 common with everyone of the same opinion, have 
 been gulled and misled. I fear too for nothing, for 
 unless I am deceived, and I pray sincerely I may 
 be, the same opposition to Government will be ex- 
 perienced, tho' under other names and far more 
 favourable circumstances to the oppositionists, than 
 the Emancipation of the E. C's called forth. I hope I 
 may be wrong. Alas, I fear I am but too right. 
 Certain it is, Government has few real friends, such 
 as it possessed before this stroke of policy. I con- 
 clude some changes in the Administration must be 
 made before Parliament meets again. We are to be 
 dismissed next week. . . . 
 
 ' We are suffering much from drought. I fear the 
 country is in a very deplorable state. I own I croak. 
 The Town is emptied for Ascot, where much sport is 
 
OLD TIES RELAXED 315 
 
 expected. I hope H.M. may win his Cup, lie sets so 
 much value upon the doing so.' 
 
 London : June 24, 1829. 
 
 ' . . . As for your Catholic Gratitude, I confess 
 I should have been disappointed had it turned out 
 different from what it has. We always said that C. 
 Emancipation was only a pretence, a stepping stone 
 — for ulterior objects — and what your present L. L. 
 thinks of himself now he sees things in their true 
 colours, I cannot very well imagine, as at heart he is 
 a time protestant. If no serious mischief ensue I 
 should be glad to find that some of the wise 
 politicians should be made to feel that ratting is not 
 always wise, safe, or dignified. But as you say the deed 
 is done ... I will not disturb it or rake up any ashes.' 
 
 Ingestre : July 5, 1830. 
 
 ' . . .So Parliament has begun its sittings. The 
 weather is so severe that I have not been tempted to 
 go up to it, especially as my last year's zeal in going 
 was so well rewarded. I cannot say that I am in 
 opposition, but I feel all my old ties relaxed, and I 
 cannot feel I am as I used to be, disposed to act 
 without suspicion of reserve with my friends. Yet 
 I confess there is no one I should wish to see at the 
 helm rather than the present Premier and Peel. 
 The effect which we predicated, that the Priests 
 would not be less unmanageable than before by the 
 repeal of the E. C. disabilities, has been proved by 
 their conduct in Limerick, and therefore I hope that 
 the Duke will not forget his promise of taking 
 
316 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 effectual measures to restrain disaffection, if after the 
 boon thus granted such steps should become necessary. 
 Yet I cannot but fear the gallant Commander finds it 
 less easy to control a whole Nation than a large 
 Army. He seems bothered, if I may judge from the 
 king's speech, which I have just read; Government 
 scarcely knows how to act or what to recommend. 
 Distress is at its acme in many districts. Here, thank 
 GOD, we are comparatively well off — though I have 
 just seen forty-five men emptying one of my ponds, 
 whom the various Overseers of the works at Ingestre 
 have no work for. I like Ginders for his extreme 
 kindness of heart. He never will discharge a poor 
 man. In my heart I bless him. 
 
 'My rents are tolerably well paid, so far so 
 good. I hear your noble L.L. remains. Old Charles 
 Greville has been here (I mean in Staffordshire) 
 saying that nothing ever equalled His Grace's mag- 
 nificence, and that Justice was for the first time impar- 
 tially administered in Ireland ; to which observation 
 Arthur replied, " That is not true," and said no 
 more, nor was anything of the kind attempted 
 afterwards. The Duke has given Lord F. Gower a 
 magnificent Snuff Box with Brilliants for New Year's 
 Day, telling him he was the most efficient Secretary, 
 &c. . . . Do we live, my dear Gregory, among 
 sensible people, or were there in our days dolts, 
 fools. Else all is now Humbug. I really Know not 
 what to think. I often ask myself, am I alive, can 
 such nonsense really be ? 
 
LIFE AT INGESTRE 817 
 
 1 You will be glad to hear we are all quite well. I 
 am as happy as a King, with my daughters only in 
 the house. We meet at 9 every morning. I read 
 after breakfast for two hours, walk for three. I am 
 improved in walking. Then we write letters and 
 di ne — play music, read German, play at double 
 patience and go to Bed. I am also improved in my 
 Magisterial knowledge, in which Capacity I really 
 think I begin to be of use. Cecil asks in the impera- 
 tive mood, Have you given my Love to Gregory ? 
 Therefore / beg to do so. She is really vastly well. . . . 
 What a yarn ! This will, I hope, find you warmer 
 than I am, tho 1 I am close to the fire whilst writing 
 this. . . .' 
 
 London : July 15, 1830. 
 
 * . . . The new Monarch begins well ; if he should 
 confine himself or restrict himself, I mean from over- 
 doing his Duty, he will become a most popular 
 Sovereign. His heart is in the right place. 
 
 * . . . I believe I ought to have attended the 
 Eoyal Funeral. But here I am in London, when the 
 others are at Windsor. . . .' 
 
 Ingestre : Sunday, July 25. 
 
 ' . . . The weather appears to be taking up. I 
 have had 80 acres of Hay spoilt. The Judges dine 
 with me next Sunday. Jack goes this Circuit, he is 
 retained by Lord Salisbury at Hertford with a 100 
 Gn. fee, and in other things he is beginning well. 
 
 1 The Wharncliffes and Dartmouth come Friday. 
 Lady Anne will be delighted to hear Lord D. has 
 
318 MR. GREGORYS LETTER-BOX 
 
 entrusted me with my dear little Grandson ' Lewis- 
 ham.' He is indeed a lovely child, full of goodness and 
 kind-heartedness. We are all delighted with him. 
 Tis funny to hear him call Gerald and Pat "My 
 Uncle Ge, and my Uncle Pat, and Uncle Gustavus " — 
 'tis very odd. .' 
 
 London : November 9, 1830. 
 
 ' Many thanks, my dear Gregory, for your letter. 
 I fear we, the Country, and the Government, are 
 fearfully situated. Whatever may be our fate, how- 
 ever the Country may rally, I doubt and fear the 
 Govt, must succumb. The indiscreet, or by whatever 
 name the determined declaration of the Duke not to 
 entertain the question of reform at all, or under any 
 circumstances, may be designated, has placed his 
 political existence on the chance of a Die, and there- 
 fore it is, I fear, the H. of Commons, by their vote on 
 Brougham's motion, will virtually turn the Adminis- 
 tration out. 
 
 ' The Events of yesterday, the advice Government 
 gave the king not to go to the City, will give a 
 helping hand to their fall. 
 
 ' For one, I conscientiously think Government did 
 rigid, but then I do not want place, nor do I want to 
 see them out of place, which I grieve to say many who 
 are not hostile to them individually do. 
 
 ' This change will, I fear, be followed by your 
 going out too, unless, now you are no longer a 
 detested Orange Man, they may wish to secure the 
 benefit of your services and advice. Then follows, 
 
A NEW GOVERNMENT 319 
 
 Will you do so ? I cannot think you will not, altho' 
 Stanley is a clever man, yet you will not like a Whig 
 Government. 
 
 ' The Country and this Town is in a very delicate 
 State. There can be no doubt of the existence of 
 French Influence and money among us, a decided 
 revolutionary spirit is abroad — can, will, the Whigs 
 check it? I fear not. The spirit here is bad. I go 
 to Court to-morrow, and Cecil and I go to the Queen's 
 party on Thursday. It is impossible to give you any 
 adequate idea of the royal pair's popularity, a great 
 circumstance at this anxious moment. Lord London- 
 derry joined Govt, yesterday ! And Devonshire had 
 belter have remained in opposition.' 
 
 Dunchurch : November 25, 1830. 
 
 ' I arrived in Town yesterday three weeks, for 
 the express purpose of supporting Government. 
 
 ' In the short period of twenty-one days that 
 Government is not only turned out, but another 
 formed and in full activity, having filled up a greater 
 number of situations in a Week than was ever known 
 before to be the case. 
 
 ' Although I am in no way individually concerned 
 in the change, I cannot help feeling like a Dog with 
 his Tail between his Legs. I heard it so confidently 
 reported that you have received your conge^, that I 
 fear it must be true. If you regret your leaving 
 office, so I do for you, but if you do not, and under 
 existing circumstances I doubt much if you would 
 
320 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 have remained, I will congratulate you upon the 
 termination of the severe labours, which have been 
 very fatiguing to you of late years. 
 
 ' Cecil desires me to say she hopes you are out, as 
 you will have more leisure to take care of your 
 health, and more time to bestow upon your friends. 
 Everything kind to Lady Anne from us both. I am 
 afraid that poor Saurin will have another bitter pill 
 to swallow in having to plead before Lord Plunket. 
 The luck of some men is astonishing. I still hope 
 all will come right at last. The burnings continue. 
 I fear that if Peel failed in finding the Pascals out 
 that Melbourne will hardly succeed.' 
 
 Ingestre : January 4, 1831. 
 
 ' Letters on which I think I may depend assure 
 me the Government is far from united — indeed, it is 
 said many of the Cabinet are not upon speaking terms. 
 
 ' I expect Peel will come here this month. I 
 shall be glad to see him, though his erroneous View 
 of the Catholic Eelief Bill has more or less been the 
 cause of these evils. It has been the irritamentum 
 malorum. 
 
 ' So poor Saurin has retired. I have had a very 
 affectionate and kind Letter from him. I trust he 
 will have plenty of chamber business. 
 
 ' It is sad that so eminent, just, and good a man 
 should at so advanced a period of his life have no 
 retreat, but be left to struggle with younger men in 
 the daily routine of dry, dull and fatiguing Business. 
 
MR. GREGORY'S DISMISSAL 321 
 
 ... I have been very busy in my County, and have, 
 I believe, the happiness to think that I have a quiet 
 dominion. 
 
 ' But I have had some running about to maintain 
 peace. Lord Melbourne has handsomely acknow- 
 ledged my zeal.' 
 
 January 11, 1831. 
 
 ' I have to thank you for the newspaper in which 
 the Address to you from the Lord Mayor and Cor- 
 poration of Dublin, and your reply to it, are inserted. 
 A very satisfactory, and at the same time just, com- 
 pliment to you, such as was every way your due, 
 and which will be lasting testimony of the sense 
 which your fellow Citizens entertain of your conduct 
 and Services, who, from long experience and local 
 means of judging, were the best Judges possible in 
 the case. 
 
 ' At a dinner where I casually assisted the con- 
 versation turned upon your dismissal from office. 
 Some one of the friends of the existing Government 
 said : " Oh, it is well known that Gregory interfered 
 against Lord Anglesea when he came to England (to 
 see you I believe)," said the person, addressing him- 
 self to me. I replied that Gregory never mixed 
 himself up, or rather suffered his Office to be mixed 
 up, in party politics, this I boldly deny. And then 
 with less discretion I added, " Perhaps a more genuine 
 reason for his dismissal may be found in the fact that 
 Lady Anne would never call upon Lady A." My 
 friend said: "Very likely, it is abominable how 
 
3-2-2 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 feelings of private society are suffered to influence 
 political affairs." To this I assented. I hope I did 
 not step beyond the Truth, then I heed not. I am 
 become a rank radical I believe, that is, whenever I 
 see an abuse I denounce it boldly. I am engaged in 
 reforming all the abuses of our county Establishments, 
 and have been calling a Gentleman to account (not 
 hostilely) for hinting I am one of the oppressors of the 
 people, whose firm friend I tell him I have always 
 been. Indeed, I flatter myself I have been of some 
 use in keeping people quiet, as in my own neighbour- 
 hood, thank God, the poor man does consider me his 
 friend. 
 
 ' Well, proclamation succeeds proclamation, and 
 if the Courier tell true, the recreant caitiff O'Connell 
 begins to show his white feather. I shall be glad to 
 hear that you can occupy yourself without red 
 Boxes. The change, however, is great. 
 
 1 Have you yet dined at the Castle, for I suppose 
 you will be asked, and be expected again to show 
 your good humour and your magnanimity by going, 
 as if nothing had happened. Is Wilkie still your 
 Servant? Have you a garden for Lady Anne at 
 your new abode ? Adieu, my dear friend, believe 
 me always yours most faithfully and affectionately.' 
 
 Ingestre : Feb. 1, 1832. 
 
 ' I am getting anxious to know how you are — and 
 most happy shall I be to find that you have shaken off 
 your Attack. These are not times for us to indulge 
 
NOMINATION BOROUGHS 823 
 
 in sickness — our very best energies both of an active 
 and passive description may at any moment be 
 called for. 
 
 1 Not that I am so disheartened about things as 
 many of my friends are, for I think that many persons 
 who were bit as it were with the madness of Eeform 
 have seen their Error (thanks, I believe, to the 
 horrors at Bristol and Nottingham), and would rather 
 take the part of the old Institutions than join for 
 their destruction. 
 
 ' In short, I see the conflict must come, but I hope 
 to go into it with better spirits and companions 
 than had the Crisis come last year would (I imagine) 
 have been the case. 
 
 'Lord Harrowby had many conversations with 
 me when in the Country about the expediency of 
 endeavouring to mitigate the evil which we could 
 not avert, and I agreed to the proposition to 
 consent to the suppression of the nomination 
 Borough, which however true the position may 
 be " that they have worked well," must be admitted 
 theoretically speaking to be a blot in the constitu- 
 tional representation, and being hit they could never 
 again be of the Use they have heretofore been, 
 
 ' Well, I agreed to their going, to the giving 
 members to the unrepresented large Towns, and also 
 to the extension of the elective Franchise in Counties. 
 I required on my part that the qualifications of the 
 Electors should be altered and raised, and that 
 the Schedules E, C, and D should be improved. 
 
 T 2 
 
324 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' All these negotiations ended in smoke, and I said 
 that I again conceived myself a free man, as at liberty 
 to take my own Line. This was fully admitted. 
 Last week I received a very remarkably clever 
 Letter from Lord Harrowby, telling me how matters 
 stand, and deprecating the swamping the House of 
 Lords by the making so many peers — and stating his 
 opinion rather to be that it would be better to avoid 
 opposing the 2nd reading of the Bill, and thus 
 prevent ministers feeling it necessary to create Peers 
 to carry the measure. No letter can be better 
 adapted for its purpose — it is remarkably clever, 
 well denned, shrewd and argumentative. I have 
 answered it at some length, the pith of my letter is 
 that as Ministers would not come to terms upon 
 the basis of mutual concession, that I could not 
 pledge myself to the not voting against the second 
 reading ; that as the ministers have shown themselves 
 pertinacious in driving the Bill through both Houses 
 of Parliament, I thought that our only resource left 
 was to be equally firm in opposing it. 
 
 ' I cannot, indeed I cannot, give up resistance 
 to a measure of this obnoxious tendency which 
 Ministers carry forward with a total disregard of 
 everything and body not of their own persuasion. 
 
 4 1 hope, my dear Gregory, I shall receive your 
 Sanction to this Line which I have chalked out for 
 myself. I am friendly to mutual concessions if 
 thereby we can mitigate the horrible Evil which is 
 now hanging over us. 
 
HONESTY IN POLITICS 825 
 
 ' Some day or another you shall see the correspond- 
 ence. I wish I had more talent to fight it, but I am so 
 innately satisfied that my view of the question is in 
 concurrence to my feelings and principles that I 
 cannot alter my opinion even if the world was 
 against me.' 
 
 Feb. 10, 1832. 
 
 ' . . . Your letter is also very satisfactory to me, it 
 gives me confidence in the opinion which I entertain, 
 and which I ventured to give Lord Harrowby in 
 reply to his beautifully written, and I may say 
 almost unanswerable Letter. Yet superior as he is 
 to me in endowments, in political knowledge and 
 expediency, I learnt sufficiently when in Ireland, 
 that the straightforward Course is the only System 
 which never fails a Man, and as I can honestly and 
 conscientiously say that I have in my Letter spoken 
 the genuine Sentiments of my mind, eye and heart, 
 I am satisfied that I shall never regret the having 
 done so. I may be wrong, but if I am, it is the fault 
 of my head and not of my heart. I have been told 
 that ' Evil is never to be done that Good may come,' 
 why may I not apply this maxim to my political 
 conduct? Honesty and Uprightness are infinitely 
 more valuable in politics than cleverness to manage 
 matters, and sophistry in argument and conduct, 
 however specious and seductive. 
 
 ' Upon the intention of being honest I must rely, 
 and hope that we shall at length see through all our 
 difficulties. 
 
326 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' I am sure the spirit of this Country is improved, 
 the senseless cry of reform is seldom or never heard in 
 the way it was. I do not deny that the Country ex- 
 pects reform, but not to the extent of our ministerial 
 reformers. Lord Grev has at length avowed himself a 
 protector of the Irish Church; pity it is this declaration 
 has been so long delayed, but better late than never. 
 Lord Plunket, too, is (he says so at least) a supporter 
 of the establishment. Eeport says Lord Anglesey is 
 to return. He has certainly added neither to his 
 own fame or the welfare of Ireland, either by his 
 Counsels, Acts, or by the choice of his advisers. 
 
 ' . . . I am sorry to say I hear my dear old Aunt 
 Lady Salisbury (now 82) is reputed to be unwell and 
 much changed. Having always considered her as a 
 second mother and been treated by her as a Son I 
 shall not leave Town if I can be of any comfort to her.' 
 
 Mt. Teviot : Sunday, Oct 7, 1832. 
 
 ' Thus ends my Scotch Tour ! To-morrow I leave 
 Scotland for old England with this subject of regret, 
 that I leave my beloved Cecil uncertain when I shall 
 see her again. This is one of the miseries of life — to 
 be parted from those we love the most truly. Yet 
 let me not repine — it would be unjust, ungracious and 
 selfish were I not to do so — as I have the great 
 satisfaction of knowing that she is supremely happy, 
 loving and being beloved by one of the most amiable 
 excellent men that ever lived. In fact they are, I 
 honestly believe, as happy as possible, so that if I 
 
 
RUMOURED CHANGES 327 
 
 could command the power of seeing her with more 
 facility than is the case, the thing would be too perfect. 
 Nothing can have succeeded better than our progress 
 thro' the Country. . . . 
 
 * Among the places we visited, Gordon Castle, 
 Scone Palace, Dalmeny Park, Avistone rank among 
 the best. As all these places, with the exception of 
 Dalmeny, Lord Rosebery's (one of the loveliest things 
 I ever saw) belong to Conservatives, I am afraid my 
 friend and companion Peploe, who is an old and 
 staunch Whig, has had his dose of conservatism. 
 
 ' . . . Has Lord Anglesey really had an attack of 
 the Tic douleureux, or did he wish to shirk the 
 attendance at this high protestant Lord Mayor's feast, 
 where it seems the old Toasts were given and 
 enthusiastically drunk. ... Do Stanley and the L.L. 
 hit it better than they did? I am told Stanley 
 dislikes his station, and is disliked, and that the 
 family of the other wish him home again.' 
 
 Ingestre : Nov. 16, 1832. 
 
 ' . . . We hear rumours of changes in your 
 administration, but till I see them effected I shall not 
 give credit to them. It is said the Ld. L. is recalled 
 (Uxbridge denies it), and that Richmond succeeds him, 
 with St. John C. Hobhouse for his Secretary. Un- 
 questionably St. J. C. H. is one of the cleverest men 
 they have, and will, I daresay, make a good Secretary 
 for Ireland — but I do not think Lord A. will come 
 away yet. As for our war with Holland, it is little 
 
1 
 
 328 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 better than a civil war — to cut up our old allies to 
 strengthen Belgium or rather France, appears to me 
 as absurd as it is unjust. Surely no victory in diplo- 
 macy was ever so complete as Talleyrand's over our 
 imbecile Governors. I look upon Sir Thos. Denman's 
 appointment as alike wicked, unfortunate and danger- 
 ous. The Whips, I have learned, regret the necessity 
 of the appointment. You and I used to ask who is 
 the fittest man to become Judge — not whose politics 
 accorded with ours ? Mais on a change tout cela — 
 and I fear that our judicial appointments will for the 
 future be political, than which system no greater 
 Curse for the Country could be invented. 
 
 ' We have had the Duchess of Kent and her little 
 Princess in this County. Lord Lichfield received 
 them at Shugborough with princely magnificence. I 
 never saw anything better arranged or more high 
 bred Attention paid by any Host or Hostess than Ld. 
 and Lady L. paid to everybody. No hurry or fuss, 
 but every wish was forestalled and every want 
 supplied with magnificence. They had a Eeview of 
 the Yeomanry Cavalry which went off well. 
 
 'Nothing could exceed the affability and con- 
 descension of the Eoyalties. The effect the visit has 
 produced in the County I think has been good. 
 
 ' I am to meet Peel, I believe, at Dartmouth's next 
 week, and am going to Drayton as soon as I can. 
 But I fear I shall not get our friend to open himself. 
 He is one of those who think that the least said is 
 the soonest mended. I am informed, however, that 
 he is in better spirits, and says there will be no revolu- 
 
' THE CHARTER OF MISRULE ' 329 
 
 Hon. But surely there has been one, and one is 
 going on now.' 
 
 Ingestre : April 23, 1832. 
 
 ... I left London on Sunday night so as to get 
 home on Monday. I am now surrounded with school- 
 boys, among whom is Gerald more improved and 
 strengthened than I confess I ever expected to see 
 him. He tells me that your William is a clever and 
 a popular Boy. I hope he is with you, and that you 
 have among your several Gregorian difficulties this 
 happy rallying point in which, Phoenix like, you see 
 yourself renewed again. . . . 
 
 ' In the last parliamentary struggle I have voted 
 strictly in conformity to my conscience, so much so 
 that I feel I smile at what occurs. I have deeply 
 thought as to what line it was my honest duty to 
 adopt. I have made my Election, the consequences 
 are in better and wiser hands than mine. I can only 
 say, come what may, God's Will be done. 
 
 ' Of Ireland I can say nothing excepting, that if 
 it has been misgoverned for centuries, the present 
 mode of governing has by no means destroyed the 
 charter of Misrule ! . . . 
 
 ' Lord Anglesea says he is quite well. I hear his 
 Complaint has ceased. The political tic will be 
 douleureux eno', I fancy, let what will happen. . 
 
 ' i 
 
 1 ' It is an extraordinary thing, and the most wonderful effect I ever 
 heard of the power of moral causes over the human body, that Lord 
 Anglesey, who has been scarcely out of pain at all for years, has been quite 
 free from his complaint (tic douloureux) since he has been in Ireland. 
 The excitement of these events, and the influence of that excitement on 
 
330 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ' Potatoes only fetch from 6<i. to lOd. per bushel ! 
 and this at seed time too ! ' 
 
 Ingestre : Xinas Eve, 1832. 
 
 'Many and very happy returns of the present 
 season to you and yours, my dear Gregory, though I 
 dare not anticipate that we any of us shall experience 
 any quiet or happy times for the future. 
 
 ' The Elections have gone so against us that I give 
 up all idea of successful resistance to our reckless 
 Ministry. 
 
 'In this County the conservative Interest has 
 been beaten out of sight. The radical is the Strongest 
 Interest of the day, therefore we must yield to the 
 superior luck of our adversaries, or perhaps to their 
 superior good play. Ingestre carried Hertford 
 gallantly, and Grimston succeeded in his wishes to 
 represent the County — much to Alstone's disappoint- 
 ment, who is a warm radical. What is to happen 
 God alone knows ! I think people are very low 
 about things in general. . . . 
 
 ' There is a report that Stanley is not upon good 
 terms with his Colleagues, as he will not, it is said (I 
 answer for nobody) consent to the spoliation of the 
 Irish Church.' 
 
 Ingestre : February 10, 1833. 
 
 ' . . . You talked of coming over in the spring ? 
 When do you consider that this movement is likely 
 to take place ? God knows ! you will say ; for who 
 
 his nervous system, have produced this effect.' — Grcville Memoirs, Jan. 
 21, 1831. 
 
 
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT 331 
 
 can venture to say to-day what will happen to-morrow 
 in your ill-fated Country ! Poor dear Ireland, I feel 
 for you as an affectionate and grateful friend. 
 
 ' What say you to the proceedings of the new and 
 reformed parliament. Surely Lord Althorpe and 
 Lord John Eussell must have qualms of conscience, 
 must regret the old system of things when they wit- 
 ness the fanatical disposition of the delegates to 
 parliament? Four days' debate upon a King's 
 speech ! ! ! Was such a thing ever heard of ! ! 
 O'Connell seems to have thrown off the Mask, and 
 appears in his native Colors, so that, if I mistake 
 not, the Eebel will be confessed at no distant 
 period. 
 
 ' Were not the subject of too grave and serious a 
 nature, I could laugh at the difficult position into 
 which these Whigs have brought themselves, but alas 
 it is not only themselves they have thus brought into 
 difficulty, trouble and danger, but the whole Nation. 
 Peel seems to have taken a bold, manly, generous line. 
 I hope he will gain some credit, for he has been 
 abundantly reviled by the Ministry and radicals. We 
 must regret the false step, irretrievably false step, of 
 granting Emancipation to the Catholics ! I believe 
 the Duke now sees that he made a fatal Mistake. 
 Nothing but force can produce quiet, but what force 
 can subdue a Nation, for now I take it the protestants 
 are from previous neglect and ill-treatment disinclined 
 to the Govt of Lord A., who they say returns as L.L. 
 I don't know who would make a better, but his Lord- 
 
 iX 
 

 332 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 ship has not succeeded in rendering the Country 
 quiet ! When one remembers his advice, " Agitate, 
 Agitate, Agitate," ODe is tempted to exclaim, " How 
 the devil should he ?" 
 
 ' You remember my offering you a place of refuge 
 here, do not imagine the offer was a string of unmean- 
 ing words. I honestly meant it, and beg in all 
 sincerity to repeat it now once more. God forbid its 
 being necessary ! ' 
 
 Ingestre : June 20, 1833. 
 
 '. . . As for politics, let us not mention them ! I am 
 tired of the subject. I have taken my seat, but not 
 till the Friday (the last day I could) before I left 
 London. 
 
 ' I suppose I shall go up when the Irish Church 
 reform Bill comes before the House. I dined with 
 Peel last Saturday. I never saw a more splendid and 
 sumptuous repast in my life. Beautiful and excellent 
 in all its parts. He was in fair spirits. The Duke 
 of W. was one of the Company. 
 
 'When in Town I heard that Lord Melbourne 
 would succeed your present Lord Lieutenant. I know 
 not with what Truth ! ' 
 
 Ingestre : June 20, 1833. 
 
 '. . . We had a most violent Thunderstorm here last 
 week. The Lightning struck a tall poplar tree which 
 you may remember in the grass field near the farm, 
 and altho' it did not affect my Gardener in fact, it 
 drove him and one of his Men against the Wall in the 
 
FOREBODINGS 388 
 
 Garden about 3 or two yards from the tree I have 
 named.' 
 
 Drayton Manor : October 2, 1833. 
 
 * I came here this morning for one night. A 
 confounded Justice meeting requires my presence at 
 Penteridge to-morrow. There is hardly anybody in 
 the county, and fewer Justices than are required for 
 the necessary duties of the Magistracy. My friend 
 Monckton and myself work at two places. Yet we 
 are Tories, a proscribed and useless Eace. 
 
 ' The works at this place are getting on rapidly, 
 and upon my word a very handsome house with every 
 conveniency and even magnificence will be con- 
 structed. The place you know is not naturally fine 
 or picturesque, but somehow or another it has been 
 so twisted about that it is by no means ugly or dull, 
 as formerly. I like to think that I am perhaps sitting 
 in the room which you perhaps occupied, my good 
 friend, when you were here.' 
 
 London : May 16, 1834 (?). 
 
 ' There has been a long interval in our correspond- 
 ence. I have been in Scotland, and am returned 
 again in good health, having left my beloved child 
 better than I for some time had seen her. The chil- 
 dren are all the fondest Grandpapa (that hits you, 
 you old rogue) can wish. 
 
 ' The Country seems progressing to evil as fast as 
 it can. Eents must fall if things do not mend, and I 
 must go too if such be the Event, so come while you 
 can. My Tenants and I are on the best of terms, and 
 
334 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 they have not complained, but I know they suffer, and 
 suffering has its term. 
 
 1 The Government bolstered up by the Tories 
 seems stable — more so indeed than it has been — of 
 themselves they can do nothing, but as our policy is 
 not to turn them out I think we shall be blessed with 
 Whig Rule some time longer unless their internal 
 divisions blow them up, which I should not wonder at. 
 We have a report of their having offered terms to 
 O'Connell. Surely they cannot be so weak, so short- 
 sighted. It is said he has refused their advances. A 
 great man is said to be queerish ! ' 
 
 November 28, 1834. 
 
 ' Only think, my dear Gregory, that not a line has 
 passed between us since the overthrow of the Whigs. 
 If you should like it I hope to see you employed 
 again. If not / shall like it better, as it will give me a 
 better chance of seeing you. Will they give Saurin 
 anything? I hope most devoutly that this most 
 excellent Man may receive some mark of Respect, 
 some Tribute of regard for his exemplary conduct 
 when in office. 
 
 Lord Rosslyn, it is said, will be your L.L., and I 
 hope Sir Henry Harding your Chief Secretary. No 
 man is fitter than Sir Henry is for that now most 
 arduous situation, and no one can be a better man to 
 succeed than Littleton. 
 
 1 The King seems to have acted like a wise firm 
 Man. I hear that things look better daily for us, and 
 that Lord Brougham has written a Letter to Lord 
 
 
A NEW VICEROY 835 
 
 Lyndlmrst offering to become one of the Chief Justices 
 at a reduced salary ! This I do not, cannot believe. 
 Yet my letters speak of the transaction most con- 
 fidently.' 
 
 Ingestre : January 3, 1835. 
 
 ' I am glad to find that your merits are thus 
 acknowledged. 
 
 ' You will so much better know how to deal with 
 the subject, or object of this letter than I can at such 
 a distance from you, that I think I had better send it 
 to you without any further remark. 
 
 ' As the days of franking are gone by, I send this 
 without an envelope to save your Tin' 
 
 [Enclosure] London : January 2, 1835. 
 
 ' My dear T, — I write at the express request of 
 Haddington, who implores you to excuse him for thus 
 writing by deputy, but he is wild with business. He 
 is to start to-morrow morning by himself to Dublin. 
 
 ' He bids me tell you that at the suggestion of Sir 
 E. Peel he earnestly begs you to have the kindness 
 to write to your friend Gregory in Dublin, to request 
 him to put himself in relation with him (Haddington) 
 upon his arrival, and to give him the benefit of his 
 private assistance and counsel in all such personal 
 matters as a new Lord Lieutenant must require to be 
 instructed in en debutant. 
 
 ' Now pray do this, and you will be his and my 
 magnus Apollo. 
 
 ' Yours most affectionately, 
 
 ' C. Bagot.' 
 
S36 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Ingestre : January 17, 1835. 
 
 * How very good-natured of you to go to Dublin. 
 To tell you the truth, not knowing of any communi- 
 cation having passed with you which tended to make 
 you feel that you had not been forgotten, I hardly 
 knew in what terms to write to you, to convey Lord 
 H.'s wishes to have the benefit of your advice. 
 
 ' That you are gratified I am glad, the more so as 
 I think Peel has shown very distinctly that he really 
 esteems you by conferring the P.C. upon you. You 
 may justly be proud of the distinction, which is alike 
 honourable to both parties. 
 
 ' Joseph Hume will, I fear, be returned for Middle- 
 sex, and I also apprehend that O'Connell will succeed 
 at Dublin. His power has been shaken. If Sir H. 
 Hardinge sticks to him, he will be the Agitator.' 
 
 Ingestre : March, 1835. 
 
 * . . . I think that Shaw grilled Dan well. It is, 
 I believe, now admitted that we must talk and speak 
 out as well as our adversaries. 
 
 ' Peel, I think, rises ! He is sure, John T. says, of a 
 majority to-night, but a victory will be almost as bad 
 as a defeat. 
 
 ' What times we live in ! ' 
 
 Ingestre : March 4, 1835. 
 
 ' . . . Peel appears to be quite equal to the 
 arduous task which he has in hand. I hope, indeed 
 I expect, that Lord Stanley will join him. My Idea 
 is that the Duke will go to the Horse Guards, that 
 
DESPONDENCY 387 
 
 Aberdeen will succeed him at the F.O., and Lord 
 Stanley, Aberdeen. This may be visionary, but I 
 suspect it will sooner or later be the case. If I could 
 see Peel and Stanley cordially acting together I should 
 then consider the thing safe. 
 
 ' I wonder how Lady Haddington will be liked. 
 She is a highly principled virtuous woman, but I fear 
 that neither her appearance or her manners will suit 
 your vivacious people. When known she will be 
 liked and esteemed.' 
 
 Ingestre : April 10, 1835. 
 
 I cannot find words to express the state of de- 
 spondency in which the resignation of Peel has cast 
 me. 1 The Game is up as far as mortals are con- 
 cerned. 
 
 ' But thank GOD I have a firm reliance in the 
 Almighty's Mercy, and if we are to suffer here, it will, 
 I doubt not, turn all to our ultimate happiness, if we 
 conduct ourselves in heavy hour of Trial and Adver- 
 sity with propriety and resignation. 
 
 ' So courage, raon Ami. 
 
 ' We have addressed our Sovereign and Peel on 
 the occasion. 
 
 ' We have also formed a Conservative Association, 
 from which I hope we shall derive some strength, and 
 not suffer ourselves to be be-Whigged, as this formerly 
 loyal County is now. 
 
 ' I conclude Haddington has resigned. ' 
 
 1 On the defeat of his Government on the Tithe Kill. 
 

 338 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Ingestre : May 7, 1835. 
 
 '. . . By a letter from Haddington, to whom I 
 wrote to congratulate him on not serving under these 
 OConnell be-ridden Whigs, and on his having gained 
 the good opinion of all that was good and honourable 
 in Ireland, I find he is, like me, warmly attached to 
 your Country. By the by he thanks me for having 
 obtained for him your acquaintance, and, he adds, " I 
 hope his friendship." 
 
 * What work these O'Connells are making ! I am 
 not without hope that it will all work to a good end, 
 although much dirt must be thrown aside before we 
 are safely through our dangers ! 
 
 ' Alvanly has behaved well. Mr. O'Connell had a 
 shot more than he ought to have had at him.' 
 
 From Lord Haddington to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 London : May 30, 1835. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, — Your very kind answer to the very 
 hurried lines I wrote to you on the morning of my 
 departure reached me soon after my arrival here. I 
 wrote in haste, and in a state of mind not very likely 
 to produce an adequate impression of the feelings I 
 wished to convey to you. You will, however, believe 
 that I entertained them very sincerely, that I truly 
 value your friendship and good opinion, and am duly 
 sensible of the advantage I derived from the kindness 
 and frankness with which on several occasions you 
 answered my call on you for your opinion and advice. 
 
LORD HADDINGTON'S FORECAST 339 
 
 ' I will not dwell on the feelings with which we 
 left Ireland, and continue to think of the day of our 
 departure. You understand them, I am quite sure, 
 and will believe me when I say that Ireland is never 
 out of our anxious and painful thoughts, tho' there 
 is much to dwell upon that is deeply gratifying to us. 
 The kindness we met with during our stay and on 
 our coming away was too remarkable ever to be 
 forgotten, or to be remembered during life without 
 gratitude and delight. But these very feelings aggra- 
 vate the painful necessity with which we think 
 of the present position and future prospects of a 
 country doomed, it would seem, never to be at peace, 
 and yet requiring but Peace to make it one of the 
 happiest and most flourishing regions in the world. 
 
 ' I will leave that subject, however, as I think it 
 will be more agreeable to you to hear about the state 
 of things in this part of the world than to read reflec- 
 tions and lamentations about your own Country, from 
 one whose knowledge is so imperfect as compared 
 with your own as to her real state. 
 
 ' If speculations on politics have ever been doubt- 
 ful, true it is that under the reform regime they are 
 more uncertain than ever. My speculation, however, 
 is, that the present Government will outlive the 
 Session. In the first place I think they are determined 
 to do so, and that is no small help to a party not 
 overburdened with high feelings of honour, nor 
 embarrassed by much political principle of a very 
 squeamish character. In the second place it is 
 
340 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 obviously not in Peel's intention to press them with 
 a view of turning them out. He will deal with their 
 measures, but they are determined to afford him very 
 few measures to deal withal. They have unblush- 
 ingly thrown everything overboard, and the radicals 
 and dissenters are too wise in their generation not to 
 play into their hands and wait their time, by which 
 they diminish the chance of a Tory resurrection, and 
 increase that of ultimate radical preponderance and 
 domination. 
 
 ' They will not quarrel among themselves, because 
 pressure from their Eadical allies is the only thing 
 likely to create dissension, and to that, during the 
 Session at least, they will not be exjDOsed. They will 
 keep the O'Connell influence as much as possible in 
 the background, and the Daniel himself will in that 
 respect play into their hands. Satisfied with its real 
 and vital existence, he will be content not to display 
 it in the meantime, reserving himself for the moment 
 when its manifestation will not endanger the Govern- 
 ment and help the Conservative cause. 
 
 ' They will produce nothing of importance but 
 the corporation question for England and Wales, and 
 the Irish Tythe Bill. The first they will carry. The 
 second is their difficulty, and offers the only chance 
 of their overthrow. I think they will overcome the 
 difficulty. If Peel (which is very likely to happen) 
 defeats their appropriation clause they will submit 
 and take the Bill without it. If he does not succeed 
 in this, and if they succeed in sending it to the Lords 
 
FEARS FOE IRELAND .'541 
 
 in the shape of a money Bill, the Lords will throw it 
 out altogether. If it comes to the Lords in such a 
 shape that they can alter it, they will return it to the 
 Commons without the obnoxious clause. In either 
 case they will acquiesce, in the one, throwing the 
 loss of the Bill on the Lords, in the other abusing 
 them for its mutilation, by which they will have 
 deprived it of its most valuable principle. If they 
 outlive the Session — what are their future prospects 
 — and what are ours ? 
 
 ' Into this speculation I cannot enter — it depends 
 too much on the chapter of accidents. But outliving 
 the Session they outlive the present danger — which 
 in these times is all that a Government can be 
 expected to perform. 
 
 ' In the mean time Conservative feeling is daily 
 increasing in England. Were England only the 
 question I am not sure that I should not wish these 
 Gentlemen to keep their places till next Session. 
 What overpowers every other consideration in my 
 mind is Ireland. What may they not have done in 
 that devoted land by next Spring ? I hate to think 
 of it, and will say no more about it. 
 
 ' Teel does not wish to be exposed to the chance 
 of being again compell'd to attempt to govern with a 
 minority. In this no one can blame him, but I see 
 little prospect in the course of the next six weeks or 
 two months of anything arising to present him with 
 a majority of the present House of Commons on 
 which he can rely. 
 
342 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 * In short, my dear Sir, we are under the regime 
 of that blessed Act which has made over the fortunes 
 and the interests of this great nation to that class that 
 is at once the most dangerous in its principles and 
 the most infatuated in the plenitude of its ignorance 
 and presumption. 
 
 ' I hope we shall get away to Scotland next 
 Wednesday. We certainly shall if Londonderry will 
 but present the famous Down petition on Tuesday. 
 I have already deferred my departure on that 
 account. 
 
 ' I shall be happy to hear from you if you have 
 anything to tell me, and shall be obliged to you to 
 enlighten me on the practical working of the exist- 
 ing state of things in Ireland. I am sorry to see 
 in your letter that Miss Gregory has been called to 
 the country by a serious accident that has befallen 
 Lady Castlemaine. I hope her recovery is as favour- 
 able as that of Mr. Saurin, to whom I beg you will 
 present my best and kindest regards. 
 
 ' Lady H. sends you her best regards and good 
 wishes, and I am ever my dear Sir, Most sincerely 
 yours, 
 
 ' Haddington.' 
 
 Lord Talbot to Mr. Gregory. 
 
 London : 16 June 1835. 
 
 ' . . . Yes, I was desponding at what I deemed 
 the rapid advance of revolution ! As it came a little 
 
TRADES UNIONS 343 
 
 nearer home than usual you will excuse it. In the 
 potteries the custom is to engage workmen at stated 
 fixed prices for a given term, say 6, 9, or 12 months. 
 It so happened that a Mr. Hawley agreed with these 
 men for what appeared equitable — in three Months 
 they were under the order of the Trades Unions 
 (which prevail there) turned out for advance of 
 Wages. Hawley had 18 of them before the Magis- 
 trates, who committed the whole of the 18 to prison 
 courageously and legally for 3 months. 
 
 ' I had taken the precaution to have a troop of 
 Cavalry at Stowe ready to protect the Magistrates — • 
 this was known tho' the Troops did not make their 
 appearance. No row ensued! 
 
 ' Well, a petition signed by 7,000 people (all 
 Unionists I hear) was sent up to Lord John Eussell. 
 He wrote me word that the Military have been fre- 
 quently called in to our County — talked of the 
 Petition and of establishing a stipendiary Magistracy. 
 
 'I replied that the Military had never to my 
 knowledge been called in without justifiable reasons 
 — and that the Magistracy had never been com- 
 plained of to me. The weakness of our chief — this 
 listening to or proclaiming to me that he meant 
 favourably to consider the petition, which is in truth 
 only levelled at those Men who had the Courage to 
 resist the Unions and to do their duty, I confess 
 alarmed me. Supported as I ever have been, and 
 by no one more effectually and generously than by 
 " Melbourne," I dare put myself in the Breach, but 
 
344 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 if I am to be left in the Lurch by those whose Duty 
 it is to stand by the Civil Power, I confess I tremble 
 for the result. I have left my name with Lord John 
 since my arrival, but have not been sent for yet. 
 Peel is in high force and spirits. He laughs, and so will 
 I, at the imbecility (he did not say so, it is merely an 
 inference which from his cheerfulness I have drawn 
 myself) of this untalented un Ministry. 
 
 ' By the way, Peel told me how completely your 
 dear Boy 1 distinguished himself at Harrow the other 
 day. Peel says he surprised him. Thus do you 
 reap a highly gratifying regard for }^our sacrifices in 
 his favour. May William's future career gild your 
 remaining Years, my dear friend, with comfort, and 
 the high gratification of beholding his success. 
 
 ' Lord Haddington is gone to Scotland. Your 
 L. L. is an agreeable Man, and his Lady a most 
 amiable, excellent person. She was bred a Tory. 
 The prevailing opinion here is that these people will 
 stay in. Why ? Because they will do nothing. I 
 am glad to hear from a Bishop that the Church 
 Commission was likelv to go on well notwithstanding 
 the influx of new Members. . . .' 
 
 Ingestre, Sept, 13, 1835. 
 
 'I think People were getting less angry about 
 Peel. When I wrote the universal cry was even 
 among our enemies, Peel has thrown the Lords 
 over. In the city as I believe I told you, the 
 
 Mr. Gregory's grandson, afterwards the Eight Hon. Sir William 
 Gregory. 
 
THE HARROW MAGAZINE 84$ 
 
 universal belief was (tins is too strong, I will not say 
 universal belief, but the report was current on change) 
 that he had deserted his party. All this was gall to 
 me, who knew the impossibility of the fact, but who 
 also know how little confidential he was in his 
 intercourse with his friends. I know, too, that he 
 had left London without communicating to the Dnke 
 his opinion as to what the Lords should do with the 
 Municipal Reform Bill — and angry I was told that 
 evidence was to be called before the Honse. All this 
 quite chafed me. I was miserable at hearing Men I 
 knew abusing Sir Robert. What could an3 T one say 
 who had voted as we did upon the question. I hope, 
 however, his speech at Tamworth has done him 
 good with our friends, and that mutual confidence, if 
 it ever was shaken among the Leaders, will be 
 restored anion" us.' 
 
 The last letter I will give from Mr. Gregory's 
 letter-box is from the Harrow grandson of whom he 
 was so proud. 
 
 Harrow : July 20, 1835. 
 
 ' My dear Grandfather, — I am going to inflict on 
 you a shocking task, namely to get a number of copies 
 of the Harrow Magazine ! ! ! sold in Ireland. This 
 great and interesting work was planned this quarter, 
 and I am happy to say that you, I am sure, will like 
 our first number. A great number of clever articles 
 have been written, and we are all confident that it will 
 be of the greatest advantage to the school, without in 
 
346 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 the least interrupting the studies, "which latter effect 
 has been produced by the publication being issued 
 only three times a year. I have had the great honour 
 done me of being unanimously elected president, and 
 I am of course most deeply interested as to its 
 ultimate success. . . 
 
 ' Do make all and every friend of yours buy it, 
 as nobody in Dublin will refuse you except Dan 
 O'Connell, and you know all but him and Ruthven, 
 and the price is only half a crown. It will be pub- 
 lished about the middle of the Holydays by Murray 
 we expect, we have not yet, however, determined by 
 whom. . . 
 
 1 Your affect. Grandson 
 
 * W. H. Gregory. 
 
 'P.S. We are sadly deficient in English poetry, 
 every fellow is so modest that he does not like to write 
 any, and they have insisted on my composing an ode 
 on the death of Zumalacarreque. What am I to do, 
 my principles are entirely against him. I proposed 
 to begin thus : 
 
 O! Zumalacarreguy 
 
 Thou wert the Christino's plaguey ! 
 
 but they were very angry at such profanation.' 
 
 So the generations come and go, and the whirligig 
 of time brings in his revenges. A son of Lord 
 Talbot became a Canon of the Church of Rome. 
 The ' dear boy at Harrow ' broke from the Tory tradi- 
 
THE WHIRLIGIG OF TIME 347 
 
 tions of his grandfather, made friends with Dan 
 O'Connell, and helped to disestablish the Church of 
 Ireland. To-day, it is Mr. Gregory's great-grandson 
 who is a Harrow boy, whose mother hopes he may 
 put into the work he has to do as much good will as 
 she has brought to this self-imposed task of hers. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Anglesey, Lord, made Viceroy, 
 
 237 ; Lord Talbot's opinion of, 
 
 238 ; his ' see-saw ' administra- 
 tion, 239 ; offends Duke of 
 Wellington, 240; bis recall, 
 241 ; return to Ireland, 244 ; 
 interview with Mr. Gregory, 
 245 ; speecb in House of Lords, 
 307 ; ' Tic doloureux,' 329 
 
 Archer, Alderman, 117 
 Armagh, Archbishop of, 113 
 Aylmer, Lord, 162 
 
 Bedford, T)\\ke of 180 
 
 Beresford, Lord John, 133 
 
 Bianconi, 209 
 
 Blake, Anthony, 187, 193, 238 
 
 Bond, Dr., 273 
 
 Bottle Riot, 187 
 
 Boyse, Mr., 276 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 179 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 8 
 
 Bushe, Chief Justice, letter from, 
 154 ; his charm, 207 ; his ora- 
 tory, 208 
 
 Buttevant magistrates' resolution, 
 162 
 
 Canning, Mr., majority for his 
 resolution, 32 ; Lord Talbot on 
 his objects, 177, 179 ; his return 
 to office, 228 ; his death, 297 
 
 Castlemaine, Lord, 144 
 
 Church patronage, 129 
 
 Clancarty, Lord, 75 
 
 Clanricarde, Lord, 222 
 
 Clare, Lord, 150 
 
 — Lady, 272 
 
 Clogher, Bishopric of, 129 
 Clonbrock, Lord, 135, 137, 150 
 Cloncurry, Lord, 13, 153 
 Cockburn, General, 123 
 Colpoys, Mr., letter from, 214 
 Cope, Mr., 219 
 
 Courtown, Lord, 18, 150, 186 
 Croker, Mr., letter from, 273 
 Cuppaige, Mr., verses on, 26 
 Curtis, Archbishop, his appoint- 
 ment, 33 
 
 Daly, James, 273 
 ' Defenders,' 92, 93 
 Donegal family, 134, 135 
 Dorset, Duke of, coming of age ? 
 
 56 ; his death, 56 ; his funeral, 
 
 58, 59 
 Doyle, Dr., 151 
 
 Ellis, Master, 176 
 
 Emancipation, dawn of, 29 ; 
 struggle for, 31, 32 ; Rotunda 
 meeting in favour of, 117 ; 
 hopes founded on the King's 
 visit, 151, 153 ; debates on, 
 179, 223 ; suggested compro- 
 mise, 227 ; growing fortunes, 
 249, 254 ; the bill carried, 
 256 ; Peel's letter on, 257 
 
 Ennismore, Lord, 144 
 
 Famine, fear of, 95, 103 ; relief of, 
 103; in 1822, 213; in 1847, 
 221 
 Farina, Mrs., 283 
 Farmers, condition of, 99 
 
350 
 
 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Fitzgerald, Rt. Hon. Vesey, on 
 Mr. Grant, 112 ; on Rotunda 
 meeting, 119 ; on famine, 214 ; 
 on riots, 246 ; stands for Clare, 
 250; on Grattan's motion, 252 
 
 Fletcher, Judge, 85 
 
 Fremantle, Mr., 188 
 
 Glengall, Lord, 150 
 
 — Lady, 277 
 
 Goderich, Lord, 235 
 
 Goulburn, Rt. Hon. H., Chief 
 Secretary, 173, 186 ; asks for 
 information, 189 ; opinions of 
 him, 208, 209 ; his reforms, 
 209, 210, 211 ; relief of famine, 
 211, 217 ; letters on parliamen- 
 tary proceedings, 221, 235 ; 
 leaves Irish office, 230 ; letter 
 on Mr. Lamb, 247 ; on patron- 
 age, 275 
 
 Grant, Rt. Hon. Charles, Chief 
 Secretary, 109 ; his difficulties, 
 110, 111 ; complaints of him, 
 112 ; his carelessness, 113 ; his 
 misfortunes, 115 ; his character, 
 116 ; letter on Rotunda meet- 
 ing, 120 ; on Government news- 
 papers, 121 ; offends the Lords 
 Justices, 123 ; excuses himself, 
 125, 126 ; his indecision, 127 ; 
 ' worn to death,' 147 ; com- 
 plained of by Lord Talbot, 161, 
 162 
 
 Grattan, advocate of Catholic 
 claims, 30 ; opinion on the 
 Regency, 31 ; his son, 85 
 
 Gregory, Rt. Hon. W., letters on 
 attack on Roxborough, 20 ; 
 Orange disturbances, 28, 49, 50; 
 Duke of Dorset, 57, 59 ; return 
 of Buonaparte, 66, 67, 70, 71, 
 74, 76, 79, 81, 83, 84, 85, 89, 90; 
 Rotunda meeting, 117, 119 ; the 
 press, 122; Mr. Grant, 123, 
 129. 163; disorder. 159; Lord 
 Talbot's recall, 172; Lord 
 Wellesley's coercion bill, 185 ; 
 Saurin's removal, 196 ; magis- 
 trates, 209 ; ga'Js, 210 ; potato 
 culture, 212 ; famine, 217, 218 ; 
 Lord Anglesey's recall, 241 ; 
 
 Mr. Lamb, 248 ; emancipation, 
 253 ; patronage, 270, 282 
 
 Gregory, W. H., 329, 344, 345 
 
 Greville, Henry, 305, 316 
 
 Guinness, firm of, 24 
 
 Haddington, Lord, 335 ; letter 
 
 from, 338 
 Hardinge, Sir H., 334 
 Harrowby, Lord, 323, 324 
 Hart, Sir Anthony, 205, 234 
 Hertford, Lady, 32 
 Hewett, Sir George, 87, 88, 272 
 ' Hibernian Journal,' 121, 123 
 Hobhouse, Mr., 27 
 
 Ingestre, Lord, death of, 293 
 
 Kent, Duchess of, 291, 328 
 
 Kilmorey, Lord, 144 
 
 Kilkenny, disaffection in, 220 
 
 King George IV. as Regent, 31, 
 32 ; visit to Ireland announced, 
 141 ; preparations for, 143, 149 ; 
 hopes founded on, 151 ; inci- 
 dents of, 152, 153 ; visit to 
 Slane, 154, 157 ; disappoints 
 Catholics, 158 
 
 Labourers, state of, 98 
 
 Lamb, Rt. Hon. William, Chief 
 
 Secretary, 230, 245, 247, 248 
 — Lady Caroline, 246 
 Lansdowne, Lord, 11 
 Law Courts Bill, 113 
 Lecky, Rt. Hon. W. E. H., 3, 14, 
 
 15 
 Lees, Sir Harcourt, 203, 204 
 Lefroy, Sergeant, 220 
 Leinster, Duke of, 150 
 Leveson-Gower, Lord F., Chief 
 
 Secretary, 244 ; letter on 
 
 Duke of Northumberland, 261 ; 
 
 appointment, 265 ; work in 
 
 Ireland, 266 ; opinions of him, 
 
 267, 304 
 Liverpool, Lord, 144, 149, 171, 
 
 173, 174, 222, 225, 280, 300 
 Lloyd, Dr., 1:39 
 
INDEX 
 
 351 
 
 Lord Mayor's Dinner, 117 
 Londonderry, Lord, 142 
 Lothian, Marchioness of, 284, 287 
 Lynch, Mr., 269, 271 
 
 Magee, Archbishop, 192 
 M. G., an informer, 84, 90 
 Manders, Alderman, 25 
 Manners, Lord, 204, 205, 222, 234, 
 
 310, 311 
 Meath, Lord, 150 
 Middlemen, 102 
 Monck, Lord, 144 
 
 Norbuey, Lord, his puns, 152, 
 153 ; his reputation, 205 ; tradi- 
 tions of, 206 ; whooping cough, 
 206 ; removal, 295 
 
 Northland, Lord, 222 
 
 Northumberland, Drake of, 223, 
 249 ; appointed Viceroy, 261 ; 
 opinions on, 261 ; his magnifi- 
 cence, 263 ; leaves Ireland, 
 26-5 ; mentioned by Lord Talbot, 
 316 
 
 O'Beien, Sir Edward, 213 
 O'Connor, Mrs. Arthur, 73 
 O'Connell, recollections of, 17, 37 ; 
 tradition of his birth, 35 ; his 
 voice, 39 ; becomes bold, 85 ; 
 forms Catholic Association, 249 ; 
 wins Clare election, 250 ; avows 
 separation, 303 ; his son Maurice, 
 19 
 O'Grady, Chief Baron, 272 
 Orangeism, rise of, 15 ; perma- 
 nence of, 28 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, offered govern- 
 orship, 233 
 
 Parnell, influenced by traditions 
 of '98, 19 
 
 Peel, Rt. Hon. Robert, his dili- 
 gence, 43, 87 ; affection for him, 
 46 ; letters from, 44, 50, 
 60, 68 ; memorandum, 51 ; 
 questions on state of 
 peasantry, 95, 97 ; letter on re- 
 
 lief of famine, 103 ; on Church 
 patronage and grouse shooting, 
 129 ; his reputation, 178 ; speech, 
 179 ; principle in relief of 
 famine, 217 ; on passing of 
 Emancipation, 257-60; notes on 
 applications, 282-3 ; shoots at 
 Ingestre, 288 ; mentioned by 
 Lord Talbot, 291, 308, 310, 328, 
 332, 344, 345 
 
 ' Peelers,' 45 
 
 Persse, W., Colonel of Volunteers, 
 19 
 
 Persse, D., defends Roxborough, 
 21 
 
 Plunket, Mr., 144 ; counsellor to 
 Lord Wellesley, 191 ; his 
 character, 192, 193, 194 ; re- 
 fuses the Rolls, 312 
 
 Pole, Wellesley, 123 
 
 Q., an informer, 52 
 
 Raphoe, Dean of, 103 
 
 Ribbonmen, attack by, 20 ; charac- 
 ter of, 23 ; confounded with 
 weavers, 27 ; system of, 84 ; in 
 the array, 219 
 
 Richmond, Duke of, 40, 117 
 
 Roxborough, attack on, 20, 21 
 
 Salisbury, Lord, 151 
 
 Saurin, Attorney-General, 40, 107, 
 144, 171, 176 ; his letter to Lord 
 Norbury, 181, 201 ; removal 
 attempted, 195 ; character of, 
 198 ; religious conservatism, 
 199; after his fall, 202, 320; 
 his marriage, 203 
 
 Scully, 91 
 
 Shawe, Mr., 254 
 
 Sheil, his oratory, 38 ; his sketch 
 of Saurin, 202 
 
 Sidmouth, Lord, 125, 128, 139, 
 145, 109, 246 
 
 Slane Castle, the King's visit to, 
 154 
 
 Smith, Baron, 21 
 
 Sussex, Duke of, 181 
 
352 
 
 MR. GREGORY'S LETTER-BOX 
 
 Talbot, Earl, arrives as Viceroy 
 108 ; letters on Lord Whitworth 
 106 ; Grant and Lords Justices 
 124 ; dissatisfaction with Grant 
 127, 128 ; Church patronage, 130 
 132; visit to the north, 133 
 to Galway, 136 ; Lady Talbot's 
 death, 137 ; christening of son 
 
 138 ; letter from Hatfield, 138 
 on accession of George IV. 
 
 139 ; passage to England, 140 
 Lady Liverpool's death, 141 
 King's visit, 142-9 ; renewal of 
 disorder, 160, 164 ; recall, 165 
 soreness at, 166 ; letters on, 167 
 168, 172, 174 ; rent reductions 
 175 ; Saurin's removal, 196, 197 
 Lord Anglesey, 242, 243 
 patronage, 274, 279; in England 
 284; revisits Ireland, 287 
 home life, 288 ; later letters, 
 290 345 
 
 Tithes, 100, 101 
 Trench, Lady Anne, 4 
 Trench, Archbishop, 131, 132; 
 letters on famine, 215, 216 
 
 Vansittart, 180 
 
 "Wellesley, Marquess, appointed 
 Viceroy, 165 ; treatment of Mr. 
 Gregory, 173 ; autocratic ways, 
 183 ; notes on him, 184, 185 ; 
 
 his marriage, 185 ; first coercion 
 bill, 185 ; notes on letters, 186, 
 190 ; prosecutes rioters, 188 ; 
 his grievances, 190 ; indolence, 
 189, 190 ; removes Saurin, 195 ; 
 expects Premiership, 235 ; 
 leaves Ireland, 235 ; offers 
 baronetcy to Mr. Gregory, 236 
 
 "Westnieath, Lord, 144 
 
 — Lady, her pension, 243, 244 
 
 Whitworth, Earl, letters from, 
 55, 57; on Duke of Dorset's 
 death, 61, 62 ; on return of 
 Buonaparte, 63, 65, 69, 70, 75, 76, 
 78, 79, 82, 87, 88 ; on emanci- 
 pation, 107 ; Lord Mayor's 
 dinner, 119 ; Lord Talbot's re- 
 call, 168; health failing, 105 ; 
 leaves Ireland, 106 ; on King's 
 visit, 141 ; improved health, 
 146, 176, 290 ; death, 292 
 
 Wicklow, Lord, 150 
 
 AVillcocks, Major, report on Cath- 
 olic feeling, 25 ; on people of 
 Tipperary, 94, 98-102 
 
 Wolfe, Colonel, 210 
 
 Wynn, W., on Lord Wellesley, 
 188, 189, 190 
 
 Yeomanry, expediency of calling 
 
 out, 87, 89, 162, 163 
 York, Archbishop of, 180 
 Young, Arthur, 8 
 
 ruiNTED BY 
 
 8FOTTI8WOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 LONDOS 
 
SMITH, ELDER, & (NX'S NEW BOOKS. 
 
 With a Map. Post 8vo. 6s. 
 
 EGYPT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; 
 
 Or, Mehemet Ali and his Successors until the British Occupation in 1882. 
 
 By DONALD A. CAMERON, H.B.M.'s Consul at Port Said. 
 
 With Two Portraits and Two Views. Large crown 8vo. 12.!. 6d. 
 
 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ARTHUR YOUNG. 
 
 With Selections from his Correspondence. Edited by M. Bktham-Edwards. 
 
 ' Miss Edwards has done her task with a reserve and succinctness to he much commended. She 
 deserves well of all who hold in honour the memory of one who ever strove manfully to makt two 
 blades of grass grow where one grew before.' — Times. 
 
 With Portrait and Maps. Demv 8vo. 145. 
 
 THE LIFE OF SIR JOHN HAWLEY GLOVER, R.N., G.C.M.G. 
 
 By Lady GLOVER. 
 Edited by the Right Hon. Sir RlCHABD Temple, Bart., G.O.S.I., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R S. 
 
 ' A worthy memorial has been raised to one of the most distinguished and devoted among modern 
 builders of the Empire in the " Life of Sir John Hawley Glover," which has been written with note- 
 worthy tact, ability, and discretion by his widow. ... So well has she performed tier Unnur of love 
 that she has unquestionably given us one of the best and most satisfactory biographies of its class 
 produced within recent years.' — World. 
 
 ITALIAN LITERATURE. By the late John Addington Symonds. 
 
 (Vols. IV. and V. of the NEW AND CHKAPER EDITION OF 'THE RENAISSANCE IN 
 ITALY,' in 7 vols.) 2 vols. Large crown 8vo. 15.$. 
 
 DEEDS THAT "WON THE EMPIRE. By the Rev. W. H. Fitchett 
 
 (' Vedette '). Fifth Edition. With 16 Portraits and 11 Plans. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 ' There is no bluster, no brag, no nauseous cant about a chosen people ; but there is a ringing 
 enthusiasm for endurance, for dashing gallantry, for daring and difficult feats, which generous-hearted 
 boys and men will respond to quickly. There is not a flabby paragraph from beginning to end.' 
 
 Bookman. 
 
 LORD COCHRANE S TRIAL BEFORE LORD ELLEN- 
 
 BOROUGH IN 1814. Bv J. B. Atlay. With a Preface by Edward Downes Law, Com- 
 mander, Royal Navy. With Portrait. 8vo. 18,$. 
 'The fresh examination of the whole case which Mr. Atlav has undertaken certainly goes far to 
 show that the version of Lord Ellenborough's conduct to wnich Lord Dundonald himself and certain 
 of his apologists and biographers have given currency, cannot be sustained.' — Times. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE CHURCH OF EGYPT : being an Outline 
 
 of the History of the Egyptians under their successive Masters, from the Roman Conquest until 
 now. By E. L. Butcher, Author of 'A Strange Journey,' 'A Black Jewel,' &c. 2 vols. 
 Crown 8vo. 16s. 
 ' Mrs. Butcher is to be congratulated on the ability, thoroughness, and research which she has 
 brought to the accomplishment of her formidable task.' — Christian World. 
 
 RELIGIO MEDICI, and other Essays. By Sir Thomas Browne. 
 
 Edited, with an Introduction, by D. Lloyd Roberts, M.D., F R.C.P. Revised Edition. Fcap. 
 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 
 ' Dr. Lloyd Roberts gives an excellent selection, edited with the loving care of a true bibliophile, 
 which leaves no phase of Browne's genius unrevealed.'— Manchester Courier. 
 
 TWELYE YEARS IN A MONASTERY. By Joseph McCabe, late 
 
 Father Antony, O.S.F. Large crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 ' No more ruthless exposure of the hollowness of the Romish system, in all its infinite ramifi- 
 cations, has ever, we believe, appeared in this country. Mr. McCabe write? without vindictiveness, 
 but lays bare the sinews and nerves of the inner heart of Roman Catholicism.' — Rock. 
 
 London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place. 
 
 A A 
 
SMITH, ELD ER, & CO.'S PU BLICATIONS. 
 
 A SIMPLE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH NOW IN USE. By 
 
 John Earlk. M.A., Rector of Swanswick ; Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the 
 University of Oxford ; Author of ' English Prose : its Elements, History, and Usage,' ' The 
 Philology of the English Tongue,' &c. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION OF GARDNER'S 'HOUSEHOLD MEDICINE.' 
 
 Shortly. Thirteenth Edition. With numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 8.5. 6d. 
 
 GARDNERS HOUSEHOLD MEDICINE AND SICK-ROOM 
 
 GUIDE : a Description of the Means of Preserving Health, and the Treatment of Diseases, 
 Injuries, and Emergencies. Revised and expressly Adapted for the Use of Families, Mission- 
 aries, and Colonists. By W. H. 0. Staveley, F.R.O.S., Eng. 
 
 MRS. E. B. BROWNING'S LETTERS. Edited, with Biographical 
 
 Additions, by Frederic G. Kenton. Third Edition. 2 vols, with Portraits. Crown 8vo. 
 
 15s. net. 
 
 ' It is not too much to say that these volumes are the first adequate contribution which has been 
 
 made to a real knowledge of Mrs. Browning. . . . The inestimable value of the collection is that it 
 
 contains not merely interesting critical writing, but the intimate expression of a personality.' 
 
 Athew^um. 
 
 MRS. BROWNING'S COMPLETE WORKS. New and Cheaper 
 Edition. Complete in 1 volume, with Portrait and Facsimile of a ' Sonnet from the Portuguese.' 
 Large crown 8vo. bound in cloth, with gilt top, 7s. 6d. 
 
 •«• This Edition is uniform with the 2-Volume Edition of Robert Browning's 
 
 Complete Works. 
 
 1 This appears opportunely just now when Mrs. Browning's letters have been attracting attention, 
 and is all the more welcome in that it is the first really complete edition of the poetess's works. . . . 
 In form, as well as in substance, the volume will be a welcome addition to many a library and book- 
 shelf.'— Times. 
 
 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE, 1821-1833. By 
 
 W. Alison Phillips, M.A., late Scholar of Merton College, Senior Scholar of St. John's College, 
 
 Oxford. With Map. Large crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 ' We sincerely commend Mr. Alison Phillips' " History of the Greek War of Independence " to all 
 readers who have had their attention turned to that country of late. . . . We have met few books 
 better calculated to clear the mind of cant on a subject concerning which much cant has of late 
 been talked.' -St. James's Gazette. 
 
 FRIENDSHIP'S GARLAND. By Matthew Arnold. Second Edition. 
 
 Small crown 8vo. bound in white cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 ' All lovers of Matthew Arnold and of genuine humour will hail with delight the republication of 
 " Friendship's Garland." . . . The book is written throughout in the highest possible spirits, and 
 there is not a dull page in it.'— Daily News. 
 
 FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XY. By James Breck Perkins, Author 
 
 of ' France under the Regency.' 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 16s. 
 ' A very good book. . . . Mr. Perkins' tracing out of the foreign policy of France through the 
 wars which did so much to break down her power and the prestige of her crown is very clear and 
 intelligent, and his judgment appears to be generally sound.'— Times. 
 
 A BROWNING COURTSHIP, and other Stories. By Eliza Orne 
 White, Author of the ' The Coming of Theodora &c. Small post 8vo. 5s. 
 
 INDIAN FRONTIER POLICY: an Historical Sketch. By General Sir 
 
 John Adye, G.C.B., R.A., Author of ' Recollections of a Military Life.' With Map. Demy 
 8vo. 8s. 6d. 
 
 ELECTRIC MOVEMENT IN AIR AND WATER. With Theoretical 
 
 Inferences. By Lord Armstrong, C.B., F.R.S., LL.D., &c. With Autotype Plates. Imperial 
 
 4to. £1. 10ji.net. 
 
 ' One of the most remarkable contributions to physical and electrical knowledge that have been 
 
 made in recent years. . . . The illustrations are produced in a superb manner, entirely worthy of so 
 
 remarkable a monograph.' — Times. 
 
 GABRIELE YON BULOW, Daughter of Wilhelm von Humboldt. A 
 
 Memoir compiled from the Family Papers of Wilhelm von Humboldt and his Children, 
 
 1791-1887. Translated by Clara Nordlinger. With Portraits and a Preface by Sir Edward 
 
 B. Malet, G.C.B , G.C.M.G., &c. Demy 8vo. 16j. 
 
 1 Miss Nordlinger's excellent translation gives English readers an opportunity of becoming 
 
 acquainted with a very charming personality, and of following the events of a life which was bound 
 
 up with many interesting incidents and phases of English history.' — Times. 
 
 London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place. 
 
SMITH, ELD ER, t CO.'S PU BLICATIONS. 
 
 ISABELLA THE CATHOLIC, QUEEN OF SPAIN: her Life, 
 
 Reign, and Times, 1451-1504. By M. LE Baron DK NBBVO. Translated from the Original 
 French by Lieut.-Colonel Temple- West (Retired). With Portraits. Demy 8vo. 12,«. Gd. 
 ' Neither too long nor too short, not overladen with detail nor impoverished from lack of matter, 
 and is at the same time ample and orderly enough to satisfy the ordinary student.' 
 
 Daily Telegraph. 
 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN. By Mrs. C. W. Earlb. 
 With an Appendix by Lady Constance Lytton. Tenth Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 ' Intelligent readers of almost any age, especially if they are concerned in the management of a 
 country household, will find these pages throughout both suggestive and amusing.'— Times. 
 
 NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION OF 'THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY.' 
 
 In 7 volumes, large crown 8vo. with 2 Portraits. 
 
 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY. By John Addington Symonds. 
 
 THE AGE OF THE DESPOTS. 
 
 With a Portrait. Price 7*. 6d. 
 
 THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 
 
 Price Is. 6d. 
 
 THE FINE ARTS. Price 7s. 6d. 
 
 4 & 5. ITALIAN LITERATURE. 
 
 2 vols. Price 15.?. 
 
 6 & 7. THE CATHOLIC REACTION. 
 
 With a Portrait and an Index to the 7 vols. 
 Price 15s. [/« the press. 
 
 THACKERAY'S HAUNTS AND HOMES. By Eyre Crowe, A.R.A. 
 
 With Illustrations from Sketches by the Author. Crown 8vo. 6«. net. 
 
 J^" Note. — The Edition of the Work for sale in this country is limited to 260 copies. 
 
 THE ANNALS OF RURAL BENGAL. From Official Records and 
 the Archives of Native Families. By Sir W. W. Hunter, K.O.S.I., CLE., LL.D., &c. New, 
 Revised, and Cheaper Edition (the Seventh). Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 ' One of the most important as well as most interesting works which the records of Indian 
 
 literature can show.' — We.-tminster Review. 
 
 FROM GRAVE TO GAY : being Essays and Studies concerned with 
 Certain Subjects of Serious Interest, with the Puritans, with Literature, and with the tlumours 
 of Life, now for the first time Collected and Arranged. By J. St. Loe Strachey. Crown 
 8vo. 6*. 
 'Undeniably clever, well-informed, brightly written, and in many ways interesting.'— Times. 
 
 COLLECTED CONTRIBUTIONS ON DIGESTION AND DIET 
 
 With an Appendix on the Opium Habit in India. By Sir William Roberts, M.D., F.R.3 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 5s. 
 
 HISTORY IN FACT AND FICTION. By the Hon. A. 8. G. Canning, 
 
 Auth- r of ' Lord Macaulay : Essayist and Historian,' ' The Philosophy of Charles Dickens,* &c. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 ' An intensely interesting book, ... I do not think that I ever saw the difficulties of the Eastern 
 question in so clear a light as I did after reading the short chapter which Mr. Canning devotes to it.' 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 THROUGH LONDON SPECTACLES. By Constance Milman. 
 
 Crown 8vo. Zs. 6d. 
 ' Altogether a very pleasant and companionable little book.' — Spectator. 
 
 SIR CHARLES HALLE'S LIFE AND LETTERS. Being an 
 
 Autobiography (1819-60), with Correspondence and Diaries. Edited by his Son, C. E. Halle, 
 
 and his Daughter, Marie Halle. With 2 Portraits. Demy 8vo. 16*. 
 
 1 The volume is one of the most interesting of recent contributions to the literature of music. 
 
 ... A strong sense of humour is manifest in the autobiography as well as in the letters, and there 
 
 are some capital stories scattered up and down the volume.' — Times. 
 
 THE MEMOIRS OF BARON THIEBAULT (late Lieutenant-General 
 in the French Army). With Recollections of the Republic, the Consulate, and the Empire. 
 Translated and Condensed by A. J. Butler, M.A., Translator of the ' Memoirs of Marbot.' 
 2 vols. With 2 Portraits and 2 Maps. Demy 8vo. 28*. 
 ' Mr. Butler's work has been admirably done. . . . These memoirs abound in varied interest, and, 
 moreover, they have no little literary merit. . . . For solid history, bright sketches of rough campaign- 
 ing, shrewd studies of character, and lively anecdote, these memoirs yield in no degree to others.' 
 
 Times. 
 
 PREHISTORIC MAN AND BEAST. By the Rev. H. N. Hutchinson, 
 
 Author of ' Extinct Monsters,' ' Creatures of Other Days,' &c. With a Preface by Sir Henry 
 Howokth, M.P., F.R.S., and 10 Full-page Illustrations. Small demy 8vo. 10*. 6d. 
 'A striking picture of living men and conditions as they once existed. ... It combines graphic 
 
 description with scientific accuracy, and is an admirable example of what a judicious use of the 
 
 imagination can achieve upon a basis of established facts.' — Knowledge. 
 
 London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place. 
 
SMITH, ELD ER, & CO.'S PU BLICATIONS. 
 
 A YEAR IN THE FIELDS. Selections from the Writings of John 
 Burroughs. With Illustrations from Photographs by Clifton Johnson. Crown 8vo. 6*. 
 
 ' The book is an excellent example of its kind, pleasant, chatty, and readable. . . . Fresh and 
 graphic, instinct with country sights, scent-", and sounds.'— Land and Water. 
 
 ' The book is pleasant reading, and Mr. Burroughs is a true lover of Nature.' — Athen^um. 
 
 THE MONEY-SPINNER, and other Character Notes. By H. Seton 
 Merhimak, Author of 'The Sowers, 'With Edged Tools,' &c. ; and S. G. Tallentyre. With 
 12 Full-page Illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 ' We have many bad books, and many goody-goody books, but few good books ; this is one of 
 
 them.' — Mr. James Payn in the Illustrated London News. 
 
 SELECTED POEMS OF WALTER YON DER YOGELWEIDE, 
 
 THE MINNESINGER. Done into English Verse by W. Alison Phillips, M.A., late Scholar 
 of Merton College, and Senior Scholar of St. John's College, Oxford. With 6 Full-page 
 Illustrations. Small 4to. 10*. 6d. net. 
 ' There is in the outpourings of the famous Minnesinger a freshness and a spontaneity that 
 
 exercise an irresistible charm. . . . Mr. Phillips de-erves thanks from all lovers of poetry for bringing 
 
 him before the world again in so acceptable a form.' — Times. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE HEBREW PEOPLE FROM THE 
 
 DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM TO THE FALL OF JERUSALEM IN 566 B.C. By 
 Charles Foster Kent, Ph.D., Associate-Professor of Biblical Literature and History, Brown 
 University. With Maps and Chart. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 * s * This Second Volume completes the Work. 
 
 ENGLISH PROSE : its Elements, History, and Usage. By John Earle, 
 
 M.A., Rector of Swanswick, formerly Fellow and Tutor of Oriel College, Professor of Anglo- 
 Saxon in the University of Oxford. 8vo. 16s. 
 
 THE HISTORIC NOTE-BOOK ; with an Appendix of Battles. By the 
 Rev. E. Cobhajvi Brewer, LL.D., Author of ' The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' ' The 
 Reader's Handbook,' &c. Crown 8vo. over 1,000 pp. 7s. 6d. 
 
 GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE YOLCANIC 
 
 ISLANDS AND PARTS OF SOUl'H AMERICA, visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Beagle.' 
 By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S. Third Edition. With Maps and Illustrations. Crown 
 8vo. 12s. 6d. 
 
 THE STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF CORAL REEFS. 
 
 By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S..F.G.S. With an Introduction by Professor T. G. Bonnet, 
 D.Sc, F.R.S., F.G.S. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. 
 
 HAYTI; or, the Black Republic. By Sir Spenser St. John, G.C.M.G., 
 
 formerly Her Majesty's Minister Resident and Consul-General in Hayti, now Her Majesty's 
 Special Envoy to Mexico. Second Edition, revised. With a Map. Large crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. 
 
 THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA : a Survey of Fifty Years of 
 Progress. Edited by T. Humphry Ward. 2 vols. 8vo. 32s. 
 
 A COLLECTION OF LETTERS OF W. M. THACKERAY, 
 
 1847-1 *55. With Portraits and Reproductions of Letters and Drawings. Second Edition. 
 Imptrial 8vo. 12s. 6d. 
 
 A JOURNAL KEPT BY DICK DOYLE IN THE YEAR 1840. 
 
 Illustra'ed by several hundred Sketches by the Author. With an Introduction by J. Hunoer- 
 ford 1'olien, and a Portrait. Second Edition. Demy 4to. 21s. 
 
 THE INGENIOUS GENTLEMAN, DON QUIXOTE OF LA 
 
 MANCHA. By Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra. A Translation, with Introduction and 
 N'tes, by John Ormsby, Translator of 'The Poem of the Cid. Complete in 4 vols. 8vo. £2. 10s. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. Certain Selected Plays Abridged for the Use of the 
 Young. By Samuel Bhandram, M A. Oxon. Fourth and Cheaper Edition. Large crown 
 8vo. 5s. 
 * s * Also the 9 Plays separately, crown 8vo. neatly bound in cloth limp, price 6d. each. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE COMMENTARIES. By Dr. G. G. Gervinus, Pro- 
 fessor at Heidelberg. Translated, under the Author's superintendence, by F. E. Bunnett. 
 With a Preface by F. J. Furnivall. Fifth Edition. 8vo. 14s. 
 
 THE STORY OF GOETHE'S LIFE. By George Henry Lewes. 
 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 London : SMITH, ELDEE, k CO., 15 Waterloo Place. 
 
SMITH, ELDER, & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE LIFE OF GOETHE. By George Henry Lewes. Fourth Edition. 
 
 Revised according to the latest Documents, with Portrait. 8vo. 16*. 
 UNDERGROUND RUSSIA. Revolutionary Profiles and Sketches from 
 
 Life. By Stepniak, formerly Editor of ' Zemlia i Volia ' (Laud and Liberty). With a Preface 
 
 by Petkk Lavroff. Translated from the Italian. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 
 
 3*. Gd. 
 SEA AND LAND : Features of Coasts and Oceans, with special reference 
 
 to the Life of Man. By N. S. Shaler, Dean of the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard 
 
 University. With Illustrations. Royal 8vo. 10s. Gd. net. 
 
 By the same Author. 
 
 ASPECTS OF THE EARTH: DOMESTICATED ANIMALS: 
 
 a Popular Account of some Familiar Geo- their Relation to Man and to his Advauce- 
 
 logical Phenomena. With 100 Illustrations. ment in Civilisation. With Illustrations. 
 
 Royal 8vo. 16*. I Royal 8vo. 10*. Gd. net. 
 
 NATURE AND MAN IN AMERICA. Crown 8vo. 65. 
 
 THE LIFE OF SIR JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN, Bart., 
 
 K.C.S.I., a Judge of the High Court of Justice. By his Brother, Leslie Stephen. Second 
 Edition. With 2 Portraits. Demy 8vo. 16*. 
 
 AN AGNOSTIC'S APOLOGY; and other Essays. By Leslie Stephen. 
 
 Large crown 8vo. 10*. Gd. 
 
 LIFE OF HENRY FAWCETT. By Leslie Stephen. With 2 Steel 
 
 Portraits. Fifth Edition. Large crown 8vo. 12*. Gd. 
 
 HOURS IN A LIBRARY. By Leslie Stephen. Revised, Re-arranged, 
 
 and Cheaper Edition, with Additional Chapters. 3 vols, crown 8vo. 6*. each. 
 
 A HISTORY of ENGLISH THOUGHT IN THE EIGHTEENTH 
 
 CENTURY. By Leslie Stephen. Second Edition. 2 vols, demy 8vo. 28*. 
 
 THE SCIENCE OF ETHICS : an Essay upon Ethical Theory as Modified 
 by the Doctrine of Evolution. By Leslie Stephen. Demy 8vo. 16*. 
 
 LIFE OF FRANK BUCKLAND. By his Brother- in- Law, George C. 
 Bompas, Editor of ' Notes and Jottings from Animal Life.' With a Portrait. Crown 8vo. 5*. ; 
 gilt edges, 6*. 
 
 LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY. By Sir James Fitzjames 
 Stephen, K.C.S.I. Second Edition, with a New Preface. Demy 8vo. 14*. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF W. M. THACKERAY. 
 
 Chiefly Philosophical and Reflective. Cheap Edition. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 THE LIFE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE 
 
 CONSORT. By Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B. With Portrait and Views. 5 vols. Demy 
 8vo. 18*. each. 
 
 * s * Also a ' People's Edition,' in 1 vol., bound in cloth, 4*. Gd. ; or in six parts, Gd. each. 
 Cloth Cases for binding, 1*. each. 
 
 MORE LEAVES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A LIFE IN 
 
 THE HIGHLANDS, from 1862 to 1882. Fifth Edition. With Portraits and Woodcut 
 
 Illustrations. 8vo. 10*. Gd. 
 
 * ft * Also the Popular Edition, with Portrait and Woodcut Illustrations, fcp. 8vo. 2*. Gd. 
 
 THE LIFE OF LORD LAWRENCE. By R. Bosworth Smith, M.A., 
 
 late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford ; Assistant Master at Harrow School, Author of 
 ' Mohammed and Mohammedanism,' ' Carthage and the Carthaginians,' &c. Revised and 
 Cheaper Edition, being the Sixth Edition. 2 vols, large crown 8vo. with 2 Portraits and 
 2 Maps, 21*. 
 
 LIFE OF SIR HENRY LAWRENCE. By Major-General Sir Herbert 
 Benjamin Edwardes, K.C.B., K.C.SJ., and Herman Merivale, C.B. With 2 Portraits 
 8vo. 12*. 
 
 LIFE OF LIEUT. -GENERAL SIR JAMES OUTRAM. By Major- 
 
 General Sir Frederic J. Goltsmid, C.B., K.C.S.I. Second Edition. 2 vols, demy 8vo. 32*. 
 
 THE LIFE OF MAHOMET. From Original Sources. By Sir William 
 
 Muir, K.C.S.I. Third Edition, with a new Map and several Illustrations. 8vo. 16*. 
 
 London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place. 
 
W. M. T HACKERAY'S WORKS. 
 
 THE EDITION DE LUXE. Twenty-six Volumes, imperial 8vo. Containing 
 248 Steel Engravings, 1,620 Wood Engravings, and 88 Coloured Illustrations. 
 The Steel and Wed Engravings are all printed on real China paper. The 
 NUMBER of COPIES PRINTED is LIMITED to ONE THOUSAND, each 
 copy being numbered. The work can only be obtained through Booksellers, 
 who will furnish information regarding terms, &c. 
 
 THE STANDARD EDITION. Twenty-six Volumes, large 8vo. 10s. 6d. each. 
 
 This Edition contains some of Mr. Thackeray's Writings which had not 
 been previously collected, with many additional Illustrations. It has been 
 printed from new type, on fine paper ; and, with the exception of the 
 Edition de Luxe, it is the largest and handsomest Edition that has been 
 published. 
 
 THE LIBRARY EDITION. Twenty-four Volumes, large crown 8vo. handsomely 
 bound in cloth, price £9 ; or half-russia, marbled edges, £13. 13*. With 
 Illustrations by the Author, Richard Doyle, and Frederick Walker. 
 
 * * 
 
 * 
 
 The Volumes are sold separately, in cloth, price Is. 6d. each. 
 
 THE POPULAR EDITION. Thirteen Volumes, crown 8vo. with Frontispiece 
 to each Volume, scarlet cloth, gilt top, price £3. 5s. ; or half-morocco, gilt, 
 price £5. 10*. 
 %* The Volumes are sold separately, in green cloth, price 5*. each. 
 
 CHEAPER ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Twenty-Six Volumes, crown 8vo. 
 bound in cloth, price £4. 11*. ; or handsomely bound in half-morocco, price 
 £8. 8*. Containing nearly all the small Woodcut Illustrations of the former 
 Editions and many New Illustrations by Eminent Artists. 
 
 THIS EDITION CONTAINS ALTOGETHER 1,773 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 By the Author; Luke Fildks, A.R.A. ; Lady Butler (Miss Elizabeth Thompson) : George du 
 Maurier ; Richard Doyle ; Frederick Walker, A.RA. ; George Cruikshaxk ; John Leech ; 
 Frank Dicksee ; Linley Sambourne ; F. Barnard ; E. J. Wheeler ; F. A. Fraser ; Charles 
 Keene; R. B. Wallace; J. P. Atkinson; W. J. Webb; T. R. Macquoid; M. Fitzgerald; 
 W. Ralston ; John Collifr ; H. Furniss ; G. G. Kilburne, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 *** The Volumes are sold separately, in cloth, price 3*. Gd. each. 
 
 THE POCKET EDITION. Twenty-seven Volumes. Bound in cloth, with gilt 
 top. Price 1*. tid. each ; or 1*. in paper cover. 
 
 * # * Tlie Volumes are also supplied as follows : 
 THE NOVELS. 13 volumes, in gold- THE MISCELLANIES. 14 volumes, 
 lettered cloth case, 21*. in gold-lettered cloth case, 21*. 
 
 W. M. THACKERAY'S LETTERS. 
 
 A COLLECTION OF LETTERS OF W. M. THACKERAY, 1847-1855. 
 
 With Portraits and Reproductions of Letters and Drawings. Second 
 Edition. Imperial 8vo. 12s. 6d. 
 
 BALLADS. By William Makepeace Thackeray. With a Portrait of the 
 Author, and 56 Illustrations by the Author ; Lady Butler (Miss Elizabeth 
 Thompson); George du Maurier ; John Collier; H. Furniss; G. G. 
 Kilburne ; M. Fitzgerald ; and J. P. Atkinson. Printed on toned paper 
 by Clay, Sons, & Taylor ; and elegantly bound in cloth, gilt edges, by Burn. 
 Small 4to. 16*. 
 
 W. M. THACKERAY'S SKETCHES. 
 
 THE ORPHAN OF PIMLICO, and other Sketches, Fragments and Drawings. 
 By William Makepeace Thackeray. Copied by a process that gives a 
 faithful reproduction of the Originals. With a Preface and Editorial Notes 
 by Miss Thackeray. A New Edition, in a new style of binding, bevelled 
 boards, gilt edges, royal 4to. price One Guinea. 
 
 London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place. 
 
STANDAED WORKS. 
 
 THE DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 'A WORK ABSOLUTELY INDISPENSABLE TO EVERY WELL-FUR- 
 NISHED LIBRARY.'— Times. 
 
 Royal 8vo. price 155. each net in cloth ; or in half-morocco, marbled edges, 
 
 20s. each net. 
 
 VOLUMES 1 TO 53 (ABBADIE -ST ANGER) OF THE 
 
 DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Edited by LESLIE STEPHEN and SIDNEY LEE. 
 
 Volume I. was published on January 1, 1885, and a further Volume will be issued 
 quarterly until the completion of the Work, which will be effected within two 
 
 years from the present time. 
 
 NOTE.— A Full Prospectus of 'The Dictionary of National Biography,' with 
 
 Specimen Pages, may be had upon application. 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING'S COMPLETE WORKS. New 
 
 and Cheaper Edition. Edited and Annotated by Augustine Birrkll, Q.C., M.P., and 
 Frederic G. Kenyon. In 2 vols, large crown 8vo. bound in cloth, gilt top, with a Portrait- 
 Frontispiece to each volume. Is. 6d. per volume. 
 *«* Also the UNIFORM EDITION of ROBERT BROWNING'S WORKS, 17 vols, crown 8vo. 
 bound in Sets, £4. 5s. ; or the volumes bound separately, 6s. each. 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING'S COMPLETE 
 
 WORKS. New and Cheaper Edition. In 1 vol. with Portrait and a Facsimile of the MS. of 
 'A Sonnet from the Portuguese.' Large crown 8vo. bound in cloth, gilt top, 7s. Gd. 
 ««* Also the UNIFORM EDITION of MRS. BROWNING'S WORKS, in 6 vols, small crown 8vo. 
 5s. each. 
 
 MISS THACKERAY'S WORKS. Uniform Edition. Each 
 
 Volume illustrated by a Vignette Title-page. 10 vols, large crown 8vo. 6s. each. 
 Contents. — Old Kensington — The Village on the Cliff — Five Old Friends and a Young Prince — 
 To Esther, &c— Bluebeard's Keys, &c— The Story of Elizabeth ; Two Hours ; From an Island- 
 Toilers and Spinsters— Miss Angel ; Fulham Lawn — Miss Williamson's Divagations— Mrs. Dymond. 
 
 LIFE AND WORKS OF THE SISTERS BRONTE. 
 
 Library Edition. 7 vols., each containing 5 Illustrations, large crown 8vo. 5s. each. 
 
 Contents.— Jane Eyre— Shirley— Villette— Tenant of Wildfell Hall— Wuthering Heights— The 
 Professor, and Poems — Life of Charlotte Bronte. 
 
 **» Also the POPULAR EDITION, in 7 vols, small post 8vo. limp cloth, or cloth boards, gilt top, 
 2s. 6rf. each. And the POCKET EDITION, in 7 vols, small fcp. 8vo. each with a Frontispiece, bound 
 in cloth, with gilt top, Is. 6rf. per volume ; or the Set, in gold-lettered cloth case, 12s. Gd. 
 
 MRS, GASKELL'S WORKS. Illustrated Edition. 7 vols., 
 
 containing 4 Illustrations, 3s. Sd. each, bound in cloth. 
 
 Contents. — Wives and Daughters— North and South — Sylvia's Lovers — Cranford, and other 
 Tales — Mary Barton, and other Tales — Ruth, and other Tales— Lizzie Leigh, and other Tales. 
 
 *** Also the POPULAR EDITION, in 7 vols, small post 8vo. limp cloth ; or cloth boards, gilt 
 top, 2s. 6d. each. And the POCKET EDITION, in 8 vols, small fcp. 8vo. bound in cloth, with gilt top, 
 Is. Gd. per volume ; or the Set, in gold-lettered cloth case, 14s. 
 
 LEIGH HUNT'S WORKS. 7 vols. fcp. 8vo. limp cloth; or 
 
 cloth boards, gilt top, 2s. 6<i each. 
 Contents.— Imagination and Fancy— The Town— Autobiography of Leigh Hunt — Men, Women, 
 and Books — Wit and Humour — A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla— Table-Talk. 
 
 SIR ARTHUR HELPS' WORKS. 3 vols, crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 each. 
 Contents: — Friends in Council, First Series — Friends in Council, Second Series— Companions of 
 my Solitude ; Essays written during the Intervals of Business ; an Essay on Organisation in Daily Life . 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JOSEPH MAZZINI. 
 
 6 vols, crown 8vo. 4s. Gd. each. 
 
 London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place. 
 
POPULAR NOVELS. 
 
 Jiach Work complete in One Volume, crown 8vo. price Six Shillings. 
 
 THE KOROSKO. By 
 
 With 40 Full-page Illus- 
 
 By Anna Howabth. 
 By Mrs. Henry de la 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF 
 
 A. Conan Doyle. 
 trations. 
 
 IN KEDAR'S TENTS. By Henry Seton 
 Merriman. Seventh Edition. 
 
 UNCLE BERNAC : a Memory of the Empire. 
 By A. Oonan Doyle. With 12 full-page 
 Illustrations. Second Edition. 
 
 FOR THE RELIGION : being the Records of 
 Blaise de Bernauld. By Hamilton Drum- 
 mond. 
 
 JAN : an Afrikander. 
 
 Second Edition. 
 
 DEBORAH OF TOD'S. 
 
 Pasture. Se^n.d Edition. 
 
 THE MILLS OF GOD. By Francis H. Hardy. 
 ONE OF THE BROKEN BRIGADE. By 
 
 Clive Phillipps-Wolley. 
 THE WAYS OF LIFE : Two Stories. By Mrs. 
 
 Oliphant. 
 THE LADY GRANGE. By Alexander Innes 
 
 Shand. 
 RODNEY STONE. By A. Conan Doyle. 
 
 With 8 full-page Illustrations. 
 
 SIR GEORGE TRESSADY. By Mrs. Humphry 
 Ward. Third Edition. 
 
 CLEG KELLY, ARAB OF THE CITY. By 
 
 S. R. Crockett. Thirty-third Thousand. 
 
 THE SOWERS. By Henry Seton Merri- 
 man. Eighteenth Edition. 
 
 THE WHITE COMPANY. By A. Conan 
 Doyle. Nineteenth Edition. 
 
 MARCELLA. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. Six- 
 teenth Edition. 
 
 ROBERT ELSMERE. By Mrs. Humphry 
 Ward. Twentj -seventh Edition. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF DAVID GRIEVE. By 
 
 Mrs. Humphry Ward. Ninth Edition. 
 
 GERALD EVERSLEY'S FRIENDSHIP : a 
 
 Study in R( al Life. By the Rev. J. E. C. 
 Welldon. Fourth Edition. 
 THE BORDERER. By Adam Lilburn. 
 
 UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES. By 
 
 AitcHra Armstrong. 
 GILBERT MURRAY. By A. E. Houghton. 
 
 OUT OF THE DARKNESS. By Percy 
 Kendall and Fox Russell. 
 
 THE YOUNG CLANROY. A Romance of the 
 '45. By the Rev. Cosmo Gordon Lang. 
 
 CAPTAIN CASTLE. A Story of the South 
 Sea. By W. Oarlton Dawe. With a 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 THE WARDLAWS. By E. Rentoul Esler. 
 
 KATE GRENVILLE. By Lord Monkswell. 
 
 DISTURBING ELEMENTS. By Mabel 0. 
 
 BlRCHBNOUGH. 
 
 KINCAID'S WIDOW. By Sarah Tytlbb. 
 
 THE MARTYRED 
 
 Murray. 
 
 FOOL. By D. Christie 
 
 A FATAL RESERVATION. By R.O.Prowsb. 
 
 THE VAGABONDS. By Mrs. Margaret L. 
 Woods, Author of 'A Village Tragedy,' &c. 
 
 GRANIA : the Story of an Island. By the Hon. 
 Emily Lawless. 
 
 THE SIGNORA : a Tale. By Percy Andreab. 
 
 STANHOPE OF CHESTER : a Mystery. By 
 Percy Andreae. 
 
 THE MASK AND THE MAN. By Percy 
 Andreae. 
 
 A FALLEN IDOL. By F. Anstey. 
 
 THE GIANT'S ROBE. By F. Anstey. 
 
 THE PARIAH. By F. Anstey. 
 
 THE TALKING HORSE : and other Tales. 
 By F. Anstey. 
 
 NEW GRUB STREET. By George Gissing. 
 
 THYRZA. By George Gissing. 
 
 THE NETHER WORLD. By George Gissing. 
 
 DEMOS : a Story of Socialist Life in England. 
 By George Gissing. 
 
 RICHARD CABLE: the Lightshipman. By 
 the Author of ' Mehalah ' &c. 
 
 THE GAVEROCKS. By the Author of 
 '•Mehalah,' ' John Herring,' &c. 
 
 A WOMAN OF THE WORLD. By F.Mabel 
 Robinson. 
 
 EIGHT DAYS. By R. E. Forrest. 
 
 A DRAUGHT OF LETHE. By Roy Tellet. 
 
 THE RAJAH'S HEIR. By a New Author. 
 
 OLD KENSINGTON. By Miss Thackeray. 
 
 THE VILLAGE ON THE CLIFF. 
 
 Thackeray. 
 
 FIVE OLD FRIENDS AND A 
 
 PRINCE. By Miss Thackeray. 
 
 TO ESTHER, and other Sketches. 
 Thackekay. 
 
 BLUEBEARD'S KEYS, and other 
 By Miss Thackeray. 
 
 THE STORY OF ELIZABETH; TWO 
 
 HOURS ; FROM AN ISLAND. By Miss 
 Thackeray. 
 
 TOILERS AND 
 
 Thackeray. 
 
 MISS ANGEL : FULHAM LAWN. By Miss 
 
 Thackeray. 
 
 MISS WILLIAMSON'S DIVAGATIONS. 
 
 By Miss Thackeray. 
 
 MRS. DYMOND. By Miss Thackeray. 
 
 LLANALY REEFS. By Lady Verney, Author 
 of ' Stone liclge ' &c. 
 
 LETTICE LISLE. By Lady Verney. With 
 3 Illustrations. 
 
 By Miss 
 YOUNG 
 
 By Miss 
 Stories. 
 
 SPINSTERS. By Miss 
 
 London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place. 
 
■ 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 
 
 
 — T— 
 
 l. fa/gflW 
 
 
 __ — i 
 
 9 Rfl 
 
 2lJu\ , 69J| ' 
 
 3EP- 
 
 B 
 
 -• 
 
 LD 21-100m-7,'40(6936s) 
 
583378 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY