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Title: The Viceroys of Ireland
Author: Charles O'Mahony
Release Date: May 22, 2011 [EBook #36193]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VICEROYS OF IRELAND ***
Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: The Earl of Aberdeen, K.T.]
THE VICEROYS OF
IRELAND
THE STORY OF THE LONG LINE OF NOBLEMEN
AND THEIR WIVES WHO HAVE RULED
IRELAND AND IRISH SOCIETY FOR
OVER SEVEN HUNDRED
YEARS
BY
CHARLES O'MAHONY
WITH PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE AND THIRTY-TWO OTHER
PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
JOHN LONG, LIMITED
NORRIS STREET, HAYMARKET
MCMXII
TO
MY WIFE
{ix}
PREFACE
This is the first complete history of the viceroys of Ireland, the only
other book on the subject being the late Sir John T. Gilbert's, which
was published in 1864. But as he dealt with the viceroys between 1172
and 1509 only, his book has no claim to completeness. In common with
all writers on Ireland, however, I must express my acknowledgments to
Gilbert. His keen and discerning research work, covering the first two
hundred years of the viceroyalty, has been of the utmost value to me.
Irish affairs appear certain to monopolize public and parliamentary
attention this year, and on this account I think that the history of
the men who have ruled Ireland for nearly seven hundred and fifty years
will be read with interest.
Of the illustrations, that of Lord Aberdeen is from a photograph by M.
Lafayette of Dublin and London, who has also supplied the photographs
of Lady Aberdeen, Lords Dudley, Spencer, Londonderry, Cadogan, and
Crewe, King Edward at the {x} Dublin Exhibition, and those of the
Viceregal Lodge, St. Patrick's Hall, and the Throne Room in Dublin
Castle. All the other illustrations are from photographs of the
originals in the National Portrait Gallery, Dublin.
CHARLES O'MAHONY
LONDON
_June_, 1912
{xi}
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I - - - - - - - - - - - 15
CHAPTER II - - - - - - - - - - - 28
CHAPTER III - - - - - - - - - - - 48
CHAPTER IV - - - - - - - - - - - 62
CHAPTER V - - - - - - - - - - - 71
CHAPTER VI - - - - - - - - - - - 86
CHAPTER VII - - - - - - - - - - - 103
CHAPTER VIII - - - - - - - - - - - 120
CHAPTER IX - - - - - - - - - - - 139
CHAPTER X - - - - - - - - - - - 161
CHAPTER XI - - - - - - - - - - - 173
CHAPTER XII - - - - - - - - - - - 188
CHAPTER XIII - - - - - - - - - - - 201
CHAPTER XIV - - - - - - - - - - - 216
CHAPTER XV - - - - - - - - - - - 229
CHAPTER XVI - - - - - - - - - - - 242
CHAPTER XVII - - - - - - - - - - - 261
CHAPTER XVIII - - - - - - - - - - - 271
CHAPTER XIX - - - - - - - - - - - 289
CHAPTER XX - - - - - - - - - - - 303
CHAPTER XXI - - - - - - - - - - - 313
CHAPTER XXII - - - - - - - - - - - 326
INDEX - - - - - - - - - - - - - 343
{xiii}
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
THE EARL OF ABERDEEN - - - - - - - - _Frontispiece_
THE VICEREGAL LODGE, DUBLIN - - - - - - - 30
THE THRONE ROOM, DUBLIN CASTLE - - - - - - 42
ST. PATRICK'S HALL, DUBLIN CASTLE - - - - - 54
ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX - - - - - - 68
CHARLES BLOUNT, LORD MOUNTJOY - - - - - - 78
THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD - - - - - 84
JAMES BUTLER, FIRST DUKE OF ORMONDE - - - - - 86
OLIVER CROMWELL - - - - - - - - - - 90
ARTHUR, EARL OF ESSEX - - - - - - - - 100
LORD WHARTON - - - - - - - - - - - 130
JOHN, LORD CARTERET - - - - - - - - - 140
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD - - - - - - - - - 150
EARL OF HARRINGTON - - - - - - - - - 152
MARQUIS TOWNSHEND - - - - - - - - - 176
INSTALLATION BANQUET OF KNIGHTS OF ST. PATRICK - - 188
DUKE OF RUTLAND - - - - - - - - - - 192
EARL OF WESTMORELAND - - - - - - - - - 194
EARL FITZWILLIAM - - - - - - - - - - 200
MARQUIS CAMDEN - - - - - - - - - - 204
MARQUIS CORNWALLIS - - - - - - - - - 210
DUKE OF RICHMOND AND LENNOX - - - - - - - 214
EARL TALBOT - - - - - - - - - - - 218
MARQUIS WELLESLEY - - - - - - - - - 226
LORD MULGRAVE - - - - - - - - - - 240
{xiv}
EARL OF CLARENDON - - - - - - - - - 248
EARL OF EGLINTON AND WINTON - - - - - - - 256
EARL SPENCER - - - - - - - - - - - 280
LORD CREWE - - - - - - - - - - - 306
EARL CADOGAN - - - - - - - - - - - 310
LORD DUDLEY - - - - - - - - - - - 318
KING EDWARD CONVERSING WITH LORD ABERDEEN - - - 334
COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN - - - - - - - - 338
{15}
THE VICEROYS OF IRELAND
CHAPTER I
The conquest of Ireland by Henry II. is one of the myths of history
which Time has endeavoured to crystallize into fact. Rome gave Ireland
to the superstitious, cowardly King of England, but the Pope could not
make Henry a conqueror, and so the invader, coming to claim that which
did not belong to the Pope or to himself, discovered that the native
Irish could defend themselves. Ireland was a land of saints according
to the chroniclers of the time; Henry discovered that it was also a
land of fighters, and the armour and superior weapons of his army were
outmatched by the sturdy patriotism of the Irish, whose weapons and
methods were, doubtless, crude, but whose courage and determination
were inspired by a love of country and intensified by a passion for
independence.
Henry II. landed at Waterford on October 11, 1171, accompanied by a
great army. The conquest of Ireland was to be short, sharp, and
decisive. The natives appeared to know nothing of the fine art of war,
and even Henry must have tasted of courage when he viewed the ill-armed
{16} legions he had to fight. From Waterford he marched to Dublin, but
the result of several battles and skirmishes was an attenuated army and
unexpected defeat. Had it not been for the inevitable Irish traitor,
Henry and his followers would have been swept into the sea, but it is
Ireland's tragedy that she produces almost as many traitors as heroes.
Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster, anxious to gain the unmistakable
advantages offered by an alliance with the King of England, came to
Henry's aid, and thus the invader was at any rate able to claim the
conquest of the land covered by the feet of his soldiers. Beyond that
his jurisdiction was imaginary. Realizing this, Henry determined to
leave Ireland. His expedition had proved profitless, but he foresaw
possibilities of gain in the future. The first of a long line of
Englishmen who have never known when they were beaten, Henry, with a
statesmanlike disregard for the realities, divided Ireland between ten
of his followers, and, nominating one of them to act as his
representative, sailed from the country on Easter Monday, April 17,
1172. This, in brief, is the story of the conquest of Ireland.
[Sidenote: The first Viceroy]
Henry's representative, and, therefore, generally accepted as the first
Viceroy of Ireland, was Hugh de Lacy, a descendant of one of William
the Conqueror's companions in arms. To De Lacy was committed the care
of Dublin Castle and the command of the English in Ireland. The
viceroy was a small but muscular man, unscrupulous, immoral, and
unsuccessful. Henry gave him 800,000 acres which were not the king's
to give, {17} even in the Dark Ages when right was might. To a person
of De Lacy's qualities the gift was valueless, for he was not the man
to gain and hold the land. Even when Tiarnan O'Ruarc, the original
owner, was treacherously slain, the viceroy found it impossible to
assert his authority over the vast estate.
De Lacy was soon succeeded by another Anglo-Norman baron,
Fitz-Gislebert, who gained Henry's confidence and gratitude by helping
to subdue the rebellious sons of the King of England. Fitz-Gislebert
came from Normandy to Ireland. His viceroyalty was undistinguished,
and he was chiefly occupied in defending himself from the attacks of
the Irish or in vain endeavours to assert his authority as the
representative of the King of England. When he died in 1176 his
widow's brother, Raymond le Gros, acted as viceroy until Henry, having
been acquainted with the decease of Fitz-Gislebert, appointed Guillaume
Fitz-Aldelm de Burgh to the post in 1177. Raymond was not at all
pleased with Henry's choice, but he dissembled sufficiently to receive
the new viceroy at Wexford. Raymond had by now assumed the name and
arms of the Geraldine family by virtue of his descent from an emigrant
of an old Tuscan family, thus forming his kinsmen and followers under
one banner, and becoming the most powerful member of the English colony
in Ireland. Fitz-Aldelm and the Geraldines were never friendly, and it
is not surprising, therefore, that one of the Geraldine chroniclers
should describe the viceroy as 'corpulent, crafty, plausible, {18}
corrupt, addicted to wine and profligate luxuriousness.' The
description, save for the physical details, would, however, apply to
almost every one of the early Viceroys of Ireland. They were for the
most part needy adventurers sent to Ireland to replenish empty purses,
legalized robbers commissioned by the Kings of England, and none the
less thieves because they were not always successful in their mission.
[Sidenote: English defeats]
In 1177 King Henry secured the permission of the Pope to style his son
John, aged twelve, Lord of Ireland, and two years later the viceroy was
recalled, De Lacy returning to Ireland as Governor with a colleague in
the person of Robert de la Poer of Wexford. De Lacy, however,
committed the heinous crime of marrying without the king's permission,
his bride being the daughter of King O'Connor, and he was superseded by
Jean, Constable of Chester, who held the viceroyalty in conjunction
with Richard de Peche, Bishop of Coventry. The ex-viceroy, however,
managed to secure a renewal of the king's favour, and he quickly
returned to Ireland, though for safety's sake Henry gave him a
colleague, the Bishop of Salisbury, who was the monarch's paid spy. De
Lacy pursued his policy unhampered, and very soon became wealthy and
powerful. The king, learning of his representative's arrogance,
decided that it was dangerous to permit a subject to taste too much of
kingly power, and in 1184 he appointed his son, Prince John, now
nineteen years of age, to be the chief governor of Ireland. Fortified
by the Papal sanction, Prince John came {19} to Ireland with a large
and costly army to impress De Lacy and his fellow-barons, and,
incidentally, to subdue the turbulent Irish. An assassin removed De
Lacy from his path, but the natives were stubborn, and the English were
defeated whenever they gave battle. Thereupon John, with his retinue,
indulged in a series of orgies, lost the remnant of his army, and after
eight months returned to England in 1185.
During the succeeding four years De Courcy, a powerful baron, ruled
Dublin in parts and none of the rest of Ireland, but, of course,
maintained the fiction that he was the king's representative, and,
therefore, Viceroy of Ireland. Then followed the first viceroyalty of
Hugh de Lacy, a son of the previous viceroy, and in 1190 Guillaume le
Petil took over the post and occupied it until 1191. After him came in
quick succession Guillaume, Earl Marechal (1191-94), Pierre Pipard
(1194), Hamon de Valognes (1197-99), and Fitz-Henry, whose father was
an illegitimate son of Henry I., whose first term began in 1199 and
ended in 1203. De Valognes, when he retired, had to pay 1,000 marks to
the king's treasury to settle his viceregal accounts. This was not
exceptional. The viceroys of Ireland were given considerable powers,
but they had their responsibilities, and among these was a contract to
supply so much money and soldiers to their royal masters. To satisfy
these contracts, the viceroys, when denied the spoils of battle, had to
rob and plunder, while the viceroy who paid his debts was as rare as
virtue in Dublin Castle.
{20}
Hugh de Lacy returned in 1203, but King John, his fears aroused by the
viceroy's introduction of special coinage, recalled him in 1204, and
for the space of a year Fitz-Henry occupied the viceregal position. In
1205 the king issued instructions for the erection of a new Dublin
Castle. De Lacy, however, had powerful friends, and in 1205 he came
back once more, and ruled the English colony for five years, until King
John landed at Waterford on June 20, 1210, when, of course, the
vice-royalty ceased for the time being. De Lacy, more courageous and
skilful than his father, had carried war into the enemy's camp, and had
done something towards extending the boundaries of England's dominions
beyond the frontiers of Dublin. He instituted a system of taxation
which was very profitable to him and to his royal master, but it
exasperated the Irish to such an extent that they rose in rebellion.
The opposing forces met at Thurles in 1208, and the result was a signal
defeat for De Lacy. The coming of King John, who did not conceal his
distrust of the viceroy, caused De Lacy to concentrate his forces with
a view to impressing the king. Fortune, however, was on the side of
John, and De Lacy fled the country. There are many legends recounting
the adventures of the once powerful nobleman. He and his brother are
said to have laboured as brickmakers and gardeners in Normandy and
Scotland, and suffered many other indignities.
[Sidenote: Papal supremacy]
King John's stay in Ireland was brief, as the critical state of his
kingdom required his presence in England. He left behind him as his
representatives {21} Guillaume, Earl of Salisbury--an illegitimate son
of Henry II. by the fair Rosemond Clifford--and De Grey, Bishop of
Norwich. In 1213 they were succeeded by Henry de Londres, Archbishop
of Dublin, a powerful prelate and an unscrupulous statesman. He was
given the post because of his influence with the Pope, and John's first
task for his new viceroy was to send him to Rome to induce the occupant
of the Papal throne to side with him against the barons. Geoffery de
Marreis, a follower of the Archbishop's, acted as his deputy during his
absence abroad. The deputy robbed friend and foe alike, but eventually
the trades-people of Dublin petitioned the king because De Marreis
would not pay his debts and added insult to injury by compelling the
traders of the city to give him further credit. King Henry III. was on
the throne now, and he ordered his representative to pay all his debts
within forty days. Furthermore, he was placed under the authority of
the Archbishop of Dublin, Henry de Londres, who had helped to make
history by forming one of the barons and ecclesiastics who compelled
King John to sign the Magna Charta. The archbishop was the most
powerful Englishman in the kingdom of Ireland, and, as the
representative of the Pope, took precedence of the representative of
the king. In 1221 he was appointed viceroy, and then ensued the usual
conflict between the civil and religious powers that is inevitable when
churchmen turn politicians. The English colony complained to Henry
that his viceroy was unable to cope with the insurgents, and they
prayed {22} for a more warlike governor. Guillaume Marechal, eldest
son and heir of the first Earl of Pembroke, and afterwards second earl,
was sent to Ireland as viceroy in 1224, but this brother-in-law of the
king's did not find the country to his liking, and he departed in
favour of Geoffery de Marreis, whose third term of office began in 1226
and ended the following year.
This viceroyalty was the first to which a definite salary was given,
the sum of £580 a year being set aside for the use of Geoffery de
Marreis. Richard de Burgh followed De Marreis until, in 1229, Maurice
Fitzgerald assumed the reins of government. Fitzgerald was born in
Ireland, and was the first Anglo-Irishman to become Viceroy of Ireland.
His viceroyalty extended over fifteen years, though at intervals the
government was in the hands of Geoffery de Marreis and Richard de Burgh
for a few months. The viceroy was given a salary of £500 a year, and
unlimited authority to rob the native Irish, and even the English
colony, provided he sent part of the proceeds to London to help to pay
the king's debts and finance wars. But he fell from grace in 1245, and
was dismissed, the reason given being his dilatoriness in bringing
reinforcements to his royal master in Wales. Jean Fitz-Geoffery was
appointed his successor, and during the ensuing ten years the
government was nominally vested in him, minor changes occurring from
time to time. The next viceroy, Alain de la Zouche, reigned for four
years (1255-59), and died as the result of an assault made upon him by
the Earl of Warrene and {23} Surrey in Westminster Hall, while his
successor, Etienne, who had married the widow of the second Hugh de
Lacy, was murdered in 1260.
The next half-dozen viceroys are summed up easily. Guillaume le Dene
(1260-61), Sir Richard de la Rochelle (1261-66), Jean Fitz-Geoffery for
the third time (1266-67), Sir Robert D'Ufford (1268 and 1276-82),
Richard D'Exeter (1269), and Jacques D'Audeley (1270-72). The majority
were adventurers and favourites of the king, and few could claim
possession of the soldier-like qualities which were needed at the time.
Sir Robert D'Ufford was an exception, but he spent most of his time
fighting abroad in the service of the King of England. Maurice
Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, signalized a brief viceroyalty, extending from
1272-73, by marching into the territory of the O'Connors, and promptly
being made a prisoner. The vacancy thus created was filled by Geoffery
de Joinville, who held the post for three years.
[Sidenote: Sir Jean Wogan]
Jean de Saundford, Archbishop of Dublin (1288-90), was one of the
numerous deputies who governed the English colony between 1282 and
1290. These deputies were mainly ecclesiastics, for England's
unsettled state and numerous wars called every leading warrior away
from Ireland. Sir Guillaume de Vesci (1290-93), Guillaume de la Haye
(1293), Guillaume D'Ardingselles (1294), Thomas Fitzmaurice (1294-95)
paved the way for Sir Jean Wogan, who was viceroy for thirteen years,
and who did more to establish the authority of England than any of his
predecessors. When Wogan was appointed the chief source of danger {24}
to the English colonists was the feud between the two great Anglo-Irish
families, the Fitzgeralds and the De Burghs. Wogan, however, succeeded
in bringing them together, and they agreed to a truce. The viceroy was
also fairly successful against the natives, but he made no additions to
the territory over which England nominally held sway. In 1308 Sir
Guillaume de Burgh was appointed to succeed Wogan, but an unexpected
development occurred, and Edward II., urged on by his advisers,
nominated his Gascon favourite, Piers de Gaveston, to the post. This
was virtually an act of banishment, and the gay Gascon regarded it as
such, but for the time he had to accept the post, which was regarded by
the wealthy English barons as tantamount to exile. Ireland was not a
garden of pleasant memories to the English warriors. Not one of them
who had tried his skill in the country had added to his laurels, and,
consequently, the only men who would accept the viceroyalty or any of
the posts attached to the Dublin Castle Government were the "needy
adventurers" who stood to lose nothing and gain something. From time
to time the English colony petitioned the king not to send these 'needy
adventurers,' but there were no others to fill the vacancies that arose.
Piers de Gaveston's case was an exception. Edward II. had advanced him
to the Earldom of Cornwall, and the barons were jealous of him. They
plotted against his life, but the king stood by his favourite, and
eventually both parties {25} compromised by permitting Piers to go to
Ireland. He did not stay in Ireland for more than a few months, for he
hungered for the gay English court, and when he left the country Sir
Jean Wogan renewed his viceroyalty. It was in this year--1309--that
John Lech, Archbishop of Dublin, obtained a Bull from Clement V.
authorizing the establishment of a university in Dublin. The laudable
project, however, was prematurely abandoned owing to the death of the
archbishop. Nearly three hundred years elapsed before Dublin received
its now famous university.
[Sidenote: Edward Bruce crowned]
Sir Edmund le Botiller, or Butler, succeeded Wogan in 1312, and carried
on his policy. He is said to have succeeded in restoring order in the
English colony and its immediate surroundings, but when reappointed in
1315, after a viceroyalty of a few months by Theobaude de Verdun, he
had to cope with the most serious rebellion Ireland had known for two
hundred years. The native Irish had been inspired by the exploits of
King Robert Bruce of Scotland, and they called upon that monarch's
brother, Edward Bruce, to rule over their country and lead them to
victory. Bruce responded with alacrity, and he was crowned King of
Ireland in 1315. Le Botiller collected a large army, and went in
pursuit of the invader and his followers, but the viceroy suffered an
overwhelming defeat, and it seemed as though the last day had come of
English rule in Ireland. The inhabitants of Dublin, who were, of
course, mainly English, became alarmed, but some confidence was
restored at a meeting of the chief {26} nobles, who swore fidelity to
King Edward, and declared that they would forfeit life and lands if
they failed in their duty. The manifesto, signed by ten nobles, was
delivered to Edward at Westminster, and he signified his approval and
gratitude by creating the first of the signatories, Jean Fitz-Thomas,
Earl of Kildare. Fitz-Thomas had been Baron of Offaly. The defeated
and discomfited Le Botiller was superseded in 1317 by Roger de
Mortimer, the paramour of King Edward's queen. Mortimer brought with
him 15,000 men, and while he was pursuing Bruce he appointed the
Archbishops of Cashel and Dublin to act as his deputies at Dublin.
Sunday, October 14, 1318, witnessed the last of Edward Bruce and his
pretensions to the kingdom of Ireland. Outnumbered and out-generalled,
he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Faughard, and in accordance
with the rules of war his head was sent to King Edward. When this
ghastly trophy arrived, Edward was seated at a banquet with the
Ambassadors from King Robert Bruce of Scotland, who had asked and
seemed likely to obtain the province of Ulster for Edward Bruce. The
sight of Bruce's head, however, ended the conference prematurely.
[Sidenote: The first university]
Roger de Mortimer was in 1319 induced to forsake the attractions of the
queen's court for the rigours of Dublin Castle, but in 1320 he was back
again in London, leaving Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, to rule in
his stead. Kildare was succeeded by Jean de Bermingham, Earl of Louth,
{27} in 1321; while in the same year Sir Ralph de Gorges and Sir Jean
d'Arcy occupied in turn the viceroyalty. D'Arcy lasted until 1326. It
is worthy of note that in 1320 a university was opened in Dublin, but
it was never more than a seminary for ecclesiastics.
{28}
CHAPTER II
The year 1326 is memorable in English annals because of the deposition
of Edward II. The Viceroy of Ireland, Thomas, second Earl of Kildare,
was appointed that year, the warrant stating that he represented Edward
III., then a boy of fourteen. The deposed monarch immediately looked
to Ireland for support, and to Dublin he came, having heard that the
English colony refused to acknowledge the authority of the Earl of
Kildare. He was misinformed, however, and he lost his throne without
being able to strike a blow for it.
[Sidenote: Prior Utlagh and witchcraft]
The Earl of Kildare gave way in 1328 to a remarkable ecclesiastic,
Prior Roger Utlagh, Chancellor and Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of
Kilmainham. He ruled as an autocrat, outwardly acknowledging Edward's
sovereignty, but in reality a combination of layman and priest, who
feared neither God nor man. When King Robert Bruce visited Ireland,
and invited the Prior to a conference, he was ordered to leave the
country, and he had to obey. Fellow-ecclesiastics plotted against him,
but he was more than their match. When the Bishop of Ossory openly
accused the viceroy of favouring heretics, Roger Utlagh made {29} it
the occasion of a great public demonstration of his virtuous qualities.
The charge was based on a rumour that the viceroy had shown kindness to
a man imprisoned in Dublin Castle because he was the patron of a
supposed witch's son. The position was serious enough, and the
viceroy, therefore, issued proclamations for three successive days,
calling upon his enemies to appear and prefer a charge against him. No
one came forward, as was only to be expected, the viceroy possessing
arbitrary punitive powers, and Utlagh thereupon nominated six
commissioners in Dublin Castle and examined witnesses provided by
himself. The complacent commissioners formally declared Prior Utlagh's
character to be spotless, and in return for this testimonial the worthy
ecclesiastic presided over a banquet in the Castle. Thus were his
enemies confounded.
The Prior retired for William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, who was styled
Lieutenant, or locum tenens. De Burgh's reign was brief, and in 1332,
within a year of his appointment, he was replaced by Sir Jean d'Arcy,
an ex-viceroy. The Earl of Ulster was murdered in 1333, an act of
revenge inspired by an aunt whose husband the earl had starved to death
in one of his castles. The crime had its effect on English history, as
the Countess of Ulster fled to England with her only child, Elizabeth,
who married a son of Edward III. and became an ancestor of Edward IV.
Sir Jean d'Arcy was merely viceroy in name, the deputy, Sir Thomas de
Burgh, ruling in Dublin Castle until 1337, when Sir John de Cherlton,
who had been {30} appointed in place of the deputy--dismissed for
irregularities--occupied the post for a year. His successor was his
brother, the Bishop of Hereford, who also became Chancellor. Like most
ecclesiastics of the time, the Bishop of Hereford was a very zealous
politician, drawing a sharp line between his spiritual and his temporal
powers. He seized the cattle of the native Irish in large quantities,
frequently despoiling the whole countryside of every head of live
stock, and this so delighted the valorous Edward III. that he wrote a
long letter of commendation to his faithful representative, and ordered
the treasurer at Dublin Castle to pay the viceroy's salary before that
of any other official. The year 1340 witnessed the retirement of the
cattle-stealing Bishop, the reappointment and death of Prior Utlagh,
and the conferring for life of the viceroyalty upon Sir Jean d'Arcy,
who had covered himself with glory in the numerous wars of Edward III.
D'Arcy did not, of course, come to Ireland. The appointment was in
reality the king's way of rewarding his faithful warrior, and,
therefore, D'Arcy was content to share in the spoils and gains of his
deputy, Sir John Moriz.
[Sidenote: Rise of the Anglo-Irish]
By now, however, a new factor entered into the protracted struggle for
the possession of the rich lands of Ireland. During the centuries of
English occupation several great Anglo-Irish families had arisen, and,
fattening upon their spoils, gradually came to occupy positions more
powerful than the representatives of the king. The heads of the
Desmonds, the Geraldines, the De Burghs, and {31} others, resented the
intrusion of English warriors sent to Dublin to refill their treasure
chests. They wished to rule Ireland, and declined to bow the knee to
impecunious adventurers invested with royal powers by the King of
England. Slowly yet surely these powerful chieftains ranged themselves
on one side until hostilities in Ireland were not between the English
and the natives, but between the English by birth and the English by
blood, jealousy and greed of gain forming the motive.
[Illustration: The Viceregal lodge, Dublin]
When Sir John Moriz, D'Arcy's deputy, called a Parliament together at
Dublin to consider the state of the country and to promulgate new
Edwardian ordinances, the Earl of Desmond and other leaders of the
English by blood declined to attend. In their opinion Sir Jean d'Arcy
and his deputy were 'needy adventurers'--a description they applied to
them in a petition sent direct to Edward III. Desmond was a clever
man, who openly advocated peace and secretly prepared for war. His
diplomacy, however, gained a surer victory than all his legions were
capable of accomplishing, for in the petition already referred to he
asked politely why his Majesty did not receive larger revenues from
Ireland. This caused Edward to realize some of the disadvantages of
conferring the viceroyalty upon impecunious warriors, and he promptly
surrendered to the petitioners, removing Moriz, and appointing Sir
Raoul d'Ufford, who became viceroy in the early part of 1344.
D'Ufford was wealthy enough to be trusted with {32} the government of
Ireland, and Edward owed him something for his services in the French
and Flemish wars. It is more than likely, however, that he was
indebted for his viceroyalty to the fact that his wife was Maud
Plantagenet, widow of the murdered Earl of Ulster and also of Edward's
son. D'Ufford's commission authorized him to grant pardon to rebels on
their swearing allegiance to the king, and, furthermore, it enjoined
him to search for Irish mines of gold, silver, lead, and tin.
D'Ufford's appointment evoked no enthusiasm and some fear. The English
colony knew the temper of Maud Plantagenet, a proud, revengeful, and
ambitious woman, and greatly as they feared D'Ufford's reputation for
severity, they realized that, urged on by his wife, he might be guilty
of excesses exceeding those which had won for him the fear of his
enemies in France.
The entrance of the viceregal pair into Dublin in July, 1345,
foreshadowed the kingly state they maintained throughout their brief
reign. They resided in the Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of
Kilmainham, and Maud Plantagenet, Countess of Ulster, put into practice
the lessons she had learnt at the English court. She exacted homage
from her friends, maintained ladies-in-waiting, held courts of her own,
and, in fact, was Queen of Ireland. Letters were sent to Edward
describing the conduct of his ambitious representatives, and the king's
jealousy and fears were aroused. Action on his part, however, was
forestalled by the death of D'Ufford, who expired from a malignant
disease on Palm Sunday, 1346. Clergy and laity {33} combined to
celebrate the tyrant's death, and thanksgiving services were held
throughout the English colony. D'Ufford and his wife occupied the
viceroyalty for less than twelve months, but in that brief space of
time they committed many acts of oppression, torturing, robbing,
despoiling, and executing enemies and even friends to gratify a lust
for gain and exhibit to the world their vanity of power. Most of
D'Ufford's tyrannies were ascribed by the populace to the evil counsels
of his wife, and when he was no more they sought out the widow with the
intention of laying violent hands upon her. Tyrants have no friends
when they fall from power, and Maud Plantagenet suffered the usual
indignities of a changeable fate, though she managed to escape from
Ireland and carry her husband's body to England. She passed the
remainder of her life in retirement.
Since his dismissal Sir John Moriz had laboured to obtain his
restoration, and he succeeded in this three days before D'Ufford's
death. Meanwhile the council in Ireland had elected Roger, son of Sir
Jean d'Arcy, who, however, gave way to Moriz when the latter arrived.
[Sidenote: The profits of the post]
The new viceroy had been charged by the king to secure supplies of
money for him from out of Ireland. Indeed, the appointment was based
on a sort of co-partnership, the king insisting upon a large percentage
of the profits of the post. Moriz knew that conciliation was the only
means of obtaining the money, and he began by releasing the Earl of
Kildare from imprisonment in Dublin Castle, and showing similar
clemency to other {34} distinguished prisoners. The policy of Walter
de Bermingham (1348-49), John, Lord Carew (1349), and Sir Thomas de
Rokeby (1349-55), was in direct contrast. They favoured war where
Moriz had tried peace, and with the usual result. The native Irish had
by now the protection and assistance of the leading Anglo-Irish
families, who were influenced by the Irish blood in their veins, and
took common cause against the viceroy and his battalions. In almost
every encounter the English were defeated, and, finally, Dublin itself
was threatened. In alarm the English colony began to make hasty
preparations for flight to England. They sold what they could and
abandoned the rest, and it seemed as though the English in Ireland
would cease to exist when an order came from England declaring that any
English colonist deserting Ireland would be put to death. Compelled to
remain, they continued their miserable existence, threatened with
murder by their foes, and in continual danger of robbery by the very
men appointed to protect them. Dublin at this period was in a wretched
condition. There had been no attempt to build a city, and in reality
the place was a fort whereby England maintained its footing in Ireland.
In the country the native chiefs and the Anglo-Irish noblemen ruled,
administering justice in their crude fashion, and in some cases issuing
their own coinage. The Viceroy of Ireland was in reality Viceroy of
Dublin, and not always even that.
The next Lord-Deputy was Maurice, first Earl of Desmond, an
Anglo-Irishman. He died in 1356, {35} a year after his appointment,
and Sir Thomas de Rokeby, who succeeded him, succumbed the same year.
A return to the old condition of things was marked by the appointment
of Baron Almaric de St. Amaud, who was created Lord of Gormanstown, but
the baron did not care for Ireland, and he went back to England,
leaving Maurice, fourth Earl of Kildare, to act as his deputy. He gave
way to James le Botiller, second Earl of Ormonde, who was a
great-grandson of Edward I. The appointment won the allegiance of
Ormonde to the throne of England, and when, two years
later--1361--Prince Lionel, third son of Edward III., was appointed
viceroy and sent to Ireland with a large army, Ormonde promptly became
one of his Generals. In 1347, when the Prince was ten, he had been
married to Elizabeth, daughter of the murdered Earl of Ulster and Maud
Plantagenet, the girl being sixteen. The object was to secure for the
Royal Family the immense estates and vast wealth of the late Earl of
Ulster, and when in 1361 Prince Lionel and his wife travelled with
their army to Ireland, a considerable part of the expenditure was borne
by his wife's estate. Remembering the hostility of the Irish against
his wife's mother, Lionel issued a proclamation forbidding the natives
to approach his camp.
[Sidenote: English army defeated]
Having rested for a time, Prince Lionel began the march which was to
conquer the land, but again an English army, strong, well armed and
victualled, was outmatched and defeated by the Irish. Disaster after
disaster followed the prince, who could do nothing right. Edward, when
he {36} heard the news, was alarmed and astounded. The first thing he
did was to create the prince Duke of Clarence. His second step was
more practical, and consisted in raising another army, while he
increased his son's allowance from 6s. 8d. a day to 13s. 4d. Victory,
however, was denied the prince, and though he returned to Ireland with
increased forces in 1364, 1365, and 1366, he failed to improve upon his
previous attempts. In 1362 his wife had died, leaving an only child in
the person of Phillipa.
[Sidenote: The Statute of Kilkenny]
Prince Lionel's term of office is chiefly remarkable because it
witnessed the creation of the famous, or infamous, Statute of Kilkenny.
At a special Parliament held in Kilkenny in 1367, the viceroy
endeavoured to gain by legislation that which he and his soldiers had
lost in a dozen battles. It was therefore decreed that no English
settler could marry into an Irish family; the selling of horses,
armour, or victuals in peace or war was declared treason; English was
the only language to be spoken; the English style of horsemanship was
to be adopted; and no subject of the king's could be known except by an
English name, and the education of the Irish was forbidden, no colleges
or seminaries being permitted to receive them. There were also special
clauses dealing with ecclesiastics, who were ordered to expel any Irish
amongst them. The use of the English tongue was enjoined strictly, and
if anyone offended the profits of his benefice were to be seized by his
superior. The English colonists were likewise warned against admitting
itinerant {37} musicians into their houses, for these men were regarded
as spies, and therefore dangerous. The custom of calling the English
by birth 'English Hobbes,' or clowns, was forbidden, as well as the
nickname of 'Irish dogs' bestowed upon the English by blood. The
Government could not afford the luxury of schisms amongst its friends.
The common people were ordered not to play hurlings and quoitings,
'which had caused evils and maims,' but to accustom themselves 'to draw
bows and cast lances and other gentleman-like sports whereby the Irish
enemies might be better checked.' Constables of castles were forbidden
to take more than 5d. per day from any prisoner for maintenance, and
torture was vetoed. Not the least important enactment of the Statute
of Kilkenny was the 'one war one peace' declaration. This meant that
in the event of a rebellion or uprising all those who did not side with
the viceroy were to be regarded as the open enemies of the King of
England. Neutrality could not be acknowledged.
When this laborious and comprehensive statute had been drawn up the
viceroy requested the Archbishops of Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam, and the
Bishops of Lismore and Waterford, Killaloe, Leighlin, and Cloyne to
pronounce sentence of excommunication against all those who might by
'rebellion of heart' resist the Statute of Kilkenny.
This was Lionel's last act as viceroy, and he retired, being succeeded
by Gerald, fourth Earl of Desmond, known as 'The Poet' by reason of his
{38} writings. He was popular, witty, and just, and for two years he
ruled the English colony. In 1369, however, Sir William de Windsor,
who had been one of the leaders of Prince Lionel's army, was appointed
viceroy, and given an annuity of £1,000 until lands producing an equal
amount could be settled on him. De Windsor's time was occupied chiefly
in repelling attacks on the city of Dublin by the border Irish, but he
performed an heroic action by marching to the South of Ireland and
rescuing the preceding viceroy, whose poetical temperament and mild
manner had not saved him from the hostility of the Irish. In 1371 De
Windsor retired for over two years. The appointment of a successor
caused Edward great trouble. He was averse to sending a pauper,
because that would entail a diminution in the royal receipts from
Ireland, while the wealthy men about his court would not accept the
post at any price. Ireland to them was a savage country; a stay there
tantamount to punishment and exile. There was no prospect of military
glory, for they knew that many of the gallant victors of France,
Flanders, and Scotland had left their reputations behind them on many a
lost battlefield in Ireland. Edward thought that he could compel
anybody he chose to go to Ireland, and he selected Sir Richard de
Pembridge, who held several very profitable offices under the English
Crown. Naturally Pembridge declined the post, and Edward retorted by
depriving him of his offices. Pembridge, however, appealed to the
Council and to Parliament, and it was decided that it was not the {39}
king's prerogative to order anybody to leave the country. Magna Charta
distinctly stated that exile from England was the punishment for felony
or treason, and that Parliament alone had the power to expel a subject.
[Sidenote: The 'Lady of the Sun']
Prior to the return of Sir William de Windsor, the government was
undertaken for various short periods by Maurice Fitz-Thomas, Earl of
Kildare, Dean de Colton, of St. Patrick's, who secured the post by
undertaking to repel the O'Briens at his own expense, and William de
Taney, an ecclesiastic. De Windsor came back in April, 1374, having
come to an agreement with his royal master, whereby he was allowed 500
marks from the Exchequer and the sum of £11,213 6s. 8d. In return for
the money he guaranteed to maintain 200 men-at-arms and 40 archers. De
Windsor's object was obviously to make as much money as he could out of
the unfortunate country, which was already sending annually the
enormous sum for the period of £10,000. The viceroy came to regard all
surplus moneys above that sum to be his perquisites, and his efforts to
increase taxation and enrich himself were so unscrupulous and cynical
that reports and complaints soon reached Edward. The king immediately
appointed Sir Nicholas de Dagworth to proceed to Ireland, and
investigate the charges against De Windsor. But the enemies of the
viceroy reckoned without the famous Alice Perrers. She was the aged
king's favourite, and was clever and unscrupulous, a woman of humble
birth who had risen high without the aid of a pretty face. In love
with Sir William {40} de Windsor, she remained faithful to him during
his absence in Ireland, and although surrounded by his enemies, the
'Lady of the Sun,' as Edward styled her, outwitted them all, her
greatest achievement being the prevention of Dagworth's departure for
Ireland. Subsequently she married De Windsor, but as she belongs more
to the history of England than Ireland her career cannot be treated
here.
In 1376 De Windsor was ordered to come to Westminster, and confer with
the king on the state of his Irish dominions, but this was merely a
pretext to deprive him of his post, and he never returned. Maurice
Fitz-Thomas, Earl of Kildare, once more acted as deputy for a short
time, and then James le Botiller, Earl of Ormonde, carried on the
government from 1376 to 1378. Ormonde retired dissatisfied, and the
colony was governed by two members of the Council, Alexander de Balscot
and John de Bromwich, until in 1380 the king sent over Edmund de
Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster, husband of Phillipa, daughter of
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and therefore owner of vast estates and
commander of an army of his own. On his appointment the colonists
petitioned the king to compel De Mortimer to live in Dublin and protect
his property. The petitioners were successful, and the viceroy,
instead of appointing a deputy and sharing the profits, graciously
agreed to govern Ireland in person for a period of three years at a
salary of 2,000 marks. In princely splendour he entered the country,
and immediately inaugurated a campaign against the rebellious south.
Death, however, claimed him on {41} December 26, 1381, and he died at
Cork in a Dominican Abbey, being only thirty years of age.
The vacancy thus created was offered in turn to the Earls of Desmond
and Ormonde, but they declined on the ground that if they were in
Dublin they could not protect their own territories. Dean de Colton,
therefore, was appointed pending the pleasure of the king, who, when he
heard of De Mortimer's death, at once nominated the deceased viceroy's
son Roger to the post. Roger de Mortimer was only eleven, but the
viceroyalty was intended as a monetary compensation for the death of
his father, and the commission appointing him stated that he was to
receive all the profits of the office as well as a salary of 2,000
marks. Furthermore, as soon as he attained his majority he could
retire from the post. In pursuance of this convenient plan the boy's
uncle, Sir Thomas de Mortimer, was chosen as his deputy.
[Sidenote: A Parliament in Dublin]
The presence of a deputy, however, always had an irritating effect upon
the English colonists, and when in 1382 Richard II. ordered a
Parliament to meet in Dublin, its first act was to protest against the
absence of the viceroy. To satisfy the nobles and prelates the king
appointed Philip de Courtenay, a cousin of his, viceroy for life. The
commission was drawn up in 1385, but it was not until two years later
that de Courtenay landed in Ireland. His reign was brief and stormy.
The two great Anglo-Irish families, the Desmonds and the Ormondes, were
in conflict, and the Irish were besieging and harassing the colonists.
De Courte was not the man for the occasion. He was {42} charged with
oppression and extortion, and the king, who had already made up his
mind to make his favourite, de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Viceroy of
Ireland, gladly accepted the accusations against de Courtenay, and
ordered him to remain under arrest in Dublin until the arrival of his
successor, who would investigate the charges against his character. De
Courtenay appealed to the Council in Dublin, and they declared the
accusations to be unjust.
[Illustration: The Throne Room, Dublin Castle]
The appointment of de Vere to the viceroyalty was an outcome of the
struggle between Richard II. and his Barons. De Vere was the reigning
favourite, and when it was proposed that he should be sent to Ireland
as viceroy, the nobles enthusiastically endorsed the selection, and,
glad to be rid of him at any price, cheerfully voted supplies. Richard
created his creature Marquis of Dublin, and allowed him to nominate Sir
John de Stanley as his deputy. It was not de Vere's intention to
proceed to Ireland, and under various pretexts he avoided assuming
personal control of the Irish government. Meanwhile Richard had
created him Duke of Ireland, and entrusted him with powers almost
regal, at one time actually proposing to make him King of Ireland.
When the nobles rebelled against Richard, de Vere raised an army on
behalf of his king, but was defeated in his first encounter with the
barons. He died abroad after the five judges, who had supported
Richard in his attempt to make de Vere King of Ireland, were brought to
trial for having declared that the king was above the law, and were
punished by being {43} exiled to Ireland! Richard, weak-minded and
unreliable, was at least faithful to de Vere, and he had his
favourite's corpse brought from Louvain, and interred to the
accompaniment of magnificent ceremonies at Colne Priory in Essex.
[Sidenote: Richard II. arrives]
From 1387 to 1389 the government was again in the hands of Alexander de
Balscot, Bishop of Meath, who was assisted by Richard White, Prior of
Kilmainham. Then Sir John de Stanley came back until 1391, and was
succeeded by James le Botiller, third Earl of Ormonde. During
Ormonde's term of office the king's uncle, Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of
Gloucester, was nominated Viceroy of Ireland, but the commission was
quickly revoked. Richard had decided to visit Ireland in person, and
thus an English monarch again prepared a great army with which to
conquer Ireland. The king landed at Waterford on October 13, 1394,
accompanied by the Duke of Gloucester. Ormonde soon joined him, and
the Irish were engaged in battle. If the English king cherished any
hopes that his deeds in Ireland might secure his tottering throne in
England he was doomed to grievous disappointment. He was defeated
every time he joined battle with the natives, and in the end he was
compelled to withdraw to Dublin and pass Christmas there. A further
series of reverses followed, and Richard decided to have recourse to
arbitration and conciliation. The Irish chieftains and nobles
responded, and by means of various concessions Richard was enabled to
return to England with at least a remnant of his army.
The viceroy was now Roger de Mortimer, Earl {44} of March, cousin to
Richard and heir to the throne of England. De Mortimer had been
viceroy in his youth, but not until this appointment--in 1395--did he
rule in person. In 1398 de Mortimer was killed in battle while leading
his soldiers, a tragedy which paved the way for Richard's deposition
and the accession of Henry IV., and created the motive that led to the
Wars of the Roses. John de Colton, now Archbishop of Armagh, again
acted as temporary Governor while the Council proceeded to elect
Reginald Grey of Ruthyn, whose appointment, however, was vetoed by
Richard. His nominee was Thomas Holland, Duke of Surrey, who entered
Dublin in 1399. Surrey's chief object was to people Ireland with
English settlers, a plan that was to be tried again some 200 years
later. The viceroy could not carry out his plan for dispossessing the
Irish, and he appealed to Richard for help, and so the king came on
another Irish expedition, landing in Ireland in 1399. This time his
army was stronger and more experienced, but the result was a series of
defeats and the loss of the throne of England. While Henry was seizing
the crown his son, afterwards Henry V., was with Richard in Ireland,
but the king accepted the youth's explanation that he knew nothing of
his father's designs. As it was, Richard trusted to the fact that the
legal heir to the throne was Edmund, Earl of March, son of the late
viceroy. Henry's success to the exclusion of Edmund de Mortimer was
the cause of the Wars of the Roses.
[Sidenote: Viceregal poverty]
Sir John de Stanley, ever ready to step into a {45} breach, was again
deputy, and he reigned in Dublin Castle to November, 1402. In 1401
Henry IV., anxious to secure the allegiance of the English colony,
appointed his second son, Prince Thomas of Lancaster, viceroy. The
youthful prince--he was only thirteen when in November, 1402, he
arrived in Ireland--was provided with a specially selected Council, but
evidently not with the necessary money, as there is a letter extant
from the Council to King Henry which vividly describes the position of
the viceroy. Henry had been asked for supplies, but as his own coffers
were empty he could not send anything, and, realizing the seriousness
of their position, the Council addressed His Majesty in the following
terms:
'With heavy hearts we testify anew to your highness that our lord, your
son, is so destitute of money that he has not a penny in the world, nor
can borrow a single penny, because all his jewels and his plate that he
can spare of those which he must of necessity keep are pledged, and lie
in pawn. Also his soldiers have departed from him, and the people of
his household are on the point of leaving, and, however much they might
wish to remain, it is not in our lord's power to keep together, with a
view to his aid, twenty or a dozen persons with me, your humble
applicant of Dublin, and your humble liege, Janico, who has paid for
your use his very all, but we will render our entire duty to him so
long as we shall live, as we are bound by our sovereign obligation to
you. And the country is so weakened and impoverished by the long
nonpayment, as well in the time of our {46} lord, your son, as in the
time of other lieutenants before him, that the same land can no longer
bear such charge as they affirm, and on this account have they
importuned me. In good faith, our most sovereign lord, it is
marvellous that they have borne such a charge so long. Wherefore we
entreat, with all the humility and fulness that we may, that you will
please to ordain speedy remedy of these said dangers and
inconveniences, and to hold us excused also if any peril or
disaster--which may God avert--befall our lord, your son, by the said
causes. For the more full declaring of these matters to your highness
the three of us should have come to your high presence, but such is the
great danger on this side that not one of us dares depart from the
person of our lord.'
[Sidenote: Prince Thomas's tenure]
This eloquent appeal was unheeded, but the prince did not return to
England until November, 1403, appointing Sir Stephen le Scrope, his
deputy, and when that soldier retired in 1405 placing James, third Earl
of Ormonde, at the head of the Government. The death of the deputy in
the same year led to the advancement of Gerald, fifth Earl of Kildare,
whose rule was ended dramatically by the sudden reappearance of Prince
Thomas in 1408 and the imprisonment of his deputy. Two years earlier
the prince, having lost his indenture creating him Viceroy of Ireland,
was reappointed for twelve years at a salary of £7,000 a year.
Remembering his previous experiences, the prince had a clause inserted
which entitled him to leave Ireland if his salary was a month in
arrear. It was also agreed that in the event of the king or {47} the
Prince of Wales deciding to take over the government Prince Thomas was
to have six months' notice. The Earl of Kildare was released as soon
as he paid a fine of 300 marks for having interfered in an
ecclesiastical appointment. Prince Thomas remained two years at his
post, retiring from the country in 1410, and selecting a son of James,
third Earl of Ormonde, as his deputy. This was Prior Thomas le
Botiller.
But the colonists could endure the Prior for three years only, and they
succeeded in getting Sir John de Stanley reappointed. He was, however,
too old to be of much use, and at his death in 1414 the Archbishop of
Dublin, who was the author of the pathetic plea to Henry IV., assumed
the government for a few months.
{48}
CHAPTER III
The state of the English colony was now so precarious that Henry IV.
decided to send one of his most trusted and capable military commanders
to act as viceroy. This was Sir John Talbot, and his appointment was
hailed with joy. Talbot was given a term of six years of office, and a
salary of £2,666 13s. 4d. It was a large income, but as it was seldom
paid, that was a detail which must have impressed Henry as being quite
unimportant. During his occasional journeys to England, the Archbishop
of Dublin acted as the deputy. Talbot soon intimated to the leading
members of the English colony that as his salary was in arrear he
intended leaving the country. This was tantamount to placing them at
the mercy of the Irish, whom Talbot had repelled from Dublin many
times. Thereupon the colonists petitioned the king, but without
success, and Sir John departed in 1419, ostensibly recalled by the
king, and leaving his brother, William Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, to
represent him. Sir John Talbot, however, was destined to renew his
acquaintance with the viceroyalty.
The brief authority of the archbishop was succeeded by three years
under James, fourth {49} Earl of Ormonde; and then Edmund de Mortimer,
fifth Earl of March and Ulster, began a viceroyalty which lasted for
less than two years, although he was appointed for nine. Edmund de
Mortimer was the legal heir to Richard II., but he was an unambitious
man, and there was no guile in him. He appointed Edward Dantsey,
Bishop of Meath, his deputy, but William Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin,
declined to recognize the authority of his ecclesiastical inferior, and
consequently the viceroy had to come to Dublin. This was in 1424, and
the following year the plague carried him off. Sir John Talbot was
then induced to accept the viceroyalty, but his services were wanted
nearer home, and he agreed to the reappointment of the Earl of Ormonde,
who acted for two years, and helped to maintain a sort of peace by
conciliating the native Irish.
The viceroyalties of Sir John de Gray (1427-28), Sir John Sutton
(1428-29), Sir Thomas le Strange (1429-31), and Sir Leon de Welles and
his brother, William, who became his deputy (1438-46), were
undistinguished. The deposed Earl of Ormonde succeeded in clearing
himself of a charge of high treason, but the result of the bitterness
and dissensions the charge provoked and fostered were felt for a long
time.
[Sidenote: The Earl of Shrewsbury]
The reappointment of Sir John Talbot, now Earl of Shrewsbury, brought
that strong and merciless old man--he was seventy-three--back to
Ireland. He was created Earl of Waterford and Wexford, and Constable
of Ireland, but even the valour and wiles of one of the bravest of {50}
warriors could not prevail against the owners of the land which had
been granted to Talbot. Several times he quaintly informed the king
that he was unable to collect a penny of his rents, an admission which
the monarch politely disregarded. But Talbot left his mark on Ireland.
Long service in the Continental wars had taught him many forms of
cruelty and lust, and at seventy-three he showed that he had not
forgotten what he had learnt. Not always victorious, he was always
cruel and vicious. He found time to ape the statesman by presiding
over a Parliament that decreed various ordinances, including the
prohibition of moustaches--which were then almost exclusively worn by
the native Irish, and coming into fashion amongst the Anglo-Irish. A
writer of the period described Talbot as another Herod, and the
country, including the colonists, who had found in him an oppressor
instead of a protector, sighed with relief when the charms of a
continental war called him from Ireland, and he left the Archbishop of
Dublin to represent him. Talbot was little better than a hireling, and
when he was killed at the age of eighty in a battle in France, he was
not fighting for his country or for himself, but for a salary, and, no
doubt, inspired by the lust of conflict.
[Sidenote: A mother of kings]
Talbot's retirement from Dublin enabled the king to remove a dangerous
person, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, from his court, but although
the duke's commission as viceroy was executed in 1447, he did not see
fit to leave England until 1449, landing at Howth, near Dublin, on {51}
July 6. His deputy, Richard Nugent, met him and the duchess, a
remarkable woman, who was one of the Earl of Westmorland's twenty-two
children, and was the most beautiful of them all. Denied the throne
for herself, she became the mother of two kings--Edward IV. and Richard
III.--and it was her counsels which shaped her husband's destiny in
Ireland. As befitting a prince of the blood royal, the duke made a
triumphal entry into Dublin, and, guided by his wife, wisely
conciliated the native chiefs and the leaders of the Anglo-Irish. They
gave many banquets and entertainments in Dublin Castle, at which Irish
and English mingled, quarrels being forgotten in the presence of the
woman who was known as 'The Rose of Raby.' And when on October 21,
1449, she gave birth in Dublin Castle to her ninth child, George,
afterwards Duke of Clarence, she diplomatically invited the Earls of
Desmond and Ormonde to stand as sponsors.
The object of the duke and duchess was, of course, to gain adherents in
Ireland for the coming conflict between the rival claimants to the
throne of England. For hundreds of years Ireland had been looked upon
as a source of income to the Kings of England; the viceroyalty was a
place of profit, and most of the profits went into the king's treasury.
Richard had many followers in England, and they were well aware of the
fact that his viceroyalty was merely a pretext for exiling him, but
they made good use of the misfortune, continually noising it abroad
that the Duke of York was accomplishing wonders in {52} Ireland, that
his statesmanship, diplomacy, and valour proved indisputably that when
the time came he would make an admirable king of both countries.
The disadvantage of a policy of conciliation, however, was the lack of
revenues. Taxes could only be levied by force, and the viceroy
deprecated that. He pawned his jewels manfully, and borrowed from his
friends in England, France, and Ireland. Twice he wrote to the king
asking for supplies, but that monarch had no intention of disguising
the exile by lavishing money upon him, and the duke was compelled to
return to England. This was in 1450, and for the next nine years he
was absent from the country, his deputies in turn being the Archbishop
of Armagh, 1454, Edmund Fitz-Eustace, 1454, and Thomas Fitz-Gerald,
Earl of Kildare, who acted from 1455 to 1459. The duke's first choice
was Sir James le Botiller, who was created Earl of Wiltshire before he
succeeded his father in the Earldom of Ormonde, but this nobleman
resided chiefly in England, and eventually became a Lancastrian.
[Sidenote: Independence of its Parliament]
The bewildering changes of fortune brought about by the Wars of the
Roses had their full effect upon Ireland. The Duke of York was, of
course, the leader of the Yorkists, and his sun was at its zenith when
he defeated the Lancastrians at St. Albans and captured Henry VI. He
was declared Protector of England and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In
1459 fortune turned against him; he was beaten in several encounters,
and, finally, fled to Ireland with a few followers. In Dublin {53} he
found some consolation, although he had been unable to bring his wife
with him. The Irish and the English joyfully welcomed him, and the
Irish Parliament met at once and proclaimed him viceroy, formally
declaring the acts of the Lancastrian Parliament at Coventry null and
void so far as they concerned Ireland. The most significant feature of
this meeting of the Irish Parliament was the formal statement that it
was absolutely and entirely independent, and could not be controlled by
the English Parliament. It acknowledged the obedience of Ireland to
England, but 'nevertheless, it was separate from it and from all its
laws and statutes except such as were accepted by the lords spiritual
and temporal.' Richard established a mint at his castle of Trim; his
son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, was appointed Chancellor of Ireland, the
viceroy's person was declared sacred, and conspiracy against him high
treason.
The Duke of York was undoubtedly the most popular man in Ireland, but
the Lancastrians, who had gained the adherence of the Earl of Ormonde
and Wiltshire, looked to the latter to remove the viceroy. The earl
sent one of his retainers to arrest the duke on a charge of falsely
representing himself to be His Majesty's--Henry VI.--Lieutenant for
Ireland. The luckless squire was seized by Richard's officers, brought
to trial, and eventually hanged, drawn, and quartered. The next move
of the Lancastrian party was an abortive attempt to induce the native
Irish to turn against the viceroy and murder him. {54} This charge was
denied vigorously, but there was every reason to believe that it was
true. The Earls of Kildare and Desmond, however, came to Richard's
aid, and they speedily secured the allegiance of the principal
chieftains in Leinster and Munster. News of Yorkists' triumphs in
England took Richard hastily to London, where he found an excited
populace awaiting him, and calling upon him to crown himself King of
England. The path to the throne seemed easy, but Queen Margaret,
making one desperate rally for her family, met Richard near Wakefield
on the last day of 1461, defeated his army, and killed him.
A nebulous state of affairs now existed in Ireland. The Earl of
Kildare ceased to be deputy at Richard's death, and Sir Roland
Fitz-Eustace, who acted as deputy to the new viceroy, George, Duke of
Clarence, was a mere figurehead. In 1464 the Earl of Desmond succeeded
as deputy to Clarence, but he incurred the enmity of Elizabeth Grey,
Edward's plebeian wife, and she induced her husband to supersede the
Irish earl by one of her favourites, the Earl of Worcester. The
marriage of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Grey had caused much dissension in
English court circles, and the king regarded any criticism of his
action as being tantamount to high treason. A contemptuous remark
about Elizabeth Grey cost the Earl of Desmond his life, Worcester
executing him at Drogheda in 1468, ostensibly on a charge of high
treason. It was said that Edward IV., when quarrelling with his wife,
had angrily exclaimed that he, if he had taken the advice of the {55}
Earl of Desmond, would not have found himself burdened by such a wife.
Elizabeth never forgot this, and, as we have seen, it led the deputy to
his death.
[Illustration: St. Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle]
Worcester retired in 1468, and the Earl of Kildare ruled for the absent
Duke of Clarence. Edward IV., however, began to entertain fears that
the young Prince might imitate the example of his late father, and make
the viceroyalty an office rivalling the throne itself, and convert
Ireland into a stronghold against him and his house. The Duke of
Clarence and the Earl of Warwick were undoubtedly conspiring against
Edward, who promptly offered a reward of £1,000 or £100 a year for life
to whoever captured the duke or the earl. The latter, however, did not
survive the _coup d'état_ of 1470, when Henry VI. was restored
temporarily. The Earl of Warwick, who was nominally Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland, being represented there by Edmund Dudley, was beheaded by the
Earl of Oxford on Tower Hill.
[Sidenote: The Duke of Clarence]
The Duke of Clarence, who had the faculty of pleasing both parties, was
appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1470 by Henry VI., and on the
deposition of that monarch Edward IV. confirmed the appointment,
granting him the office for twenty years, to date from 1472. Meanwhile
the Earl of Kildare continued to rule the country until 1475. Then the
Bishop of Meath, William Sherwood, acted for a time, until Gerald,
ninth Earl of Kildare, became deputy. In 1478 Clarence was removed,
and John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, was appointed Lord-Lieutenant for
{56} twenty years. He could not rule in person, however, and so he
conveniently appointed his infant son, George, to the office, at the
same time nominating Lord Grey as his locum tenens. Grey arrived in
Dublin to find that the Earl of Kildare refused to recognize his
authority, giving as a reason his opinion that Grey's appointment was
made under the Privy Seal, and was, therefore, illegal. The Chancellor
sided with Kildare, declined to surrender the Great Seal for Ireland,
and advised Kildare to summon a Parliament at Naas. That complacent
assembly voted the Earl a subsidy. This was the state of affairs in
1478, and it really marked the beginning of the great struggle between
Ireland and England. By now the Anglo-Irish families had lost their
sympathies for the English and had become almost exclusively Irish.
Grey proceeded to hold a Parliament of his own at Trim, and, of course,
it formally annulled all the acts passed by Kildare's assembly. These
Parliaments were merely travesties of the word as understood to-day;
they did not represent even the opinions of those permitted to take
part in their proceedings, while a cynical disregard of the English
colony was their most characteristic feature. They were termed
'Parliaments' in order to dignify the proceedings, but their only use
was to declare their subjection to the person summoning them.
The death of the infant Prince George in 1479 enabled Grey to retire
from the contest with dignity, and for two years Robert Preston, first
{57} Viscount Gormanstown, represented the nominal viceroy, Richard,
Duke of York. Then in 1481 the Earl of Kildare, the only man who could
rule Ireland with any hope of success, was reappointed deputy to the
young prince. The death of Edward IV. and the accession of Edward V.
found Kildare still in power.
The mysterious disappearance of the king and his younger brother from
the Tower of London brought Richard III. to the throne, and he
nominated his son, Edward, aged eleven, viceroy for a period of three
years, Kildare remaining as deputy. It was announced throughout the
colony that Richard intended visiting Ireland, and Kildare was,
therefore, declared Lord-Deputy for one year only. The death of Prince
Edward in 1484 brought the viceroyalty to Richard's nephew, John de la
Pole, Earl of Lincoln, but the Battle of Bosworth opened a new era for
Ireland as well as for England.
[Sidenote: Effect of Bosworth Field]
The Earl of Kildare, notified of the appointment of the new king's
uncle, Jasper, Duke of Bedford, declined to be bound by the results of
the Battle of Bosworth Field, and when a priest brought to Ireland a
boy whom he declared to be the Earl of Warwick, son of the late Duke of
Clarence, and therefore the rightful heir to the throne of England,
Kildare eagerly seized the opportunity thus presented. Lambert Simnel,
the youth in question, was received with royal honours by Kildare and
the Anglo-Irish, his claims declared proved, and his identity admitted.
On May 24, 1487, the impostor was crowned King {58} of England and
Ireland under the title of Edward VI. The ceremony took place in the
Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and in the presence of the whole
viceregal staff, the principal ecclesiastics and the civic officials,
Kildare had the leading part after Lambert Simnel, although the Earl of
Lincoln, who had been appointed viceroy by his uncle, Richard III., was
also present. Immediately the coronation was over a special coinage
was struck, and the comedy protracted by the creation of Kildare as
Regent and Protector.
The Earl of Lincoln was given the command of the army to strike the
decisive blow in England, but the Duke of Bedford, Henry's viceroy, met
the rebel forces at Stoke and crushed them. Simnel was taken prisoner,
and Henry, with that sense of humour and a political tact rare in
monarchs, decided to emphasize his victory by ridicule rather than the
executioner's axe. Simnel was made a turnspit in the royal kitchens
and a salary paid him regularly. Had he been executed, his unlucky
followers might have made him a hero and themselves patriots; as it
was, they were compelled to seek oblivion for their cause and hide
their shame. Kildare, however, remained defiant. To him Simnel had
been only the means to an end that had enabled him to demonstrate to
the English throne and its advisers that the destinies of Ireland could
not be subject to the vagaries of English politicians. Henry
determined to try diplomatic persuasion, and he sent Sir Richard
Edgecombe, a Privy Councillor, to offer Kildare {59} a free pardon if
he would swear fealty to the king and give a bond for his good
behaviour. The deputy offered to submit, though he would not give a
bond, and after considerable wrangling the question of security was
waived aside, and the Earl of Kildare once more reigned in Dublin
Castle. The records of the meetings between Kildare and Edgecombe are
very full, and it would seem that the earl's threats to turn
'Irish'--that is, formally separate his family from England--had more
to do with Henry's capitulation than anything else.
[Sidenote: Perkin Warbeck]
Kildare's appointment was as deputy to the Duke of Bedford, and for
four years Irish affairs had no connection with English. But the
success of usurpers breeds impostors, and Henry, who had seized his
throne by force, had once more to face an impostor and a rebellion.
Perkin Warbeck, avowing himself to be Richard, Duke of York, and armed
with a circumstantial story of his escape from the Tower of London,
landed at Cork, having journeyed from Lisbon, and sent messages to
Kildare ordering him to join him there with an army. Whatever the
earl's answer may have been, Perkin did not wait for it, preferring to
seek temporary safety in Paris. The deputy, however, had always shown
a fondness for impostors, and Henry, unable to trust any of the leaders
of the English in Ireland, sent Walter Fitz-Simon to be the deputy in
place of Kildare. Fitz-Simon worked assiduously to secure the Earl's
fall, and when he returned to England in 1493, leaving Viscount
Gormanstown as his deputy, he was able {60} to nullify the effects of
Kildare's passionate protests to Henry VII. The next year Henry
appointed his son, then aged four, afterwards Henry VIII., to be
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and his deputy was the notorious profligate
and zealous soldier, Sir Edward Poynings, the son of Elizabeth Paston.
The "Paston Letters" throw much light upon the workings of the
viceroyalty of the period, although Poynings himself had only a couple
of years' experience of that country. He did Henry two notable acts of
service, however, by capturing Kildare and sending him a prisoner to
London, and by driving Perkin Warbeck out of Ireland.
When Kildare was imprisoned in the Tower of London, his fate seemed
settled, but he was too clever for the age he lived in, and he
succeeded, a stranger in a strange country, in securing his liberation
and the annulling by Parliament of his act of attainder. Kildare
thereupon became the lion of the London season. He was invited
everywhere, and every class of society crowded to see the man who had
held Ireland in his power. All the time he was nominally under arrest,
with serious charges pending against him. When Henry summoned the earl
to his presence, and offered him the choice of any man in the kingdom
to be his counsellor, Kildare promptly chose the king himself! It was
a piece of shrewd flattery, but it had less to do with Kildare's
restoration to favour than his marriage with the king's first cousin,
Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver St. John. The moment his alliance with
the clever daughter of a {61} powerful family became known, Kildare's
enemies melted away, and the king, saving his face by insisting upon
Kildare's son remaining in London as a hostage for his father's good
conduct, restored Kildare to his deputyship, and sent him back to
Ireland. Henry Deane, a cleric who had been holding the post, retired,
and was rewarded later with the See of Canterbury.
The character of Kildare is well illustrated by a story told concerning
his fiery temper. The Bishop of Meath, suffering from jealousy and a
grievance, declared to the king that all Ireland could not rule the
earl. 'Then, in good faith,' cried the king, 'shall the earl rule all
Ireland!'
[Sidenote: The Hill of the Axes]
Perkin Warbeck revisited Ireland, but the men of Waterford drove him
from the country without any help from Dublin. In 1503 Kildare was
summoned to London to receive evidence of the king's pleasure and
approbation. This took the shape of a portion of the king's wardrobe,
a signal mark of honour in those days. Returning with his son Gerald,
who had married into a powerful English family, Kildare won the famous
Battle of Knocdoe, or 'The Hill of the Axes,' and was given the garter
for his success. The Battle of Knocdoe was the result of a bitter
quarrel between the Earl of Kildare and the Earl of Clanricarde. The
latter had married a daughter of the deputy's, and had treated her with
such cruelty that Kildare intervened. In revenge Clanricarde formed a
confederacy between certain Irish chiefs to overthrow the authority of
the king in Ireland.
{62}
CHAPTER IV
The death of Henry VII. and the accession of Henry VIII. tended to
strengthen Kildare's position. He was continued in his office, and
held it until his death in 1513. Accounted one of the handsomest and
bravest men of his time, he was succeeded by his son in the deputyship,
as well as in the family honours, and Gerald, ninth earl, was worthy of
such a parent. For seven years Kildare was the deputy, with the
exception of a brief period in England when Viscount Gormanstown was
vice-deputy. His enemies were secretly trying to undermine his
position, for the rise of the Kildare family was resented by the other
great Anglo-Irish houses.
[Sidenote: Cardinal Wolsey's nominee]
In 1518, shortly after the death of his wife, Kildare was ordered to
repair to London and answer the charges that he had illegally enriched
himself and his followers, and that he had formed alliances with the
native Irish and corresponded with them. Kildare, however, showed no
hurry to obey the summons, and not until 1519 did he arrive in London,
his cousin, Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, looking after his official
responsibilities. While in London, Kildare followed the example of his
father, and married a cousin of the king. {63} This was the Lady
Elizabeth Grey, a grand-daughter of Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV.'s
wife. The marriage saved Kildare's life, for his most powerful enemy,
Cardinal Wolsey, had resolved that the Irish earl should never return
to his country. Acting on the advice of the Cardinal, Henry VIII.,
suspicious of the loyalty of the Irish nobility, appointed an
Englishman, the Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk,
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Surrey was one of Wolsey's adherents, and
although the Earl of Kildare had, by reason of his valour and bearing
on the famous 'Field of the Cloth of Gold,' risen high in Henry's
favour, the Chancellor insisted upon his being brought to trial. To
make certain of the result, Wolsey inspired the Earl of Surrey to write
from Ireland charging Kildare with having attempted to make the Irish
oppose the authority of the new deputy, but, owing to the influence of
his wife, Kildare secured his acquittal, and returned to Ireland.
The Earl of Ormonde was selected in 1523 to succeed Surrey, principally
because he was Kildare's bitter enemy, but Elizabeth, Henry's cousin
and Kildare's wife, wrote to the king beseeching him to reconcile the
earls and bring peace to their respective families. Henry responded by
sending a commission to try the charges preferred by Ormonde against
Kildare, and, when it found in favour of the latter, he became deputy
once more. But again his enjoyment of the office was brief, further
charges being preferred against him by Ormonde, now Earl of {64}
Ossory. Again Kildare went to London, and was imprisoned in the Tower,
his brother, Sir James Fitzgerald, taking his post. While Kildare was
in the Tower, Wolsey attempted to have him executed without the
knowledge of the king, but at the last moment the Lieutenant-Governor
sought confirmation from His Majesty, and discovered that the
Cardinal's order lacked the king's approval.
The Earl of Ossory was now deputy, Kildare remaining in London after
his release from the Tower. Several noblemen went bail for his good
conduct, and although there was another period of royal disfavour in
1532, he accompanied Sir William Skeffington, the new Lord-Deputy, to
Ireland, and received a welcome that overshadowed that accorded to the
king's representative. It is interesting to note that in 1530 Holbein
painted this remarkable man's portrait, and that in the same year he
was one of the peers who signed the letter to the Pope setting forth
the grounds of Henry's divorce from Catherine.
[Sidenote: Death of "King Kildare"]
In 1532 he was once more deputy, and he gained the adherence of the
Irish by marrying two of his daughters to Irish chiefs. The country
was now at his feet; he was respected and obeyed. But he had enemies
whose pertinacity equalled his, and they soon aroused the suspicions of
a monarch whose chief weakness was a disinclination to trust others or
cultivate loyalty in himself. Henry at once ordered the deputy to come
to him; instead, Kildare sent his wife to act as mediator. The
countess was a clever woman, but Henry's {65} experience of the sex was
extensive, as we know, and he declined to receive her more than once.
He wanted the person of Kildare, and eventually that nobleman obeyed
the summons. The earl appointed his twenty-year old son, Thomas, Lord
Offaly, deputy, and left Ireland, never to return. Lord Offaly was
something of the mould of his father, and, although young, had been
trained from early years to rule. When, therefore, a rumour reached
Dublin that the Earl of Kildare had been executed by Henry's orders,
Lord Offaly immediately resigned his office, and gathered his followers
under his banner with the avowed object of driving the English out of
Ireland. The earl was quickly apprised of his son's rebellion, and a
copy of the youthful lord's sentence of excommunication shown him. The
effect was to hasten Kildare's death, and he died in the Tower on
December 12, 1534. Great as had been his father, Gerald, ninth earl,
was even greater, and Wolsey, although he spoke sarcastically, was not
wrong when he described him as 'King Kildare, who reigned, rather than
ruled, in Ireland.'
Sir William Skeffington, the deputy, was ordered to crush the
rebellion, and he pursued the Kildare faction into their strongholds,
besieging the Castle of Maynooth, while its owner was in Connaught
collecting troops. The castle could have held out until the arrival of
its owner, but the inevitable Irish traitor appeared in the person of
Christopher Parese, a creature who had received many benefits at the
hands of Lord Offaly and his father. Parese betrayed the castle for a
reward, which was {66} promptly paid him, but the deputy immediately
had him executed, because he dare not trust a rogue who had already
betrayed one benefactor. Treachery was again employed by Skeffington's
successor, Lord Grey, and eventually Lord Offaly, tenth Earl of
Kildare, and five of his uncles were executed on Tower Hill. The
ten-year-old heir to the earldom would, doubtless, have perished also,
but he had a remarkable mother, who kept him in hiding for some years,
and succeeded in smuggling him out of the country to France, where his
education was supervised by the famous Cardinal Pole.
Lord Grey continued in office until 1540, and although, from the
English point of view, he ruled well and successfully, on his return to
England he was imprisoned and subsequently executed, the ostensible
reason being his partiality for the Kildares.
Grey was replaced by a remarkable man, Sir Anthony St. Leger, whose
three terms of office covered thirteen years. Sir William Brereton, a
foolish person, was the deputy until St. Leger arrived, and
distinguished himself by leading a vast army in search of a phantom
enemy. St. Leger, from the moment he arrived in Ireland, set about
restoring some order in the country, and he succeeded so well that the
historians of the period call attention to the amazing fact that the
sight was actually seen of English lords and Irish chiefs meeting in
the same chamber and proclaiming Henry VIII. King of Ireland. St.
Leger went further than this, and {67} actually paid the debts incurred
during his viceroyalty.
[Sidenote: Religious persecution]
In 1548 he was recalled, and Sir Edward Bellingham ordered to act as
deputy and to punish those Irish who had not become Protestants by Act
of Parliament. This was a new feature in Irish politics, but
Bellingham found diplomacy, force, and threats, and persecution equally
ineffective, and he retired in disgust. Sir Francis Bryan followed as
deputy in 1550, but he died the same year, and Brabazon, hastily
elected in his stead, retired when Sir Anthony St. Leger returned, to
be welcomed by all classes. He held office until 1556, save for a
period between 1551-52, when Sir James Croft represented him, and when
he retired he had the satisfaction of knowing that he left Ireland
better off than when he found it.
The appointment of the Earl of Sussex, however, undid all St. Leger's
good work, and the new deputy had immediately to take the field. He
was lucky, however, to find the Irish chiefs quarrelling amongst
themselves, and in the circumstances victory was achieved easily. The
O'Neills, headed by the famous Shane, advanced against him, but Sussex
defeated them with great slaughter, and the chieftain escaped the
battlefield to die a dishonourable death in a drunken brawl.
England had greater attractions for the earl than Ireland could offer,
and he returned there in 1557, nominating Sir Henry Sidney and the Lord
Chancellor as vice-deputies. Elizabeth, {68} immediately after her
accession, sent the viceroy back, but he returned again to London.
Hugh Curwen, Archbishop of Dublin, anxious to retain his office as well
as that of joint representative with Sir Henry Sidney of the absent
viceroy, conveniently changed his religion now that a Protestant was on
the throne, and to show the genuineness of his conversion he had the
pictures that adorned the walls of Christ's Church and St. Patrick's
whitewashed.
[Illustration: Earl of Essex]
When the Earl of Sussex was recalled in 1564, Sir Henry Sidney was
appointed deputy or viceroy, and he acted for fourteen years. What he
thought of the appointment may be inferred from a letter he wrote on
his return after a brief absence in 1575. Sir William Fitz-William had
acted as his deputy, and no doubt Sidney hoped that Elizabeth might
give him a more congenial task. He declares that he 'took on for the
third time that thankless charge, and so, taking leave of Her Majesty,
kissed her sacred hands, with most gracious and comfortable words,
departed from her at Dudley Castle, passed the seas, and arrived
September 13, 1575, as near the city of Dublin as I could safely, for
at that time the city was grievously infected with the contagion of the
pestilence.' In the depth of winter he went to Cork, and passed
Christmas there. The following February he visited Thomond, Earl of
Clanricarde, and caused two of his sons to make public confession of
their rebellion and sue for his pardon. Sidney, in recounting this,
adds fervently, 'whom would to God I had hanged!'
{69}
Sidney's interview with Grace O'Malley is historic. The English
warrior, unaccustomed to Amazonian women, out of curiosity granted an
audience to Grace, who came to him in state. This is how the viceroy
describes the incident:
'There came to me also a most famous feminine sea-captain, called Grace
O'Malley, and offered her services to me wheresoe'er I would command
her, with three galleys and two hundred fighting men. She brought with
her her husband, for she was as well by sea as by land more than
master's mate with him. He was of the nether Burkes, and called by
nickname "Richard in Iron." This was a notorious woman in all the
coasts of Ireland. This woman did Henry Sidney see and speak with. He
can no more at large inform you of her.'
On May 26, 1578, Sidney retired from office, broken in health and
fortune. Describing his condition, he says that he was 'fifty-four
years of age, toothless and trembling, being five thousand pounds in
debt.' Later he declared that he was twenty thousand pounds poorer
than when he had succeeded to his father's estate--a commentary on his
inability to take advantage in a pecuniary sense of his viceroyalty.
His wail is dated 'from Ludlow Castle, with more pain than heart, March
1, 1582.'
[Sidenote: English colony absorbed]
But Sidney was the victim of his time. There was no English colony
now; it had been absorbed by the native Irish families, and to make war
against the natives was to make war against the {70} Fitzgeralds, the
Butlers, and other great families better known by their titles.
Happily for England, Ireland was never united, and if Sidney gained no
great conquests he was, by reason of the schisms amongst his enemies,
enabled to maintain the sovereignty of Elizabeth in Ireland. It was a
purely nominal sovereignty, but it sufficed for the time being.
{71}
CHAPTER V
The gradual disappearance of the distinctively English population did
not pass unnoticed in England. During some hundreds of years there had
been many attempts to induce English families to emigrate to Ireland,
but without any great success. To the average English person Ireland
was an uncivilized country inhabited by savages and murderers.
Elizabeth's councillors, however, resolved to put into practice the
theories of previous viceroys and their advisers. A new English colony
was to be created, but instead of crowding all the emigrants into
Dublin, the bolder policy of scattering them all over the country was
adopted.
On the retirement of Sidney, Sir William Pelham was appointed Lord
Justice until the arrival of Lord Grey of Wilton, 'the hanging
viceroy.' Two years of systematic brutalities were as much as the
country and Elizabeth could stand. She recalled Grey and left the
government in the hands of Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and Sir
Henry Wallop, treasurer, while she and her council, now firmly resolved
on the great 'plantation' scheme, could find a willing and a competent
instrument to carry out the plan. They found {72} one in Sir John
Perrott, and in June, 1584, he was made Lord Deputy.
[Sidenote: The undertakers]
Perrott was reputed to be a natural son of Henry VIII., whom he
resembled in appearance, and, although brought up in the household of
Thomas Perrott, who had married Mary Berkeley, Henry's mistress, he
soon exchanged the serene life of a country gentleman for the freer and
gayer court life of London. He was advanced rapidly in the royal
favour, and before his deputyship had had considerable experience of
Ireland. He now came as viceroy with a strong and definite policy,
fully determined to carry it to a successful issue. Munster was the
first province selected for the 'plantation' scheme. To induce English
families to flock to Ireland, huge estates were offered for next to
nothing. Fertile lands were given at rentals of a penny or twopence an
acre, and to allow the immigrants time to put their new homes in order,
no rent was asked during the first five years, and only half for the
following three. Those who took over twelve thousand acres were termed
'undertakers,' and required to settle or plant at least eighty-six
English families whose members were skilled in trades and the arts
agricultural. Undertakers of smaller estates planted a less number,
and so on in due proportion. It was a splendid scheme on paper, and
would, no doubt, have settled the Irish question effectively, but its
weak point was its total disregard of the Irish. The real owners of
the property were in hiding with prices on their heads, but the people
themselves were only awaiting {73} their opportunity to win back the
lands of their chiefs and restore them to their rightful owners.
The majority of the 'undertakers'--wealthy English noblemen and titled
adventurers--did not, of course, trouble to come to Ireland, though
they imported a number of families into the country. Two of the
'undertakers,' however, in Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, the
poet, actually resided on their new estates. Raleigh, as a reward for
butchering the peasantry, was given forty-two thousand acres; Spenser
was granted twelve thousand acres in Cork, and took up his residence in
Kilcolman Castle, residence in Ireland being the only condition upon
which he was given the stolen land. Spenser wrote the first three
books of the 'Faerie Queen' here, and his only absence from Ireland was
occasioned by a journey to London to secure the publication of his
masterpiece. On his return he married a country girl, and managed to
live in some peace until 1598, when the Earl of Tyrone, eager to avenge
his wrongs, roused the country. Kilcolman Castle was burnt to the
ground, and Spenser's youngest child perished in the flames. The poet,
penniless and ill, escaped to England to die in penury the following
year.
Perrott's policy required a certain ruthlessness to carry out, and
friend and foe alike became his victims. He could not be faithful to
Elizabeth and please all parties in Ireland. He shared the fate of his
predecessors who had adopted a similar policy, for he discovered that
he was being misrepresented in London by his personal enemies. These
included the Earl of Ormonde, Sir Richard {74} Brigham, and Sir
Nicholas Bagenal, and they even went to the length of bribing a priest
to forge treasonable letters in the viceroy's name. When Perrott
appealed to Elizabeth to be allowed to come to England and confront his
adversaries, the queen refused him his request, bidding him to continue
with his work.
He was destined to do England and Elizabeth at least one great service
during his viceroyalty. In the middle of 1586 a rumour reached Ireland
that Spain was about to strike a blow for Catholic Christendom.
Ireland was, of course, Catholic, and always remained so, although its
spiritual fathers were mostly 'vicars of Bray.' The native Irish
received the news joyfully, and waited anxiously for the day when the
might of Catholic Spain would annihilate Protestant England. Perrott
heard these rumours, and went to great trouble to verify them, with the
result that in 1587 he was able to send confidential despatches to
Queen Elizabeth informing her that Philip of Spain was preparing a
great fleet for the invasion and conquest of England. That fleet,
historically known as 'The Great Armada,' left its remnants off the
coast of Ireland in 1588.
[Sidenote: Perrott's retirement]
When the viceroy realized that his policy, while outwardly prosperous,
was never likely to develop into a permanent success, he prayed the
queen to permit him to retire. She was averse to this, but every
person of influence about the throne was approached by him until the
queen relented, and in 1588 the viceroy joyfully prepared to depart
from the country which he hated worse than the {75} pestilence. The
court of England was then in an idealized state, mainly as a result of
the rise of the great English school of dramatists and poets, and at
such a time Ireland must have seemed more than ever a place of exile.
Perrott, however, openly prided himself upon his success, and when he
appeared in Dublin in order to hand over the sword of state to his
successor, he made a fulsome speech in his own praise, declaring that
he left the country in peace and quietness, and hinting that if Sir
William Fitzwilliam, the incoming viceroy, informed Queen Elizabeth of
the fact, he would be very grateful. Sir William, as a gentleman, had
to acknowledge Perrott's eulogies, and then the ex-viceroy left the
country, feeling like a freed man. His last act was to present the
corporation of Dublin with a silver-gilt bowl bearing his arms and
crest, together with the motto 'Relinquo in pace.' The common people
had a certain rough affection for Perrott. He had not robbed
them--perhaps because they had nothing to lose--but at any rate they
gave him a great ovation, shedding tears of gratitude for the man whose
code of morals happily included a partiality for paying just debts.
Sir William Fitzwilliam had already experienced the advantages and
disadvantages of the viceregal position in Ireland. He married a
sister of Sir Henry Sidney, a woman with a strength of character that
absorbed her husband's. Every act during Fitzwilliam's tenure of
office was said to have originated from the fertile brain of Lady
Fitzwilliam, and she was openly hailed as the real {76} ruler of
Ireland. But even Lady Fitzwilliam could not govern without money, and
in 1594 she retired with her husband. Fitzwilliam is best known as the
Governor of Fotheringay Castle at the time of the execution of Mary,
Queen of Scots. Sir William Russell, his successor, was the youngest
son of the Earl of Bedford, but his two years of office brought him
nothing but censure from the queen. Russell's principal fault was that
he kept his word of honour to the rebel Earl of Tyrone. The latter
came in person to Dublin Castle at the invitation of the viceroy, and
made submission. Contented with this, the Lord-Lieutenant permitted
him to depart, but Elizabeth wished for the imprisonment of the rebel,
and, consequently, Russell retired to make way for Lord Gainsborough.
In 1603 he was created a peer by James I. A year sufficed for
Gainsborough, who died at his post. Sir Thomas Norris, Lord Justice,
acted until superseded by Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, Sir Robert
Gardiner, and the Earl of Ormonde.
[Sidenote: Queen Elizabeth's favourite]
Their services were dispensed with when Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex,
arrived in Dublin on April 15, 1599, his appointment dating from March
12, 1598. The Earl of Essex was one of the most romantic figures in
the later court of Queen Elizabeth. When, as a boy of ten, Robert
Devereux appeared at court, the queen was fascinated by his beauty and
his charming manners. She sent for him later, and his early days were
distinguished by the confidence of the queen. Elizabeth was an old
woman when Essex was in {77} the first flower of his manhood, but he
was as crafty as he was handsome, and he made every use of his power
over the queen, a monarch aping youth with the aid of powder and paint.
She made Essex the most powerful of courtiers, and he attempted to
reserve her favour for himself. When the queen showed kindness to
Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, Essex, ever passionate and prone to
quarrel, sought out his rival and challenged him to a duel. The result
was abortive, but it was only one of a series of incidents which showed
Elizabeth that she was raising Essex higher than his peculiar
temperament made promotion safe. On one occasion he actually
reproached the queen, who in a moment of rage forgot her pose of youth,
and boxed the earl's ears. But he was still in the royal favour when
Elizabeth sent him to Ireland with fifteen thousand men, his mission
being to crush the rebellion of O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. From her
palace in London the queen wrote almost daily to the viceroy, seldom
commending him, often hampering, and always petulant and capricious.
Essex tried one or two encounters with the enemy, and found the
battlefields of Ireland profitless and dangerous to the health of one
whose chivalry was better suited to the drawing-room. He hastily
concluded a treaty of peace with Tyrone, appointed Lords Justices to
carry on the government, and repaired to England on September 24,
having spent less than five months in Ireland. Only one who was
certain of Elizabeth's favour could have dared to do such a thing, but
Essex entered {78} London in the temper of a spoilt child, prepared to
rail at the queen for having dared to criticize him, and no doubt
expecting to receive her apologies. The queen upset his calculations
by having him arrested promptly, and although the public offered up
prayers for his restoration to the good graces of the queen, these
prayers were unanswered, because Essex was not the man to believe in
his sovereign's determination. The arrest he regarded as a joke--in
bad taste, perhaps, but still a joke--and when its seriousness dawned
upon him he tried to retaliate in kind. In 1601 he was executed. The
charges against him were, first, with making a dishonourable treaty
with the rebels, and, second, leaving his Government without the
permission of the authorities--that is, the queen and Council. When
released from the Tower and ordered to remain at York House, Essex
attempted a rebellion, and the spoilt darling of fortune paid the
penalty with his life.
[Illustration: Lord Mountjoy]
[Sidenote: Lord Mountjoy]
The next viceroy, Sir Charles Blount, afterwards Lord Mountjoy, was a
typical product of the Elizabethan court. He had been Essex's friend
and afterwards his enemy, and when the earl retired prematurely from
Ireland, Elizabeth sent Mountjoy to reopen the war against O'Neill and
to crush him, irrespective of the treaty of security and peace signed
by Essex in Elizabeth's name. He carried out his duties faithfully,
and succeeded in driving the Tyrones out of their territory. On the
final defeat of O'Neill, that chieftain made submission, and Mountjoy
was graciously pleased to forgive the rebel and restore his title and
{79} estates to him. While in Ireland Mountjoy received a letter from
Essex, then a prisoner on parole at York House, asking him to bring his
army from Ireland, join a promised army of the King of Scotland, and
drive Elizabeth's advisers from power. Mountjoy at once declined to
hazard his own neck, and he left Essex to his fate. The hope that the
earl placed on the viceroy was inspired by the latter's affection for
Penelope, sister of Lord Essex. This lady was so notorious that even
Queen Elizabeth had to refuse to receive her, but her faults were the
faults of the age she lived in. At a very early age, and without
having her wishes consulted at all, Penelope was married to an old roué
named Lord Rich, a man of filthy habits and loathsome ways. Penelope
bore him seven children, but the gross brutalities of her husband drove
her into the arms of Sidney, and when she became Mountjoy's mistress,
she had five children by him. The viceroy, however, was a faithful
lover, and when Lord Rich divorced her after Mountjoy's resignation of
his post, the viceroyalty, he married her, inducing his private
chaplain, Laud, to perform the ceremony. The act of Laud's very nearly
ruined his career, and, at any rate, it stood in the way of his
promotion for several years. It is said that Mountjoy did intend to
come to the rescue of his mistress's brother, and certainly Elizabeth,
who wanted Mountjoy's services, suppressed a confession by a prisoner
which, had it become public, must have cost Lord Mountjoy his head. As
it was, he held the viceroyalty until 1603, and could have {80}
remained longer, for King James confirmed his appointment. Mountjoy,
however, wanted his Penelope, and he left Ireland for her sake. James
rewarded him with the Earldom of Devonshire, but as all his children
were illegitimate, the titles died with him.
[Sidenote: The Order of the Baronetage]
The late viceroy's deputy, Sir George Cary, enjoyed only a few months
in office, for Sir Arthur Chichester, afterwards Lord Chichester of
Belfast, was given the post, and came to Ireland early in 1605.
Chichester was forty-one, but he had already nearly thirty years'
experience of public affairs, including the fight against the Armada.
In his early youth he had assaulted an inoffensive citizen, and had
fled from London to Ireland, but Elizabeth pardoned him and found him
employment. Fortunately for Chichester, Lord Mountjoy took him into
favour, and when the latter returned to England, and was appointed
adviser to James on Irish affairs, he nominated Chichester as the most
suitable person to govern Ireland. This viceroy made it a condition
that religious persecution in Ireland should be abolished. Every
precedent was against the continuance of a protracted and futile
attempt to force an objectionable religion upon the majority of the
people, and when he secured this concession to common sense from James
and Mountjoy, Chichester must have realized that he was in a fair way
to make his term of office a success. Some luck attended him. He was
given a good army, and very early in his career in Ireland two of his
most dangerous opponents, Tyrone and Tyrconnell, left Ireland {81} for
ever. Chichester then proceeded to colonize Ulster. The order of the
Baronetage was created in 1611, and the title sold for £1,080, the
proceeds being intended to pay the expenses of the colonization of
Ulster. The large estates of the Tyrone and Tyrconnell families were
distributed amongst the native Irish, the English and some planters
from Scotland, Chichester himself being rewarded with a peerage. It
was a wise move on his part, moreover, to give first choice to the
native Irish in the matter of the division of the land, for he knew
that peace could only be purchased at a price.
On these lines he governed Ireland for twelve years, and when he
retired in 1614, he had the satisfaction of earning the praise of those
he ruled and those he served. His wife, a daughter of Sir John
Perrott, does not appear to have taken a very prominent part in Irish
life. She was an invalid and contemptuous of the Irish, though the
records of some of their entertainments in Dublin Castle prove that she
was lavish in her hospitality, and even invited the heads of the great
Irish families.
Sir Oliver St. John was in 1616 appointed Viceroy of Ireland. During
the interval the Government had been in the hands of Adam Loftus, the
indispensable Archbishop of Dublin, whose power was as great as his
cupidity and avarice. St. John was a typical soldier of fortune, who
had found fame and fortune on the battlefields of the Continent. In
1580, when twenty-one, he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, out a
legal career ended suddenly as the result of a duel with Best, the
navigator. Best died, and {82} St. John fled the country, but after
many profitless years he had the luck to come under the notice of the
Earl of Essex at Rouen. Essex, who was in need of brave soldiers,
enlisted St. John, and took him to Ireland to fight against Tyrone. In
a few years St. John was elected member for Roscommon in the Irish
Parliament, and followed that up by entering the English House of
Commons as member for Portsmouth. Mountjoy knighted him and made him
president of Connaught, so that when in 1616 he was made viceroy, he
brought to the office a great experience of Irish affairs.
His first official act was to banish all those ecclesiastics educated
abroad, his second, to make the Protestant religion compulsory, and his
third, even more remarkable, took the form of a proposal to emigrate
100,000 Irish persons. This was a short method of dealing with a
pressing problem, but it was hopelessly impracticable, and St. John,
less successful as a statesman than as soldier, was commanded to
deliver the sword of state to Adam Loftus, and return to England.
Henry Gary, Viscount Falkland, who succeeded, tried to carry on the St.
John policy. Proclamations were issued extensively, and all the Irish
were ordered to go to heaven by the Protestant road. Strangely enough,
while Lord Falkland was doing his best to establish the Protestant
religion, Lady Falkland was secretly a Catholic, and supplying the
priests with money. For over twenty years she kept her secret from her
husband, but he discovered it eventually, and promptly separated from
her. The Privy Council, called {83} upon to judge between husband and
wife, declared Falkland's act justified, but ordered him to pay her
£500 a year. Falkland retired in 1629 with the character of an
unreliable, timid man.
[Sidenote: The Earl of Strafford]
Another period of government by Council and Lords Justices covered the
years from 1628 to 1633, and then Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford,
one of the great figures of the early days of the Civil War, was chosen
by Charles I. to represent him in Ireland. Wentworth's appointment was
dated 1632, but that nobleman did not hurry to take over his post, and
besides, there were many urgent affairs to keep him at home. Wentworth
was leader of the House of Commons, and at the first encounter with the
king stood by the Commons. Charles, however, determined to secure his
personal adherence, and by means of titles, the bait of kings,
Wentworth foreswore his radical opinions, came over on to the king's
side, and was ever afterwards a most zealous and devoted servant of the
Crown. When Charles conferred with his advisers upon the coming
struggle with the people, Wentworth made the first practical suggestion
by subscribing £20,000 towards the royal treasury. Wentworth was,
therefore, the most trusted of the King's advisers, and he was sent to
Ireland with the object of raising money for His Majesty.
The new viceroy hastily summoned a Parliament at Dublin, and persuaded
it to vote £180,000 for the king's use against the army of the
Covenanters. Further, Wentworth raised an army with the object of
invading England and joining {84} Charles's forces. The intention was
never carried out; but when Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, stood
his trial at Westminster Hall, on April 5, 1641, the principal charge
against him was that he had raised an army of Irish Papists to make war
upon His Majesty's subjects. Strafford was executed on May 12.
His history concerns England rather than Ireland, but he had
considerable influence upon the latter country, and did something
towards placing Irish industries upon a better footing. In an age of
wars and rebellions the reformer was out of place, but Ireland owes
something to the Earl of Strafford's memory. When he died, Ireland
mourned for him, and Sir Charles Wandesford, who had acted as one of
his deputies, died of a broken heart upon hearing the news.
[Illustration: Earl of Strafford]
[Sidenote: The civil war]
The fatal year of 1641 found Ireland without a viceroy. The Lords
Justices ruled in Dublin, but they carried no authority. Throughout
the country it was said that England had abandoned her compatriots.
The Great Rebellion followed as a matter of course. Centuries of
oppression, outrage, robbery, and every other form of tyranny produced
their natural offspring. The native Irish, who had not accepted the
dictum that time legalizes robbery and sanctifies wrong, rose in their
passions and slaughtered the 'planted' settlers. The less said about
the rebellion the better. The history of the world shows that when the
democracy rises to avenge its wrongs, the innocent pay the debts of the
guilty.
Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, should have {85} succeeded Strafford,
but he lingered in England, conscious that his own country would be the
centre of great events. He asked his son, Lord Lisle, to take his
place, but that young man had no taste for the rigours of Ireland. His
prognostications were justified, and with the outbreak of the Civil War
Lord Leicester abandoned all intention of taking up the office of
viceroy. Charles wanted every available soldier, and Ireland was left
to look after itself. There was a nominal Government in Dublin, and
the Earl of Ormonde, at the beginning of his splendid career, was
Commander-in-Chief. Ormonde was a devoted royalist, and in the king's
hour of need sent him 5,000 soldiers from Ireland, paying their
expenses himself. In the midst of his worries Charles found time to
show his gratitude by making Ormonde a marquis, and appointing him
Viceroy of Ireland. This was in 1644, but strong man as he was,
Ormonde's tenure of office was shorn of all its glory and strength. He
was destined later to play a leading--the leading--part in Irish
affairs; but during the Civil War there was no effective government in
Ireland, and the country went back to its ruling chiefs, and Dublin and
a few provincial towns sheltered the remnants of the party that looked
to England for protection and guidance. Lord Ormonde's determination
was to hold Ireland for the king, and with this object he strengthened
the garrison towns. The massacres of the settlers in the North he had
punished, but until the settlement of the conflict in England he was in
a dangerous and anomalous position.
{86}
CHAPTER VI
James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde, was born at Clerkenwell on October
19, 1610. For political reasons he was brought up in London under the
immediate influence of the court. The boy, who was known as Viscount
Thurles, was as popular as he was handsome, and in his early manhood he
was one of the most famous 'bucks' about town. The story of his
marriage is a romantic one, and much has been written about it. The
facts are that the young Lord Thurles saw Elizabeth Preston, only
daughter and heiress of the Earl of Desmond, in church. She was very
beautiful and wealthy, and Thurles resolved to wed her. Whether it was
a case of love at first sight or not depends upon the sentiment of the
reader. We know that the lady's fortune did much towards restoring
that of the house of Ormonde.
[Illustration: James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde]
[Sidenote: Lord Ormonde's marriage]
Elizabeth Preston, however, was already reserved for someone else, and
under the watchful and jealous guardianship of Lord Holland she was
hidden from Lord Thurles. Realizing that his attentions would not be
displeasing, Lord Thurles disguised himself as a pedlar, and carried
his pack to the back-door of Lord Holland's Kensington {87} residence.
Happily for the course of true love, the ladies of the house were not
above opening the door to pedlars, and Lord Holland's daughters
performed that service for the lover. They made a few purchases, and
then hastened to Elizabeth, to tell her that the handsomest pedlar in
England was at the back-door, and to beg her to come and patronize him.
The girl recognized Thurles, and when he pressed a pair of gloves upon
her, she asked him to wait while she went for some money, although her
companions offered to save her the trouble by lending her the necessary
amount. This she declined, guessing that one of the gloves contained a
love-letter. In the safety of her own room she read Thurles'
impassioned address, and then, having penned a suitable and favourable
reply, came down again and returned the gloves, declaring that they
smelt abominably, and could not be worn by a lady. Never did a pedlar
accept the cancellation of a bargain so gleefully as this one did. The
message the gloves contained settled his doubts and fears, and later
Viscount Thurles and Elizabeth Preston were wedded. Lord Holland's
consent was purchased for £15,000, and when he succeeded to the Earldom
of Ormonde, Butler took his bride to Ireland.
The coming of the Earl of Ormonde to the country of his ancestors was
hailed as a welcome sign by the leading Irish families. By his
marriage Ormonde had united two of the greatest and ended a bitter
feud, and the native party looked to him to lead them against the
English. His only disadvantage was his religion. He was a Protestant,
{88} the result of his education in England, but the question of
religion was ignored by the Irish, and the handsome and chivalrous earl
was called upon to take his stand in the forefront of the Irish army.
Lord Strafford was viceroy at the time, and upon him lay the
responsibility of influencing Ormonde's choice. The viceroy acted
wisely. Personally he disliked the young earl, but he realized that to
make an enemy of the most powerful nobleman amongst the Irish families
of distinction would be fatal to his own chances of success as Viceroy
of Ireland, and so he immediately made overtures of friendship to the
man whom he had known as a boy in London. Lord Ormonde responded, and
the two noblemen became fast friends, a friendship not forgotten to the
last by Wentworth. When the latter had been sentenced to death for
treason against the State, he implored Charles to give Ormonde the
garter left vacant by his death, and also warned that monarch that the
only loyal servant he had in Ireland was the Earl of Ormonde, advising
the king to appoint him Lord-Deputy. The king, whose principal
weakness was a tardiness of judgment, granted neither request at the
time. But in 1644 he made Ormonde viceroy, and later bestowed the
garter, though at a time when that emblem of royal favour was little
better than a brilliant mockery.
Ormonde served an apprenticeship as Commander-in-Chief of the troops
during Wentworth's viceroyalty, and on his own appointment to the
latter position he combined the two offices. His duties as viceroy
were, however, merely nominal, {89} and believing that he could be of
more service to the royal cause in England, he resigned his
post--inspired, no doubt, by the fact that Parliament had appointed
Philip Sidney, Lord Lisle, Lord-Lieutenant, under its jurisdiction--in
1647. Ormonde went at once to Charles at Hampton Court, and acquainted
him with the news that it was the intention of the Parliamentary
leaders to seize his person and bring him to trial. Charles, of
course, declined to believe the existence of the Parliamentary plot,
and the ex-viceroy, again appointed Lord-Lieutenant, but armed with a
worthless commission, returned to Ireland. Lord Lisle was not in
residence, and the Government that represented the Commons consisted of
five commissioners--Arthur Annesley, Sir R. King, Sir R. Meredith,
Colonel John Moor, and Colonel Michael Jones--a quintette scarcely
likely to impress Ormonde with a sense of their dignity, or inspire in
the country a feeling of security.
Dublin, however, was in the hands of the Parliamentarians, and Ormonde
chose to assert what authority he possessed from the provinces. Had
Charles's cause been the strongest in the world, it could not have
survived the adverse verdict of the series of great and decisive
battles that temporarily ended the monarchy. Ormonde was not dismayed,
however, and even the execution of the king found him dauntless and
fearless. He proclaimed the son of the murdered monarch king, and
wrote entreating him to come to Ireland, assuring the prince that his
troops could hold that {90} country for him. Meanwhile Ormonde
attacked Dublin, captured Drogheda, suffered defeat at Rathmines, where
Colonel Jones, the Parliamentary leader, with that strange inspiration
for successful fighting and generalship which inspired the leaders of
the democracy, outpointed him, and drove him and his army from the
field.
[Illustration: Oliver Cromwell]
[Sidenote: The Cromwellian campaign]
Whatever hopes Ormonde may have entertained of recovering his position,
they were soon extinguished by the arrival of Oliver Cromwell. It was
an unexpected move on the part of Parliament, but now that Charles was
dead, and the royal family in exile, it was considered safe to send the
strongest man of his generation to cope with the Irish rebellion. In
1642 Cromwell had subscribed £600 towards the cost of an expedition for
avenging the massacres of the previous year, and this act showed that
he took a practical interest in Irish affairs, and realized the
country's importance to England. Ormonde was a resourceful, determined
leader, and a man of unquestioned courage, but Cromwell was his
superior in the field and in the council-room, and he had the advantage
also of a united army. Twelve thousand picked soldiers, their courage
exalted by a fanaticism that combined psalm-singing with murder, took
the field under Cromwell against Lord Ormonde, who had to depend for
the greater part upon ill-trained troops officered by men who were not
the less incompetent because the Protestants among them refused to be
led by Catholics, and Catholics declined to recognize the authority of
Protestants. Ormonde {91} strove frantically to unite his forces, but
without success, and Drogheda, Wexford, Ross, and other towns were left
to the cruel mercies of Cromwell.
The English leader came to Ireland as Commander-in-Chief and
Lord-Lieutenant at a combined salary of £13,000 a year. His first act,
characteristic of the man, was to issue a proclamation against
swearing, and he discouraged plunder and looting by hanging even those
of his own soldiers who transgressed his rules. Inspired by a sense of
his own rectitude, Cromwell marched on Drogheda. The massacre has
stained his memory almost as much as it stained the streets of the
town, and after it Wexford's tragedy seems light in comparison.
Ormonde, suspected by the native leaders, was in no enviable position.
Waterford, besieged by Cromwell, declined to allow his army to enter
because its leader was 'English.' There was thus no work for him to
do, but he remained on, contemptuously rejecting Cromwell's offer of a
passport to the Continent.
In the great Cromwellian campaign the ex-viceroy took no part. The
English leader, encouraged by a series of victories, was suddenly
disconcerted by the successful resistance of the citizens of Waterford,
and his failure to take Clonmel ended his enthusiasm for the task of
conquering Ireland. In a pessimistic letter to the House of Commons he
warned the Speaker not to imagine that by his victories at Drogheda and
Wexford he had subdued Ireland. He knew too {92} well that in reality
he had not conquered a square foot of the land.
The outwitting of Cromwell by Hugh O'Neill, the gallant defender of
Clonmel, is one of the lighter episodes of an era of tragedy. The
English leader had restarted his campaign following a rest after the
setback at Waterford. He besieged Kilkenny, and was compelled to stoop
to an honourable treaty to secure the town, and then he marched on
Clonmel, where O'Neill, the Irish idol who had supplanted Ormonde as
the national hero, was performing wonders at the head of a small and
badly-armed garrison. And this garrison withstood the flower of
Cromwell's soldiery, fighting for their country without any hope of
gain, and repeatedly defeating the invaders. Cromwell, sick at heart,
was considering the advisability of abandoning the siege which had
brought him so many rebuffs, when he was agreeably surprised to hear
that the Mayor of Clonmel, Mathew White, wished to see him. The
mayor's object was to surrender the town on certain terms, and Cromwell
was, of course, only too glad to save his face by granting any
concessions so long as they brought him the town of Clonmel. A treaty
was hastily drawn up, guarding against the atrocities that had
distinguished Drogheda and Wexford, and then the English General
inquired if Hugh O'Neill was aware of the mayor's action. Mathew White
replied with well-assumed diffidence that O'Neill and his army had left
the town some hours before! Cromwell stormed and raged, and demanded
his treaty back, but White {93} played upon the Puritan's vanity of
reputation, and Cromwell kept his word.
[Sidenote: Death of Henry Ireton]
Despite his reverses, Cromwell had hopes of firmly establishing English
authority by means of the Protestant religion in Ireland. He drew up a
series of recommendations on the subject, but by now there was more
important work for him to do. England required his services, and on
May 29, 1650, his son-in-law, Henry Ireton, was appointed Lord-Deputy
and Commander-in-Chief, and instructed to carry out the Cromwellian
policy. Ireton did not spare himself or others. He besieged Limerick,
and in four months starved the garrison out, but it was his last
effort, and on November 26, 1651, he died of the prevailing plague.
The rest of the Commonwealth deputies were undistinguished so far as
their Irish careers were concerned. Major-General Lambert was chosen
to succeed Ireton, but he was more suited for the camp than the council
board, being a bluff soldier with a partiality for the rough pleasures
of the average campaign. Cromwell did not care for 'Honest John'
Lambert, and having in mind a scheme whereby Lieutenant-General Sir
Charles Fleetwood, who had wisely married Ireton's widow and the
Protector's daughter, should be made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, he
induced Parliament to abolish the post. Lambert was enraged, for the
prospect of ruling a country had excited his imagination, and he made
great preparations to inaugurate his term of office. The Protector
gave him two thousand pounds as compensation, and offered him the post
of {94} Commander-in-Chief, which he declined angrily. Fleetwood was
thereupon given the post, and after a couple of years of government by
commissioners, he was created Lord-Deputy.
Fleetwood distinguished himself by priest-baiting and an attempt to
revive the 'plantation' methods of Sidney and Perrott. Henry Cromwell,
fourth son of Oliver, who had been given command of an army in Ireland,
in order to amuse himself and learn the arts of war, replaced
Fleetwood. This Cromwell was unambitious, something of a poltroon, and
only kept in the forefront by the personality of his father. Nepotism
nourishes even in democracies, and Henry, a Colonel at twenty-two and
Lord-Deputy before he was thirty, was not the man to carry on the
traditions of the Protector. The Restoration found Henry Cromwell
pitiably anxious to submit to the new order of things, and when the new
reign opened and Lord Ormonde returned to resume his duties at Dublin
Castle, Cromwell was grateful for being allowed to retire into private
life.
[Sidenote: The Restoration]
During the years of the Commonwealth Lord Ormonde had resided abroad,
stanchly faithful to the discredited cause of the Stuarts. When others
grew faint-hearted, and deserted, Ormonde spoke the encouraging word,
and he spent all his revenues in the royal service. Recalling a
promise made by Cromwell that his wife's fortune would not be
confiscated, he sent her to the Protector, and she succeeded in getting
five hundred pounds in cash and two thousand a year for life. In 1658,
six years after his wife's visit, Ormonde entered {95} England
disguised, charged with a mission from the Royalist party to ascertain
if the times were rife for a rising. The ex-viceroy returned with a
pessimistic report, and on his advice Charles waited. Two years later
came the Restoration, and with it Ormonde's fortunes rose to a dazzling
height.
In the first flush of gratitude King Charles showered honours upon the
Irish nobleman. He was created Duke of Ormonde in the Irish peerage,
Earl of Brecknock in the English, appointed Chancellor of Dublin
University, Lord Steward, Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset, and High Steward
of Kingston, Westminster, and Bristol. At the coronation of Charles
II. he carried the crown. The restoration of his Irish estates
followed as a matter of course, and the king added a promise to pay him
a large sum of money. This promise was never kept, but the Irish
Parliament, anxious to curry favour with Ormonde and the king, voted
him thirty thousand pounds. At the close of his career Ormonde
declared that he had spent nearly a million of money in the king's
service, and although this is an obvious exaggeration, yet it is a fact
that he lost heavily pecuniarily and otherwise by his adherence to the
Stuart cause.
Ultra-patriotic writers, with that passion for obscure data which
characterizes the partisan historian in his search of an argument, have
chosen to regard the first Duke of Ormonde as the friend of England and
the enemy of Ireland. They shed inky tears over the fate of men like
Hugh O'Neill and Shane of that family, but the {96} success of either
of these would have meant a return to the absurd state of affairs which
made Ireland a nation of kingdoms and traitors. O'Neill represented
only his own followers, and his success would have bred rivals and
imitators. There was no hope of peace or prosperity if the country
came under the dominion of men brave on the battlefield and foolish and
quarrelsome in their councils. Mere bravery is not statesmanship;
victories on the battlefield have to be supported by wisdom in the
council, or all their benefits are lost.
[Sidenote: Ormonde and Lady Castlemaine]
The Duke of Ormonde was the first of the great race of Irishmen,
worthily descended from famous persons in the two countries, who aimed
at a united Ireland in honourable federation with England. To a man of
his breeding and education the civilization of Pall Mall was more
pleasing than the semi-barbarous condition of provincial Ireland, but
he accepted again the thankless position of viceroy, and, hampered by
the new school of politics that had arisen in London, he did his utmost
for Ireland. He was the best man for the task, and Charles knew it,
and although his enemies never lost an opportunity for damaging his
reputation, he retained the post until March 14, 1669, having conducted
the government in person for nearly seven years. Ormonde was one of
the first to realize the fact that Charles was endangering his throne
by his profligacy. Almost every decree that emanated from Whitehall
was inspired by the whims and vagaries of one of the mistresses of the
'Merry Monarch,' and even Ormonde, {97} attached as he was to the
person of the king, could not submit to the insolent demand on the part
of Lady Castlemaine that her lover should grant her Phoenix Park as a
private demesne. Lady Castlemaine, however, ascribed her defeat to
Ormonde's jealousy, and it was mainly through her that the viceroy's
enemies continued their plottings and secured his recall. The charges
against him were that he had billeted soldiers on civilians and had
executed martial law, charges so ridiculous that there was never any
serious attempt to investigate them after Ormonde's return to London.
He was not without honour, however, even in England, for Oxford
University elected him her Chancellor, and in 1670 the city of Dublin
presented an address to Lord Ossory, the duke's son, which consisted of
complimentary references to the late viceroy and ignored the then
holder of the post, Lord Robarts. Lord Ossory had acted as deputy for
his father in 1664-65, and gave promise of a brilliant career.
Eight years of court life followed, during which Ormonde, who knew more
about Ireland than any other living person, was seldom called in to
advise Charles. Robarts, a stolid nobleman of no accomplishments
beyond a little pride, managed to last a year--1669-70. On the
Restoration, Robarts, the son of a tin merchant and a usurer, was
appointed deputy to General Monck, whom he considered an upstart, but
he declined to represent such a man, and Charles, who was heavily in
his debt, made him Lord Privy Seal, and thus enabled {98} him to avoid
the indignity of occupying an inferior position to General Monck.
The next viceroy was a distinguished survivor of the Civil War in the
person of John Berkeley, first Lord Berkeley of Stratton. He was a
nobleman of elaborate tastes, who took full advantage of Charles II.'s
indebtedness to him for services rendered during the great exile. This
he supplemented by marrying three times, the third wife bringing him an
immense fortune. She was plain and old, but Berkeley overcame his
natural repugnance to the ugly in this particular case. In Ireland he
was a success mainly because his sympathies inclined towards the
Catholic religion, and he left well alone. The country would have
welcomed a longer viceroyalty than two years, but Berkeley was not the
man to waste his energies in Dublin, and he was glad to return to
London and to the court.
[Sidenote: The Duchess of Cleveland]
Ireland did not, of course, escape altogether from the evil
consequences of Charles's partiality for frail femininity. His
illegitimate children had to be provided with money as well as with
titles, and their mothers' anxiety for the future dispelled. When
there were murmurings in England against the king's extravagant methods
in satisfying the cupidity of his creatures, these latter asked for
something out of Ireland. The Duchess of Portsmouth wanted Phoenix
Park, and Charles was quite willing that she should have it, but the
Duke of Ormonde and the Earl of Essex, who knew the fatal stupidity of
the Stuarts, managed to convince Charles that he would run the risk of
losing {99} his crown if he lost his head over the woman who made the
title of duchess as cheap as water while she flaunted it in Whitehall.
It was not to be expected that an illiterate woman would be able to
understand the reasons that made the gift of Phoenix Park
impracticable, and she plotted with all the feline spite that she was
capable of to injure the men who had defeated her ambitions. Ormonde,
however, was too strong, but when Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, was
appointed to succeed Lord Berkeley in 1672, she carried on an intrigue
against him, and did not cease until his recall in 1677. Lord Essex
was the son of the Lord Capel who had been executed in 1649, and
Charles owed him and his family something. That debt was never repaid
fully, and had it not been for a sudden revulsion of feeling in
Ormonde's favour Lord Essex might never have gone to Ireland. The new
viceroy was not popular among the king's coterie of duchesses and
countesses. When at the Treasury he had declined to pay the Duchess of
Cleveland £25,000 out of the public funds, and, of course, the duchess
was furious. Essex was not dismayed. He knew that Charles dare not
quarrel with a man of his position on the question of the subsidies he
considered his mistresses ought to have. Publicity was the last thing
he desired. Essex was not the man to send to Ireland to represent the
Duchess of Cleveland or the Duchess of Portsmouth, and Ormonde
persuaded Charles that in Ireland he was regarded as king, and that the
people in that benighted country were so unacquainted with the manners
{100} of polite society as to be quite unable to appreciate the
delicate position of duchess without a duke.
[Illustration: Earl of Essex]
Lord Essex found Ireland as peaceful as he could expect. Fortunately
for him, he lacked the ambition that had attacked so many former
viceroys like a disease, and did not wish to conquer Ireland. He
realized that beyond Dublin and a few provincial cities the rule of
England did not extend, but provided he was allowed to remain in peace
at Dublin Castle, he did not worry. And in fact Dublin was the only
habitable place. Centuries of warfare had left the land in a terrible
state. Education and all the arts were at a standstill, while the
traders had not yet raised themselves to a position of independence,
and the resident nobility dwelt in their strongholds or emigrated to
fight under foreign flags. If we are to believe the records of the
times, Lord Essex confined himself to Dublin and the Castle, and all
his entertainments were for the benefit of the officials and occasional
visitors from London. He did something to make Dublin worthier of its
position as the capital city. Highway and street robberies were
punished severely and building improvements encouraged.
Lady Essex took her part in the work of her husband, being really the
first of the 'vicereines'--to use an apt if technically incorrect
description of the wives of the viceroys--to enter into the social life
of the people her husband governed. She entertained as a great
hostess, and was charming and popular. It was her accessibility which
led to an incident which rendered the last few {101} months of Essex's
viceroyalty painful. The times were ripe for the propagation of
scandal. The king's patronage of vice gave it an appearance of virtue,
and certainly many rewards. The chivalry of the time was an elaborate
ritual in honour of free love, and, of course, the influence spread to
Dublin. Personally Lord Essex was almost a little better than his
contemporaries, but he held the honour of his wife to be something very
sacred, and when he heard that it was the talk of Dublin that she was
carrying on an intrigue with a Captain Brabazon he was greatly
embittered. It was fashionable to be vicious, but Essex would not
believe that his wife was guilty, although Captain Brabazon swore that
she was. According to the laws of honour, a duel with Brabazon was the
viceroy's only court of appeal, but as the king's representative he
could not issue a challenge or accept one, and he was therefore
compelled to affect a haughty indifference to the covert insults heaped
upon himself and Lady Essex. Fortunately for the viceroy and his wife,
Captain Brabazon, rejoicing in his immunity, became too precise; he
offered details of times and places, and once he had sworn to these it
was easy to prove them wicked and malicious falsehoods.
The viceroy was not sorry to yield up office to Ormonde, although, as
is always the case, popular feeling turned in his favour, and even
gossip admitted nothing but good of the countess. The whole plot had
been hatched by the Duchess of Cleveland in revenge for his refusal to
rob the Treasury on her behalf. On his return to London, {102} Lord
Essex immediately sought out Charles and complained of the scandalous
treatment he had received. The king was sympathetic--weak-minded
persons find in sympathy their only virtue--but he would do nothing,
and the ex-viceroy, disappointed and enraged, flung himself out of the
royal presence. He was a marked man now, and all his sayings were
improved upon and reported to Charles. The Rye House plot ended his
career. He was arrested and committed to the Tower, where he was said
to have taken his own life in a fit of depression. Whether true or not
scarcely matters, for his act merely saved his head from the
executioner's axe.
{103}
CHAPTER VII
The Duke of Ormonde's career in London during his period of
unemployment was not without excitement. As a great nobleman he
frequented the court without ever becoming one of its favoured
habitués. In his salad days Ormonde had been one of the gayest of the
gay, but he was a veteran when Robarts succeeded him in Ireland, and
his temperament was that of a statesman rather than a courtier.
His enemies, however, feared and detested him, and finding that they
could not compel the complacent Charles to banish the duke, they took
it into their own hands to try and murder him. One night,
therefore--it was December 5, 1670--Ormonde's coach was stopped in St.
James's Street by Thomas Blood and five other ruffians, who dragged the
duke out and carried him off on horseback. The affair created a
tremendous sensation, the most widely-spread rumour being that the five
accomplices were well-known friends of the King's, inspired by him to
assassinate a man who had helped Charles to regain his throne. Blood
became famous in one quarter and infamous in another, while Lord
Ossory, the duke's eldest son, believing that Buckingham had instigated
{104} the plot, went in search of the duke, and, finding him with the
king, did not hesitate to tell him that if his father died a violent
death he would pistol Buckingham, even if he sought shelter behind the
king. Ormonde escaped mainly owing to the over-sureness of his
captors. The strangest incident, however, was yet to come. Blood was
captured--he made no attempt to escape--and it was expected as matter
of course that he would be hanged, but Charles sent for the duke, and
in a private interview persuaded that nobleman to pardon his would-be
assassin. This action of the king's proved conclusively that if
Buckingham paid Blood to attempt Ormonde's life Charles must have had
cognizance of the matter, while it is certain that the germ of the
whole idea originated with one of Charles's mistresses, who hated
Ormonde, not because he was excessively moral or squeamish, but because
he declined to treat seriously their pretensions to be considered
members of the nobility.
Nearly seven years after this episode Charles reappointed Ormonde
Viceroy of Ireland. The duke was now sixty-seven, but he took up
office with all his old zest, and he made his entry into Dublin an
elaborate ceremonial, behaving himself as though he were the King of
Ireland, and not merely a king's deputy.
The Duke of Ormonde was not a patriot in the sense that the word is
regarded nowadays. His policy was to increase the English ascendancy.
His religion naturally placed him in the minority. He was a Protestant
and a Royalist, but there can {105} be no mistaking the earnestness of
his views. He brought a conscientiousness to his task that
distinguished him from the average viceroy, and he could pride himself
upon knowing the country. The O'Neills, in their brief day of squabble
and treachery, had taunted Ormonde with being English, and their
fondness for creating parties within a party had helped to defeat
Ormonde's policy more than once. In 1677, however, the duke had behind
him the united power of England, and during his last viceroyalty he was
all-powerful.
[Sidenote: Proclamations against Catholics]
The Popish plot that disturbed the Government towards the close of
Charles's reign roused the fervid anti-Catholic spirit in Ormonde. He
issued a proclamation banishing all ecclesiastics who took their orders
from Rome; dissolving societies, convents, and schools, and commanding
all Catholics to surrender their arms within twenty days. These
measures, however, did not satisfy the bigots in London, and they
clamoured for the viceroy's recall, declaring that he was in secret
sympathy with the plotters. But the duke had a brave defender in the
person of his son, Lord Ossory, the handsomest and most hot-tempered
man of his day. Lord Ossory was his father's devoted friend, and
during his long stay in London the younger man never lost an
opportunity for confounding his father's enemies. In an impassioned
speech he defended him in the House of Lords, and he had the
satisfaction of defeating the intriguers.
The death of his son was a terrible blow to the {106} duke, and he lost
all interest in public matters. His supersession by the Earl of
Rochester in 1683 was not unwelcome to him. Ormonde was seventy-three,
and had aged considerably during the preceding ten years. On July 21,
1688, he died, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, a fit sepulchre for
a man whose loyalty and conscientiousness were rare virtues in his day,
and who had given more to his king than he had received. His last
public act had been to carry the crown at the Coronation of King James,
but he was spared the knowledge of the second and final exile of the
Stuart family from England. His eldest son, Lord Ossory, the most
popular man about town in his day, a confirmed gambler and an intimate
of King Charles, who occasionally paid his card debts for him, left
behind a son who succeeded his grandfather in the title and estates,
becoming second Duke of Ormonde, and later Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
In Evelyn's 'Diary' there is a notable tribute to Lord Ossory.
Universal grief was occasioned by the announcement of his death at an
early age.
The new viceroy was the Earl of Rochester, a dull creature who grew
restive in Dublin, where he ignored the local nobility, and was for
ever pining for the pleasures of London. The expenses of the
viceroyalty were very considerable now, and there were few
opportunities of making money out of the office. Lord Tyrconnel, the
Commander-in-Chief, treated him with open contempt, as he had treated
the Duke of Ormonde, a stronger man than either of them, and Rochester,
{107} a product of society, was not likely to succeed against the
bullying, swaggering methods of Tyrconnel, who was clearly aiming at
the viceroyalty for himself.
[Sidenote: A Catholic régime]
In 1683 Charles commissioned Laurence Hyde, brother of the Earl of
Clarendon, to replace Rochester, but Hyde, who was anxious to remain in
London at that particular time, managed to delay his departure for over
a year, and when the king died and James ascended the throne, Henry
Hyde, Earl of Clarendon and brother-in-law of James, was selected for
the task of permeating Ireland, especially official Ireland, with the
new Jacobean policy. England was avowedly Protestant, and England in
Ireland was similar. James, who was that human paradox--an insincere
fanatic--instructed Clarendon to proceed cautiously in his difficult
task of placing the Government and laws of Ireland in the hands of
Roman Catholics, while at the same time maintaining outwardly a
Protestant régime. Hyde, who was James's subservient minister, did his
best, and within a year the majority of the judges, and nearly all the
State officials, were Catholic. He found it comparatively easy to
appoint Catholic officers to the highest positions in the army, for
Tyrconnel, the Commander-in-Chief, was a Catholic, and he raised no
objection to Clarendon's nominations. This was the only help the
viceroy received from Tyrconnel, the most popular man in Ireland and
the most powerful. He had the army behind him, and, knowing that he
could take the viceroyalty whenever he cared to do so, he had {108}
sufficient sense of humour to wait until James had exhausted his stock
of Pall Mall exquisites, and had to turn to him. It was characteristic
of the king that he should try to carry out a Catholic policy with the
aid of Protestant ministers, relying upon nepotism rather than upon
conviction or sincerity, but the Stuarts were born to blunder, and they
blundered.
Lord Tyrconnel pretended to obey the viceroy, but scarcely a single act
from Dublin Castle was not ignored by him. He was jealous of the
king's preference for English noblemen, firmly believing that Ireland
should be governed by an Irishman and a Catholic. The Duke of Ormonde
he had regarded as an Englishman, and that viceroy's terms of office
were always noted for quarrels with Tyrconnel. The old Irish families
and the common people looked to Tyrconnel to save them from the evil
consequences of the mad policy of Charles II. and his successor. James
certainly gratified them by his return to the old religion, but he went
about it the wrong way, and with the usual result. Clarendon did his
best, but Fate was against him. He was too weak to stand the strain
fidelity imposed in such troublous times, and James removed him from
office because he suspected his loyalty. The suspicion was correct.
Clarendon was one of the first of James's intimates to go over to the
party that invited William and Mary to ascend the throne of England.
Later he plotted against William, and only the influence of great
friends and a remembrance of previous services saved his life. He was
released {109} from prison, and permitted to live in semi-retirement
until his death in 1709 at the age of seventy-one.
[Sidenote: The Earl of Tyrconnel]
When Clarendon's term of office ended there was only one man who could
continue James's policy. This was Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel,
the man who had done his utmost to kill the authority of half a dozen
occupants of Dublin Castle. Fate retaliated by making his viceroyalty
stormy and tragic. At the time of his appointment in 1687 Tyrconnel
was fifty-seven years of age, and he had a long record behind him
which, despite the tendency to idealize in the course of more than two
centuries, seems to prove that he was nothing better than a bully and
an adventurer. He was at the same time a brave soldier and a cowardly
statesman, but his greatest defect lay in his utter inability to
acquire the art of obeying. He wished to rule always, and when the
critical time came, this contributed more than anything else to the
complete defeat of the Jacobean cause in Ireland.
Born in 1630, Tyrconnel was twenty years of age when Cromwell came to
Ireland and besieged Drogheda. Even at that early age he was well
known for his reckless courage, and he was certainly one of the most
gallant defenders of the town. He owed his escape to the fact that he
was so dangerously wounded that he was placed amongst the dead, and he
took advantage of the lonely battlefield to make his way out of
Drogheda disguised as a woman. Coming to London, Tyrconnel was
arrested by Cromwell, but escaped to the Continent, {110} where he
quickly determined to enter the inner circle of the royal exiles.
Charles and his brother, the Duke of York, later James II., did not
care for the society of a person who lacked the finer polish, and who
found his acquaintances at the point of the sword. Tyrconnel, however,
was crafty enough to sum up James's character, and by offering to go to
England and assassinate Cromwell, he was at once taken into the
confidence of the duke. Fortunately, it was soon realized that such a
foul deed would merely serve to strengthen the Commonwealth in England,
and certainly extinguish all hopes of another Stuart régime. It is not
at all unlikely that Tyrconnel knew this; anyhow, he gained his
ambition, and by the time the Restoration was accomplished, he was one
of the royal prince's most trusted companions.
Unfortunately for Tyrconnel, he cast in his lot with the Duke of York,
and twenty-five years passed before his patron was in a position to
give him his earldom. Talbot, who was a product of the battlefield,
was not likely to shine in the court of Charles II. He played a part
in it for a time, and he was the hero of several love affairs, but he
had not the courtly graces of a Buckingham or a Rochester. Women were
afraid of provoking him, for he brooked no rivalry, and the man who in
one week fought five duels in London and wounded his opponent every
time was no fit companion for ladies whose fame depended upon the
number of conquests they made, but they admired his courage and
success. In his only really serious love affair Tyrconnel was
rejected, and the lady {111} married Sir George Hamilton. Richard
Talbot also found consolation, but some years later, when his wife had
died, he married Lady Hamilton, a widow with six children.
Charles was speaking more than the truth when he declared that no one
would ever assassinate him to make James king, and Talbot, leading an
aimless life in London, a beggared gambler, distrusted by the old
aristocracy and feared by the new, sought vainly for adequate
employment for nearly ten years. Then in 1669 Charles appointed him
Commander-in-Chief in Ireland on the earnest and persistent
solicitation of the Duke of York. London society was not displeased to
get rid of the bully so easily, for in their estimation Ireland was
still a place of exile, especially so in view of the comfortable
statesmanship practised by Charles and his satellites in the palace of
Whitehall. Talbot went to Ireland eagerly, knowing that the qualities
which had won for him contempt in London would idealize him in Ireland.
With the aid of the Duke of York, and also helped by the indolence of
Charles, he knew that he could make his office of Commander-in-Chief at
least equal to, if not more powerful than, the viceroyalty. Ormonde
had been superseded by Lord Robarts, and Talbot detested the duke,
whose religion made him unpopular with the Duke of York and his friends.
[Sidenote: 'Lying Dick Talbot']
On the accession of James II., Richard Talbot--Macaulay's 'Lying Dick
Talbot'--was created Earl of Tyrconnel, and his powers as
Commander-in-Chief increased. It was the king's ambition {112} to make
himself independent of Parliament by means of the army, and he hoped
that Tyrconnel would bring the army in Ireland to such a state of
efficiency that would render it an important asset in the struggle
between the king and his subjects. To a man of Talbot's temperament
unlimited power was a spur to unlimited ambition, and successive
viceroys found themselves in a humiliating position. The noted
duellist and bully--the man at whom half London sneered and whom the
other half feared--was set in authority over some of the best blood in
the kingdom, and although they complained bitterly to the king, there
was no redress.
[Sidenote: The state of the country]
The nomination of Tyrconnel to the vice-royalty was, therefore, the
only way out of James's difficulties in Ireland. Nearly every class in
the country welcomed the appointment. The new viceroy proceeded to
strengthen his own position rather than that of the king's. He had
been instructed to pack the state and the bench with Catholics, but
Tyrconnel, with thoughts of the future, selected creatures of his own,
and in a short time he was master of the country. The bench, the
corporations, the Justices of the Peace, were all subservient to him.
He made and unmade laws, and the spectacle of a bully ruling a country
might have made the world laugh had it not been so tragic. The
disarmed Protestants were left to the mercy of the criminal classes and
the legalized highway robbers; consequently many of the most prosperous
and law-abiding families were compelled to leave their lands and homes
{113} and emigrate to England. Justice was a travesty; householders in
Dublin had to keep watch all night to guard their property because the
fear of punishment for crime no longer existed. The viceroy and his
wife reigned in Dublin Castle, where sectarianism influenced every
single act.
Lady Tyrconnel, who had been in her youth one of the most fascinating
of the group of ingenuous beauties gathered about the court of Charles
II., was in her middle age ugly, spiteful, and fanatical. Her husband
was rough and coarse; she was feline and fanciful, but she adapted
herself to the ways of his policy, and the Catholic religion found in
her a devout adherent. She was not popular in Ireland, however. The
mother of six children, she was fond of recalling the glories of her
Whitehall past. Secretly she disliked James, and even at times broke
out into petulant diatribes against her husband's patron; but all the
time she aped the youth of her early years, and tried to hide the plain
present by means of paint.
There was no room for the finer arts of life in Tyrconnel. He was now
acting the statesman, and the result was very soon evident. Ormonde,
despite his defects and dislike for the ultra-patriots, had succeeded
in improving the condition of Ireland, and his successors had been
willing to continue his social policy if they could not improve upon
it. The Earl of Tyrconnel, however, was not the man to imitate others,
no matter how praiseworthy such imitation might be, and in less than a
couple of years he 'reduced Ireland {114} from a place of briskest
trade and best-paid rents in Christendom to utter ruin and desolation.'
Dublin had progressed amazingly under Ormonde, and it seemed as if the
capital city would rise to a place amongst the most important cities of
the world, when Tyrconnel came to set it back a hundred years. England
had never done anything for Dublin or any other town in Ireland, and
the progress of the capital had been made in the face of the bitterest
opposition and the most relentless persecution. London, Bristol, and
the other ports of England were jealous of Dublin, and they were able
to get edicts passed interfering with the shipping and the trade of the
country, in order that they might not lose in competition. Dublin,
however, rose superior to edicts and statutes, and by the end of the
seventeenth century it was not a mean city. Even in London it was
realized with something approaching wonder that Dublin was not to be
despised. For five hundred years it had been the headquarters of the
English colony, but it was in Tyrconnel's day entirely Irish. The
English families had been merged in the Irish, and the result was a
population anxious for peace and freedom from the persecutions entailed
by religious squabbles and political struggles.
The Earl of Tyrconnel was too patriotic, however, to let the country
rest. His crude mind was full of ambitious schemes, and from England
James fed him with ambitious food. Between them they were to make
England, Ireland, and Scotland wholly Catholic, and in the remote event
of England failing the king, Ireland was to be {115} made a French
protectorate, so that the supremacy of the Catholic religion might
remain undisputed.
Suddenly James appealed for help, and Tyrconnel sent him 3,000 men; but
they could not keep the king's throne, and on March 12, 1689, James
landed at Kinsale from France, a king without a throne, a Catholic
without a conscience, and a fanatic without a scruple. His visit to
Ireland had an ominous precedent in the case of Richard II., and it had
a similar result. It was obvious that the English monarch relied
entirely upon his viceroy to save his throne. Ireland was even then
renowned for its simple-hearted allegiance to the old faith, and James
was under the impression that fanaticism can beat generalship and
numbers.
[Sidenote: King James in Dublin]
Tyrconnel, ever optimistic when fighting was imminent, met James at
Cork, and headed the triumphant procession into Dublin on March 24,
1689. The king was rapturously welcomed from Cork to Dublin as the
friend of Ireland and of its religion, and Lady Tyrconnel organized a
fête at the Castle, in which she endeavoured to remind the nervous and
dejected king of the former glories of the Stuart dynasty when the
family seemed all-powerful and secure. James, however, unwisely and
needlessly irritated her by a display of indifference, and at a dance
he exasperated her by leading out a less-known but more beautiful
member of Irish society. The viceroy's wife was Duchess of Tyrconnel
by now, for the Lord-Lieutenant had been created a duke on the {116}
arrival of the king; but it is as Earl of Tyrconnel that he is known.
James had not the power to create peerages in 1689.
There is no need to enter minutely into any of the details of the
Jacobean war in Ireland. It was a religious and a political contest,
but the presence of James and the multitude of his counsellors were the
chief causes of the Catholic defeat. In the Parliament James summoned
at Dublin there was a member named Patrick Sarsfield, afterwards given
the worthless and illegal title of Earl of Lucan, who was destined to
play a leading part in the fortunes of James, and who might have won
success for his royal master had his qualities been recognized in high
quarters. Tyrconnel, however, always ready to sacrifice the good of
his country for the good of himself, kept Sarsfield under, and James,
who had been given proof of Sarsfield's devotion, distrusted his
ability. At a time when everybody had deserted James, Patrick
Sarsfield stood by him, and in the very first encounter with the army
of William he proved his courage. The viceroy was now old and crippled
by gout, but he insisted upon holding the principal place in James's
Council, and when it was announced that William was coming to Ireland,
it was he who insisted upon James fighting for his crown, although that
monarch was secretly preparing for his return to France. James created
defeat for himself, and his motley collection of adventurers made that
defeat certain. No real attempt was made to bring a disciplined army
into the field against the King of England, and {117} only the bravery
and genius of the troops made the Battle of the Boyne a battle at all.
[Sidenote: The Battle of the Boyne]
This decisive conflict was fought on Tuesday, July 1, 1690, and the
stars in their courses fought for William. James was in the way of his
own Generals, and in the many critical moments of the battle there were
schisms in the Council. But it was James who contributed most to the
defeat of his army, and well might Patrick Sarsfield exclaim bitterly:
'Change kings, and we will fight you over again.'
The ex-king was almost the first fugitive from the field, and he rode
without cessation until he reached Dublin Castle, weary,
travel-stained, but just the same sneering, disappointed incompetent,
who had sacrificed many humble lives nobler than his own. When Lady
Tyrconnel, flustered and alarmed, came down to greet him, James
caustically informed her that the Irish ran well.
'Your Majesty seems to have won the race,' was Lady Tyrconnel's witty
rejoinder; and the king remained silent.
From Dublin James, thanks to his forethought, was able to cross to
France immediately, and he scandalized Paris by declaring that the
Irish were cowards to a man, who had run away at the first shot from
the enemy. The result of this libel was that the members of the Irish
colony in Paris were mobbed in the streets, and long afterwards, when
physical ill-treatment ceased, the name of an Irishman stood for
cowardice in the best Parisian circles.
{118}
The ex-king left Tyrconnel, Lauzun, Boisseleau, and Sarsfield to fight
his battle against William, and after the disastrous Boyne they retired
on Limerick. William followed hastily, and presently his 28,000 men
were besieging the city, which was garrisoned by not more than 15,000
troops. The hero of the siege was Sarsfield, and it is to his story
that this belongs. Tyrconnel was anxious to get out of the country,
and when Sarsfield had driven the English army from the walls of
Limerick the viceroy followed King James into exile, the Duke of
Berwick being styled 'viceroy.' A Council of Twelve assisted the duke,
while Tyrconnel, having, with his wife, gone to France with all their
available resources, interviewed James, and induced him to send him
back to Ireland as Lord-Lieutenant. Furthermore, James was persuaded
to give Tyrconnel a grant of £8,000. In such a state of war there
could be no real viceroy, and Tyrconnel was compelled to pass his time
between pleasures and fears. Chroniclers recount stories of the
festivities given by him in his own honour during a stay at Galway. He
was too old for anything else. Meanwhile the rival generals in the
field proved easy victims for William's commanders. The Earl of
Marlborough came to Ireland to supplement his small experience of
warfare, and, of course, he performed creditably, for the Jacobean
troops were badly clothed, fed, and armed. Sarsfield alone seemed
worth his position, and his efforts were negatived by the incompetence
of his colleagues.
[Sidenote: The Treaty of Limerick]
On August 14, 1691, Tyrconnel died, sixty-one {119} years of age, but
worn out and feeble. He was buried by night and in such haste that his
burial-place quickly became a mystery. He died just before the end of
the Jacobean struggle in Ireland, for a few days afterwards the Treaty
of Limerick was signed, and Sarsfield left the country to fight as a
soldier of fortune, and to die an honourable death on a foreign
battlefield. In the contest between James's Irish army and that of
William the latter had all the luck and the former all the traitors.
It was, therefore, a matter for astonishment that the Jacobean troops
should have gained any victories at all. Certain it is that the
English commanders never gained reputations so cheaply. When
Marlborough returned to London he was fêted as a victor by the king;
but all he did was to overcome by means of sheer force small and
irregular bodies of troops indifferently armed and often badly led.
Marlborough did not learn anything of the art of generalship by his
month's visit to Ireland. Patrick Sarsfield was the only man who
proved his worth as a leader and his courage as a soldier. We know
that he fought for a good cause but an unworthy man, and that the cause
was something better than the restoration of James to the throne of
England.
{120}}
CHAPTER VIII
The Orange Government in Ireland was in the hands of two Lords Justices
named Coningsby and Porter, but as soon as the Treaty of Limerick ended
the hopes of the Jacobeans William decided to send one of his followers
as viceroy. There were many claimants on the king's gratitude, but
Henry Sidney, fourth son of Robert, second Earl of Leicester, one of
Charles I.'s viceroys, had been well rewarded by the Dutchman for his
treachery towards James. Sidney had been present at the Battle of the
Boyne, being now a viscount, and when there was plenty of Irish land
and money to be distributed Viscount Sidney received 50,000 acres and
an allowance of £2,000 a year. During the reign of Charles II. Sidney
had taken a prominent part in court life, and his beauty was such that
he was regarded as 'the greatest terror to husbands' of his day.
James, Duke of York, and his duchess, formerly Anne Hyde, took young
Sidney into their confidence, and gave him a court appointment. He
retorted by endeavouring to ruin the duchess's reputation, and when
they dismissed him he continued his plottings. He was successful in so
far that he caused a temporary separation between James {121} and his
wife; but at the accession of Charles's brother he was taken back into
favour. Sidney, however, was determined to act the part of the
traitor, and he quickly betrayed his cause to William. Besides this
fondness for plotting Sidney found time to earn the reputation of one
of the most immoral men, even in Charles's reign. He regarded every
woman of beauty as fit prey for his passion, and even when he was
nearly seventy his intrigues were the talk of London.
[Sidenote: Protestant Party dissatisfied]
This was the man William sent to represent him in Ireland, and when
Viscount Sidney arrived in Dublin in 1692 he was fifty-one years of
age, unmarried, and still very handsome. But he was not a statesman or
a soldier, and his position alone made him great. He was not equal to
the task of carrying out the changes created by the Treaty of
Limerick--a treaty hotly repudiated by the Protestant party in Ireland,
who, now that William's cause had triumphed, naturally looked for a
return of their supremacy and the subjection of the majority. Sidney's
conciliatory attitude towards the Catholics brought down upon him the
wrath of the Protestant clergy and aristocracy; Parliament met, and
denounced his indulgences to members of the rival faith, and, although
Sidney dissolved it, the effect on the king was considerable. He dare
not remove the viceroy, and yet Sidney was dangerous so long as he
remained in Ireland. A way out of the difficulty was found by the
'promotion' of the viceroy to the post of 'Master-General of the
Ordnance,' and in {122} 1694--the year after he vacated office--he was
created Earl of Romney.
Sidney never married, but he did not altogether escape the
responsibilities of parentage. He complained very often of the worry
many women gave him by pestering him with demands for the provision of
their children. During his brief viceroyalty one of his numerous
victims had the courage to beard him in Dublin Castle, and demand that
he should contribute towards the maintenance of the three children she
had borne him. Sidney dare not send the woman away empty-handed, and
he gave her £500; but the majority of his victims never received
anything, for he was as mean as he was vicious. Had it not been that
by accident he could claim to have given William and Mary the Crown of
England, Sidney would never have risen to any position at all. He
became prominent by sheer chance.
[Sidenote: Lord Capel of Tewkesbury]
It was expected that care would be taken to make the new viceroy
acceptable to the Protestant party; but there was a delay, and William
allowed the Government to be conducted by three Commissioners, the most
powerful being Sir Henry Capel, Lord Capel of Tewkesbury. Capel was a
fanatical Protestant and a bitter opponent of Roman Catholicism in all
shapes and forms. His fellow-commissioners were less ferocious, but
Capel managed to gain his way in most things, and he was viceroy in
reality, though not in name. Meanwhile the English party in Dublin
used every atom of influence to secure the elevation of Capel to the
viceroyalty, and in 1695 they succeeded. {123} The cause of
Protestantism seemed safe now, but Capel did not live long, and on May
14, 1696, he died in Dublin Castle. Capel is remembered mainly because
he gave Jonathan Swift his first preferment--the benefice of Kilroot,
worth about £100 a year. This was in 1695.
Commissioners in the persons of Lords Justices conducted the affairs of
State without the supervision of a viceroy. One of these was the Earl
of Berkeley, whose dealings with Dean Swift, when that eccentric cleric
was seeking a high appointment, have become historic. Berkeley was one
of the Lords Justices, and he had it in his power to bestow preferment,
but Swift was unable or unwilling to pay his price, and one day in a
rage he cried to Berkeley and his secretary: 'God confound you for a
couple of scoundrels!' On December 12, 1700, William appointed his
wife's uncle, Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, a nobleman who had
accepted this office sixteen years before from Charles, and had not
troubled to journey to Ireland. His second appointment did not arouse
any enthusiasm either in the man or in the country he was called upon
to govern, and it was not until the following September that he landed
in Ireland. As a relative of the queen's--his sister, Anne Hyde, was
her mother--the Earl of Rochester carried greater authority than many
of his predecessors; but he was no statesman, and at sixty years of age
he was not inclined to try experiments. William thought he was
indolent and contemptuous of his duties, and in 1702 he {124} informed
him that he had been relieved of his office. Immediately, however,
further news came from London continuing Rochester in his office. This
was the result of the intervention by Queen Mary; but Rochester
resigned on February 4, 1703, rather than be subjected any longer to
the machinations of the Marlborough party at the court.
Lord Rochester returned to London in a passion scarcely cooled by the
length of the journey; but he was mollified somewhat by the fact that
his successor, the Duke of Ormonde, was his son-in-law. He had no
objection to his daughter reigning at Dublin Castle.
[Sidenote: The second Duke of Ormonde]
The Duke and Duchess of Ormonde were received with an enthusiasm in
Dublin that was reminiscent of the personal supremacy of the viceroy's
grandfather, known as the 'Great Duke.' The new viceroy had been
carefully educated for his position. A son of the celebrated Lord
Ossory, he had been from his birth in 1665 educated with a view to
future eminence in the service of the State. The boy's grandfather
sent him to France in 1675 to acquire the French language and the
polite arts of the centre of good manners and tone. When he was
seventeen he was married to Anne Hyde, a daughter of Laurence Hyde, and
a cousin to the Duchess of York. She died early the following year,
and when, in 1686, he married a daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, he
was a Lord of the Bedchamber to James II., and one of the most
influential of the younger nobility. The year of the Revolution
witnessed Ormonde's succession to the title and estates, and {125} he
became one of the most powerful pillars of the Protestant faith in the
country. The ancient Universities were in grave doubt as to the king's
intention, and Oxford, therefore, in order to secure the aid of such a
powerful nobleman in the cause of the Protestant faith, elected him
Chancellor. He had been a student at Christ Church, and the honour
was, therefore, a fit one.
James went to work cautiously to win over the young duke to his new
policy. He gave him the Garter, and hinted at even greater honours in
store for one who by his birth became entitled to nearly everything
that life had to offer. The question of religion, however, caused a
breach between James and the duke, and William's invasion of England
brought Ormonde to his side.
Ormonde's adhesion undoubtedly had the effect of bringing over to the
new monarch a great many persons in Ireland who had acted previously
like sheep without a shepherd. All that the dethroned king could do
was to declare Ormonde's estates forfeited and his person guilty of
high treason. But the acts of a fallen king are merely futilities, and
the Duke of Ormonde was able to witness the triumph at Boyne and know
that William's success meant his own. The duke's principal task in the
war was to secure Dublin for the king, and he accomplished this without
much difficulty, thanks to the weakness and mistake of his opponents
rather than to his own skill. Later he entertained William at his
ancestral home, Kilkenny Castle, in celebration of the royal successes.
{126}
The accession of Queen Anne, second daughter of James II., did not
affect Ormonde's high position in the State. He had stood by the
bedside of William, and he was one of those who settled the difficult
question of the succession. Queen Anne must have guessed that Ormonde
at heart wished for the success of the Jacobean cause, and it was
during her reign that he was successively Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland
and Captain-General of the Forces in England.
In 1703 Ormonde entered upon his first term of office as
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and, of course, the Protestant party
welcomed him joyfully. Parliament met, and subserviently voted him a
subsidy, conscious of favours to come. But the viceroy did not fulfil
their hopes. Ormonde was not the man to stoop to persecution and
fraud, and, being only a layman, he could not see that religion covered
a multitude of sins. His Parliament grew unruly, and from asking for
favours began to demand them. This was too much for the grandson of
the great duke, and so he dissolved the assembly, as his powers
entitled him to do, and continued to rule, preferring, no doubt, the
private criticisms of Jonathan Swift, who was in his favour, rather
than submit to the arrogance of a minority as unscrupulous as it was
intolerant.
Swift was at this time beginning to make himself known in those high
circles which soon began to fear him. Ormonde liked the somewhat
eccentric clergyman, while the duchess and her daughters were delighted
with his witty conversation {127} and his powers of repartee. Swift,
however, was restlessly ambitious, and he was continually journeying to
London, returning each time more disappointed and more ambitious.
[Sidenote: Court intrigues]
It was one of the most peculiar periods in the history of England. The
daughter of James II. was on the throne, and it was the generally
accepted national policy that she should be the last of her family and
race to wear the crown. There were a dozen parties in the State, and
the poor queen had to suffer herself to be buffeted by the numerous
leaders, who plotted without principle, and were religious without
having any religion. Marlborough, Godolphin, Somers, and half a dozen
others buzzed round the queen. Ladies of high estate joined in the
numerous intrigues, and every party had its literary hacks and
hangers-on who wrote to order, and hoped to fatten on the carcass of
the State when their particular masters had triumphed. It was the
Golden Age of the wirepullers.
Ormonde's position in Dublin was at once safe and tantalizing. The
government was entirely in his hands, and he could do what he liked;
but the knowledge that the plotters in London might precipitate a
revolution or ruin the country made Ormonde--an ambitious man
himself--long to be free to take his own part in the underground fight.
The triumph of his opponents in 1707 naturally relieved him of his
office, and it was not until the end of 1710 that his party returned,
and the queen reappointed him.
Meanwhile Thomas Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, {128} and Thomas, Earl of
Wharton, ran their brief careers in the viceregal court. Ormonde's
second term lasted a little over two years, but his recall also brought
with it the higher post of Captain-General of the Forces and the sweet
satisfaction of seeing the Marlborough party in disfavour. No doubt,
if it had been possible, Ormonde would have used his great position to
insure the Jacobean succession, but he knew that public opinion was
unanimous in its detestation of the Stuarts, and that Jacobinism was
merely a harmless political theory to be debated by students and
ignored by statesmen. Bowing to the inevitable, Ormonde signed the
proclamation announcing the death of Anne and the accession of George
I. But he could not conceal his dislike of the Hanoverian monarch, and
he made his house at Richmond a meeting-place for those who desired the
return of the Stuarts.
The remainder of his life is a record of disappointment. There was no
chance of his cause succeeding, and without even a blow he fled from
England and spent the last thirty years of his life in exile, visiting
England but once, and experiencing the humiliating poverty of the
harmless plotter, the recipient of pity when he expected hero-worship,
and, worse than that, regarded generally as a hopeless crank. His
estates were declared forfeited and vested in the Crown; but in 1721
the exile's brother, Lord Arran, was allowed by Parliament to purchase
them. Thirty years after his flight Ormonde died, the year of his
death--1745--marking the last attempt of the {129} Jacobites to regain
the throne of England. He outlived his glory, and those who met him
during the last few years of his life could see nothing but a querulous
old man who boasted of exploits forgotten if not altogether
discredited; but he had been great once, and so merited their pity, and
pity is all the fallen greatness earns in obscurity.
[Sidenote: Lord Pembroke and Swift]
The Earl of Pembroke remained in Ireland less than a couple of years,
playing at governing, and amused by Swift. The post of Lord High
Admiral was more to his liking, and he gladly resigned the viceroyalty
to take it up. Swift acted as chaplain to Pembroke, but his principal
duty appears to have been that of amusing the earl with humorous
doggerel or by his caustic criticisms of Dublin's leading citizens,
official and otherwise. The punning correspondence with the viceroy
was the forerunner of a habit that lasted through Swift's life, and
gained him a reputation for wit which, fortunately for the dean, was
supplemented by something more recondite. During several viceroyalties
he exercised considerable influence, and although Swift hotly
repudiated the title of Irishman, at times he rendered some service to
the country in which he was born. The Earl of Wharton was sixty when
appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland on November 25, 1708, and there
were forty years of profligacy behind him. He was an atheist,
unscrupulous, licentious, witty, contemptuous, and absolutely without
fear. From the first he had been an opponent of James II., and the
invitation to William was suggested by {130} Wharton. To send this man
to Ireland to settle the religious question and maintain the supremacy
of the Protestant party was a matchless piece of irony; but Wharton,
who could insist upon an elaborate ritual of household prayers in his
own home, undertook the task, undeterred by the sneers of his
opponents, the amazement of his friends, and the bitter invective of
that disappointed office-seeker, Jonathan Swift.
[Illustration: Lord Wharton]
Wharton had done considerable service to the cause of William by the
writing of a single song that proved to be worth an army to the Orange
party. Like most of the English nobility, Wharton had been vastly
amused by Tyrconnel's elevation to the viceroyalty. In his opinion the
position was one for a gentleman, and not a bully with Irish leanings
and unrepentantly Catholic. The famous song, set to music by Purcell,
and known as 'Lilli Burlero, Bullen-a-la,' was the result, and,
whistled and sung from one end of the country to the other, it
ridiculed Tyrconnel out of existence. That was Wharton's first
contribution to the history of Ireland.
His second took the form of a law declaring that all property held by
Catholics must be inherited by their Protestant heirs--a statute which
was declared to do more towards stamping out Popery in three months
than all others had done in three years. The viceroy, however, took no
pains to please anybody but himself. He lived in Dublin as he lived in
London, and, when satiated with the pleasures of the Irish metropolis,
he crossed over to London, following the example of his {131}
predecessors, who never became too fond of Dublin to prefer it to
London.
Wharton's first wife, Ann Lee, brought him a large fortune and a plain
face; his second, Lucy Loftus, was heavily dowered, but her character
almost matched his own--and that is saying a great deal. During his
viceroyalty most of the royalty was absent, and Dublin Castle became a
glorified tavern and brothel. The viceroy's discarded mistresses were
married to distressed profligates, whom Wharton promoted to office in
the State or gave preferment in the Church. Once he recommended a boon
companion for a bishopric, declaring that 'James was the most
honourable man alive, and possessed of a character practically
faultless save for his damnable morals.' This person did not secure
the bishopric, but he found compensation in a deanery.
[Sidenote: Joseph Addison]
The only sober member of the viceroy's retinue was Joseph Addison,
whose hackwork in the service of the party had been rewarded with this
appointment, much to Swift's envy, for the Irishman was supposed to be
entitled to payment before Addison, who served with zeal 'the
profligate son of a Puritanical father, and the father of a son more
licentious than himself.' When the Lord-Lieutenant left Ireland the
Parliament actually thanked the queen for having sent 'one so great in
wisdom and experience to be our chief Governor.' This was the man who
had knighted potmen who served him with ale, tried to idealize the most
abandoned women, and regarded with complacency the amours of his wife,
who, having {132} lost the affections of her husband, found consolation
in a dozen other men. Cardsharpers, profligates, and every species of
base adventurer had the _entrée_ to Dublin Castle, where the viceroy
reigned as a 'prince of good fellows,' many of whom had been kicked out
of decent society in London. But Wharton was powerful enough to be
more than unconventional, and it suited his peculiar sense of humour to
shock even his most licentious companions-in-arms. When they roamed
Dublin at night seeking for prey, Wharton behaved like a drunken
madman, and he fondly imagined that his identity was not discovered,
except when, in an intoxicated mood, he called for a sword and bestowed
knighthoods indiscriminately on waiters and landlords, and even went
through the farce of knighting women of the street. His motto was
never to give a challenge and never to refuse one. When in his teens
he had fought two duels with outraged husbands, and gained the victory
in each encounter.
His viceroyalty was certainly unconventional. Dignified prelates,
hovering in draughty rooms and corridors, were twitted mercilessly by
my Lord Wharton, who was the most contemptuous enemy the Protestant
faith ever knew. Once he declared that he hated all religions, but if
he had to join one he would select the Presbyterian, because it was
opposed to the Church of England. Swift's famous attack on him merely
created a temporary annoyance in the English nobleman.
It was no misfortune for Ireland that the fall of the Government
entailed Wharton's recall in {133} October, 1710, and the Duke of
Ormonde's reappointment was at once announced. Wharton, cynical and
contemptuous, looked upon his supersession with indifference. He had
exhausted all the pleasures Dublin had to offer, and so London knew him
once more. He lived until 1715, and saw King George on the throne and
his rival, Ormonde, a penniless fugitive. The latter fact must have
enabled him to believe that there were compensations in this world even
for a man who defied it. There is a story told of him which aptly
illustrates his cynical sense of humour. When the famous 'twelve
peers' were created by Queen Anne in order that the Government might
carry a certain measure in the House of Lords, Wharton nicknamed them
'the jury,' and, rising in his place in the House of Lords, inquired
blandly whether the twelve voted singly or through their foreman. He
was nearing the close of his life when a marquisate was conferred on
him, and he maintained his influence on public affairs right to the end.
[Sidenote: The Duke of Shrewsbury]
The second viceroyalty of Ormonde having terminated, Queen Anne
selected Charles Talbot, twelfth Earl and only Duke of Shrewsbury, to
succeed him in 1713. It was the queen's last important appointment,
and Shrewsbury carried on the Government from 1713 to 1717, spending
more time in England than in Ireland, and contenting himself by staying
at Dublin Castle whenever the Irish Parliament was in session. He was
an interesting person in many ways. Named after Charles II. because he
was the first {134} of that king's godchildren--being born in the year
of the Restoration--he passed his childhood amid Catholic influences.
His mother carried on an intrigue with the Duke of Buckingham which
resulted in her husband's death. According to a contemporary, Lady
Shrewsbury, disguised as a page, held Buckingham's horse whilst he
killed her husband in the duel that followed the discovery of her
infidelity.
In 1699 Shrewsbury, who had formed one of the seven who invited William
to come to England, was offered the viceroyalty, but declined it, as
well as half a dozen alternative proposals made to him. He was tired
of politics, and for three years--1700-02--he lived in Rome, and then
travelled about the Continent. He brought back with him an Italian
wife, a lady whose jealousy, ambition, and unscrupulousness shortened
his life. Shrewsbury was not ambitious, but his wife was, and it is
supposed that she induced him to accept the viceroyalty so that she
might play at being a queen amid the indifferent and unorganized state
of Dublin society. Swift, who met him very often, described him as
'the finest gentleman we have'; and William referred to him more than
once as 'the King of Hearts.' Lady Shrewsbury insisted upon his
keeping his Irish appointment, and, bullied by her, he did, although he
neither loved nor respected her. In London the Italian sought to place
herself at the head of society as the wife of His Majesty's
representative, but failed decisively. Her husband became the butt of
the wits; he was mercilessly ridiculed, and even the {135} gift of the
office of Lord Chamberlain, to enable him to retire from the
viceroyalty, could not help him to regain his prestige. He died in
1718, and all England ascribed his premature death to his wife.
[Sidenote: Draining the Irish exchequer]
Charles Paulet, Duke of Bolton and Marquis of Winchester, accepted the
vacancy, and came to Dublin in 1719 to open the Irish Parliament. This
was two years after his appointment, but it was not necessary in those
days for the viceroy to govern in person. He had his share of the
profits of the office remitted to him in London. These consisted of
the official salary and such annual sums as were due to him by persons
whom he either continued in office or appointed. It is related of Lord
Wharton that, despite his wealth, he insisted upon all persons
nominated by him paying a commission on their salaries, and in one
particular instance he agreed with a certain lawyer to make him Lord
Justice at a salary of £40 a month, the latter agreeing to hand over
the balance of the official allowance of £100 per month to the viceroy.
Ireland was regarded as a sort of till to be robbed by viceroys and
their friends. For many years it had been the practice to include the
heavy expenses of the numerous mistresses of royalty in the accounts of
the Government of Ireland; but most of the money came from London. Yet
Ireland got the reputation of being costly and useless, while every
monarch and every English statesman continued to rob the Irish
Exchequer and the people. They drained the country without troubling
to insure its stability and prosperity; active attempts were {136} made
and succeeded in injuring Irish industries, and the greatest sufferers
were the descendants of the English settlers. By now there was no
'English colony' to uphold the viceroy's rights or wrongs, and to every
Englishman a resident in Ireland was 'savage and Irish.' Dean Swift,
who spent a lifetime endeavouring to disprove the--to him--terrible
accusation of being Irish, was moved to declare that the Anglo-Irish
families spoke the best English, and were the most civilized persons
under the dominion of the English Crown. It is amusing to read his
letter to Pope (July 13, 1737), in which he scornfully protests against
the confusion existing in English minds concerning the 'savage old
Irish' and the 'English gentry in Ireland.' Five years before this he
declared to Sir Charles Wigan that the peasantry were distinguished by
'a better natural taste for good sense, humour, and raillery than ever
I observed among people of the like sort in England.' Swift's attack
on the English administration of Ireland was, however, not intended for
the benefit of the country as a whole. He represented the 'English in
Ireland,' and was fond of describing them as 'English colonists.'
Whigs and Tories alike used the unfortunate country for selfish
reasons, and Irish trade was ruined to appease English voters or to
guard the vested interests of great noblemen. There was no purely
Irish party to attack the abuses of the administration in Dublin; the
leading men were placated with office, or else had to join in the
scramble for emoluments, for fear that they should be left out in the
cold. {137} The Protestant Church was in the ascendancy; the Catholic
hierarchy looked on complacently, leaving it to the priests to show
that the Catholic religion was not altogether selfish and political.
Swift himself was a typical clergyman of the Established Church,
irreligious, scornful of his trust, and seeking preferment in the
Church because it was the only way to power for a man of humble birth
in those days.
[Sidenote: Irish society]
Dublin Castle seldom housed the viceroy, the administration being left
to one or more Lords Justices who escaped criticism, provided their
remittances to the absent Lord-Lieutenant were regular and satisfactory
in amount. Dublin society was scarcely half formed, and consisted of
beggarly exiles from England, compelled to emigrate by reason of their
debts and misdeeds, the friends and relatives of the Lords Justices,
obscure army officers and their kind, and a few of the wealthier
citizens who could not be ignored. Those with English names affected
to despise those with Irish; it was considered sheer savagery not to
speak well of the Government, for the viceroy and his lady set the
fashions, and not to follow them was to court ignominy and insult.
It is said that the Duke of Bolton accepted the viceroyalty out of
curiosity and on the condition that the Government paid the expenses of
his journey to Dublin to see the Irish. Charles Spencer, Earl of
Sunderland, and Lord Townshend had allowed themselves in 1714 and 1716
respectively to accept the post, but neither nobleman troubled to visit
Ireland; and the Duke of {138} Bolton was regarded with a certain
amount of admiration for his pluck and fortitude in surrendering the
delights of London for the uncivilization of Dublin. Charles Fitzroy,
Duke of Grafton, a descendant of Charles II., became Lord-Lieutenant in
1721, and tasted some of the sweets of sovereignty as the
representative of the king, whose occupancy of the throne meant the
extinction of the Stuarts.
Grafton came to Ireland with no intention of overworking himself in the
service of the State, and he was, therefore, disagreeably surprised
when he found himself in the midst of a political turmoil. Dean
Swift's satire was stinging everybody, irrespective of position or
class. Roused by him, the people were actually protesting against the
newest form of English tyranny, and they even dared to scream insults
at the gilded fop as he drove about the city. It was the irony of fate
that all the trouble should be caused by the king's fondness for his
mistress. Grafton, however, was averse to facing a crisis; he was
better in London--far from the maddening Irish--and when Grafton
retired with alacrity in 1723, the Government decided to send John,
Lord Carteret, to carry out their policy. The descendant of Charles
II. was not eager to battle for the vindication of a policy arising out
of the turgid German morals of the oddest figure that ever sat on the
throne of England. King George's failing was that he possessed
appetite without appreciation; he wanted the best, and yet never
recognized it when he had it.
{139}
CHAPTER IX
Lord Carteret was only thirty-four when, on April 3, 1724, he was
declared Viceroy of Ireland. The appointment was Walpole's, whose
accession to power presented him with the opportunity of sending
Carteret to quell the disturbance in Ireland which he himself--the new
viceroy--had encouraged secretly while occupying a private position in
the State. Carteret, however, did not flinch, nor did he exhibit any
distaste for the task. It was not necessary to treat the Irish as
human beings, and he knew that if he propitiated the Anglo-Irish he
would gain his own way in everything.
The origin of the trouble and turmoil was the grant of a patent to the
Duchess of Kendal, the king's mistress, for the coining of halfpence in
Ireland. The duchess already drew £3,000 a year from the Irish
Exchequer, but her avarice was aroused by stories of how easily the
Irish were plundered, and she persuaded the king to give her the famous
patent. She passed it on to Wood, who paid her £10,000, and agreed to
remit to the State £1,000 a year for fourteen years. The coinage was
not base, but it meant that a profit of £40,000 was to pass into the
pockets of the {140} king's mistress and William Wood; they were to rob
rich and poor alike, and the State was to lose heavily. The grant was
made without consulting the Irish Parliament or the Irish Privy Council.
Swift, who had been waiting for this opportunity, seized it with
avidity, and the 'Drapier's Letters' was the result. Wood's halfpence
was characteristic of English misrule of Ireland, and, roused to frenzy
by the dean's pamphlets, the country unanimously obeyed his call to
ignore the latest coins, and always to refuse to recognize their
legality. The dean's extravagant fancy found full scope in the
'Drapier's Letters'; the pamphlets were sold in their tens of
thousands, and Walpole's determination was outmatched by the fury of
the Irish not to allow themselves to be swindled to provide for the
expenses of the German's mistress.
The new viceroy landed in Ireland in the month that witnessed the
publication of the fourth 'Letter,' and his first act was to offer a
reward of £300 for the discovery of the writer. Swift's anonymity was
too safe, however, and the Lord-Lieutenant had to be satisfied with the
arrest of the printer, Harding. When the dean heard of this, he
bearded Carteret in Dublin Castle, and reproached him in singularly
straightforward language with cowardice and weakness in persecuting a
tradesman. The viceroy took the verbal buffeting in good part, for
Swift and he were old friends; but Harding was put to all the worry and
expense of a prosecution at the hands of a {141} partisan Chief
Justice--Whitshed--though the grand jury eventually threw out the bill
against him, and he was discharged.
[Sidenote: Swift's victory]
The cancellation of the patent has been described as a victory for
Swift and Ireland, but all that can be said truthfully is that it
enabled the dean to claim a personal triumph, while the county actually
lost by the agreement. For the surrender of his rights Wood was paid
£3,000 a year for eight years, a sum--£24,000--at least equal to the
profits he would have made had he been allowed to carry out the terms
of his patent without opposition. The principal cause of the surrender
to popular opinion was, undoubtedly, the indifference of Carteret to
the policy he had been sent to carry out. He was no enthusiastic
admirer of Walpole's statesmanship, and he knew very well that Irish
affairs were considered of no importance whatever in England, and that
if he went to the trouble and worry of defeating the malcontents he
would get no credit in London, and make himself and his presence in
Dublin unpopular. He was, therefore, only too willing to flatter
public opinion by pretending to bow to it.
[Illustration: Lord Carteret]
Carteret was a scholar and a gentleman, who did much to popularize the
Latin quotation as a substitute for logic. The statesmen of the
period, whenever they were puzzled in English, immediately had recourse
to the safe obscurity of a Latin or Greek epigram. It was polished,
abstruse, and impressive. This mannerism gained for him the reputation
of an orator--even the best of his generation--and Lord Chatham has
placed on {142} record his appreciation of Carteret: 'Whatever I am I
owe to him.'
The viceroy did not create any precedent by remaining very long in
Dublin Castle. It was an unwritten law that only during the actual
sitting of Parliament was the Lord-Lieutenant's presence considered
necessary, and Carteret took full advantage of his opportunities to
spend at leisure in London the money he drew so readily from Ireland.
Had it not been for Swift, he might not have stayed in Dublin half as
long as he actually did. The dean was the paramount power in Dublin
society, although he complained that he was not popular among his
equals. The crowd, however, worshipped him; he was the national hero.
All this was pleasing and yet displeasing to the dean, whose soul
languished for the smiles of the great. He disliked a popularity that
entailed the sneers of the educated, but he was not the man to abjure
the applause of the mob. Carteret kept friendly with Swift, and never
denied him anything. When this became known, Swift's house was the
meeting-place of all the office-seekers in Ireland, and some even came
from England. Swift had only to recommend a cleric to the viceroy's
attention and the man's preferment was certain.
One of Swift's recommendations was in favour of Sheridan, the
grandfather of the celebrated dramatist and orator. Carteret
good-naturedly presented Sheridan with a living, and made him one of
his chaplains; but the ex-schoolmaster, on the anniversary of the
accession of the Hanoverian {143} family, preached a sermon from the
text, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' It was a pure
accident, but Sheridan was accused of Jacobinism, and he was removed
from his chaplaincy. For the remainder of his life he was one of
Swift's satellites, at the mercy of his generosity and his satire.
Sheridan records a story which illustrates very vividly the popularity
of the famous Dean of St. Patrick's. A large crowd assembled to
witness an eclipse. Swift sent out the bellman to cry out to all and
sundry that the eclipse had been postponed by the dean's orders, and
the crowd quietly dispersed!
Carteret summed up his administration in words that have become
historic. 'When people asked me how I governed Ireland,' he remarked,
'I say that I pleased Dr. Swift.' Carteret's egotism and selfishness
were diluted by a sense of humour that enabled him to tolerate Swift,
his unofficial jester.
[Sidenote: Lord Carteret retires]
The Lord-Lieutenant was reappointed in 1727, when George II. ascended
the throne and the Hanoverian succession assured; but his last
appearance in Dublin was in 1729, and his successor did not arrive
until two years later. In 1728 the new Parliament building was erected
on the site of Chichester House. From all accounts, Carteret was a
success. It was no disadvantage to him that he was a heavy
drinker--had more viceroys taken to drink, Ireland might have escaped
some of the consequences of their greater follies--and without
imitating the example of Wharton, he was broad-minded enough to see no
{144} harm in the lax condition of Dublin society, which was then
following the lead set by London. It is no exaggeration to ascribe
Carteret's lack of failure to his cynical indifference to Irish
affairs; he quite believed that Ireland was a nuisance, but a nuisance
that had to be endured. The so-called Parliament must have ministered
to his sense of humour. Its English prototype was bad enough, but to
call the collection of retained nincompoops and Castle hacks a
Parliament was to degrade the word to the lowest depths. Ireland never
had a Parliament, unless the generous historian grants that title to
Grattan's. In Carteret's time the 'Parliament' no more represented
Ireland than it did the land of the Chaldeans.
The successor to the late viceroy was Lionel Sackville, Duke of
Dorset--a courtier whose ambition it had been for years to represent
the king in Ireland. It is significant of the progress Ireland, and
especially Dublin, was making that a great English nobleman such as
Dorset was should exert all his influence to secure the reversion of
Carteret's post. Not many years previously an Englishman of position
would have accepted the viceroyalty under compulsion only.
[Sidenote: Four great noblemen]
Sackville resigned the post of Lord Steward to go to Ireland, and he
arrived to open the Parliament of 1731, staying until the early part of
the following year. He visited the country again in 1733 and 1735, in
accordance with the custom that rendered it imperative for the viceroy
to preside at the opening of Parliament. Beyond {145} that his duties
did not extend, and Dorset found the viceroyalty greatly to his liking.
He drew a large salary, executed several profitable deals in the shape
of sales of offices, and took the money with him to England.
'Uneventful' best describes his term of power, but to a man of his
disposition it was all he desired. When, therefore, in the latter part
of 1736, he was informed that he was to be replaced by William
Cavendish, third Duke of Devonshire, he hotly resented his
supersession, but could not prevail against the ministry, which
placated him with the post of Lord President of the Council. But his
experience of Ireland had been too congenial to make him satisfied with
his position in London. The loss of the great revenues, the sudden
change from an almost regal position to one of mediocrity in a society
where he had few equals and many superiors, and the ridiculous ease
whereby the 'work' of his administration was accomplished, kept Dorset
dissatisfied until his reappointment to Ireland in December, 1750.
Meanwhile, however, three other viceroys played their parts in making
the history of Ireland. These were William Cavendish, Duke of
Devonshire (1737-44), Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield (1745), and
William Stanhope, Earl of Harrington (1746-51).
Of these, it is obvious that the Earl of Chesterfield was the most
remarkable. The name of Devonshire suggests a yawn, and the third duke
was characteristic of it. His viceroyalty was more apparent than real,
and seems to have been {146} conducted on the principle that Ireland
and Irish affairs were a bore, the journeys to Dublin intolerable, and
the Irish Parliament 'impossible.' The duke, however, clung to the
office until 1744, content to leave administration to the Lords
Justices, and pocketing the salary readily--the only point of unanimity
amongst the holders of the office in the eighteenth century.
[Sidenote: Lord Chesterfield]
The great Earl of Chesterfield was Viceroy of Ireland for eight months
only, and his life, therefore, belongs to the history of his native
country; but he left his mark on Dublin, and in a few months
accomplished more to raise the name of Englishman there than the seven
years of Devonshire and the eight of Dorset. It is unnecessary to
recapitulate all the main facts of Chesterfield's life, while, as his
'Letters' do not concern Irish affairs, they are no part of this
history. At the time of his appointment to the viceroyalty in 1745 he
had just passed his fiftieth year, and had left behind him many full
years. Before he was twenty-one he was a member of Parliament, and by
the time he succeeded to the peerage in 1726 he had gained much of that
renowned knowledge of the world which provided the inspiration of the
famous 'Letters.' Chesterfield appears to have had a passion for the
unconventional, but he carried it to such an extent, and so
successfully, that it almost became conventional. Brought up in the
society of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., he discovered in
maturity that it is not wise to put faith in princes. Chesterfield was
the prince's henchman in all his escapades, {147} and when Henrietta
Howard, Countess of Suffolk, became the prince's mistress, Chesterfield
was the chosen friend of both. This meant, of course, that the
princess, better known as Queen Caroline, exerted all her influence to
bring about an estrangement between her husband and the earl, and she
succeeded, as she always was certain to do.
Chesterfield, however, was too powerful a man for even the King of
England to ruin, and although George II., after the inevitable quarrel,
sought to keep the earl out of public life, he had to agree to his
nomination to the embassy at the Hague. He was very popular there, but
his sojourn in Holland, while it is remembered by the Dutch by reason
of the fortune Stanhope lost at cards, is only famous because it was at
the Hague that the English Ambassador made the acquaintance of
Madamoiselle du Bouchet. To the son that was born to them Chesterfield
addressed his 'Letters.' Returning to England impecunious but as
debonair as ever, Stanhope, nevertheless, realized that it was
imperative that he should marry money. The heiress of the day was
Petronilla Melusina von der Schulenburg, the natural daughter of George
I. by the notorious Duchess of Kendal, the heroine of Wood's halfpence.
Petronilla, who was Countess of Walsingham in her own right, was not
exactly a beauty, but she possessed a fortune of £50,000, and in
addition an annuity of £3,000 payable out of the Irish treasury. At
the time of her father's death in 1727, the countess was thirty-four
and unmarried. The king had kept her guarded jealously, and {148}
George II., mindful of the fact that if Lady Walsingham married, her
husband might make awkward inquiries about her estate, continued the
policy of his father. Chesterfield, however, was not averse to
offending George II. There had been a great coolness between them, and
the earl must have realized that Queen Caroline would make it utterly
impossible for them to renew the friendship of early days. He
therefore courted the countess, who was his senior by a year, and the
reputed wittiest and handsomest man of his time had little difficulty
in capturing the hand and fortune of the illegitimate daughter of his
king's father. They were married in 1733, unknown to King George, and
when the inevitable discovery came, the king, though passionately
angry, could do nothing beyond uttering threats. The marriage was
entirely one of convenience--Chesterfield wanted money; the countess
required a deliverer from the thraldom of the court. Cynically
indifferent to the opinions of the world, they lived in separate
houses, but tried to humour Mrs. Grundy--who was born the day the
serpent entered Eden--by taking houses next door to one another!
His monetary affairs freed from embarrassment, Chesterfield entered
once more into the life of the town, careless of the king's anger,
oblivious of the queen's spite. When he had looked into his wife's
affairs he sent George a bill for £40,000, due to her from the royal
estate, and on the monarch ignoring the hint, the earl promptly began
an action in the Courts for the recovery of the money. {149} The king
eventually compromised by paying £20,000.
[Sidenote: A political legacy]
Even in the eighteenth century it was sometimes distinguished to act
with the minority, and Chesterfield adopted the now favourite modern
pose of championing the weak. He railed at the Government, wrote
pamphlets against it, hired men of letters to aid him, and quickly
became the leader of that ever-present body of men and women who are
dissatisfied, and yet know not what they want. He patronized Johnson
and Pope and many others, the majority completely forgotten, and
chiefly with their help and his own ready tongue attained the
distinction of being the most sought-after man in London society.
Whatever Chesterfield did for pleasure, generally brought him gain, and
it is only one of the many lucky incidents of his life that the Dowager
Duchess of Marlborough should have left him £20,000 as a token of her
approval of his opposition to the Government. The legacy came in 1744,
and at a time when Chesterfield's affairs were once more badly situated.
The Earl of Chesterfield's character and life have been the subject of
innumerable essays, but one incident forcibly illustrates the real
weakness of the man who could afford to view with equanimity the bitter
antagonism of his king and queen, and the animosity of the most
powerful ministers of the day, and yet confess himself mortally wounded
by a jest against him. Like most great wits, Chesterfield had no sense
of humour, and his witticisms were merely props {150} on which his
general pose rested. One day he happened to be standing in the hall of
a coffee-house club in St. James's Street, when he overheard George
Selwyn remark to an acquaintance, 'Here comes Joe Miller.' This was
too much for Chesterfield, and he struck his name off the club at once.
[Illustration: The Earl of Chesterfield]
His appointment to the viceroyalty in 1745 was in the nature of a gift
from the Government to the most dangerous dilettante of the day. The
king, however, point-blank refused to sign the commission, and there
were several stormy interviews between the king and his ministers
before the former succumbed and declared 'his loving cousin and
counsellor' Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In Dublin the announcement of
Chesterfield's coming roused the greatest enthusiasm. His wit, his
manners, his wealth, his influence and his handsome appearance were all
eagerly discussed. Dublin society, anxious to learn from the leader of
society, welcomed him with open arms, and so the man who had been
instructed that the Papists were dangerous and likely to become
rebellious was able to write to London and glibly inform the Government
that there was only one dangerous Papist in Ireland, and her name was
Eleanor Ambrose, the daughter of a Dublin brewer, and the reigning
beauty.
The beginnings of Chesterfield's viceroyalty gave every promise of a
brilliant and long reign at Dublin Castle. He entertained freely and
lavishly, and exhibited no scruples of refinement at meeting
unofficially wealthy tradespeople or {151} successful lawyers. The
women, of course, loved him. His reputation as the philosopher of
everything that was delightfully wicked and depraved fascinated them,
and Chesterfield maintained the pose with ease. There was no one in
Dublin to call him Joe Miller, or to sneer at the somewhat second-hand,
if not second-rate, wit that flowed from his tongue and pen.
In his serious moments he declared that the foe of Ireland was not
Popery, but poverty, and he expressed his amazement that the Irish
should be content to live in a condition worse than the negro slaves.
He was viceroy for a very short time, but he gave one gift to
Dublin--Phoenix Park, for it was Lord Chesterfield who planted that
renowned demesne.
The viceroy was essentially a man of the world, but he did not relax
the strict etiquette of the viceregal court. The wives of doctors and
lawyers were not allowed within the precincts of the Castle, and great
care was taken to limit the _entrée_ to the nobility and gentry. The
good-natured Lady Chesterfield, during her occasional appearances in
Dublin, gained a sort of popularity, more pronounced among the trading
classes, whom she benefited by giving splendid balls at Dublin Castle,
at which only costumes of Irish manufacture were worn. It was
something towards the debt she owed the Irish treasury.
She viewed her husband's amours with patience, and the fat and ugly old
woman even encouraged them.
[Sidenote: Chesterfield and Miss Ambrose]
To Eleanor Ambrose he paid great attention, {152} carrying on an
elaborate flirtation, with all Dublin as the audience. Miss Ambrose,
whose reign preceded that of the Gunnings, played her part well, and
the brewer's daughter became the centre, if not the leader, of Dublin
society. Chesterfield wrote her verses and letters, and at Dublin
Castle balls he always flattered her by his personal attentions. Miss
Ambrose, who subsequently became Lady Palmer, never forgot her brief
acquaintance with Lord Chesterfield, and ever afterwards his portrait
adorned her house. When in the second decade of the nineteenth century
Lady Palmer died at her lodgings in Henry Street, Dublin,
Chesterfield's portrait hung in the most conspicuous place in her room.
She was then within two years of a hundred in age.
On April 23, 1746, Chesterfield departed from Ireland, having secured
leave of absence, and although he promised to return, illness stepped
in, and it was deemed advisable that the earl should not be exposed to
the damp climate of Ireland. The king was only too pleased to nominate
Chesterfield's half-brother, William Stanhope, Earl of Harrington, to
the viceroyalty, and even permit the ex-viceroy to become Secretary of
State for the northern provinces.
[Illustration: Earl of Harrington]
[Sidenote: The spirit of nationalism]
The selection of Lord Harrington was received with great disfavour in
Dublin, where the formation of a national or patriotic party was almost
an accomplished fact. Harrington had the misfortune to be viceroy when
Charles Lucas was beginning his great campaign against the corruption
{153} that existed in official circles in Dublin. Lucas, doctor and
enthusiast, was a remarkable man. He was the creator of the idea that
Ireland was a nation, and not the happy hunting-ground of Englishmen in
search of pensions for themselves and their mistresses. He attacked
the Dublin Corporation and all official Ireland, and, of course, the
bureaucracy roused itself and crushed him for a time. Harrington, the
viceroy, took a leading part in the persecution of Lucas, and succeeded
in driving him from the country. Lucas did not return until 1761, but
his fearless exposure of corrupt officialdom had its full effects
during Harrington's tenure of office. It did more than this, for it
aroused the latent intelligence of the masses, who began to think for
themselves. They saw the best paid positions in the country
monopolized by Englishmen--in many cases the office-holders were
illiterate--and they realized the monstrous injustice of the custom
that permitted the farming out of remunerative situations under the
Government. Parliament had to move in the matter, and for the first
time in the history of Ireland and England the viceroy and his Council
had to be careful, when making or selling fresh appointments, not to do
it too openly. Once Harrington was mobbed in the streets of Dublin
because he was supposed to be in favour of the abolition of the Irish
Parliament--the latter consisting of a body of men bought body and soul
by the English Government, though in some cases the price had not been
paid. These raised a protest against the exportation of salaries to
{154} England for the use of men whose deputies did the work for
starvation wages in Dublin.
The viceroy fought with all the tenacity of the fanatic for the
retention of the privileges of his class. The new tone of the Irish
Parliament amazed, but did not frighten him; he ascribed their
rebellion to a desire to play to the gallery, but when he discovered to
his cost that even the beggars and the blackguards of the city howled
their execrations after him in the street, he became aware of the
painful fact that the viceroy was no longer a law unto himself.
Lord Chesterfield had described the Irish Parliament in very severe
terms. 'The House of Lords is a hospital for incurables,' he wrote,
'but the Commons can hardly be described. Session after session
presents one unvaried waste of provincial imbecility.'
That this opinion was not the outcome of his English birth and training
he proved by his impartial judgments on other classes of Irishmen.
'We have more clever men here in a nutshell,' he wrote from Dublin to a
friend in London, 'than can be produced in the whole circle of London.'
Lord Harrington's opinion of the Irish Parliament was even more
contemptuous than his brother's, and he affected at all times a
sneering attitude towards the members of both houses.
[Sidenote: The Gunning sisters]
The reigning beauties of his viceroyalty were the Gunning sisters.
During Lord Chesterfield's term they had lingered in squalid poverty in
an unfashionable part of Dublin, but being old enough to attend the
viceregal functions of 1748, {155} they overcame the disadvantage of
poverty by accepting from Sheridan, the theatrical manager, the loan of
the dresses they subsequently appeared in at the great ball given by
the viceroy in honour of the birthday of George II., October 30, 1748.
Lady Caroline Petersham, the viceroy's daughter-in-law, who acted as
hostess for him, was greatly struck by the appearance of the Gunnings,
and to her interest and that of Lord Harrington was due the first
success of the family. The viceroy settled a pension of £150 per annum
on the girls' mother, and when they became Duchess of Hamilton and
Countess of Coventry, they never forgot the generosity of their first
patron. The subsequent fame of the sisters was such that when, in
1755, they paid a visit to Dublin, the viceroy, Lord Harrington, held a
levée in their honour.
Throughout his residence in Ireland, Harrington continued to fight, and
used every weapon, fair or foul, at his disposal. Lucas, driven from
Ireland, was somewhere on the Continent, and several Irish members had
been removed from the House by bribery and other methods. Still, there
was no suffocating the voice of the people, and in the last month of
1750 Lionel Sackville, Duke of Dorset, was given his second chance as
Viceroy of Ireland. Harrington did not know whether to be pleased or
not at his removal. He was anxious to rest from the struggle of Irish
politics, for he was not the man to create new measures or understand
the sentiments of a new order of things, but he was eager to beat the
Irish, and to teach them the strength of his authority. Dublin,
however, was {156} in no two minds about its attitude towards the
departing viceroy. From the moment that the citizens knew of his
recall, they lighted bonfires to celebrate it, and held public meetings
under the walls of Dublin Castle, in the course of which the speakers
publicly thanked God for having relieved Dublin of the plaguy presence
of Harrington. An attempt was made to secure a peaceful and
unostentatious exit from the country, but the people would not be
denied, and at a hundred points along the route of his departure the
ex-viceroy witnessed the humiliating sight of bonfires and speakers
alike proclaiming their joy at his departure.
It was, indeed, in remarkable contrast to Lord Chesterfield's brief and
brilliant reign.
[Sidenote: Peg Woffington]
The Dublin of Dorset's time was squalid, dirty, and disease-ridden.
The gentry were drinking themselves into penury; the city was crowded
with young bloods, who gambled, and drank, and called out each other to
give satisfaction on the famous duelling-ground of Phoenix Park. Clubs
of all sorts abounded, and were in reality drinking dens. The most
famous of all, Daly's, was the headquarters of most of the notorious
gamblers and debauchées of the metropolis. Five theatres ministered to
the pleasures of the Court and people, and the leading actress was Peg
Woffington, the mistress of the Provost of Trinity College. Peg, as we
all know, was a high-spirited woman, and full of a sparkling audacity
that often amounted to impertinence. On one occasion, when the Duke of
Dorset was seated in the royal {157} box at the theatre, she saucily
concluded a recitation with the lines:
'Let others with as small pretentions
'Tease you for places or for pensions,
I scorn a pension or a place.
My sole design upon your grace--
The sum of my petition this--
I claim, my lord, an annual kiss.'
The verses were written by Dr. Andrews, the Provost, and caused great
offence in the ranks of the fashionable ladies, who cut the actress for
a time. Peg Woffington, however, did not suffer to any considerable
extent as a result of her pert address to the viceroy.
Virtue was not the duke's strong point. Many have been the scrapes
Viceroys of Ireland have got themselves into, but the Duke of Dorset
was the only one whose conduct enabled an outraged husband to divorce
his wife. The lady in the case was Mrs. La Touche, who declared that
love was the hereditary passion in her family. A woman who could
resist nothing was easy prey to the tenant of Dublin Castle.
Dorset had secured his reappointment by lavish promises. He undertook
to restore sanity to Ireland--meaning, of course, Dublin, for
officialism did not recognize the provinces--and he guaranteed to bring
the Irish Parliament to its senses. In the circumstances Dorset had
his way, and in 1751 he re-entered Dublin. He might have succeeded in
scoring a personal triumph if he had not brought his youngest son, Lord
George Sackville, with him. Hitherto it had been Dorset's policy to
let well alone--he did nothing particularly well, {158} and was popular
on that account. Lord George Sackville, however, had neither the
complacence nor the dignity of his father; he came as the viceroy's
Secretary of State, his adviser, the man who saw that things were done.
One of his first acts was to quarrel with the Speaker of the Irish
House of Commons. This was Henry Boyle, afterwards Earl of Shannon.
Boyle was an Irish Parliamentary Hampden, who jealously guarded the
rights of his assembly and of the country. Harrington had left
Parliament triumphant, and the House was not going to be brow-beaten by
George Sackville.
[Sidenote: The struggle with Parliament]
The cause of the most important and vital dispute was a measure
disposing of the surplus revenues of the country. Parliament declared
that it could dispose of them without the sanction of the king; the
viceroy, through his Secretary of State, declared otherwise, and when
the House of Commons sent the bill for the viceroy's approval, he
inserted a clause giving the king's permission to its establishment by
law. The assembly ignored the clause, and proceeded to other business.
Sackville and George Stone, the Primate, were furious. They saw in
this act of insubordination the terrible spectacle of a free Parliament
sitting day after day and publicly criticizing the privileged
class--the officials. Acting under their advice, Dorset signed a
warrant for the Speaker's arrest, and an attempt was made to execute
it. But in order to get at the person of Boyle--who was the hero of
the hour--the officers would have had to arrest half the population of
Dublin. Thousands {159} of persons of all classes followed the Speaker
wherever he went, forming an unofficial bodyguard that soon so
impressed Sackville that the warrant was withdrawn.
Meanwhile the dispute between Parliament and the viceroy formed the
subject of all sorts and conditions of rumours. Once it was reported
that the king had signed a decree abolishing the Irish Parliament, and
substituting for it the attendance of so many Irish members in the
English Parliament. There was no foundation for the rumour, but it was
not an hour old before a vast mob surrounded Dublin Castle, shouting
lurid threats against the person of the viceroy. One of the most
popular theatres, owned by one of the most popular men--Sheridan, the
father of the famous dramatist--was wrecked because the leading
comedian would not repeat some lines which seemed to be slightly
veiled, satirical references to the national dispute.
Boyle was now master of the situation, the real ruler of the country.
The persecution of the Government had, as it often has done before,
raised a man of mediocre ability to the pedestal of genius.
Sensational rumours began to reach England and astound the frequenters
of the clubs and the coffee-houses. It was reported that Dorset had
been murdered and Boyle elected King of Ireland, and there were visions
that seemed like stern realities of the end of the English robbing of
the Irish till. The ministry became alarmed, and when the Government
realized that Dorset was a menace to their authority in Dublin, {160}
they decided to recall him, and appoint Lord Hartington in his place.
It is said that when Dorset heard of this he burst into tears, and it
is, indeed, extraordinary the passion this man had for the position of
Viceroy of Ireland. He wrote letters to the king, humbly praying that
he might be allowed to return to the Government of Ireland as soon as
order was restored, but in the long run he had to feign contentment
with the minor post of Master of the Horse.
{161}
CHAPTER X
Lord Hartington was the son of that Duke of Devonshire who had been
viceroy for seven years, and was only thirty-five when his commission
was signed by the king. Hartington appears to have been a typical
Cavendish; everybody trusted and admired him without forming too great
an opinion of his abilities; but he was a safe man, and this attribute
brought him the premiership in November, 1756, when he was summoned
from Dublin to take the control of the ministry. Pitt, it is
interesting to note, served under him during his brief premiership--it
ended the following May--as Secretary of War.
In the reshuffling that followed, John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford,
was appointed to Ireland. His task was not a difficult one, because
the complete surrender of the English Government was known in Dublin,
and Bedford was regarded as a sort of peacemaker, prepared to accept
any terms, provided he was allowed to style himself viceroy. The
Lord-Lieutenant and his wife lived in Dublin Castle and entertained.
Hitherto great English ladies had been content to view Dublin from a
distance, and were content to spend their husbands' earnings; but the
Duchess of {162} Bedford had other ideals, and she did much to smooth
her husband's path to power by her tact and graciousness. She threw
open Dublin Castle to everybody, and showed by her own and her
husband's attention to the social side of Dublin life that their last
concern was with the political. The duke announced a great programme
of reform, which was to be carried out quietly. He would not favour
either political party in the State--there were now two parties,
English and Irish--and he endorsed cordially the recommendation of the
Parliament that these Englishmen who farmed out their appointments in
Dublin for less than the salaries they received should be recalled, and
if they did not obey, dismissed from office.
But it was the magnificent state they maintained in Dublin that won the
allegiance of Ireland. Parasites feed even on imitation Courts, and
increase and multiply, while the not less important parasites--the
beggars of Dublin--were fed bountifully from the remains of Dives' many
tables. The duke and duchess spent more money in Ireland than they
drew from it, and remembering this, no patriot, however fervid his
imagination, could accuse the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife of robbing
the State. When the potato crop failed in many countries, the duke
started a fund for the relief of the sufferers, heading it with a large
sum of money.
It was a prosperous and a successful viceroyalty from the personal
point of view of the Duke of Bedford. He did not make the country any
better or introduce any great social reforms, but {163} it was a relief
to have a man who did not plunder the treasury to provide annuities for
his poor relations, or satisfy the blackmailing propensities of his
discarded mistresses. Bedford was popular, and the duchess had Dublin
society behind her to a woman.
The riots of 1759, created by the ever-prevalent rumour that the Irish
Parliament was to be abolished and a union between the legislatures of
the two countries accomplished, did not affect the viceroy's
popularity. The truth of the matter was that Ireland was not proud of
its Parliament, even with the history of Henry Boyle fresh in the minds
of the people. The Parliament had been just as unscrupulous as the
numerous decadent and dishonest viceroys who had plundered the country,
but in the eyes of the nation the Parliament and the viceroyalty were
one and the same, the outward and visible sign of Ireland's importance.
Society followed the lead of the viceroy with dumb obedience, and
society feared that it might cease to exist if the Parliament were
abolished. Those not in society were anxious to retain the Parliament
because it meant prosperity of the capital. It was a question of
money, and of the jealousy of the citizens of Dublin for the continued
pre-eminence of their city.
[Sidenote: The Earl of Halifax]
To the regret of nearly everybody, Bedford resigned the viceroyalty in
March, 1761, and George Montague Dunk, second Earl of Halifax, took
over the duties and emoluments of the high office. Halifax, Nova
Scotia, commemorates the name of this nobleman, who was given the title
{164} of 'Father of the Colonies' for his encouragement of colonial
enterprise. He was popular enough in Ireland, but he lacked the social
brilliance that distinguished the previous occupants of Dublin Castle.
Lord Halifax's career was one unbroken record of personal success.
Born in 1716, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he
affected a learning many of his contemporaries despised. But Halifax
had to make his own way, for the family was poor, and only in political
advancement and a fortunate marriage did the prospect of fortune lie.
His marriage brought him the immense sum, for those days, of over
£100,000, and in carrying off the wealthy heiress of the house of Dunk
he accomplished something several rivals failed in. Halifax was
impecunious and pressed by creditors when he made the acquaintance of
Miss Dunk, and she was by no means loath to become Countess of Halifax.
A difficulty stood in the way, however, and that was the clause in the
will bequeathing her her fortune which stated that she would be
disinherited if she did not marry someone engaged in commercial
pursuits. For some time there seemed to be no way out of the
difficulty--George Montague was not a commercial man; but at last some
genius suggested that the earl should join one of the London trading
companies. This he did, and won the hand of the lady, paying her the
compliment of adopting the name of Dunk, and conveniently hiding it
under his title. It was a marriage of convenience that developed into
love on both sides, {165} and when the countess died, leaving two
children, Halifax was greatly grieved.
In 1761, after thirteen years as President of the Board of Trade, he
was astonished to find himself appointed Viceroy of Ireland. He had
not been a candidate for the post, but he accepted it with alacrity,
for by now the fortune of his late wife was almost gone, and the Board
of Trade was not remunerative enough. The salary of the viceroy was
£12,000 a year, and there were many perquisites.
[Sidenote: Mary Ann Faulkner]
The newcomer was at the time of his elevation under the influence of a
strong-minded woman, Mary Ann Faulkner, the adopted daughter of the
well-known Dublin bookseller. Halifax had found her starving in
London, and, touched by a pathetic story of an early marriage and
desertion by the husband, he made her the governess of his two
children. This position she vacated to become his mistress, and when
Halifax told her that he had been given the high office of
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, she coolly informed him that she intended
to go to Dublin with him.
The woman's position in Dublin was not without its humorous side. The
viceroy was under her thumb, and the mistress governed him with all the
jealous watchfulness of a shrewish wife. She could not, of course,
maintain her state in Dublin Castle, but she resided within a
convenient distance of it, and by sheer force of personality the old
Dublin bookseller's daughter gathered about her a large and influential
court. Halifax was by disposition a spendthrift, but Mary Faulkner
{166} was a miser. She saved every penny, and nothing passed through
her hands without leaving a profit in them. Practically every post in
the gift of the viceroy was auctioned by Mary Faulkner, who kept the
proceeds, and every day in the week her house was crowded with all
sorts and conditions of place-seekers endeavouring to come to terms
with the most unscrupulous placemonger that ever lived in Dublin. Here
was a clergyman offering to buy the vacant country deanery; there an
officer anxious for a sinecure in Dublin Castle; again, a lawyer
desirous of an official position in the law courts, or a doctor seeking
the patronage of those in high places. Mary Ann Faulkner saw them all,
and conducted her auctions with no attempt at privacy. When it was
generally known that the viceroy's mistress was the real power behind
the viceregal throne, Halifax found his levées deserted, and perhaps he
was not sorry. He never disguised his admiration for the enterprising
Mary Ann, and if her position was something unconventional, there can
be no doubt of the fact that she held the unique record of being the
only woman who has directed and controlled the policy of a Viceroy of
Ireland. And this without the public status or private authority of a
wife!
The viceroy endeavoured to please everybody, and he earned general
favour by melodramatically declining to accept for himself an increase
of £4,000 a year in the salary of the Lord-Lieutenant. It fell to his
lot to endorse the action of Parliament in raising the salary of the
post to a higher {167} figure, but, anxious to prove his probity, he
took up a quixotic position--as it was, of course, regarded.
Two of his retinue are remembered for different reasons. One was his
Secretary of State, 'Single-Speech Hamilton,' and the other, Richard
Cumberland, the dramatist. The latter was a particular friend of
Halifax's, their friendship dating back from the viceroy's Cambridge
days, and continuing through his official life. He gave Cumberland a
position at the Board of Trade, and, secured by this kindly act,
Cumberland was able to indulge in his fancy for playwriting. He did
not approve of Mary Ann Faulkner, but as that lady was irresistible, he
wisely decided not to provoke a conflict, and he was seen at her
receptions, and even helped her occasionally in her appointments.
Halifax left Ireland in 1763, popular and respected, and George III.
gave him the garter. When in England he attempted to break away from
his mistress by entering into an engagement to marry a wealthy woman,
but Mary Ann soundly rated him when she heard of it, and he meekly
broke the engagement to please her. This was the man who had ruled
Ireland!
[Sidenote: A great Smithson]
As the result of royal favour the vacant viceroyalty was secured by
Hugh Percy, Earl of Northumberland, later to become the first duke of
the third creation. Northumberland was a great Smithson, but an
indifferent Percy, and it was only his wife's name and family that
carried him into London society and into the presence of George III.
{168} A man of vast wealth, and wedded to a woman with a passion for
power, the viceroyalty of Ireland was the position they both craved
for, and when powerful friends helped the Earl and Countess of
Northumberland towards their goal, they entered with zest and
enthusiasm into the task of governing Ireland. Lady Northumberland was
a lady of the bedchamber to the queen soon after her marriage, an
appointment maliciously described by Lady Townshend as due to the fact
that the queen, who was ignorant of the English language, was anxious
to learn the _vulgar_ tongue, Lady Northumberland, she declared, being
the most suitable person in the circumstances.
During their two years' reign in Dublin Castle the viceroy and his wife
entertained on a regal scale. Their position had been a doubtful one
in London, where society found it difficult to forget the old Smithson
in the new Percy, but in Dublin the earl and countess led society
without fear of any rivals. The countess, more ambitious than proud,
utilized her wealth to maintain her supremacy. Dublin Castle was
almost daily the scene of a great party, command performances at the
theatres very common, and altogether the easily purchased homage of the
people was accepted greedily, and created a growing appetite for more.
Then in 1765 Lord Northumberland was abruptly dismissed from office,
and the Earl of Hertford appointed. Returning to London in a passion,
Northumberland sought out the king and his ministers, demanding an
explanation. The {169} 'explanation' took the shape of a dukedom, and
both husband and wife were content.
Lord Hertford soon tired of Dublin, and his wife induced him to seek an
early release from his distasteful task, and the home Government sent
Lord Townshend to replace him.
[Sidenote: A new era]
The appointment of George, first Marquis Townshend, to the viceroyalty
marked a new era in Irish history. Ever since the days of the Duke of
Dorset's first term of office Dublin had been progressing. The Irish
Parliament, though for the most part consisting of 'provincial
imbeciles,' to use Chesterfield's words, was gradually attracting to it
some of the most gifted Irishmen, and London, which affected to despise
it, was perturbed by the reports coming from the Irish capital. One
viceroy expressed his amazement at the wealth of genius in Dublin;
another confirmed it. To convince the world, a great race of Irishmen
was arising. Edmund Burke was a power in London; Grattan, a young man,
was renowned in his own circles in Dublin; Henry Flood, in the Irish
House of Commons, was winning his reputation for eloquence; and a few
years later Richard Brinsley Sheridan was to gain fresh laurels for the
name of Irishman. Goldsmith was at his zenith when Townshend came to
Ireland in 1767. Others whose names are now forgotten achieved the
not-to-be-despised if brief fame that talent is proud of and genius
despises. Dublin was quickly losing its mean appearance. An orgy of
building had transformed the districts now known as Grafton Street,
Sackville Street, {170} Merrion Square, and St. Stephen's Green. In
Dame Street Trinity College and the Irish Houses of Parliament, the
latter having been built in 1729 on the site of Chichester House, gave
the thoroughfare an imposing appearance.
But the most important change lay in the people themselves. The
English influence was, of course, paramount, and those who wished to be
considered fashionable aped London manners, but slowly and surely there
was an awakening of the national spirit; the so-called English colony
was beginning to realize the danger of allowing themselves to be
subject to the caprices of a Government in London ignorant of Irish
affairs. They clamoured for legislative independence, and if their
motives were purely selfish and local, yet on the whole they benefited
Ireland. Irish trade was being handicapped by English ministers
anxious to gain the suffrages of the great trading towns of Bristol and
London, and they attempted to impose restrictions on Ireland through
the medium of the Dublin Parliament. But the descendants of the
Elizabethan and Cromwellian 'undertakers' would have none of it. Their
idea was that all Irish affairs should be under the control of the
Irish Parliament because they were the Parliament.
The eloquence and statesmanship of Grattan and his great contemporaries
has gained a not undeserved fame for the Irish Parliament as it existed
from 1760 to the Union, but in the fullest meaning of the word it was
never a Parliament, even in the sense that the mother of Parliaments
{171} in London was falsely supposed to represent England. The
majority of the Irish members were party hacks returned in their
master's interests to vote without conscience. Religion entered into
everything, but in the sixties of the eighteenth century the problem
that confronted the English ministry was the position of the
'undertakers.' The latter were now the paramount power in Ireland;
they formed the ascendancy, and from their ranks came all the high
officers of state and the men who carried out the policy of England.
But time taught its lessons, and the Anglo-Irish ignored London--even
defied it--and when in 1767 Lord Townshend was sent to Dublin, it was
with the undisguised object of crushing the 'undertakers' and regaining
for England the chief authority in Ireland. For the first time in the
history of Ireland a _resident_ viceroy was appointed.
[Sidenote: Breaking the Irish Parliament]
Townshend accepted the task with enthusiasm. He was forty-three years
of age, and had succeeded in achieving an unpopularity that provided
him with a vast amount of inspiration for lampoons and caricatures. He
never cultivated friendship either in men or women, and he found his
chief relaxation in vilifying his opponents. He had fought under Wolfe
at Quebec, and, the death of his superior having placed him in command,
he claimed the honours, declaring that his fertile mind inspired
Wolfe's plans and carried them into execution. The man who did this
was capable of anything, and he was selected to break the power of the
Irish Parliament. Lord Bristol had failed {172} the ministry,
declining the post on Lord Hertford's resignation, although he started
for Dublin. When Bristol was informed that he would be expected to
live in the Irish capital, he threw up the appointment in disgust. In
the circumstances Townshend's selection was a hurried one, but he had
no scruples about anything, and was the man for an unscrupulous task.
{173}
CHAPTER XI
The five years of Lord Townshend's viceroyalty were fruitful for
Ireland. He might have adopted craftier methods and injured the
country more than he did, but he openly pursued a stupid policy of
bribery and spite: by the former gaining the adherence of the
incompetent, and by the latter exasperating the men who in the end
defeated him.
Amongst the Irish peers whom he was anxious to win over to his side was
a kinsman, Lord Loftus. Loftus had some power in the Lords and in the
Commons, and by reason of the viceroy's relationship to Lady Loftus he
counted upon dealing the Opposition party a heavy blow. Lady Loftus,
with visions of a great social position for herself, fell in with
Townshend's plans, though her husband was stubborn. Then Lady
Townshend died, and Lady Loftus had a fresh inspiration. The viceroy
was a widower, and during his visits to Rathfarnham Castle had often
noticed pretty little Dorothea Munroe, her ladyship's niece. Why
should she not marry the couple? With her niece as the viceroy's wife
Lady Loftus would be the most powerful woman in Ireland, and the
exchanging of a viscountess's coronet for a {174} countess's, or even a
duchess's, would be accomplished easily. From that moment she let
Townshend know that the marriage of Dolly Munroe would be the price of
her husband's allegiance, and the Lord-Lieutenant, cynical and daring,
began to visit Rathfarnham Castle daily and flatter Dolly's hopes. The
girl was only seventeen when Lady Townshend died in 1770, and the
leading beauty of her time. Henry Grattan was one of her admirers, but
the most favoured in a wide circle was Hercules Langrishe, afterwards
the Sir Hercules Langrishe who accepted £15,000 from Lord Castlereagh
not to vote against the Act of Union. There is no doubt that Dolly
would have married Hercules Langrishe but for her aunt. Perhaps she
had ambitions herself, and the prospect of reigning in Dublin Castle
dazzled her mind and unbalanced her judgment. Anyhow, she sent
Langrishe about his business shortly after Lord Townshend had
superintended the painting of her portrait by Angelica Kauffmann.
Everything seemed favourable for a match, and Lady Loftus was hourly
expecting a proposal.
In her confidence in the viceroy's word she secured her husband's
support for the Government in the House of Lords, but from the moment
Lord Loftus joined the viceroy's party Lord Townshend immediately
ceased his visits to Rathfarnham Castle, and all Dublin laughed at poor
Dolly. She became the butt of every wit. Lady Loftus grew desperate.
She believed that Townshend was actually in love with her niece, and in
her anxiety she took Dolly with her to Dublin Castle, {175} and
presented her to the viceroy. He received them politely, but by now
there was no need even to act the lover, and Lady Loftus retired in a
rage.
There was, however, one more trick in Lady Loftus's repertoire, and she
caused the Dublin papers to print a notice to the effect that Dolly
Munroe was going to marry the Right Honourable Thomas Andrews, Provost
of Trinity College, Dublin. Instead of exciting Townshend's chagrin
and jealousy, it merely evoked a characteristic set of verses in which
he lampooned the aged Provost and congratulated him in a sneer on his
conquest. Andrews was what would be called nowadays a 'character,'
mainly because he had none. At one time Peg Woffington, the celebrated
actress, had been his mistress, and he secured the provostship through
her influence, for which he paid her £5,000. When Dolly Munroe was a
girl Andrews was past seventy. Lady Loftus could not have selected a
more absurd bridegroom.
[Sidenote: Famous Irish beauties]
Meanwhile Lord Townshend was flirting with Anne Montgomery, one of the
three beautiful sisters. Anne, strangely enough, was also brought up
in Rathfarnham Castle, and was a niece of Lady Loftus, but it was on
Dolly Munroe that Lady Loftus showered all her affection. Anne was
exceedingly pretty, and generally accepted as Dolly's rival, and when
Lord Townshend was seen with Anne all Dublin became interested in the
struggle between the two to secure the great matrimonial prize. The
viceroy accepted the somewhat embarrassing position with nonchalance,
{176} affecting unconsciousness of the current gossip of the day.
Everywhere the chances of the fair candidates were canvassed, and every
man of fashion in Dublin had his 'book' on the contest. Huge sums were
wagered by the respective partisans of Dolly and Anne as to which
should become Lady Townshend. Dublin society had little else to do,
for the city was crowded with loafers in every rank of society.
Dinner-parties were the most popular form of entertaining, and the
viceroy's matrimonial prospects were discussed at all.
[Illustration: Marquis Townshend]
The viceroy did not permit these diversions to interfere with his
political policy. He poured out hundreds of thousands of pounds and
almost as many promises in his desperate efforts to secure the
destruction of the 'undertakers.' No act was too unscrupulous or too
mean for him to lend his name to, and to further his ends he made
confidants of some of the most disreputable and discreditable
hangers-on in Dublin society. No speech did not contain a sneer at the
Irish nobility, which he affected to despise as something utterly false
and unreal. For the defence Flood, Grattan, and Langrishe united, and
produced the famous satire 'Baratariana.' Townshend replied with
spirit, writing his lampoon in a low-class tavern near the Castle. He
was a frequent visitor to the old Dublin taverns, excusing himself on
the ground that they were better conducted and more hospitable than the
Irish nobility.
Dublin Castle gradually became isolated, as Lord Townshend alienated
everybody of position {177} and clung to drunken brawlers and servile
followers of the lowest class. The few levées were ludicrous affairs,
and were soon abandoned. Even the official class detested their chief,
and when in 1772 sixteen Irish peers drew up a petition against him and
presented it to the king and Government, the patience and good temper
of everybody had been exhausted. Townshend had not the decency to
observe the rules that bind every gentleman who mixes in good society,
and he insulted women with the same ease as he insulted gentlemen. To
challenge him was to be informed that the representative of the king
was privileged, and beyond that there was no appeal.
[Sidenote: Lord Townshend's dismissal]
The peers' petition, however, resulted in Townshend's recall. In
itself the memorial would not have succeeded in causing the viceroy's
removal from office, but the ministry in London had received reports
from secret agents in Dublin, and it was deemed advisable, if a
rebellion was to be prevented, that the unpopular Townshend should be
superseded. Lord Harcourt was sent to replace him, and when the new
viceroy arrived at three in the morning, he found his predecessor
playing cards with a couple of congenial ruffians. With a half apology
Townshend declared that at any rate Lord Harcourt had not caught him
napping!
The ex-viceroy was in no mood to leave Dublin, and with Harcourt's
permission he remained in Dublin Castle for a fortnight, ostensibly
with the object of accepting some of the dozen challenges with which he
had been favoured before his dismissal. But Townshend did not intend
to {178} fight, and his real purpose must have been to make
arrangements for leaving the country with some show of dignity.
Rumours had reached him that an attempt would be made on his life.
Later this was discounted to a plot for throwing him into the sea, and
again a circumstantial report of a proposal to make his carriage into a
bonfire was circulated. Townshend affected to discredit all these, but
he took the precaution of hiring a large body of roughs, whose duties
were to escort his carriage and to raise stage cheers all the way.
The hired mob did its duty and earned its money, but it was as nothing
against the voices of thousands of persons who lined the streets of the
city and shouted their joy at the departure of the hated ex-viceroy.
There was no concerted attempt at violence, however, and Townshend was
able to reach his ship in safety.
Anne Montgomery was now the subject of many taunts. The common people
jested about her openly, and her character was defamed. Dublin society
began to look askance at the pretty girl whose name had been coupled
with the notorious Townshend. Naturally, her family was furious, and
the girl's brother, Captain Montgomery, a noted duellist, determined to
bring the ex-viceroy to reason. In hot haste he followed him to
England, and before Townshend reached London Captain Montgomery had
overtaken him, and, literally at the point of the sword, compelled the
viscount to send back a proposal of marriage to Anne. There was no
greater coward in the world at the time, and so the self-styled hero of
Quebec {179} meekly accepted Captain Montgomery's terms and, rather
than risk a duel, agreed to marry the girl. In due course the marriage
took place, and £20,000 was won by those of Anne's admirers who had
wagered on her becoming the second Lady Townshend. Her rival, Dolly
Munroe, eventually married a Mr. Richardson, the rejected Langrishe
never returning to her side. Langrishe himself married and lived many
years, gaining a reputation for wit, the best specimen of which is his
reply to the viceroy, who declared that Phoenix Park was a swamp,
Langrishe retorting that his predecessors had been too busy draining
the rest of the kingdom to be able to pay any attention to the cause of
his Excellency's complaint.
[Sidenote: Extravagant society]
The viceroyalty of Lord Harcourt, which lasted from October, 1772, to
the last days of 1776, was distinguished for its social magnificence.
The Lord-Lieutenant was no politician, and he left that part of his
work to Lord de Blaquerie, his chief secretary. He set the fashion for
costly entertainments until to be economical was to confess oneself a
social failure. Dozens of families of note, in their wild efforts to
imitate the example of the viceroy, beggared themselves, spending in a
few years the income of a whole generation. Thus the Lord-Lieutenant
would be invited to a great dinner and dance given on a most lavish and
extravagant scale. Within twenty-four hours the scene of the
festivities would be stripped of everything of value to pay for the
previous night's excesses.
There is a story told of an Irish gentleman who {180} had been
compelled to pawn every piece of family plate to meet the expenses of a
visit from the viceroy. Of course, this misfortune was kept a profound
secret, and when Lord Harcourt intimated shortly afterwards that he
would like to be invited again, the would-be host was placed in a most
embarrassing situation. His mansion in Stephen's Green was well
furnished and staffed, but there was no plate, and, of course, he would
not think of refusing the honour of a visit from the king's
representative. There was only one thing to do: the pawnbroker must be
induced to lend the plate for the occasion. Now, it happened that the
pawnbroker was a man with social aspirations; his one ambition was to
mix with the gentry, and as he possessed considerable wealth he had
almost as much assurance. Finding that he would not lend the family
plate, the viceroy's host had to make the pawnbroker one of his guests
for the occasion, and, being a sensible fellow, the tradesman enjoyed
discreetly the novel experience without adding to the worries of his
patron.
This is only one story of many, all illustrating the stupendous folly
of the period. Dublin literally danced, drank, and gambled itself into
penury, whilst the Castle set, contemptuous and indifferent to public
opinion, robbed and oppressed the country, and prepared the way for the
ghastly year of 1798. Harcourt was indifferent, careless, and somewhat
contemptuous of Ireland and its affairs, and as his viceroyalty was
marked by numerous visits to England, he was never on the spot long
enough to become conscious {181} of the defects and shortcomings of his
administration.
[Sidenote: The free trade question]
In 1775 Henry Grattan was elected to Parliament, and sat with Henry
Flood, but Harcourt was replaced by the Earl of Buckinghamshire at the
time when these two Irishmen began their great campaign for the freedom
of Irish trade. England's policy had been to restrict Irish commercial
enterprise, and only men of the calibre of Grattan and Flood could have
succeeded in compelling the Government to remove the embargo on Irish
trade. Lord Buckinghamshire, who had been Ambassador to Russia,
carried out a policy of concessions, and he was able to give the royal
approval to the bills for relieving Irish Dissenters from the
sacramental test, and also grant some much-needed reforms in the
franchise.
It must have been during the viceroyalty of Lord Buckinghamshire that
English statesmen first thought of a legislative union with Ireland,
for the reforms initiated by the viceroy undoubtedly pointed that way,
reading their history in view of subsequent events. The rise of the
Irish volunteer movement must have convinced the English Government
that if Ireland was permitted to have its own legislation much longer
the country would seek to break away from the monarchical union. Lord
Buckinghamshire, however, was never informed of the Government's
intentions. When he left in 1780, recalled by the Prime Minister, he
was succeeded by Frederick Howard, fifth Earl of Carlisle, one of the
commissioners {182} who had failed to conciliate the American rebels a
few years earlier. Lord Carlisle was a typical product of his age,
when to graduate as a statesman one had to be at school or university
with the reigning minister and have gambled one's way recklessly into
favour. Every gentleman was a gambler, and Lord Carlisle was no
exception to the rule. Before his sudden desire to shine as a
politician he ruined himself at the card-tables, generously backing
Fox's debts of honour, and, of course, paying them. It was the
influence of Fox that led to his appointment to Ireland.
Lord Carlisle, with the easy assurance of a great nobleman whose
position was secure, took over the government of Ireland in the spirit
of the dilettante. The chief secretary, Sir William Eden, afterwards
Lord Auckland, supervised the more arduous work, while the viceroy and
his wife--a daughter of the Marquis of Stafford--gratified Dublin
society by patronizing the card-table and the ballroom. In 1781 the
present Viceregal Lodge was purchased for the use of the
Lord-Lieutenant. Lord Carlisle's common sense, however, was not
nullified by his native prejudice against Ireland. He came to Dublin
prepared to administer laws made in England, but it was not long before
he had to confess to his masters in London that it was utterly futile
to attempt to govern Ireland by English-made laws. This testimony from
a man whose honour was never doubted had enormous effect in winning for
the Irish Parliament the famous Declaration of Independence, though it
would not have been {183} accomplished had not men like Henry Grattan
and Flood devoted themselves to it.
Public opinion in Ireland gave Grattan the full credit for the victory,
and some enthusiastic patriots brought forward a resolution in the
Irish House of Commons with the object of securing for Grattan and his
heirs the viceregal desmesne in Phoenix Park. This was very properly
rejected, and nothing more was heard of the matter.
[Sidenote: The Volunteer movement]
The rise of the Irish Volunteer movement during the viceroyalty of Lord
Buckinghamshire had created a new problem in Irish affairs. The
Government in London, not understanding the crisis, magnified the
Volunteers into a national army preparing to drive the English into the
sea, and successive viceroys, well aware that the army in Ireland was
in a disorganized and undisciplined state, regarded the Volunteers with
a dismay their dignity compelled them to disguise. For the time being
Henry Grattan was a greater power than the Lord-Lieutenant, and
whenever the Irish statesman appeared at the Castle he was received
with a favour that plainly indicated the respect he had gained in
official circles. Grattan represented in his person the new Ireland.
He was not a patriot in the sense the word is used nowadays; he did not
fight the battles of all Ireland or advocate principles for the benefit
of the whole country. He was the representative of the Anglo-Irish
class which had risen to place and power by reason of its English
origin.
When the Government in London realized that the descendants of the
English colony and the {184} 'undertakers' were becoming too powerful
for their masters, they made a determined effort to cripple them. Lord
Townshend's attempt was one of many, but fortunately for themselves the
Anglo-Irish possessed in Grattan and Flood the two most powerful
advocates in Parliament. Edmund Burke, having sought the more
respectable and more remunerative English Parliament for the display of
his talents, was driven to express his sympathies with the efforts of
his fellow-countrymen to secure an unhampered trade for Ireland. This
cost him his representation of Bristol, but the man who gave to mankind
what was meant for Ireland might have done more for his native country
and not diminished his political reputation.
Lord Carlisle admired Grattan, who, from a fashionable buck, had
developed with extraordinary facility into the statesman, and during
his occupancy of the post the Irish orator led the country. The solid
qualities of Flood were obscured by the brilliance of Grattan, and the
senior Parliamentarian had to give place to his youthful colleague.
Grattan had the gift of social popularity, which Flood lacked. In his
youthful days the famous orator was one of the most noted men about
town who seemed to overrun Dublin. He was seen everywhere, and society
ladies, anxious to shine in amateur theatricals, always came to Grattan
for advice and specially written prologues. Dolly Munroe obtained this
service of him, and when her reign as queen of beauty was over, and a
new star in Elizabeth la Touche {185} arose to dazzle Dublin, Grattan
supervised some private theatricals for the fair Elizabeth, and wrote a
prologue for her to recite before the then viceroy. Elizabeth
eventually became Countess of Lanesborough, and remained Grattan's
friend and supporter throughout her life.
[Sidenote: Lord Carlisle's departure]
Lord Carlisle was highly esteemed in official and society circles in
Dublin, and there was genuine regret when, in April, 1782, the state of
English politics compelled him to place his resignation in the hands of
the Marquis of Rockingham, the Prime Minister. The Irish Houses of
Parliament, in resolutions couched in the most generous language,
thanked the departing viceroy for his services. He acknowledged their
gratitude gracefully, but did not convey his private opinion that the
sooner the great farce of their posing as an Irish Parliament was ended
the better it would be for the country. In later years he spoke
several times in the House of Lords, advocating the legislative union
with Ireland, and his opinions must have been genuine, because the idea
was undoubtedly Pitt's, and we know that Carlisle was bitterly opposed
to that great statesman on every possible occasion.
Lord Carlisle's later life does not belong to the history of Ireland,
although he lived for twenty-four years after the Union, and always
took an interest in Irish affairs. Apart from his viceroyalty, he is
best known as the guardian of his kinsman, Lord Byron, and the
dedication of the second edition of 'Hours of Idleness' is only a
reminder of the subsequent quarrel between the two noblemen.
{186}
The successor to Carlisle was William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, third
Duke of Portland. Born in 1738, he married when he was twenty-eight
Lady Dorothy Cavendish, a daughter of the fourth Duke of Devonshire,
adding to his wealth and power by the union. His appointment to
Ireland was most momentous for that country, although his term of
office began in April and ended the following September. He had no
great gifts of statesmanship, and owed his political advancement to his
birth and his friendship with Lord Rockingham, but his few months'
experience of Ireland imbued him with a passion for Irish affairs and
an ambition to settle that disturbed country. Portland, as Home
Secretary from 1794 to 1801, had to deal with the Irish rebellion of
1798 and the carrying of the Act of Union. He worked very hard in both
instances, but it is only fair to his memory to record the fact that he
was opposed to the policy of bribery and corruption which terminated
the existence of the Irish Parliament, and he allowed Castlereagh to do
the dirty work.
Little is to be said of his brief administration as Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland. He arrived in Dublin with a large retinue, and opened his
season in Dublin Castle with a levée followed by a ball, where the
official classes welcomed him because of his rank and birth. Dublin
loved a lord, but was passionately devoted to dukes, and had Portland
remained in the metropolis he would have been successful, as all
mediocrities are who possess sufficient good sense to let difficult
problems solve {187} themselves. A sudden crisis in England, however,
recalled Portland from Ireland. The Marquis of Rockingham had died
suddenly, and the king had appointed Lord Shelburne to the premiership.
This annoyed Fox, and he resigned, carrying Lord John Cavendish, the
brother-in-law of the viceroy, Burke, and Sheridan with him. When he
heard of this development, Portland added his resignation, and Lord
Shelburne, after a gallant attempt to defeat the malcontents, advised
the king that the only possible solution was the elevation of the Duke
of Portland to the premiership. It is an historical fact that when
great men differ mediocrities come into their kingdoms, and Portland as
Prime Minister was a figurehead.
[Sidenote: The Portland period]
There is no more fruitful period in the history of the world than that
bounded by the years 1782 and 1809--years selected because they mark
the beginning of Portland's first ministry and the end of his second
and last term of office--and yet he cannot be said to have done
anything personally to enhance his reputation. He had much of the
dogged and dignified obstinacy of his class, and he made at least one
attempt to introduce a code of honour into politics; but it was his
misfortune to have Castlereagh as a colleague, and that gentleman's
lack of scruple was too much for his ducal friend. The 'Cornwallis
Correspondence' gives a vivid picture of the vacillating nobleman,
whose feeble attempts to stem the vigorous and unscrupulous polity of
Lord Castlereagh might be humorous if they had not done so much harm.
{188}
CHAPTER XII
The resignation of the Duke of Portland enabled Lord Shelburne to
appoint his friend, Earl Temple, to the viceroyalty. This was the
premier's challenge to Fox and his followers, and was taken as evidence
that he meant to do without their aid. Temple, although well aware
that his reign must be almost as short as his predecessor's, came to
Dublin, and did his best to gain the support of the official party for
the tottering ministry.
[Illustration: Banquet given in Dublin Castle by Earl Temple to
celebrate his installation as Knight of St. Patrick]
Within a few months several Bills of importance were carried both in
the English and the Irish Parliaments, and as a sop for the nobility
the Order of St. Patrick was founded in the early months of 1783, the
viceroy installing himself as grand master. Previous to this Lord
Shelburne had been compelled to resign, and Temple's resignation
followed as a matter of course, but he waited for the arrival of his
successor, Lord Northington, who was selected only after several
noblemen had rejected the overtures of the Coalition Ministry of the
Duke of Portland. Temple, created Marquis of Buckingham in 1784,
consistently opposed the Government, and he had his reward in 1787,
when he returned to Ireland {189} on the sudden death of the viceroy,
Charles Manners, Duke of Rutland.
[Sidenote: The Volunteer Convention]
Meanwhile Lord Northington's brief tenure of office was not without
incident. He discovered more about Irish affairs in less than twelve
months in Dublin than he had learned in ten years in England. A great
Volunteer convention in the vicinity of the Castle augured a disturbing
time, but it passed off quietly enough, and the viceroy set about
advising his friend and political patron, Fox, of the real condition of
the country. Fox was for a display of force; Northington, with the
superior knowledge of the man on the spot, and able to gauge the temper
of the Irish race, strongly urged a policy of conciliation. More than
once he complained to Fox that the evils of absentee officialism were
endangering the position of the Government in Ireland; and, unable to
cope with this scandal because he had the whole of the official and
governing classes against him, he turned to the more congenial task of
encouraging Irish industries. Out of his own resources he helped in
the promotion and development of the flax and tobacco trades, then in a
very feeble state. Parliament, anxious to show its friendliness
towards Northington, increased his salary from £16,000 to £20,000 a
year, but he never benefited by the change--even if he desired to--for
the Coalition Ministry, defeated by the intrigues of the court party,
went out of office in the early part of 1784, and the Duke of Rutland,
a popular and wealthy nobleman, was selected to succeed him at Dublin.
{190}
It was at first proposed to send Temple, now Marquis of Buckingham,
back again, but the king had need of his services, and the appointment
was delayed for some three years.
[Sidenote: The Duke of Rutland]
Rutland was a close personal friend of the triumphant Pitt, and
although only thirty years of age in 1784, was entrusted by his friend
with the momentous secret that the Home Government had in contemplation
the union of the two Parliaments. Rutland's first move in Dublin was
to sound carefully the leading officials and noblemen. To his
astonishment he found the most determined opposition everywhere.
Nobody would listen to the proposal, and the viceroy was compelled to
laugh the idea away, pretending that it was but an idle fancy of his
own, and quite unimportant.
It is not to be wondered at that Dublin should be unanimous against the
proposal. Its very existence depended upon the official classes.
Seventy-five per cent. of the well-to-do drew their incomes from Dublin
Castle; while the trades-people were for obvious reasons panic-stricken
whenever it was rumoured that the Parliament should be transferred to
London.
Rutland thereupon sought distraction in such pleasures as the capital
afforded, and his wife seconded him. Both were young and in possession
of more than viceregal wealth, and they cut the road to popularity
short by a lavish expenditure. The leading noblemen built themselves
mansions, and the wealthy bourgeois followed suit. Stephen's Green was
the favourite residential quarter, but Merrion Square threatened {191}
to rival it. Architects, artists, and builders from England and the
Continent crowded Dublin, some of them to found families not without
renown in Irish annals, if bearing patronymics more suggestive of sunny
Italy or France than their adopted country. The professional classes
were rapidly rising in social status, and although the rule that
prohibited the recognition of lawyers' and doctors' wives by the
Lord-Lieutenant and his consort were still in force, barristers and
medical men sometimes gained admission to unofficial festivities at the
Castle. The large garrison contributed its quota of officers to Dublin
society, which at that time and for many years after the union
represented all Ireland. The Duke and Duchess of Rutland cultivated
society in a manner that gained them immense personal popularity. They
led the fashions in the drawing-rooms and in the clubs, and the duke,
who dearly loved a good dinner, created a record for dining out never
equalled by any subsequent viceroy.
Tired at last of the rollicking pleasures of the capital, the viceroy
decided to seek relaxation in a tour of Ireland. He was strongly
advised by his council not to undertake the journey, but he was anxious
to witness for himself the feudal state some of the nobility maintained
in their country castles, and he carried out his resolve. Accompanied
by the duchess, he journeyed from place to place, staying whenever
possible at the residences of well-disposed noblemen. To mark their
appreciation of his visit, the latter spent thousands of pounds
entertaining the {192} viceroy and his wife, and the chroniclers of the
day dwell with awe on the vast amount of food consumed by the viceregal
pair throughout their tour. He must have undermined his constitution
during his Irish travels, for on his return to Dublin he was almost
immediately in the thrall of a fever, and, not being strong enough to
resist it, expired suddenly at his residence in the Phoenix Park on
October 24, 1787.
[Illustration: Duke of Rutland]
[Sidenote: Grattan and Dublin Castle]
To the intense annoyance of the Grattan party the Marquis of
Buckingham, who as Earl Temple had been viceroy in 1782, came over in
December as the result of the king's influence. The question of the
regency during George III.'s illness was acute in Dublin as in London,
and the Irish Houses of Parliament, true to its reputation, rushed in
with a resolution requesting the Prince of Wales to assume the regency.
This motion the viceroy angrily declined to communicate to the
Government or the prince, and Parliament thereupon censured him in
explicit language. The sudden recovery of the king was a triumph for
Buckingham's policy, and he dismissed his principal opponents in Dublin
from office, utilizing the public funds to gain fresh adherents for his
Government. This action caused Grattan to enter an eloquent protest
against the 'expensive genius' of the Marquis of Buckingham. In vain
did the viceroy attempt to undermine the position Grattan held. The
most popular Irishman of his time could set the viceroy and his
satellites at defiance, and all the money that could be filched from
the Irish treasury was insufficient to bring {193} about the downfall
of the great orator. Grattan was not received at Dublin Castle during
Buckingham's viceroyalty, but from his place in Parliament he could
thunder at the Lord-Lieutenant and even frighten the ministry in London.
In Walpole's 'Journals of George III.'s Reign' there is an unflattering
description of Buckingham, which depicts him as a liar and a thief, and
more successful as the latter than the former. Proud and stubborn as
he was, Buckingham was compelled to give way, and in September, 1789,
to the great joy of the country, he announced his resignation. He left
immediately, and dropped out of political life. During a debate on the
Irish situation in 1799 he followed the Earl of Carlisle--another
ex-viceroy--with a speech advocating the union with Ireland. This was
a year after he had served in the rebellion of '98, commanding a
regiment of Buckinghamshire militia in the country of which he never
spoke without exhausting his powers of invective.
The task of naming the new viceroy fell to William Pitt, and, after
considering the matter in conjunction with his own policy, he
remembered his old fellow-student at Cambridge, John Fane, now tenth
Earl of Westmoreland. The post was offered to and accepted by the
earl, and in January, 1790, he was nominated Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland. Eight years previously he had startled and scandalized
society by making a runaway marriage with the daughter of Child, the
banker, and reputed to be the wealthiest heiress in the country.
Westmoreland was a soldier and not {194} a statesman, but he gladly
accepted Pitt's offer, and, disdainful of the growing power of the new
Irish party, sought to govern the country from the point of view of the
rough and courageous soldier.
[Illustration: Earl of Westmoreland]
The Irish Volunteer movement--a Protestant organization--had gained
independence for the Irish Parliament, and, incidentally, compelled
England to grant certain measures of relief to the Catholics because,
with the Protestant community opposed to English misrule, it was
necessary for the predominant partner to curry favour with the
Catholics. Grattan, John Keogh, and other leaders, demanded complete
Catholic emancipation, and the more sober-minded amongst the
Protestants had come to realize that Ireland could not progress until
the Catholics were freed from the obnoxious penal laws even then in
existence.
The first law of nature had compelled the rival religionists to join
forces, so that when Lord Westmoreland arrived in Ireland he was faced
with the problem of dealing with a strong and united Irish party. Some
years previously the Catholic Committee had been formed, and now, with
Lord Kenmare and John Keogh controlling it, the organization was the
most powerful in the country, with the notable exception of the Irish
Volunteers. Keogh was a remarkable man in every way. A wealthy Dublin
tradesman, he retired from business in order to fight the battle of
Catholic Emancipation, and, although handicapped by internecine strife,
succeeded in gaining {195} the control of the Catholic Committee and
directing its policy. The viceroy contributed to Keogh's triumph by
contemptuously returning an address of welcome from the Catholic
Committee because it contained a hope that further relief would be
granted to Catholics.
[Sidenote: The Irish Volunteers revived]
This act, which exasperated the moderate men, convinced the majority of
the Committee that Keogh's aggressive policy was the only one worth
adopting. Parliament had been declared independent of its English
prototype, but everybody knew that it was wholly subject to the
bureaucrats who reigned in Dublin Castle. Simultaneously with the rise
to prominence of John Keogh came the revivification of the Volunteers.
Since their great victory of 1782 they had been allowed to degenerate
and dwindle, but the success of the French Revolution was not without
its influence on Irish affairs, and the years between 1789 and 1792
witnessed a revival on national lines. Froude wrote eloquently of a
Belfast Volunteer Review in 1791. 'The ceremonial commenced with a
procession. The Volunteer companies, refilled to their old numbers,
marched past with banners and music. A battery of cannon followed, and
behind the cannon a portrait of Mirabeau. Then a gigantic triumphal
car, bearing a broad sheet of canvas, on which was painted the opening
of the Bastille dungeons. In the foreground was the wasted figure of
the prisoner who had been confined there thirty years. In the near
distance the doors of the cells flung back, disclosing the skeletons of
dead victims or living wretches writhing in chains {196} and torture.
On the reverse of the canvas Hibernia was seen reclining, one hand and
one foot in shackles, and a Volunteer artilleryman holding before her
eyes the radiant image of Liberty.... In the evening three hundred and
fifty patriots sat down to dinner in the Linen Hall. They drank to the
King of Ireland. They drank to Washington, the ornament of mankind.
They drank to Grattan, Molyneux, Franklin, and Mirabeau--these last two
amidst applause that threatened to shake the building to the ground.'
[Sidenote: Struggle for Catholic relief]
The proposed co-operation of the Catholic Committee with the
Volunteers, the latter being a Presbyterian organization, alarmed the
viceroy and the ministers in London. Westmoreland was advised to
prevent the amalgamation of the forces by concessions to Catholics, and
eventually a measure, granting everything save the franchise to
Catholics, was passed by the Irish Parliament. The Castle influence,
however, was too strong for John Keogh to win the vote for his
followers, but it was something to gain for his fellow-religionists
admission to the magistracy, to the rank of King's Counsel, and to
become solicitors and to open schools without the permission of the
Protestant bishop. Beyond that the Government would not go. But the
great Catholic Convention in 1792 won the vote for the majority,
although Westmoreland and his secretary, Hobart, wrote imploring Pitt
and Dundas not to give way to the importunities of the five
Commissioners sent by the Catholic Convention to demand the franchise
from the king. The Commissioners convinced the {197} ministry that if
their mission failed English rule in Ireland would be at an end, and
the Lord-Lieutenant's advice was ignored. In February, 1793, the Chief
Secretary moved in Parliament the first reading of a Bill admitting
Catholics to the parliamentary franchise, to the magistracy, to the
grand jury, to the municipal corporations, to Dublin University, and to
several civil and military offices. But an amendment proposing the
admission of Catholics to Parliament was defeated by 136 to 69 votes.
Lord Westmoreland was personally a fanatical opponent of Roman
Catholicism, and the weakness of Pitt, as he termed it, made his
position in Dublin unbearable. He would have resigned in 1792 but for
a certain vanity that made him unwilling to admit defeat. Besides, he
was ever hoping that the natural passion for schism which permeates
every Irish politician would dissever the alliance of the Presbyterians
with the Catholic Committee. In the North, while the Belfast
Volunteers were welcoming with open arms the leaders of the Catholic
movement, and making fervid speeches about liberty of conscience, two
organizations in adjacent villages were 'cutting one another's throats
for the love of God.' The 'Defenders' was the name given to the Roman
Catholic band, while the Presbyterians, or Orangemen, called themselves
'Peep-o'-Day Boys.' In September, 1795, when Camden was viceroy, the
two factions came into conflict at a village called the 'Diamond,' and
the battle that followed takes its name from the scene of the contest.
Forty-eight Defenders were {198} killed, and to commemorate the victory
the first Orange lodge was founded.
Westmoreland knew that there could be no genuine alliance between the
Catholics and the Protestants, and so he clung to office; but Pitt,
alarmed by the state of Europe and the isolation of England, was for
favouring the Catholics, and the viceroy, as one utterly at variance
with the Home Government, resigned.
Lord Westmoreland's term was purely a political one. He came to
Ireland at a most critical period in its history, and, although little
more than thirty years of age, he showed a courage worthy of a man with
better ideals. He was not without his good qualities, and the Castle
bureaucrats found in him a stanch friend. He entertained lavishly, but
the death of Lady Westmoreland towards the close of 1793 abruptly ended
the gaieties of the Castle. He lived until 1841, and held the post of
Lord Privy Seal from 1798 to 1827--a period covering nearly thirty
years and without precedent or example in the history of politics.
It is interesting to recall that one of Lord Westmoreland's staff in
Dublin during the early years of his viceroyalty was a young officer
named Arthur Wellesley. While attending a ball at the Castle he made
the acquaintance of a girl of great beauty, Miss Catherine Pakenham, a
daughter of Lord Longford. They became engaged almost immediately, but
Wellesley's family opposed the match, his mother, a haughty and severe
woman, being very prominent in the matter. The future Iron Duke,
however, maintained the {199} engagement, and when he was in India he
kept up a regular correspondence with his fiancée. During his absence
she was attacked by smallpox, and wrote to Wellesley releasing him, but
he refused to do so, and on April 10, 1806, they were married in the
church of St. George, Dublin.
[Sidenote: A sensational viceroyalty]
The removal of Westmoreland, the friend of the Protestant minority, was
followed by the brief but sensational viceroyalty of the second Earl
Fitzwilliam. Pitt's avowed policy was to win the sympathies of the
majority, and Lord Fitzwilliam was considered the best man to give
effect to the policy of the Government. He was gazetted, therefore, to
Ireland in December, 1794, and a month later appeared in Dublin. His
wife was a daughter of the Earl of Bessborough, and both were very
popular in Court circles. Possessed of great wealth, it was thought
that Fitzwilliam would be the less independent of the support of the
Castle bureaucracy, which was fighting with venom the battle for its
existence. No sooner was Fitzwilliam in Dublin than he received
instructions to continue Westmoreland's policy. But he had started the
work of reform before these reached him. One morning Beresford, who
had married Barbara Montgomery, a sister of Lady Townshend, was
dismissed from his post of Commissioner of the Customs; Toler,
Attorney-General--afterwards the notorious Lord Norbury--Wolfe, the
Solicitor-General, and Cooke, the Military Secretary, also received
notice that their services were no longer required. The Castle people
were panic-stricken; their occupations seemed to be {200} gone, but
even Fitzwilliam, with all the prestige of great birth and wealth,
could not overwhelm the bureaucracy. Beresford appealed to Pitt and
the king, and within a few days the dismissed officers were all
reinstated. This was too much for the viceroy, and on March 25, 1795,
he left Ireland, to the accompaniment of a demonstration of mourning
absolutely unique in the history of the country. Dublin proclaimed it
a day of humiliation; all the shops were closed, and the citizens lined
the streets. Grattan gave voice to the general regret, and fiercely
denounced the treachery of Pitt, who had assured him that Lord
Fitzwilliam was to adopt an essentially Catholic policy.
[Illustration: Earl Fitzwilliam]
In the circumstances the strongest of men might have hesitated before
undertaking the ominous task of carrying on the Government.
Unfortunately, there was a total ignorance of Ireland and its affairs
amongst the English nobility, and when Lord Camden was offered the post
he accepted it without demur, and confidently travelled to the Irish
metropolis. Ireland knew nothing of the viceroy, and certainly the
latter knew even less of the country he was called upon to rule. He
was thirty-six years of age, but possessed all the pompous prejudices
of a man twice his age. On his coming of age he had been appointed
Teller of the Exchequer, and held it for sixty years--1780 to
1840--though after drawing about three-quarters of a million sterling
from the Treasury, he 'patriotically' consented in 1812 to forego the
income of the office.
{201}
CHAPTER XIII
The new viceroy was received in sullen silence on the day of his
arrival in Dublin, but when Lord Clare, the Chancellor, was returning
after swearing in the Lord-Lieutenant, he was attacked by a frenzied
mob which sought to lynch him on the lamp-post outside his own house.
Beresford had taken the precaution to fill the approaches to the
Custom-house with soldiers, and so escaped, but the residences of all
the principal loyalists in Dublin were stoned, and for several days mob
law was supreme.
Camden, however, determined to show that he was uninfluenced by
intimidation. He was not a courageous person, but he knew that the
English garrison was strong and that there could be no treachery within
Dublin Castle, where everybody had been bought body and soul by the
Government. Pitt had advised him to adopt a strong anti-Catholic
policy, and he carried out his instructions only too well. It is
significant of the attitude and position of the Catholic priesthood
that the viceroy could be anti-Catholic and yet in a position to lay
the foundation-stone of Maynooth College. This was an open bribe to
the clergy, and an intimation of favours to come if the {202}
priesthood supported the policy of Pitt and the viceroy.
Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Portland--the latter as Home Secretary
having charge of Irish affairs--had almost carried into execution their
plan of endowing the Roman Catholic Church with English money, and
thereby securing its allegiance and support for ever; but even the
audacious Castlereagh hesitated for fear of the English Established
Church, and it was decided to substitute Maynooth and an endowment for
the original plan.
Camden's aggressiveness was matched by the determination of his
opponents. The United Irishmen threw over their policy of 'peaceful
persuasion,' and inspired by Wolfe Tone, became a rebellious
organization. Tone went to America, and from there to France. The
result was the abortive expedition under Hoche and Grouchy.
[Sidenote: The United Irishmen]
Camden was not idle. He quickly discovered that there are always
plenty of traitors in Ireland, and he bought them up by the score. The
news of Lord Edward Fitzgerald's adherence to the rebel cause was
disconcerting, but Fitzgerald had friends, and these the viceroy
purchased. A similar policy was adopted in the case of every one of
the rebel leaders, and every hero had his bodyguard of traitors. The
Government had merely to wait for the right moment to strike a decisive
blow. Castle money was never more plentiful than in the two years
preceding the egregious rebellion of '98. Many patriots who screamed
for independence lost their voices at {203} the first sight of
viceregal gold; the old bucks, penniless as the result of their early
follies, found in the profession of traitor an easy escape from the
demon Work; briefless barristers, and even successful ones, were drawn
into the Castle circle until the viceroy could say with reason that he
had bought practically every man of position or influence in the
country.
Despite this, however, Camden felt alarmed at the progress the rebel
cause was making. It was no longer a purely Catholic movement, and the
knowledge that wealthy Protestant merchants were joining the United
Irishmen convinced the Viceroy that, although he could arrest the
leaders whenever he wished, yet there would be an army of rebels left
which might prove difficult to overcome. Lady Camden urged him to
resign, and save the lives of their children and themselves. She and
her family existed in a state of siege; there was little entertaining,
for no man trusted his neighbour, and in every street beggar the
Government saw an embryo assassin. Camden, with the disturbing
conscience of the self-confessed coward, was compelled to act the
bully. He would not go in the guise of a frightened and defeated
viceroy. Then someone suggested that as the country was under arms it
would be better if the viceroy happened to be a soldier. Camden seized
upon this pretext, and wrote to London offering to resign in favour of
Lord Cornwallis, who, as one who had been Governor-General of India and
Commander-in-Chief of the troops, was the most experienced man for the
post. Cornwallis {204} was not inclined to come to Ireland, though as
a soldier he intimated to the Government that he was bound to obey any
orders given him in that capacity. Camden, therefore, remained on, and
the long-expected rebellion broke out. But the viceroy was not
unprepared, and before the day arrived for the great blow to be struck
by a united and concerted action of the rebels every one of the leaders
was in gaol and scores of traitors were holding out their hands for
payment. News of the successes in the field of the leaderless rebels
created a panic, and Camden increased it by despatching his wife and
children to England. The Orangemen demonstrated feebly, but they
formed a small minority, and, although they had been very prominent
since the rejection of the Catholic Bill in 1795, they were of no
importance or use in the crisis. Camden implored Pitt to send more
troops, or Ireland would be lost for ever. The English statesman
replied that there were eighty thousand men in the country already, and
gave him Sir Ralph Abercromby to command them.
[Illustration: Marquis Camden]
Abercromby resigned in disgust, and General Lake was sent to replace
him, and to this officer fell the task of dealing with the straggling
bodies of rebels who were maintaining a 'sort of rebellion.' Shortly
after the arrest of the rebel leaders Camden had made way for Lord
Cornwallis, and returned home. The ex-viceroy was consulted by
Portland, who had disapproved of his policy, and Camden declared that
the only solution of the problem was the union of the two Parliaments.
{205} While Ireland had a Parliament of its own--however
unrepresentative--it would crave for its natural corollary, a native
Government. But even a Camden could learn by experience, and in 1829
he voted in favour of Catholic Emancipation.
[Sidenote: The Marquis Cornwallis]
It was admitted in London that the rebellion of '98 was at an end, so
far as its effectiveness was concerned, before Camden resigned, and the
appointment of Lord Cornwallis was inspired by Pitt's dread that the
shortly-to-be-introduced Act of Union would lead to further trouble.
Cornwallis was a soldier and a statesman. He was sixty years of age,
and had led a very full life in India, America, and England. One of
the few far-seeing persons who had declaimed against the unjust
taxation which lost the States of America, he nevertheless obeyed the
call of duty, and fought in the War of Independence. His surrender at
Yorktown marked the beginning of the independence of the American
Colonies. His greatest and most prosperous years were spent in India,
and it was as the successful Indian administrator and soldier that he
was despatched to Ireland to prepare the country for Pitt's proposals.
He found that there was plenty of work left over from the Camden era,
and his first six months consisted of hangings and murders. With a
courage worthy of a better cause the peasantry were fighting the
Imperial troops, but there could be only one end to such an unequal
contest, and the soldiery enjoyed themselves after their kind. The
Dublin executive was busily employed reaping the {206} first-fruits of
Camden's bribery; Lord Edward Fitzgerald was captured, the last of the
'98 leaders.
The history of Ireland must have a strong influence on men's hearts,
for nobody can speak or write of it without exhibiting the feelings of
the partisan. The unstudied inaccuracies of the phlegmatic Froude show
that historian to be capable of emotion when dealing with Irish
affairs. Froude had no sense of humour, and, therefore, no sense of
proportion, and his detestation of the Celtic temperament caused his
prejudices to run riot in his pages on Ireland. On the other side are
the painfully sincere patriots whose efforts to divide humanity into
sheep and goats wrong both parties. Perhaps one of these days it will
be agreed that any event more than fifty years old shall be considered
outside party politics. As it is, the rebellion of '98 is a subject
strong enough to-day to arouse as much passion as the latest proposal
of a vote-bidding Government, Conservative or Liberal.
It would be as easy as it is tempting to dwell upon the doings of the
year 1798, but the 'rebellion' has its own historians. One example of
Castle methods must be given. Among the lawyers who enjoyed a more or
less fashionable practice was a man named McNally. He was friendly
with the leading patriots and also with the Government, and he approved
in a purely intellectual manner of the rebellion. When, therefore, a
batch of important rebels were in need of a barrister to defend them,
they sent for McNally, and as their counsel he was told everything,
{207} including certain information which the wily lawyer knew would be
of immense value to the Government. This was his opportunity, and he
never hesitated. To the Castle he went, and sold his clients for a
life-pension of £300 a year. But this was a venial sin compared with
some others which could be cited.
[Sidenote: The Act of Union introduced]
The surrender of General Humbert to Cornwallis marked the termination
of the rebellion, and, in the opinion of Pitt and Portland, the Home
Secretary, the most favourable time had arrived for the introduction of
the Act of Union. In November, 1798, the duke sent to Cornwallis the
first articles of the Bill. These were introduced into the House of
Commons in Dublin in the certain hope that they would be accepted. To
the astonishment and dismay of the executive, the Bill was rejected by
107 votes to 105. Castlereagh was furious; Cornwallis indifferent.
Both men advised Catholic Emancipation as the price for Parliamentary
surrender, but the Government was averse to placing the majority in
power.
It was resolved to return to the old methods, the methods that had
always proved effective when dealing with the Irish aristocracy and
ruling class. Castlereagh was given a free hand, and places, pelf, and
peerages were promised with reckless lavishness. There was a rush to
be first in the field of favours, but Castlereagh was so ready to
promise anything that the bribed became suspicious. The English
Government in Ireland had a reputation for treachery that was not
undeserved, and the place and peerage seekers went {208} to Cornwallis
to seek endorsement of Castlereagh's offers. The viceroy gave his
personal guarantee that they would be fulfilled, and, satisfied with
this, the ready-made majority went to the Commons, and with a force
numbering one hundred and fifty-three persons overwhelmed the
opposition of eighty-eight. Many of the latter had refused heavy
bribes; as many had endangered their political lives.
The Union accomplished, the Duke of Portland endeavoured to postpone,
with an ultimate view to cancellation, the bestowal of the promised
peerages and the payment of the monetary bribes, and only the
threatened resignation of Cornwallis brought about the fulfilment of
the Government's side of the bargain.
[Sidenote: Society after the Union]
The new nobility were received with derision in England and Ireland,
and the wits of the day satirized them unmercifully. There is a story
told of John Philpot Curran, who had gained the admiration of the
patriotic party by his fearless advocacy of the '98 rebels in the law
courts. The famous wit was accosted by one of the new peers outside
the defunct Irish Parliament in College Green with the query as to the
intention of the Government with regard to the empty building, adding,
'For my part, I hate even the sight of it.' 'I do not wonder,'
retorted Curran, 'I never yet heard of a murderer who was not afraid of
a ghost.' Curran had been a bitter opponent of the Union, and had
proved himself incorruptible.
Whatever its political effect, the closing of the Irish Parliament was
a blow to the prestige of {209} Dublin as the metropolis. The
viceroyalty remained, but it was shorn of some of its glory. With the
death of the Irish House of Commons and the admittance of Irish peers
to the English House of Lords, there was no longer any need for the
native nobility to maintain expensive houses in Dublin. London became
their centre, and they made their country houses their headquarters
while in Ireland. Gradually the social power fell into the hands of
the professional classes and the higher-grade civil servants; doctors,
lawyers, officers in the army, and others of the professions dominated
Dublin society. The viceroy's court saw less of the aristocracy, and
the levées degenerated into a meeting-place for those of doubtful
pedigrees or persons anxious to make new ones. Merrion Square and St.
Stephen's Green attracted wealthy barristers and doctors, and
prosperous tradespeople moved from the 'other side of the bridge' to
the desirable regions surrounding Merrion Square. Knighthoods and
baronetcies were given to doctors and lawyers, and the wives of the men
who could not have been 'received' at the viceregal court previous to
the union were now the leaders of fashion and frequenters of the Castle
and the Lodge.
The energetic viceroy meanwhile pressed for Catholic emancipation,
which he declared would save Ireland from self-destruction. The state
of the country was pitiable, and Dublin looked all the more wretched
and squalid by reason of its patches of gaiety and wealth. Trade was
stagnant and education at a standstill. Almost every viceroy {210} had
to contribute to funds for starving peasantry. Cornwallis was not
deceived by the carelessness of his immediate circle. He protested
again and again against the laxity of the Government, and called aloud
for the emancipation of the Catholics. He was informed that the
Government dared not bring in such a Bill, for it would be thrown out
instantly, and when they wished to commit political suicide the
ministers would follow the viceroy's advice.
[Illustration: Marquis Cornwallis]
Tired and disgusted, Cornwallis resigned in February, 1801, and in May
took his departure. In 1805 he died in India, two years after he had,
as the English plenipotentiary, signed the disastrous Treaty of Amiens.
[Sidenote: Lord and Lady Hardwicke]
Pitt having been replaced by Addington, the new premier sent Lord
Hardwicke to Dublin. The earl was the eldest son of Lord Chancellor
Yorke, and being of a genial and easy-going disposition, it was thought
that he would eradicate, with the assistance of his wife, the
ill-feeling caused by the union. Lady Hardwicke certainly did her
best, and cultivated every class of Dublin society. The Castle for the
time being lost its sinister political reputation, and for five years
it remained the centre of the social life of the city. There was much
beauty and talent in Dublin, and the name of Irishman had gained
something by the exploits of the sons of the late Earl of Mornington.
Burke and Goldsmith had passed away, but Sheridan, Grattan, Curran,
Keogh, and many others remained. The Lord-Lieutenant dearly loved a
good story and a good dinner, and he {211} surrounded himself with all
the leading wits of the day. The personality of John Philpot Curran
dominated the Irish bar, and his refusal to defend Robert Emmet
scarcely affected his popularity with the patriotic party. The attempt
on the part of Emmet to start a new rebellion failed miserably, and did
not disturb the equanimity of Hardwicke. He continued his policy of
doing nothing and doing it well. The viceregal etiquette that had
prevailed for hundreds of years was relaxed somewhat, and Dublin began
to realize that the reign of the official gang was nearly finished.
Hitherto Castle functions had been for the few; now they were for the
many. The personal charm of Lady Hardwicke lessened the difficulties
of the viceroyalty, and when, in May, 1804, it was announced that Lord
Powis was to replace Hardwicke, there was great regret in Dublin.
Fortunately, Powis would not come to Ireland, and the viceroy and his
wife remained until the early part of 1806, when John Russell, sixth
Duke of Bedford, was sent to govern the country under the auspices of
the Ministry of All the Talents.
The duke was no politician, and fourteen years in the House of Commons
had given him a profound dislike for public life. It was only at the
earnest solicitation of the Prime Minister, Grenville, that he accepted
the post of Viceroy of Ireland, and when the Duke of Portland began his
second ministry Bedford gladly vacated Dublin Castle. It was an
undistinguished year in Irish affairs, but it is worth noting that
amongst the duke's family at the time was a boy of fourteen, {212} who,
as Lord John Russell, had in later years a great deal to do with Irish
affairs. He was at the head of the Government when the Irish famine of
1847-48 ravaged the country, and it was to Russell that Gladstone owed
his first acquaintance with Irish life. He never had a very flattering
opinion of the viceroyalty, regarding it as a useless encumbrance now
that the country was controlled from London, and more than once he
pressed upon his Cabinet colleagues a proposal for its abolition and
the substitution for it of a Secretary of State for Ireland, ranking
with the Home Secretary and conducting all Irish business. His father
retired into private life after leaving Dublin, and earned the
gratitude of subsequent holders of the dukedom by building Covent
Garden at a cost of £40,000 and otherwise improving the great Russell
estates. Agriculture also owes a great deal to the sixth Duke of
Bedford, who was one of the first to cultivate the subject
scientifically, and for many years of his life he was Vice-President of
the Agricultural Society, which he helped to found and guide into
prosperity.
Although Catholic Emancipation was very much to the fore now, and the
speeches of Catholic orators were embarrassing the Government, it was
not considered essential that the Lord-Lieutenant should be something
more than a man of fashion. Dukes were plentiful, and to succeed
Bedford, another one in the person of Charles Lennox, fourth Duke of
Richmond and Lennox, was chosen. The Duke of Richmond was forty-three
years of age, and had gained the {213} reputation of a sportsman. He
was a keen cricketer and a patron of the 'noble art' of boxing. In his
early years he had distinguished himself in a duel with the Duke of
York, and altogether was a typical man of the world, to whom the world
was very kind. He was assured that the Government of Ireland was a
simple matter--no work to do and plenty of opportunities for
cultivating those social arts so dear to him and to his duchess, who
was a sister of the outgoing viceroy's wife, the Duchess of Bedford.
[Sidenote: Colonel Arthur Wellesley]
Richmond was given as his chief secretary Colonel Arthur Wellesley, a
man who would perform any work there was to do. In the circumstances
the duke and duchess crossed over and inaugurated their reign with a
brilliant ball which foreshadowed a very gay time for the metropolis.
The viceroy was not interested in Catholic Emancipation or in any of
the subjects that intimately concerned the country he was supposed to
govern, but, to his great annoyance, Colonel Wellesley, in his anxiety
to obtain further military service, neglected Ireland, and spent much
of his time in London interviewing responsible ministers. Richmond
complained of his chief secretary's neglect, but Wellesley excused
himself by pointing out that his civil appointment had been accepted on
the understanding that he was at liberty to vacate it whenever there
was a prospect of service in the field.
Wellesley was nominally chief secretary for two years, and he did some
good work during that time, but his sojourn in Ireland is merely an
episode {214} in a splendid life. Richmond's other famous secretary
was Sir Robert Peel, who practised the arts of the statesman at
twenty-four as chief secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
Despite Wellesley's neglect of his Dublin duties he became a warm
friend of the viceroy and his wife. It will be remembered that it was
the Duchess of Richmond who gave the celebrated ball at Brussels on the
historic night that preceded Quatre Bras. At the Battle of Waterloo
the duke was one of the suite in attendance on the Duke of Wellington.
[Illustration: Duke of Richmond and Lennox]
The Duke of Richmond was bitterly attacked by the Catholic party, and a
libel action against the editor of the _Dublin Evening Post_ in 1813
provided Daniel O'Connell with his first great opportunity for a public
display of his oratory. McGee, the editor in question, had published a
daring article on the Lord-Lieutenant in which it was declared 'that he
was not the superior of the worst of his predecessors--the profligate
and unprincipled Westmoreland, the cold-hearted and cruel Camden, and
artful and treacherous Cornwallis. They all insulted, they oppressed,
they murdered, and they deceived.' The reference to murder was held
sufficient to justify the Government in arresting McGee on the charge
of having accused the Duke of Richmond with that crime.
[Sidenote: O'Connell and the Duke]
Daniel O'Connell took up the case for the imprisoned editor when no
other member of the bar dare run the risk of offending the viceregal
court. The result was a foregone conclusion, and McGee was considered
lucky to get off with two {215} years' imprisonment and a fine of £500,
but the case was rescued from obscurity by the accused's advocate's
introduction of the ultra-political speech for the defence. In those
days they allowed a degree of irrelevancy in counsels' speeches that
would not be tolerated for a moment in the twentieth century.
The duke did not go out of office until 1813. The position of
representative of the king had its advantages, and the almost regal
state he maintained in Dublin soothed his vanity, and was,
incidentally, good for the trade of the city. The duchess loved power
even more than her husband did, and the exploits of the late chief
secretary, now well on his way to a dukedom, were her principal topic
of conversation. In Dublin she could lead, whereas in London she had
to follow, and in Dublin she stayed for several years, an undisputed
queen. Curran, now Master of the Rolls, was her friend, and the wits
of the town flattered her in their own charming way. Years afterwards
the duchess confessed that the happiest years of her life were spent in
Dublin.
{216}
CHAPTER XIV
The advocates of Catholic Emancipation could not be expected to be
content with mere social pleasures, and the ministry decided to try a
diplomat in the difficult post. The duke having resigned in 1813, Lord
Whitworth, an experienced diplomatist and a strong anti-Catholic, took
his place. The duke and duchess, after their experience of Brussels
and Waterloo, consented to govern British North America, as Canada was
then termed, and in 1819 the duke died of hydrophobia in the town of
Richmond.
Students of Napoleonic history will be able to recall the early career
of the man chosen to foil the attempts of the popular party to force
their policy of Catholic Emancipation on the Government. Whitworth,
who had been born without a title or great wealth, was a self-made man
as far as it was possible for one who owed his opportunities to the
generosity of well-disposed patrons. He was first a soldier, and then,
through the influence of the Duke of Dorset, a diplomat, representing
England in Poland, Russia, and France. As Ambassador in Paris he came
into contact with Napoleon, and it was Whitworth who demanded his
passports from the Corsican {217} when the Peace of Amiens was broken
and all Europe plunged into war.
Lord Whitworth was a man who took advantage of his opportunities, and
from 1785 to 1803 fortune was very kind to him, but following his
sudden withdrawal from Paris he seemed to lose his powers, and for ten
years he chafed in obscurity. In 1801 he had married the widow of his
first great patron, and the Duchess of Dorset, a woman whose egotism
was matched by her greed, brought him a large fortune and some
influence. This was increased by the marriage of her mother to Lord
Liverpool, and when that nobleman had been at the head of the
Government for about a year he succumbed to the importunities of his
ambitious stepdaughter and appointed her husband to succeed the Duke of
Richmond.
[Sidenote: The haughty duchess]
To a woman of the temperament that distinguished the Duchess of Dorset
the acme of human bliss was the impersonation of royalty. She revelled
in the rites attendant upon the state the viceroy maintained, and as
the haughty duchess she was known throughout the country. Lord
Whitworth, past sixty and somewhat bored, was a tool in the hands of
his wife, who never forgot the fact that he was her late husband's
protégé and, therefore, to some extent hers also. She personally
supervised the list of those who had the _entrée_ to the Castle, and
her censorship of her predecessor's list caused a vast amount of
ill-feeling. Wives of respectable professional men found themselves
relegated to the position occupied by their prototypes fifty years
before, while {218} the intrepid duchess even attacked those who had
married into plebeian families, and, therefore, forfeited her regard.
It was due to her efforts that her relative, Lord Liverpool, conferred
an earldom on Whitworth, though she retained her ducal title throughout
her life.
The viceregal pair were not unpopular, but Whitworth was scarcely the
man to understand Irish affairs. To a large extent the ruler of the
country was Sir Robert Peel, the chief Secretary until 1818. The
Duchess of Dorset did not always approve of Peel, but, recognizing that
he saved her husband a considerable amount of work, she delegated the
task of maintaining the usual official correspondence with the ministry
in London to him. Peel was a strong--soon to become the
strongest--opponent of the Catholic claims. The viceroy was of the
same opinion on this important matter, and, backed by an enormous
English army, they defied public opinion.
[Illustration: Earl Talbot]
In the autumn of 1817 it was decided to replace Whitworth by Lord
Talbot, and accordingly, on October 9, the new viceroy was sworn in,
Peel taking a prominent part in the ceremony. Talbot and Whitworth
were old friends, having first met during the latter's embassy in
Russia, when the younger nobleman was an attaché in the diplomatic
service, and he owed his selection to the good offices of the outgoing
viceroy and his wife. That he was opposed to Catholic Emancipation was
another point in his favour, while the Government were not unimpressed
by the fact that Lady {219} Talbot was an Irish lady, the daughter of a
County Meath gentleman.
[Sidenote: Visit of George IV.]
Lord and Lady Talbot made a determined effort to win the good-will of
the country. Daniel O'Connell's raging, tearing propaganda was
disturbing, and ever threatened a revolution, but Talbot thought that
by devoting some of his time to the patronage of agriculture he might
gain more adherents to the Government's policy. The farmers were not
ungrateful, but Lord Talbot must have realized before he was a year in
the country that the solution of the Irish question was not so easy as
he had thought it to be. Peel, summoned to London for more important
duties, still maintained his opposition to O'Connell and the Catholic
claims. Then, in 1821, the Cabinet had a brilliant idea which resolved
itself into this--that all Irish problems should be solved by a State
visit from George IV. Hitherto English kings had been accustomed to
visit Ireland in the role of fugitives, but George IV. was to come as a
great monarch, the first gentleman in Europe--and, as Thackeray had
said, 'the biggest blackguard'--and Irish loyalty was to be aroused
from its dormant condition.
The king carried out the plans laid down for him, and he had no cause
to regret making the acquaintance of his Irish subjects. He
scrutinized everything he saw in Ireland with the air and interest of a
schoolboy visiting a waxworks show. English uniforms seemed to
fascinate him when worn by Irish soldiers, and he hummed and hawed
question after question from the beginning to the end of his visit.
{220}
'Who is that magnificent-looking officer?' he asked the viceroy,
indicating the figure of Sir Philip Crampton, the celebrated surgeon.
'Oh, that is a general of the Lancers, sir,' was the witty reply, and
the king passed on to something else.
The most humorous incident of his visit arose out of His Majesty's
desire to witness some racing at the Curragh. In great state he
travelled down, and every preparation was made to supply the royal
visitor with a magnificent lunch. The pantries of Dublin and London
were searched for dainties, and everything possible pressed into
service.
It happened to be a very wet day, and the races did not prove very
exciting, but the king chivalrously maintained his interest as long as
he could. When he retired to his room, where gorgeous flunkeys of all
ranks waited breathlessly for the king to name his refreshment, George
IV. did not keep them long in doubt--he wanted a cup of tea.
A simple request, and one easily granted, for in the royal pavilion
were the choicest teas, the finest sugar and cream, and, of course,
plenty of hot water. Then someone called for a cup and saucer. Great
consternation ensued when it was discovered that those simple
requisites had been forgotten. There was absolutely nothing in which
to serve the tea to the royal visitor!
With prayers that the king might not get impatient, a score of scouts
were despatched to search the countryside for a cup and saucer, and
{221} one of them proved successful, finding in a poor peasant's
ramshackle cabin a twopenny blue cup and saucer. They were hastily
polished up, and with remarkable celerity the tea was served to the
thirsty king.
One of the caterers afterwards visited the owner of the cup and saucer,
and gave her a guinea for them. Needless to say, these precious
articles were treasured by the caterer's family.
"A clod--a piece of orange-peel--
An end of a cigar--
Once trod on by a princely heel,
How beautiful they are!"
[Sidenote: Lord Talbot, K.P.]
He was received in Ireland with a courtesy that often swelled into
enthusiasm, and Dublin, the centre of the local administration, went
into ecstasies over the royal visitor. Lord Talbot was installed a
Knight of St. Patrick amidst a splendour that contrasted with horrible
distinctness with the terrible misery and poverty that prevailed in the
very environs of Dublin Castle itself. The king must have seen the
shadows of famine and desolation that lurked behind the gaudy trappings
that did their best to make the city fit for a king, but he
conveniently ignored them. Monarchs have only a distant acquaintance
with human nature, and so King George, flattered by attentions denied
him in London except by his satellites, left the country convinced that
the demand for Catholic Emancipation was an artificial one created by
O'Connell, and that in reality Ireland was a most contented and
prosperous nation.
But the ills of humanity cannot be cured by a {222} display of royal
dignity, and Talbot discovered that pressing social evils could not be
eradicated by the bestowal of ribbons and orders. It may have seemed
unaccountable to him that when the country demanded bread it should be
dissatisfied with the sight of the king. Lady Talbot was feeding with
'cake' the 'upper ten' of Dublin society, but Ireland was dissatisfied.
The country was not progressing, the cities presented a squalid and
lifeless appearance, and even Dublin, favoured by the being the
residence of the well-paid official set and the home of the Government,
scarcely looked the prosperous place it had been during the last
quarter of the previous century.
Talbot advised stringent measures against O'Connell, but by now the
ministry was beginning to feel doubtful of its ready-made Irish policy,
and soon rumours reached Talbot that he was to be succeeded by the
Marquis Wellesley, a great Irishman, and an avowed Emancipationist.
The viceroy resigned at once and left Ireland. He died in 1849, five
years after Peel had rewarded his Free Trade allegiance by giving him
the garter.
[Sidenote: Lord Wellesley]
The Marquis Wellesley, an Emancipationist by conviction, was sent to
Ireland with promises the ministry did not intend to fulfil. Peel,
Goulburn, the Irish secretary, and the rest of his colleagues, were
opposed to the granting of complete relief to the followers of the
popular religion, and their selection of Lord Wellesley was merely an
attempt to blind the eyes of the patriotic party. When in the last
months of 1821 it was declared officially that Wellesley was to succeed
Lord {223} Talbot, the joy of the Catholics knew no bounds. To them
the new viceroyalty promised a speedy attainment of all their hopes,
for they knew that Wellesley was a strong man, and one likely to have
his own way. Quite apart from political and sectarian reasons, Ireland
welcomed Wellesley. He was an Irishman by birth, and although Harrow,
Eton, and Oxford in turn educated him, he had learnt the rudiments of
the three R's in the town of Trim. It was recalled that the
Lord-Lieutenant in his younger days had been the friend of Henry
Grattan, and as the result of thirty years' brilliant service on behalf
of the Crown, no man--with the exception of his brother, the Duke of
Wellington--commanded greater respect or admiration in the two
kingdoms, while so far as Ireland was concerned, the marquis was vastly
more popular than the duke, who had a constitutional objection to
Catholicism in any form. For eight years Lord Wellesley had acted as
Governor-General of India, and during the Peninsular War he was
Ambassador to Spain--one brother conquering the French and the other
reaping the not less important diplomatic victories, made possible by
the great battles. From the foreign secretaryship under Percival
Wellesley might have had the premiership, but his views on Ireland were
unpopular, and his failure to form a ministry prepared the way for Lord
Liverpool to assume the leadership for a period of nearly fifteen
years. Despite his opinions, Wellesley could have had the viceroyalty
of Ireland in 1812, but he declined it.
{224}
When a young man of twenty-four, Wellesley--then the Earl of
Mornington--contracted an irregular alliance with a Parisian girl of
remarkable beauty, Hyacinthe Gabrielle Roland, and for nine years they
lived together. She bore him children, and they appear to have been
happy. Wellesley, however, was growing in public importance, and it
was represented to him privately that his domestic relations might
interfere with his chances of promotion. To end an impossible
situation, he married his mistress in 1793, and from the day of the
marriage they seemed to lose their mutual affection. Gabrielle Roland
was modest in her demands, and content to look after her children; as
Countess of Mornington she pestered her husband to compel society to
recognize her new status. He was helpless, of course, and quarrels
ensued, but they lived together until 1797, when he was appointed
Governor-General of India. At first Lady Mornington wished to
accompany him, but he was able to persuade her to remain at home.
India at the time had a reputation for cruelty and treachery created by
the episode of the Black Hole of Calcutta, and Lady Mornington,
thinking doubtless of her children and not herself, consented to remain
behind, and enjoy the generous allowance her husband proposed to make
her. For the rest of her life--which lasted until 1816--husband and
wife saw little of each other; she failed to provide him with a
legitimate heir, and at the time it seemed likely that Lord Wellesley
would be Prime Minister he lived alone in London. It was said {225}
that he refused the viceroyalty in 1812 because it would mean taking
'the Frenchwoman to Dublin,' though a close examination of the existing
records points to the fact that Wellesley was unwilling to leave the
centre of political interest at such a critical period in the history
of England.
[Sidenote: Lord-Lieutenant assaulted]
The coming of Wellesley to Dublin Castle roused the enthusiasm of the
Catholic party and the animosity of the governing minority. In 1822 a
great public meeting voted an address of congratulation to the marquis,
the motion being proposed by O'Connell and seconded by Richard Lalor
Sheil. Meetings all over the country followed suit, and the squeakings
of the Orange lodges were drowned in the popular welcome. There was a
temporary lull in the formation of secret societies, and the Whiteboys,
the Orangemen, the Ribbonmen, and other associations for doing evil by
stealth, waited for a sign from the Lord-Lieutenant. He gave it by
abolishing the annual Orange decoration of King William's statue, and
instantly the Orangemen flew to 'arms.' Wellesley attended a gala
performance at the theatre, and an infuriated Orangeman entered a
practical protest by hurling a bottle at his head. It missed its mark
by inches, and the culprit was arrested. The Grand Jury, unanimously
anti-Catholic, threw out the bill, and the powerful minority followed
up this blow by inspiring a debate in the House of Commons, in which a
vote of censure on the Lord-Lieutenant was rejected with the utmost
difficulty. It was only too evident that the {226} Orangemen were
determined to contest every inch of ground with the viceroy.
[Illustration: Marquis Wellesley]
The general opinion regarding the Marquis Wellesley, when it was known
that he had no power to grant relief to the Catholics, was summed up in
the lines by Furlong, the Irish poet:
'Who that hath viewed him in his past career
Of hard-earned fame could recognize him here?
Changed as he is in lengthened life's descent
To a mere instrument's mere instrument;
Crippled by Canning's fears and Eldon's rules,
Begirt with bigots and beset with fools.
A mournful mark of talents misapplied,
A handcuffed leader and a hoodwinked guide;
The lone opposer of a lawless band,
The fettered chieftain of a fettered land.'
[Sidenote: The Catholic Association]
In 1824 Daniel O'Connell, realizing that the Lord-Lieutenant could not
force the hand of his superiors in London, founded the Catholic
Association, and it is no exaggeration to say that the people clamoured
for admission to it. Every town and village throughout the country had
its branch, and within twelve months it was the real authority in the
land. The English Government was superseded, and O'Connell was the
virtual ruler of Ireland. Wellesley, who did not approve of the aims
and methods of the Association, was devoting his attention to the
suppression of the secret societies, while the Cabinet in London wrote
imploring him to deal effectively with O'Connell's society. But the
marquis was helpless. There was no secrecy about the Catholic
Association, and its objects were, academically speaking, lawful, and
its methods legal. Further alarm was caused by the statement in some
English papers that {227} every Irish soldier was a member of the
association. Wellesley was asked for his opinion--he repeated again
and again that the only way to make the country peaceful was to grant
Catholic Emancipation. Three Prime Ministers--Liverpool, Canning, and
Goderich--in succession rejected the advice so disinterestedly given,
and when a turn of Fortune's wheel placed the great Duke of Wellington
in power, he intimated to his brother that as their views did not
coincide, it would be better if the Marquis of Anglesey, an old friend
of both, should replace him in the Government as Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland. Lord Wellesley resigned without demur. He was well aware
that they differed widely on many important topics, and Wellington had
never forgotten that if Wellesley's views on foreign policy had
prevailed, there would have been no Waterloo and less glory. In the
House of Lords the marquis rose to denounce the Irish policy of his
brother, but they never made the blunder of carrying their quarrel into
private life. Lord Wellesley had in 1825 married an American lady,
Mrs. Patterson of Baltimore, the grand-daughter of one of the
signatories to the document that recorded the independence of the
United States of America, and she brought him a happiness he had never
known before. Witty, beautiful, and rich, the American marchioness
held her own in London society, and Wellesley was content for her to
remain out of political affairs, save when his seat in the House of
Lords enabled him to speak against the Government. Lady Wellesley, who
{228} was a devout Catholic, was always escorted by a troop of dragoons
to the Roman Catholic Provincial Cathedral in Marlborough Street,
Dublin, when her husband was viceroy.
In the Lower House Sir Robert Peel, now Home Secretary, was affirming
his unalterable determination never to surrender to the O'Connellites,
and his leader was also giving a display of the Iron Will. But even
Iron Dukes can unbend when they have been tempered by experience. It
was the Wellington Ministry that granted Catholic Emancipation, and it
was Sir Robert Peel who sounded the note of surrender. The collapse
was caused by the historic Clare election of 1828, within a few months
of the appointment of Lord Anglesey.
There was, of course, considerable humour, intentional and otherwise,
introduced during the agitation for and against Catholic Emancipation.
Once King George IV. was heard to murmur plaintively:
'Wellington is King of England, O'Connell is King of Ireland, and I am
supposed to be the Dean of Windsor.'
Lord Eldon presented to the House of Lords a petition of the tailors of
Glasgow against the surrender to the Catholics.
'What?' exclaimed Lord Lyndhurst, 'do tailors bother themselves about
such measures?'
'No wonder,' answered Eldon; 'you cannot suppose that tailors would
like turncoats.'
{229}
CHAPTER XV
Wellington's premiership was four days old when Lord Anglesey accepted
the viceroyalty. The duke evidently selected his Waterloo comrade
without taking the trouble to sound him upon the views he held, but
George IV.--that fine champion of Protestantism!--immediately sent for
the marquis, and in a touching interview implored him to keep the
Catholics at bay, emphasizing his belief that the surrender of the
Government to O'Connell would mean the dismemberment and destruction of
the British Empire. Anglesey, who knew nothing whatever about anything
except women and war, sought refuge in meaningless platitudes. He
declared to the king that he intended to take no part in sectarian or
political strife in Ireland; he would administer the law equally to
all, and so forth, impressing George IV. with a sense of his extreme
propriety and impartiality.
On January 29, 1828, Lord Anglesey became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
He was in his sixtieth year, and could look back with some pride on a
long and busy life. He had fought with Moore at Corunna, and at
Waterloo was Wellington's commander of cavalry. These were landmarks
{230} in his life, and even his unfortunate relations with the wife of
his friend's brother did not create any ill-feeling between Anglesey
and Wellington. The Iron Duke had a great affection for his relations,
and he often expressed his gratification at the remarkable successes
achieved by his brothers, the Marquis Wellesley and Lord Cowley.
Politically the Wellesleys were always at enmity, and in addition they
were handicapped by inheriting from their mother some of her severe
manner and not a little of her pride. It is remarkable that the three
brothers should each have had marital troubles. The Duke of
Wellington's marriage, begun as a romance, ended as a tragi-comedy;
Lord Wellesley's went the same way, and he was burdened for years by a
wife with whom he could not live; while Lord Cowley was compelled to
seek a divorce.
It was five years before Waterloo that society was startled by the news
that Lord Cowley had presented a Bill to Parliament, praying to be
divorced from his wife, a daughter of Lord Cadogan. The Marquis of
Anglesey, then known as the Earl of Uxbridge, was cited as the
co-respondent, and as Lord Uxbridge was a married man with eight
children, and, of course, an intimate friend of the Wellesley family,
London discussed nothing else. The affair was robbed of a great deal
of publicity by the influence of the two families concerned, but Lady
Uxbridge was not to be placated, and she divorced her husband. Then
Lord Cowley was awarded damages to the extent of £24,000 against the
earl, and the complicated {231} affair was simplified by the Earl of
Uxbridge marrying Lady Cowley.
The Duke of Wellington was too fond of a good soldier to permit a mere
family matter to stand in the way of Lord Uxbridge's prospects. He
took him to Waterloo, and if the earl lost a leg in that famous battle,
he gained a marquisate, bestowed within less than three weeks of June
18, 1815. Promotion in the service followed, and owing to Wellington's
influence it was rapid and remunerative.
The appointment to Ireland was his patron's greatest gift. It seemed
only too obvious that a soldier at the head of affairs would be very
necessary, for it was accepted as truth in ministerial circles that the
entire Catholic priesthood of Ireland was engaged in a campaign for
converting the Irish soldiers in the English army to the political
principles of the Catholic Association.
[Sidenote: The Clare election]
When the Iron Duke formed a Government, the Catholic Association passed
a resolution declaring that it would oppose the election of any Irish
member who took office under the new premier. Undisturbed by this, the
member for Clare, Mr. Fitzgerald, accepted the post of President of the
Board of Trade, and then O'Connell announced that he would be the
nominee of the Association, and would contest the seat. This created a
veritable sensation. The eyes of the world were centred on Clare, and
Lord Anglesey sent an army of occupation to take possession of it. On
the polling days there were about five soldiers for every voter, and
the Catholic Association {232} received an advertisement that made the
world understand the seriousness of its principles. No single election
has ever had the effect produced by the election of Daniel O'Connell to
represent Clare at Westminster. A month before the result Sir Robert
Peel declared that he would die politically rather than give way: the
returns from Clare were still being discussed when the same man started
to draft the Bill he introduced into the House of Commons in February,
1829, a measure which completely emancipated the Roman Catholics. The
posts of Regent, of Lord Chancellor, and of Irish Viceroy were the only
ones Catholics could not hold. The Catholic Association had justified
its existence.
Meanwhile Lord Anglesey's position was not without interest. He was
very unpopular with the patriotic party, and the fact that George IV.
was annoyed with him tended to increase further his popularity.
Anglesey learned many things during his first six months in England,
and he became an emancipationist while Peel was still defiant. The
Duke of Wellington was exasperated when Anglesey nullified his advice
to Catholics to substitute patience for agitation by advising them to
agitate until they obtained their demands. The duke wrote curt
letters, and Anglesey answered in a similar strain. He was not fond of
Dublin or Dublin society, and Irish affairs began to bore him. The
most interesting men were in his opinion the members of the Catholic
Association, and he dare not be seen with them, while he knew, as every
other viceroy had known, that {233} to withhold complete emancipation
was the worst service the English ministry could do the country. The
Prime Minister, with the help of the king, compelled Anglesey to send
in his resignation, and the vacancy was given at once to Hugh Percy,
third Duke of Northumberland, Greville's 'prodigious bore,' and almost
the wealthiest nobleman in England. He accepted with the proviso that
he was not to hold the post for more than eighteen months, while he
advised the Government to reduce the viceroy's salary by £10,000--it
then stood at £20,000 a year. The latter piece of advice was not
accepted, because the Government realized that there would be future
viceroys without the wealth of the newer Percys.
[Sidenote: The Tithe War]
The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland gave a great display of their
wealth in Dublin, and once more the official party revelled in
feastings, balls, and flamboyant levées and drawing-rooms. Some
serious work was attempted, and in April, 1830, a proclamation was
issued suppressing the Catholic Association. Agitation feeds on
agitation, and O'Connell's league had replaced Emancipation by Repeal.
He was demanding the severance of the Union between the two countries,
and Northumberland determined on a vigorous campaign against the
agitator. The Tithe War--arising out of the refusal of the Catholic
peasantry to pay tribute to the ministers of an alien Church--had
begun, and fierce encounters between the military and the country
people were everyday occurrences. Northumberland had a large army at
his disposal, and the Cabinet advised him to {234} make full use of it,
but realizing the temper of the country better than his superiors, he
declared that O'Connell's agitation for Repeal could be rendered
abortive by reason, and not by force. Despite the friction with his
official chiefs in London, Northumberland would have remained in Dublin
had not the Tory ministry been replaced by Lord Grey's administration.
The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland--the latter best known as one of
the late Queen Victoria's governesses--left the country with the
knowledge that they had been as successful as any viceregal pair before
them. Sir Robert Peel described him as the very best governor of
Ireland, and Wellington, never an easy man to please, growled out some
compliments when he met the duke at a dinner-party. Lord Anglesey's
second viceroyalty began in December, 1830, and ended in September,
1833. He had been popular during his brief reign of 1828-29, but he
discovered speedily that patriots are susceptible, and the viceroy who
earned popularity as an emancipationist in 1828 was disliked and
distrusted by the O'Connellites, because he would not follow their lead
and become equally as enthusiastic for Repeal. Daniel O'Connell
derided the viceroy in almost every speech made, and no epithet was too
strong to be applied to Lord Anglesey. O'Connell publicly prayed for
his removal, and the viceroy, out of sympathy with all parties,
lingered on at Dublin Castle, worried by the popularity of the
Repealer, and disturbed by the havoc the Tithe War was playing with the
progress of the country.
{235}
[Sidenote: The famous Doon auction]
The history of the Tithe War has been told many times, and there is no
room for it here, but it possessed so much comedy and tragedy that some
of its incidents may be recalled. When the peasantry tried passive
resistance, their activities were aroused by the arrival of soldiers to
take their goods and sell them by public auction. In one battle twelve
peasants were killed and twenty wounded; in another there were heavy
casualties on both sides; and there were other affrays with equally
deadly results. A touch of humour was provided by the inhabitants of
Doon, a Limerick town which, in the early thirties of the last century,
contained a population of about 5,000 Roman Catholics and a single
Protestant. In due course, the Protestant clergyman demanded tithes
from the priest, which the latter promptly refused to pay. With the
aid of the law, the priest's cow was seized, and elaborate preparations
made for its sale by public auction. The authorities at Dublin Castle
were consulted, and a long correspondence dealing with the cow ensued;
there was much advising and consultation; the viceroy discussed it in
secret and laughed at it during dinner; the Commander-in-Chief of the
forces was asked for his help, and he signed an order for the
attendance of a small army at the forthcoming auction. Meanwhile the
cow, unmindful of its prominence and glory, browsed on contentedly
until the time came when it was led into the field by its crown keeper
and escorted by a force of police. On the field of auction, besides
the police were a troop of the 12th Lancers, five companies {236} of
the 92nd Highlanders, and two pieces of artillery. The auctioneer
stood in the midst of an arsenal surrounded by the army. Bids for the
historic cow were invited; threats and jokes were all he got from the
peasantry, and the proceedings finally left the Government in
possession of the cow, no one having the courage to buy it. This
auction was one of many. Cows and pigs, escorted by several hundred
soldiers, became part of the pageantry of the country; officers and men
were recalled from leave of absence to take their part in tending
cattle captured from rebellious villagers. No Government could
maintain its dignity, and ridicule nullified the dearly bought
victories in the field. The net result was that the Government
collected £12,000 at a cost of £27,000 and hundreds of lives, and
£48,000 still due for tithes.
Lord Anglesey saw nothing of the Tithe War, but from Dublin Castle he
superintended the operations against the peasantry. The Government
regarded the objection to tithe-paying as one of O'Connell's devices
for rousing the masses against England, and although the ministry was
compelled to abolish the tithes, the victory of the peasants was more
apparent than real, because the Tithe Commutation Act of 1838 placed
the onus of collecting the dues on the landlord, who, of course, added
the amount to the rent he levied on his tenants' holdings.
Between July, 1834, and April, 1835, there were three ministries, two
Melbourne administrations being interrupted by Sir Robert Peel's first
and {237} brief government. Lord Wellesley's second viceroyalty lasted
a few months--from September, 1833, to April, 1834--and although in
1835 he intimated to Lord Melbourne that he would not be averse to a
third term, the premier appointed Lord Mulgrave, and Wellesley had to
be content with the gilded post of Lord Chamberlain. The Marquis
Wellesley lived until 1842.
The viceroyalty of the Earl of Haddington was as colourless as it was
brief. He had been in Parliament some years before he was given a
peerage, and succeeding to the earldom shortly afterwards, passed into
an obscurity from which he never emerged, even when Peel, on December
29, 1834, made him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. That ministry resigned
in the April following, and Lord Melbourne formed his second Cabinet,
sending Lord Mulgrave to Ireland.
[Sidenote: The Irish party in Parliament]
The return to power of Lord Melbourne marked a new epoch in the history
of the British Parliament. For the first time English statesmen
realized that the Irish vote could be capable of controlling the
destinies of an English party. Hitherto the Irish members had been
regarded as of no account; ever since the Union one or other of the
great parties had been able to act independently of the Irish members,
but the kaleidoscopic ministerial changes that had taken place since
the termination of Lord Liverpool's record premiership had gradually
given the Irish members the balance of power between the two parties.
In eight years seven distinct Cabinets were formed, and when the
seventh, Lord Melbourne's, received {238} their seals from William IV.,
they knew as well as O'Connell himself that their existence depended
upon the Irish vote.
It was only natural that O'Connell and his followers were delighted.
They foresaw the time when England would tire of the domination of the
Irish minority in Parliament, and would gladly send them back to
College Green, and so certain were they of this that O'Connell agreed
to suspend his demand for the repeal of the Union, and give Melbourne
and his colleagues an opportunity of doing something great for Ireland.
It was a strong Government and rich in statesmen. Lord John Russell
was Home Secretary, and Palmerston was Foreign Secretary. The Cabinet
had many long and anxious consultations on Irish affairs, and the
ministers did their best to keep their bargain with O'Connell. The
House of Lords, however, blocked the way, and the Melbourne Government
fell in the autumn of 1841.
When Lord Mulgrave was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1835, he
was regarded as the best man for the position. O'Connell expressed
public approval of him, and the numerous religious and political
associations added their testimonials. The Irish leader's compact with
the ministry was well known, and although Lord Mulgrave was regarded as
O'Connell's puppet, he was not without opinions of his own. Lord
Anglesey had expressed the opinion that O'Connell was the real ruler of
Ireland, and Mulgrave, in showing his sympathy with the Catholics,
became as popular with the majority as he was unpopular {239} with the
powerful Protestant minority. He was considered to have the best
opportunity to bring peace to Ireland, and English Liberal members of
Parliament, in their enthusiasm for their leader, Lord Melbourne, were
continually pointing out how peaceful Ireland had become under a Whig
administration. When a constable in the county of Clare appealed to
Dublin Castle to remove him to the metropolis because the country had
become so quiet that he had no chance of gaining promotion or
distinguishing himself, the Whig Press and politicians went wild with
delight. The enterprising constable was written about in scores of
pamphlets, and three-fourths of England got the impression--and
retained it for many years, too!--that Ireland was most law-abiding, as
well as one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
[Sidenote: William IV. and Lord Mulgrave]
The fatal weakness of Lord Mulgrave was his partisanship. He could
look at nothing except through the spectacles of well-grounded opinions
of his own. At a time when he should have exercised discretion, he
rushed into the arms of the Catholic party, and thereby mortally
offended the Orangemen and their not-to-be-despised co-religionists.
The result was that at a Protestant meeting the mention of the
viceroy's name was sufficient to fill the building with cries of
derision, while at a gathering of the Catholics Lord Mulgrave was
cheered to the echo. It was an undignified reputation for a man
supposed to hold the scales of justice evenly, and William IV.
protested to Melbourne about the conduct of his viceroy.
An examination of the crime returns of the {240} period shows that the
compact between O'Connell and Lord Melbourne caused no appreciative
diminution of violence in the country. Protestants declared that Lord
Mulgrave was encouraging political criminals by his leniency, the
culmination of which was his decision in the case of the brutal murder
of the second Earl of Norbury. The earl was the younger son of the
notorious Chief Justice Toler, who had received honours from a grateful
government because of his anti-Irish and anti-Catholic policy. On his
deathbed Toler, hearing that his neighbour, Lord Erne, was also dying,
sent a servant to assure his lordship that it would be a _dead heat_
between them! The anecdote is characteristic of the man and his times,
but his children were of a different calibre. The elder son died a
lunatic, and the second was murdered because he evicted one of his
tenants, a rogue who objected to paying rent. The country cried out
for the severe punishment of the murderers, but the viceroy more than
tempered justice with mercy, and every landowner instantly became
alarmed. If murderers were permitted to escape the hangman because a
Whig viceroy was at Dublin Castle, then assuredly no Tory landlord was
safe. Private and public appeals were made to the king and Lord
Melbourne. The premier was compelled to 'promote' him, and in 1839,
shortly after he had been created Marquis of Normanby, the viceroy
resigned in order to take up the post of Secretary for the Colonies.
[Illustration: Lord Mulgrave]
Lord Normanby's subsequent career was quite in keeping with his conduct
in Ireland. No matter {241} in what capacity he acted, he always took
sides, and during his diplomatic career, the Foreign Office experienced
too much Normanby for its liking. His wife was one of the two women of
the bedchamber to Queen Victoria to whom Peel objected when called upon
to form a Government in 1841. Normanby had been asked to take charge
of affairs, but there were not half a dozen men willing to serve under
him, and he soon abandoned his attempt to become Prime Minister.
Thenceforward his public life was spent abroad in the diplomatic
service, and a list of his diplomatic indiscretions would fill a
volume. From 1846 to 1852 he was Ambassador at Paris, and Palmerston's
sudden recognition of Louis Napoleon exasperated him to an extent that
he never forgot. Normanby was not the man for Paris, and when given a
chance to represent the English nation at the Court of Tuscany in
Florence, his partisanship, when he ought to have been neutral, was
such that Lord Malmesbury had to recall him by telegraph! He returned
to England, and until his death in 1863, at the age of sixty-six, he
acted with the Tories against the Whigs. His conduct was due entirely
to his personal detestation of Lord Palmerston. He was not in sympathy
with a single act of the Whig, or Liberal, party, but he exerted
himself to thwart Palmerston. He shed tears when 'Pam' became premier
for the second time, and he died while the Liberal statesman was
half-way through his historic ministry.
{242}
CHAPTER XVI
The Melbourne Government had two years to run when Lord Normanby left
Ireland, and they were represented for that period at Dublin by Hugh
Fortescue, Viscount Ebrington, and afterwards Earl Fortescue. The
O'Connell party welcomed Lord Ebrington as they would have welcomed
anybody commissioned by Lord Melbourne, and although they had been
disappointed by the barren results of the treaty so far, they hoped for
the best. The Repealer, realizing slowly, perhaps, that he was going
to experience a bitter disappointment, was anxious to raise the
standard of revolt, but he was advised by friends of the ministry to
wait. They prevailed upon him to give them another chance.
[Sidenote: Encouraging Irish trade]
The accession to power of Sir Robert Peel dispelled O'Connell's
sanguine hopes. It was true that the premier had twelve years
previously conceded the claims of the Catholic party, but it was known
that he would have none of the cry for Repeal, and that he would
appoint a Lord-Lieutenant of his own stamp. It is singular, indeed,
how devotedly O'Connell admired the office of the viceroy. To him it
seemed to represent Ireland's scrap of royalty, and in the imitation
{243} courts of Dublin Castle and the Viceregal Lodge he saw something
of regal independence for the country. He was always opposed to the
abolition of the post, and during the Melbourne administration was
continually suggesting to the premier the names of noblemen likely to
make efficient viceroys. When Lord Normanby retired, he promptly
counselled Melbourne to send Lord Clarendon over, but the commission
was given to Lord Ebrington, and this nobleman's compulsory resignation
let in Earl de Grey, who governed Ireland from September, 1841, to
July, 1844. He was sixty years of age, wealthy, and popular, married
to an Irish lady of great charm, when he was selected by Sir Robert
Peel; and with a callous indifference to O'Connell's disapproval he
came to Ireland, and with the help of his wife won the respect of all
classes. Lady de Grey was a daughter of the first Earl of Enniskillen,
and was three years her husband's junior, whom she had married in 1805.
While the Lord-Lieutenant entertained Dublin society, and spent
thousands of pounds to the benefit of the country, Lady de Grey bore
her part well, though she showed at times that she did not regard
herself as a hostess only. She realized that the country could do with
more trade and less agitation, and without recourse to political means
she set herself the task of helping the manufacturers of Ireland.
Habitués of Dublin Castle and the Viceregal Lodge entertainments soon
heard that they could not please her Excellency better than by
patronizing Irish industries, and if the ladies were still compelled to
buy their {244} dresses in London and Paris, they were induced to
patronize the Irish dressmakers for their less expensive gowns.
It was not, of course, the most auspicious time for a genuine attempt
to do something practical towards the social salvation of Ireland.
Crime was rife; agitation was rampant; patriotism rioting deliriously.
Many districts became acquainted with famine, but if food was short
orators were plentiful. De Grey had plenty of work to do, and it was
he who initiated the proceedings that led to the arrest of Daniel
O'Connell and some of his friends in the autumn of 1843. The
Government took advantage of a public meeting of the agitators to
apprehend them for conspiracy, and eventually O'Connell and his
associates were placed on trial, found guilty by a packed jury, and
subsequently 'imprisoned' in an old-fashioned country house, where they
passed their time amidst a quiet that must have been to them a luxury.
They were allowed to have their own servants and whatever food they
wished, and never were prisoners more free than during the three months
that elapsed between the conviction and sentence by the Lord Chief
Justice of Ireland, and the reversal of the verdict by the House of
Lords. That memorable trial gave William Smith O'Brien his
opportunity, for O'Brien became automatically the leader of the Repeal
movement when O'Connell was in 'prison.'
[Sidenote: The decline of O'Connell]
Between the first and second trials Lord de Grey left Ireland, and was
succeeded by Lord Heytesbury, who remained until 1846. Born in 1779,
{245} William a'Court, first Baron Heytesbury, was educated at Eton,
and spent many years in the diplomatic service, holding the important
position of Ambassador to the courts of Portugal and Russia. In 1808
he married a grand-daughter of the Earl of Radnor, and twenty years
later his diplomatic services were rewarded by the bestowal of a
peerage. Peel always had a high opinion of Heytesbury, and only his
resignation in 1835 prevented him making the ex-ambassador
Governor-General of India. On the resignation of Earl de Grey, Peel
invited Heytesbury to go to Ireland, and the invitation was accepted.
He was able to regard with indifference the censure of the Law Lords on
the conduct of the Dublin Government in the matter of Daniel
O'Connell's trial. He could easily dissociate himself from the faults
of the preceding régime. The abandonment of the cry for Repeal by
O'Connell lessened the anxieties of Heytesbury, but there were the
usual economic problems to be dealt with, and from all over the country
reports came of the terrible distress and poverty prevailing. The
Lord-Lieutenant did his best, and much money was spent in a vain
attempt to ameliorate the conditions of peasant life. By the close of
Lord Heytesbury's brief reign, however, ominous clouds were rising on
the political horizon. Daniel O'Connell, tamed by age and experience,
was by no means the raging propagandist of the twenties and thirties;
he was ever counselling his fiery followers to concentrate their
attention on the reform of the English Parliament, but his adherents
demanded {246} Repeal, and when he disagreed, they passed on, despising
the leader who refused to lead. William Smith O'Brien was now the
temporary hero, and he was fascinating the rank and file of agitators
by his aristocratic manner and superficial unselfishness. Here was a
man--not one of themselves--who stood to lose everything and gain
nothing by his association with a cause that was supposed to be the
religion of the lower-class Irish and the scarcely superior patriotic
attorneys and doctors. William Smith O'Brien was a gentleman and a
patriot! The country gasped, and followed him, leaving Daniel
O'Connell to realize that every generation produces its heroes and
geniuses, and will not tolerate the rivalry of the aged, however
eminent.
[Sidenote: An Irish Lord-Lieutenant]
Lord John Russell began his first ministry on July 6th, 1846. His
Cabinet was a strong one, and his prospects were bright save on the
omni-present Irish question. O'Connell was certainly a spent force,
but a new race of agitators had arisen, and the principles of '98 were
as strong as ever nearly fifty years later. The premier, however, had
some knowledge of Ireland. As a boy he had played in the heavy rooms
of Dublin Castle, and as Home Secretary he had studied Irish affairs
besides administering them. He was well aware that the chief defect of
many viceroys was their inability to understand the national character,
and he therefore came to the conclusion that if a resident Irish
landlord should be appointed Lord-Lieutenant, something would be done
at any rate to popularize the executive government {247} in Dublin.
Happily for Russell, there was the man for his purpose in the ranks of
his followers. John William Ponsonby, fourth Earl of Bessborough, was
a popular Irishman, a large landowner, and possessing considerable
influence in his own country. This had been proved by the Kilkenny
election of 1826, when he was returned to Parliament despite the most
energetic opposition of O'Connell.
Five years later, when the agitator's position and power were almost
impregnable, he retained his seat with a majority of sixty-five, thanks
to the support of the most famous of Irish Roman Catholic Bishops, Dr.
Doyle. Retiring from Kilkenny, he represented Nottingham in the
Commons until in 1834, after twenty-nine years of Parliamentary life,
he was created a peer in his own right, and took his seat in the House
of Lords as Lord Duncannon. In 1834 he was Home Secretary, and from
1835 to 1839 was Lord Privy Seal. Two years after, succeeding to the
earldom, he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland immediately upon
Lord John Russell's formation of a Government. Between the date of the
Kilkenny election and his accession to the House of Lords, one of the
most important events in his life was his friendship with O'Connell.
Once his bitterest enemy, the agitator became almost an intimate
friend, and Russell's selection of Bessborough for the viceroyalty was
a direct attempt to please the popular party. Unfortunately for the
designs of the premier, the appointment came too late. There were new
'shepherds in Israel,' and O'Connell {248} no longer led the Repealers
or guided them in their councils. Of course, in official circles Lord
and Lady Bessborough were successful enough. Lady Bessborough was a
daughter of that Earl of Westmoreland who had been Viceroy of Ireland
from 1790 to 1795, and her Excellency was like an old friend returning.
But their stay in Dublin was destined to be very brief, and just when
it appeared that the viceroy was to be overwhelmed by the enormous
amount of work created by the followers of O'Brien, his Excellency died
suddenly in Dublin Castle on May 16, 1847--a tragedy which, amongst
other things, meant that the stormiest viceroyalty in the history of
the country should be that of Lord Clarendon. Lord Bessborough was
sixty-six, and his death was regretted by everybody. Those who had the
welfare of the country at heart had been hoping that, with an Irishman
and a resident landlord at the head of the Irish executive, peace might
come to the nation, were left to seek consolations in speculations on
the 'might-have-been,' while the party of revolution were relieved of
the embarrassment of rebelling against the Government represented by a
man against whom no charge of self-interest or lack of patriotism could
be hurled.
[Illustration: Earl of Clarendon]
One friend of O'Connell was succeeded by another, and George William
Frederick Villiers, fourth Earl of Clarendon, was sworn in as
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland shortly after Lord Bessborough's death. It
was understood that he was to be the last Viceroy of Ireland. He was
then forty-seven years of age, twenty-seven of which {249} had been
spent in the service of the country. At twenty he was an attaché to
the British Embassy at St. Petersburg; from 1827 to 1829 a
commissionership of Customs took him to Ireland, where he studied the
Irish question so effectively that the Lord-Lieutenant, the Marquis of
Anglesey, was glad to have his advice. When he left Madrid, the
Spanish Government struck a medal in his honour as a tribute to his
successful occupancy of an embassy by no means the easiest in Europe.
In 1838 he declined the Governor-Generalship of Canada: indeed, he made
a habit of declining honours, amongst these being a twice-offered
marquisate and two pressing invitations to govern India. In 1847,
however, he accepted the post of Viceroy of Ireland, and with Lady
Clarendon, who was a daughter of the Earl of Verulam, he entered upon
his remarkable term of office. A year before he had presided over the
Board of Trade, and this was his most onerous ministerial appointment
until he went to Ireland.
The strongest and wisest of men would have failed in Ireland during the
period bounded by the years 1847 and 1852--the time covered by Lord
Clarendon's viceroyalty--and the Lord-Lieutenant was by no means
entitled to be considered above the average in strength and wisdom. He
was a Liberal, and a Free Trader, and a friend of O'Connell, and he had
numerous ideas that he hoped would fructify to Ireland's gain, but he
never had a real chance. In succession he had to face the Young
Ireland insurrection, the famine, Orange disturbances in several
counties, the {250} ghastly economic problems created by the increasing
emigration of the peasantry, and the consequent bankruptcy of the
landlords. Clarendon laboured at the Castle and in London in a
hopeless endeavour to restore order out of chaos. To defeat William
Smith O'Brien and his followers was ridiculously easy, but it was
another matter coping with a famine that threatened to wipe the peasant
population out of existence. Ireland, ever the thorn in the crown of
British statesmanship, drove Russell to distraction, and made Clarendon
old before his time. Daily plots to assassinate him were duly reported
to the police, and by them to the viceroy; Lady Clarendon was induced
to spend most of her time in England, and eventually so virulent did
the enemies of the Government become that for days the viceroy was
placed in the humiliating position of being unable to go beyond the
precincts of Dublin Castle. At viceregal parties a large percentage of
those present consisted of spies and detectives. In the country blood
was being shed--at the Castle lives were being worn out. Clarendon was
courageous enough, but courage is only a secondary attribute in a
statesman. Wisdom was wanted, and wisdom was not to be found. The
executive at Dublin scarcely understood the temper of the country. The
Lord-Lieutenant's policy was vigorous, but its administration haphazard
and spasmodic.
Whenever an experiment or change was tried, it was abandoned in panic
before anyone could judge the results. The viceroy overshadowed {251}
the Chief Secretary, and thus all the acts of the queen's
representative were coloured by the opinions of one political party.
To the mass of the people of Ireland the throne of England symbolized
oppression and persecution.
In this vague and bewildering state of affairs there was no room for
social pleasantries, though Castle seasons came and went with grim
regularity. There was, however, some compensation in store for the
harassed viceroy, for to everybody's surprise it was announced that
Queen Victoria intended to visit Ireland.
[Sidenote: Queen Victoria's first visit]
The first visit to Ireland of Queen Victoria took place in 1849. Her
Majesty was accompanied by the Prince Consort, and the royal parents
brought their children with them. Their stay in Ireland had to be
limited to five days, and a great deal had to be compressed into the
short time at their disposal. Ireland has always been courteous to its
visitors of whatever rank, but Queen Victoria received an enthusiastic
welcome that voiced her popularity with every class and creed in the
country. She had undertaken the journey from a strong sense of duty;
she actually experienced a sense of pleasure, and from that time
forward there was at least one eminent person in England who understood
the good qualities of the people of Ireland. On the surface, and to
suit the phrase-mongers, they might be disloyal, but at heart they
entertained a strong affection for the occupant of the throne of
England. Queen Victoria knew this, and her opinion was endorsed by her
successors, King Edward VII. and King George V., {252} when they made
the acquaintance of the people of the 'kingdom of Ireland.'
The royal visit accomplished, Dublin returned to its old condition of
squalor. Agitation was rife, fostered by the pens and voices of a
group of brilliant Irishmen. They had started the _Nation_ newspaper,
and had made it one of the most powerful organs in the country; other
offshoots of the Young Ireland Press helped to pepper the Government,
and as there was no champion on the English side, the patriots appeared
to have matters all their own way. Arguments were unanswered, and
were, therefore, accepted as infallible, and this condition of things
continued for a time until the viceroy and his secretary, Mr. Corry
Conellan, decided to have a newspaper champion of their very own. Sir
William Somerville, the Chief Secretary, was called into the
conference, and ways and means discussed. There can be no doubt of the
fact that the Lord-Lieutenant could have had the aid of any one of a
dozen clever journalists, but ashamed, perhaps, of their methods, they
enlisted in their service a person of the name of Birch, whose only
claim to notoriety was the proprietorship of the _World_, and a
conviction ending in six months' imprisonment for having threatened to
publish a defamatory article about a public official unless the latter
paid for its suppression. Lord Clarendon was, of course, unaware of
his hireling's police-court experiences, and he agreed with his private
secretary's recommendation of Mr. Birch. The latter was, therefore,
regularly supplied with {253} opinions from the Castle upon all
subjects relating to Ireland, and week by week the _World_ did its best
to counteract the effect produced by every issue of the _Nation_. It
was a feeble attempt on Birch's part, who possessed neither the wit nor
the talent of the _Nation_ writers, and his employers tired of his
futilities. The hack was given notice, and his _World_ was abandoned
by the viceregal party. But Mr. Birch was a gentleman with a knowledge
of a greater world; he decided that Lord Clarendon and his Chief
Secretary could be made to pay, and so he concocted a list of services
rendered and demanded a honorarium of £7,000 for his trouble.
[Sidenote: A 'cause célèbre']
When the claim was first made, the Lord-Lieutenant declined to pay a
penny more. He reminded Birch that he had received nearly £2,000 in
return for very little work, but the journalist did not wish to argue
the rights or wrongs of his claim--he wanted money, or else he would
bring them into court and open his mouth. This frightened Lord
Clarendon, who compromised with Birch by paying him the sum of £2,000
to withdraw his action. The journalist accepted, and turned his
attention to the Chief Secretary, who wisely refused to be blackmailed,
and accordingly, in the month of December, 1851, the élite of Dublin
crowded the approaches to the Four Courts, to witness the spectacle of
a viceroy in the witness-box being cross-examined by counsel for the
plaintiff. There were rumours that the most sensational disclosures
would be made, and in official circles there was much trepidation.
{254} By now the viceroy had learned the lesson that to attempt to
conciliate a blackmailer was the most stupid form folly could assume.
He agreed to submit himself to cross-examination--the only course if he
desired to free himself from his late confederate.
Birch boldly stated his case, and described how he had been sent for by
the viceroy's private secretary, and bought over by the Government. He
had been instructed to reply to the attacks of the _Nation_, and, so he
said, given a free hand in the spending of money. One story is good
until another is told, and Birch's was largely discounted when the
defence made its explanation. Lord Clarendon confessed that he had
paid £3,700 altogether to Birch, and had received practically nothing
in return. Of this sum £2,000 had been paid to the journalist to
abandon an action he had entered against the viceroy, claiming £4,800
and £3 10s. costs. The action tried was ostensibly against Sir William
Somerville, the Chief Secretary, but everybody knew that it was merely
another attempt on the insatiable Birch's part to extract more money
from the Lord-Lieutenant.
The trial lasted several days, but when the jury were allowed to
retire, they made short work of Birch, whose cross-examination had
killed his chances of success. Four minutes' deliberation was
sufficient for the jurymen to bring in a verdict for the defendants, to
whom they awarded costs to the amount of sixpence. It was a blow to
the prestige of Lord Clarendon, though the right-minded admitted his
honesty in declining to be {255} blackmailed by an adventurer.
Naturally, the opposition party made great capital out of it, and the
_Nation_ attained the dignity of a classic. For many weeks its pages
were never without a reference to the _cause célèbre_, one of these
being a neat epigram, which read:
'"Lord C. has grown most awfully religious,"
Said Corry Conellan with a rueful air;
"At least, his trepidation is prodigious
As to how in the next World he'll fare!":
With all the stubbornness of an English gentleman, the viceroy remained
on at his post. He was anxious to discover the solution to the
problems of the day. English money poured into the country to relieve
the famine-stricken areas, and the landlords were helped also, but this
did not augur tranquillity in the future. In despair the viceroy began
a policy of favouring the patriotic party; he tried conciliation, made
advances, and offered the hand of friendship, only to be called a
coward, and earn the distrust of his own party. He then reversed his
policy with the usual result--nobody was pleased, and when in 1852 Lord
Clarendon's term came to an end, he was adjudged by all classes to have
failed, although in such times Clarendon's failure was not without its
personal compensations. He had the satisfaction of knowing that no man
could have succeeded, and history has proved that to be a fact. His
subsequent career is part of the history of England, for he was Foreign
Secretary from 1853 to 1858, an epoch rendered memorable by the {256}
Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. In 1870 he died suddenly, seventy
years of age.
[Illustration: Earl of Eglinton and Winton]
[Sidenote: A remarkable sportsman]
Lord Derby's first Government began on February 27, 1852, and ended in
the following December. During that short period the Viceroy of
Ireland was Lord Eglinton and Winton, a nobleman who is best remembered
as the promoter of the Eglinton tournament, an attempt to revive the
old-time glory of the age of chivalry. This freak cost him £40,000, a
small sum to one possessed of great wealth, a fact he made evident
throughout his stay in Dublin. His lavish entertainments created a new
era in viceregal hospitality. Lord Eglinton was essentially what may
be described as a sportsman, using the term in the old sense, and not
as it is now understood. His racing stable was about the largest and
most successful in England, and during the forty-nine years (1812-61)
he lived, he helped to enliven the crowd. He was devoted to sport, and
some surprise was expressed when he agreed to govern Ireland, but he
liked the country, and in 1858, on Lord Derby's return, he went back to
Dublin, but within sixteen months he resigned, and in June, 1859, it
became necessary to find a successor. He was scarcely interested in
politics, though in 1854 he moved a resolution in the Lords asking for
a commission to inquire into the working of the Board of Education in
Ireland. During his second viceroyalty he married again--the first
Lady Eglinton having died in 1853--and for a few months a daughter of
the Earl of Essex acted as the hostess of Dublin Castle and the
Viceregal {257} Lodge. Personally untouched by the political
difficulties of the country, Lord Eglinton had the merit of realizing
the hopelessness of trying to solve Irish problems, and he did more
good with his lavish dinners than the well-meaning Clarendon had with
his painstaking investigations into, and midnight studies of, what are
termed, for want of a better name, 'Irish affairs.' He was given the
United Kingdom peerage of Winton--an earldom--on his retirement from
Ireland, the grateful ministry thus acknowledging his popularity as a
sportsman, and helping us to remember that he won the St. Leger three
times and the Derby once.
Political affairs having terminated Lord Eglinton's first viceroyalty
towards the close of 1852, Lord Aberdeen, the Prime Minister, appointed
the Earl of St. Germans to Ireland. It was yet another attempt to meet
the criticism that English statesmen and Irish viceroys were absolutely
ignorant of and indifferent to Irish problems. Lord St. Germans was
fifty-four, and for some years--1841 to 1845--had been Chief Secretary
for Ireland. He was a man of ability and courage, and as the author of
the Eliot Convention taught the participants in the Carlist rising in
Spain something of the decencies of warfare. As Chief Secretary for
Ireland, his time had been spent in dealing with the numerous petty
rebellions and their leaders; he introduced a Bill to restrict the sale
of firearms and the importation of ammunition; the Government found it
unacceptable, and Eliot went out of office to be given the {258}
Postmaster-Generalship by Peel, and later the Lord-Lieutenancy of
Ireland.
Lord St. Germans married in 1824 a grand-daughter of the first Marquis
Cornwallis, and both became intimate friends of the royal family. In
1853 Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort visited Dublin to open the
great International Exhibition, and, of course, they were
enthusiastically welcomed by the whole of the country. Lord and Lady
St. Germans took the lead in a splendid series of festivities that
celebrated the visit of the queen. Political motives may have
suggested the visit, but in all probability the anxiety of Her Majesty
to see Ireland again was not lessened by the fact that her friend was
the viceroy.
[Sidenote: The Earl of Carlisle]
St. Germans' retirement in 1855 to become Lord Steward and confidant of
the queen until his death, at the age of seventy-nine, in 1877, was
followed by Lord Carlisle's first term of office. As Lord Morpeth he
had been Chief Secretary for more than six years--1835-41--the post
having been given him because it was his amendment to the address that
turned out the Peel administration in the spring of 1835. Lord
Morpeth, as he was known during the twenty odd years he sat in
Parliament, was the most workmanlike minister of his generation. With
the assistance of Thomas Drummond, his under-secretary, he framed the
Irish Tithe Bill, the Irish Municipal Reform Bill, and the Irish Poor
Law Bill; and, although hampered by the House of Lords and by the fact
that he was regarded as Lord Melbourne's {259} hostage for good
behaviour to Daniel O'Connell, he was a most successful Chief Secretary
in a time when success was very dearly bought. He was, therefore,
essentially a safe man when he became viceroy on the nomination of Lord
Palmerston in February, 1855. He held the post until October, 1864,
with the exception of the sixteen months occupied by Lord Eglinton's
second viceroyalty, between February, 1858, and June, 1859.
It is not possible to say that any Viceroy of Ireland has been
successful, because there is no such thing as pleasing the numerous
parties into which the democracy and aristocracy of the country is
divided, but Lord Carlisle went as near success as any human being
could. A fine statue by J. H. Foley, erected in Phoenix Park in 1870,
is evidence of the popularity of George William Frederick Howard,
seventh Earl of Carlisle. He was an emancipationist when it was
dangerous to confess to such ultra-Liberalism, and his speech when
introducing the Irish Tithe Bill in the House of Commons in 1835--he
was but thirty-three--remains one of the best speeches by an Englishman
on Irish affairs. He took a genuine interest in the welfare of the
country, and did his best. The 'patriots' denounced him as a tool of a
tyrannical Government; the few that made his personal acquaintance
discovered a scholarly nobleman with the most amiable manner in the
world. He never married, and consequently did not entertain on the
same lavish and indiscriminate scale as his predecessors, but Dublin
Castle was all the better for its acquaintance with the eminent {260}
persons the viceroy dined and wined there. Another visit of the Queen
and Prince Albert, inspired by the fact that the Prince of Wales was
quartered with his regiment at the Curragh, was a feature of Lord
Carlisle's term.
There were, of course, the usual political agitations, and although the
Smith O'Brien rising had collapsed ignominiously, a new force in Irish
affairs came into existence about the time that Lord Carlisle was
concluding his first viceroyalty. The Irish in America had begun to
take a practical interest in Irish affairs. They subscribed large sums
of money to aid the cause of Irish independence, and for six years,
beginning with 1858, great preparations were made for the striking of
the decisive blow. James Stephens and others founded the Fenian
organization described by Mr. Gladstone as having its root in Ireland
and its branches in the United States. During the latter months of
Lord Carlisle's viceroyalty there were one or two small attempts on the
part of the Fenians to make themselves prominent, but it was not until
Lord Wodehouse was in power at Dublin Castle that English ministers
realized the gravity of the new situation created by Stephens and his
friends. Lord Carlisle's resignation was brought about by ill-health,
and in October, 1864, he left Ireland, to die before the close of the
year. It illustrates the viceroy's position in social and literary
circles to recall the fact that when the country celebrated in 1864 the
tercentenary of the birth of William Shakespeare, Lord Carlisle should
be selected to preside over the festivities at Stratford-on-Avon.
{261}
CHAPTER XVII
The viceroyalty of Lord Wodehouse brought him an earldom in the year he
retired from office--1868--but it would be an exaggeration to say that
he was conspicuously successful. Until his appointment to Ireland,
Wodehouse had had experience of under-secretaryships only, at the
Foreign and Indian Offices, and Lord Palmerston's selection came as a
surprise. It may have been due to the fact that Lord Wodehouse's wife
was a daughter of an Irish peer, the last Earl of Clare, and there have
been selections for the viceroyalty based on even more frivolous and
cynical reasons. There was, of course, a great deal of anxious and
dangerous work for Lord Wodehouse to do, and within a few months of his
arrival in Dublin he was coping night and day with the Fenian rising.
At first all the viceroy's energy and the underground activities of his
subordinates seemed helpless against the efforts of the latest society
for bringing about separation from England, but Lord Wodehouse was not
dismayed, and he met murder with execution and assassination with the
rope. The Fenian movement culminated in 1867 in a series of shameless
murders that once more drew the {262} attention of the English nation
to the disturbed condition of Ireland.
In the May of 1867 Mr. Gladstone declared in the House of Commons that
the time was near when the Government would have to deal with the Irish
Church, one of the strongest arguments of the Fenian party. Following
this declaration came the murder of a policeman in Manchester, when an
attempt was made to rescue two Fenian prisoners. Three men were
executed for the crime, and as the 'Manchester martyrs' they are to be
found in the calendar of Nationalism. There was a melodramatic attempt
to blow up a London prison, and thus free a Fenian incarcerated within
its walls. Everywhere the mention of the name of Ireland produced a
feeling of panic and an expression of profound contempt.
[Sidenote: The Earl of Kimberley]
Meanwhile Lord Wodehouse, whose administration, ending in 1866, was
wholly political, acted with rigour and fearlessness. The Home Rulers
mocked him, issuing imitation proclamations signed 'Woodlouse.' He
turned aside from signing warrants to welcome, in May, 1865, the Prince
of Wales--afterwards King Edward VII.--to Dublin to open the
International Exhibition, but that was almost the only occasion when he
made a public appearance unassociated with politics. There was some
effort to maintain the social side of Dublin Castle government, but the
times were not favourable to hospitality, and when in 1866 the viceroy
was succeeded by the Marquis of Abercorn, and took his place in Mr.
Gladstone's first ministry as Lord Privy Seal, under his new title of
Earl of {263} Kimberley, there was neither regret nor gratitude
expressed for his departure. The Nationalists and their Fenian allies
could not be expected to show approval or disapproval of persons who
merely administered the same system. To them Dublin Castle was the
outward token of England's rule in Ireland, and their object was to
destroy its existence.
Lord Kimberley died in 1902, aged seventy-six. He is not remembered
for his Irish viceroyalty, but as Foreign Secretary under Lord Rosebery
in 1892-94 he displayed an ability that was something above mere
industry. He declined to join an alliance which had for its object the
coercion of Japan after the latter's victory over China, and this
far-seeing act was the first step towards the Anglo-Japanese alliance
which many consider Lord Lansdowne's greatest achievement during his
tenure of the Foreign Office. Lord Kimberley was Colonial Secretary in
the days when the affairs of the outer Empire were not considered very
important, and a knowledge of the colonies something akin to bad form.
His administration of Indian affairs was decidedly tame, but he did no
harm. It was his fate who once had been a member of the strongest
Liberal Cabinet in the history of party government to witness the
Liberal debacle that followed the resignation of the Rosebery
Government. In the palmy days of Liberalism it was his good fortune to
serve under Gladstone--towards the close of his life he sat in the
Cabinet of a man who, having won the greatest prize of political life
too easily, treated it with {264} contempt, and in doing so wrecked the
party which enabled him to win some fame as a statesman. To Lord
Kimberley fell the task of leading the Liberal minority in the House of
Lords, and when he died in 1902, the Conservative and Unionist party
was in an apparently impregnable position, and Liberalism was in the
depths.
The fall of the Liberal ministry brought Lord Derby to the head of the
Government, with Disraeli as his Chancellor of the Exchequer. The
Prime Minister thereupon asked the Marquis of Abercorn to accept the
difficult and laborious post of Viceroy of Ireland, and the hazardous
position was accepted from a sense of duty. Lord Abercorn was in 1866
fifty-five years of age, and thirty-four years earlier he had married
Lady Louisa Russell, a daughter of the sixth Duke of Bedford, another
viceregal family. The viceroy was a popular landlord, though he, too,
had a constitutional objection to tenants who would not pay their
rents. But the respectable classes admired him, and those who knew him
personally considered that he was the right man for Ireland. He was
the proudest man in Ireland, with a flamboyant love of display.
Fenianism was most active during his first term, and Abercorn was
compelled to adopt similar methods in dealing with the trouble as had
been part of the Liberal administration of his predecessor. Ireland
has always refused to accept the spirit of the English party system,
and whether Liberal or Conservative ministry was in power, Dublin
Castle remained the same. There were the usual evictions, riots, {265}
murders, and other crimes scarcely less reprehensible, and the viceroy,
although protected to some extent by the Chief Secretary, who was, of
course, the mouthpiece of the Irish Government in the House of Commons,
found himself compelled by force of circumstances to undertake
political work against which his soul revolted. Lord Abercorn was not
a man to revel in a display of the power of the police, or even of the
tenacity and strength of the Castle bureaucracy. He aimed at the
improvement of the masses, the progress of education, and the
cultivation of the fine arts. In society the viceroy and the
marchioness were most popular. He was an intimate friend of the queen.
No charge of alienism could be laid against the head of the Irish
Hamiltons, and while every other great landlord had his land troubles,
the tenants of the Marquis of Abercorn had realized in a practical
manner their indebtedness to their landlord. If anybody should have
been the ideal viceroy Lord Abercorn was the man; but here, again, any
success achieved was purely social, and confined to a small area. The
unruly state of the country, its increasing poverty, and its record of
crime, found no palliative in the reign of the proudest of the
Hamiltons.
[Sidenote: Prince and Princess of Wales]
In April, 1868, the Prince and Princess of Wales visited Dublin, to
prove again that if Ireland had the reputation of being a nation of
rebels, it could be courteous to distinguished visitors. Lord and Lady
Abercorn received them in Dublin, and there were great rejoicings. The
executive had taken the most elaborate precautions for the safety {266}
of the royal pair, but events proved that they were quite unnecessary,
and Ireland might have been one of the most prosperous countries in the
world for all the prince and princess saw to the contrary. Within the
sacred walls of St. Patrick's Cathedral the Lord-Lieutenant presided
over a gorgeous ceremony, which formally created the Prince of Wales a
Knight of St. Patrick, and the banquet that followed in St. Patrick's
Hall was one of great splendour. The dinner brought together not only
all the notables of Ireland, but also the largest gathering of English
and Irish detectives that the Castle has ever contained. The number of
the detectives was quite embarrassing, but it was considered necessary,
with recollections of Manchester and Clerkenwell. The royal guests
were ignorant of this part of the programme, however, although the
prince once addressed a question to a gentleman whom he thought was the
viceroy's secretary. He was not enlightened as to the identity of the
detective-inspector from London, who was part of his bodyguard.
Benjamin Disraeli was Prime Minister at the time of the royal visit to
Ireland, and he had no difficulty in getting Abercorn a dukedom. On
August 10, 1868, his elevation was announced, and Ireland's only
duke--his Grace of Leinster--was joined by a second wearer of the
strawberry leaves. The new dignity had been earned years before Lord
Abercorn lived in Dublin Castle, and by no stretch of official
imagination could it be said to hallmark the Abercorn administration of
1866 to 1868. The General Election in the latter {267} year displaced
Disraeli, and gave Mr. Gladstone the reins of power, and the Duke of
Abercorn went out with the Tory Government to enjoy himself in
opposition until 1874, when Disraeli tasted the sweets of office again.
[Sidenote: The Irish Church disestablished]
We have Mr. Gladstone's own admission that the Fenian agitation of the
sixties was the primary cause of English interest in the Irish Church,
and in the great land question. It is one of the truisms of history
that agitation on unconstitutional methods is more effective than the
employment of peaceful persuasion. Catholic Emancipation proved that.
When Gladstone took office it was known that he would attempt to create
a contented Ireland by disestablishing the Irish Church, and by passing
a great Land Act. He chose as his Irish viceroy Earl Spencer, then an
unknown and untried young man in his thirty-third year. To be the
representative of the premier in Ireland was the most onerous and
dangerous position in the Government. The viceroy found society, lay
and clerical, against him, and with the passing of the Land Act of 1870
the upper-class Irish believed what they had only doubted before--that
Gladstone was the worst enemy of Ireland, and that Lord Spencer was his
dangerous satellite. There is no need to enter into the controversy
that ensued when Gladstone introduced the Bill disestablishing the
Church of Ireland, as the Protestant minority was termed absurdly.
Archbishop Trench declared passionately that the disestablishment would
'put to the Irish Protestants the choice between apostasy and
expatriation, and every {268} man among them who has money or position,
when he sees his Church go, will leave the country. If you do that,'
he continued, 'you will find the country so difficult to manage that
you will have to depend upon the gibbet and the sword.' It would be
unfair to dwell upon the ludicrous moanings of the Church party; they
prophesied not only the extinction of the Irish Protestants, but the
end of Christendom. We can be content with the knowledge that time has
given us of the prosperity and progress of Protestantism in Ireland.
It is a splendid example of the irony of life to recall Mr. Gladstone's
declaration when the telegram arrived at Hawarden, informing him that
an emissary was on his way from Windsor Castle. 'My mission,' he said,
'is to pacify Ireland.' That may have been true, but Gladstone brought
a sword rather than peace to the country which had such a long and
fateful connection with the statesmanship of the great Liberal. Lord
Spencer, his first viceroy, experienced all the fury of rebellious
Nationalism, and during his second viceroyalty had the unfortunate
distinction of being the governor of a country where no man's life was
safe, and where murder and outrage were as common as sand.
This is, however, anticipating events. The refusal of Lord Halifax to
accept the viceroyalty had restricted Gladstone's choice. Liberalism,
even in its mildest state, has never appealed to territorial magnates,
and the Whiggism of Lord Spencer was scarcely the fire-and-thunder
Liberalism {269} of his chief, but he stepped into the breach, and for
the rest of his life was one of the strongest champions of a political
faith unpopular amongst his own class. Born in 1836, and married at
the age of twenty-two, he brought the courage of youth to bear upon the
Irish situation. Gladstone never had a more faithful colleague and
Dublin Castle a more conscientious occupant. Dublin society was
inclined to frown upon the viceroy, and there was some talk of a
boycott of the viceregal functions, but Lord and Lady Spencer were
independent of the support of the official and professional class which
forms what is called society in the capital of Ireland. A great
English landlord and his wife could create any society they chose,
being somewhat in a similar position to the Scotsman who declared that
wherever he sat was the head of the table. Lord Hartington, better
known as the Duke of Devonshire, was Chichester Fortescue's successor
as Chief Secretary, and the two noblemen carried out Gladstone's
reforms with a thoroughness that for a time gave the impression that at
last the Irish nation was to be pacified and made amenable to English
rule.
[Sidenote: The Land Act of 1870]
The disestablishment of the Protestant Church in Ireland was, however,
a minor reform compared with the great Land Act of 1870. This was a
measure of reform that took away the breath of the Tory leaders, but it
has proved a most beneficial act, and when in the course of time it
became obsolete, it was a Unionist administration that improved upon
it, and passed an Act which, {270} compared with that of 1870, or even
that of 1881, out-Gladstoned Gladstone. It was not a brilliant
success, because it tried to do too much, and, of course, offended both
parties; but as the first attempt on a large scale to settle this
many-sided question, it deserves a high place in the records of
Gladstone's memorable Government of 1868-74.
Any determined effort to ostracize the viceroy was soon killed by the
presence and influence of Lady Spencer. She had been no more than
twenty-four hours in Dublin when she was nicknamed "Spencer's Fairy
Queen," a most flattering description of a great beauty and a charming
woman. Lord Spencer's skill as a horseman was in his favour, and his
regular attendance in the chase earned him the respect of a large
community which has a hereditary affection for the noblest of animals.
Castle seasons were enlivened by visits from the Prince of Wales, the
Princess Louise, and the Prince Arthur, now the Duke of Connaught;
while the important Dublin Exhibition was opened, and numerous Irish
industries patronized and helped.
{271}
CHAPTER XVIII
The fall of the Government was hastened by the Premier's anxiety to
fulfil his pledge to pacify Ireland. The Church question was settled,
the land problem on its way to solution, and now Gladstone turned his
attention to the grievances of Roman Catholics on the question of a
university. The Prime Minister's pose as the only man capable of
settling Irish affairs had not been strengthened by the passing of a
coercion act in the spring of 1870, but if he imprisoned Fenians, he
generally followed it up by pressing for their release. And firmly
believing that if he conciliated the Roman Catholics he would bring
peace to the country, he introduced a measure into the House of Commons
seeking powers to establish a university acceptable to all classes and
creeds. It was defeated by three votes in one of the most memorable
and significant divisions Parliament has known. Friends and foes
abstained, and friends and foes voted with surprising inconsistency,
but the net result was the discomfiture of the Gladstonians and the
immediate resignation of the premier, the latter act prompted, no
doubt, by the knowledge that there was no other possible leader of a
Government in the country. {272} Mr. Gladstone came back--as he knew
he would--but the effects of the Irish University bill were felt right
down to the day that the leader of the Liberal party heard the results
of the General Election of 1874, and realized that his great rival,
Benjamin Disraeli, was at last at the head of a working majority.
When writing of Gladstone's colleagues, it is difficult to resist the
temptation to turn from them to speak of their chief. Lord Spencer,
however, was something more than a mere official obeying the orders of
his superior. His first term in Ireland laid the foundation of his
public life, and exhibited those principles of devotion to duty, as he
considered his duty to be, and a single-minded adherence to the
political principles that distinguished him above his changing and
vacillating colleagues. When Mr. Gladstone proposed his university
reforms, the viceroy worked his hardest, and Dublin Castle witnessed
numberless interviews between him and representatives of both Churches.
He saw Cardinal Cullen and obtained his views. As usual, the Roman
Catholic hierarchy, never doubtful as to its wants, asked too much, but
Spencer listened politely, and in due course informed Gladstone.
Doubtless, the English nobleman failed to understand the extraordinary
mixture of politics and religion that is always part of Irish affairs,
but he tried to understand and even to sympathize.
Gladstone's defeat in 1874 meant, of course, the viceroy's retirement
from Dublin, and if the majority of the members of the Liberal
administration {273} regretted their defeat, Lord Spencer was not one
of them. He merited the rest opposition gave him, and for six years
Tory noblemen acted as viceroys of Ireland.
The Duke of Abercorn's second viceroyalty was quiet and threadbare.
Disraeli was not the man to attempt heroic measures. Perhaps he
laboured to avoid Irish affairs, which since the Union had threatened
to monopolize the time of Parliament. He sent Sir Michael Hicks-Beach,
afterwards Viscount St. Aldwyn, to the Irish office, and trusted to the
viceroy and the Chief Secretary to shield him from the worries created
by the awkward fact that a Prime Minister's duties were not confined to
England. When the Duke of Abercorn sent in his resignation, in
December, 1876, owing to the state of his wife's health, Disraeli
prevailed upon another duke to take his place. This was the sixth Duke
of Marlborough, who had declined the viceroyalty in the first days of
the Government's existence. The Duke and Duchess of Abercorn retired
into private life, popular and respected, the duke living until 1885.
[Sidenote: The Duke of Marlborough]
The incoming Lord-Lieutenant was in his fifty-fifth year when in the
early days of 1877 he was sworn in as Viceroy of Ireland. One of
Disraeli's personal friends, the influence of the duke had helped the
Prime Minister from the outer ring of plebeian obscurity into the inner
circle of Conservative exclusiveness. Disraeli had a passion for
dukes, although that rank suggested dulness to his bizarre and Oriental
imagination. Marlborough {274} had been Lord President of the Council
in 1868 during Disraeli's first administration, and he was induced to
reconsider his decision not to join the ministry when the Duke of
Abercorn retired.
The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough directed their attention to the
amelioration of the lot of the poverty-stricken peasantry, and they
endeavoured also to aid the trade of Ireland. When the failure of the
crops brought a famine, the duchess inaugurated a relief fund, which,
with the help of the Mansion House, London, brought over £170,000 to
the rescue of the sufferers. Many other acts of kindness could be
recorded of them, and although their reign necessarily concluded in
May, 1880, on the destruction of the Tory Government, they accomplished
much in a brief space of time, and, without being great reformers,
achieved something in the way of reform. Her Excellency had been
before her marriage Lady Frances Tempest, and was a daughter of the
third Marquis of Londonderry. She was a dignified chatelaine of Dublin
Castle, a fit partner for a great nobleman. The rumblings of the Home
Rule agitation storm could be heard before they vacated the viceregal
position, for by now Charles Stewart Parnell had arisen to sound a new
battle-cry for Nationalist Ireland. The old methods of dead-and-gone
agitators were to be improved upon, new ones invented and exploited,
and a decisive battle fought for Irish independence.
[Sidenote: Agitation and crime]
The records of the day state that the Duke of Marlborough was 'popular'
and 'successful,' but {275} these are the records written by partisans.
A popular viceroy generally means a Lord-Lieutenant who exhibits an
amiable weakness to let things remain as they are, and as Marlborough
did this, he was an especial favourite of the official party. He was,
however, wise in his generation. Before his time history had taught
the vital lesson that the viceroy who did his best to please all
parties earned the hatred of all, and the men who ignored the pressing
problems of the day, and turned his term of office into a social orgy,
was acclaimed by the unthinking multitudes. Riots, and evictions, and
murders, were common enough in the closing months of Marlborough's
viceroyalty, but beyond giving his sanction to the various acts that
dealt with agrarian crimes and the troublous land problem, the viceroy
made no display of statesmanship or endangered his ducal equanimity.
It was to the Duke of Marlborough that Disraeli addressed his letter
asking the electors for a fresh mandate. He lived long enough to feel
thankful that the English electors decided in 1880 to have nothing to
do with Toryism, and so ordained that, instead of Beaconsfield
nominating a viceroy, the task should be Gladstone's. During his stay
in Dublin Marlborough had for private secretary Lord Randolph
Churchill. In 1883 the duke died at the comparatively early age of
sixty-one.
It was expected that Lord Spencer would return to Ireland, but he was
selected to fill the decorative post of Lord President of the Council,
and Earl Cowper was sent to cope with Parnell's {276} followers.
Cowper was forty-six years of age, and ten years previous to his
appointment had married a daughter of the fourth Lord Northampton. He
was a man of great strength of character, a charming host, and famous
for a temperament that he never allowed to be ruffled. A perfect host,
and a man of the world endowed with many talents, Earl Cowper might
have succeeded at almost anything except the one particular task to
which he was assigned. When he arrived in Dublin the country was in a
state of rebellion, the remarkable success of Parnell in uniting all
shades of Nationalists under his leadership having the result of
presenting the most formidable opposition to the Government yet
experienced in the history of both countries. Parnell had entered
Parliament in 1875, and four years later was popularly acclaimed the
new leader of the Irish people. His lightest words were sufficient to
render null and void the most important Act of Parliament, his orders
were reverenced and obeyed by a vast majority of his countrymen. When
Lord Cowper took up his duties Parnell was the ruler of Ireland, and
the efforts of the English Government to maintain a semblance of
authority would have been ludicrous if the results had not been so
tragic. Landlords, agents, and tenants were murdered in cold blood,
peaceful citizens were dragged into foul conspiracy by their bullying
neighbours, and Parnell went about in open defiance of the Government,
preaching rebellion and its ghastly accompaniments wherever he came.
Mr. W. E. Forster, the Chief Secretary, induced his official chief to
advise the {277} Cabinet to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and when
Gladstone hesitated, a practical demonstration of its necessity was
furnished by the arrest of Parnell charged with seditious conspiracy,
his abortive trial owing to the disagreement of the Dublin jury, and
the Irish leader's consequent triumph over his opponents. Then the
power to imprison without trial was given to the Irish executive, and
soon the gaols of the country were full to overflowing. With the
suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act the Land League was born, and a new
terror to officialism created.
[Sidenote: The Land League]
Lord Cowper's viceroyalty has been tersely described as occupying 'two
dismal years--the most dismal of the nineteenth century.' His own life
was threatened, elaborate plots to terminate the Chief Secretary's
existence were discovered as fast as an overworked detective department
could unravel its agents' reports, and from all over the country
murders were reported until it seemed that all sense of decency had
long since departed from the country. Encouraged by the success of the
Land League, a fresh series of revolting crimes shocked civilization.
Terrified English ministers tried the effects of another Land Act, and
in 1881 it was placed in the statute-book. This was a great triumph
for the Land League, and was regarded by its members as the
justification of its existence. Again a desire to conciliate had been
interpreted as a sign of weakness.
The new Land Act did not decrease the agitation, and on October 12,
1881, a five-hour sitting of the Cabinet resulted in an order to the
viceroy {278} to have Parnell arrested under the Coercion Act. The
Irish leader was thereupon taken to Kilmainham Gaol, and remained there
for six months. Optimists expected that this bold stroke would
intimidate the intimidators; it had an opposite effect. Mr. Forster
had to report that crime was actually on the increase, and that the
Land Act had not been of the slightest use. It was easy to imprison
Parnell, but the spirit of the movement remained abroad in the people.
In despair Gladstone turned to Parnell, clutching at the straw
presented by one of the Irishman's friends that Parnell was willing to
discuss terms of peace with the Government. The premier was willing,
anxious, in fact, to remove the reproach from his Government the state
of Ireland entailed, and he sent Forster to open negotiations with the
prisoner, who was a dictator. When Lord Cowper heard of the
preliminaries to what became known as the Kilmainham Treaty he
resigned, rightly deeming it demeaning and humiliating for responsible
ministers to treat with a man who had roused the passions of the
uncontrollables, and who, to his lasting disgrace, never denounced the
crimes the Land League produced until the greatest crime of all
convinced him that sometimes murder is a mistake. Mr. Gladstone
appealed to Lord Spencer, a member of his Cabinet, and an experienced
administrator of Irish affairs, to take up the most dangerous and
irksome post in the Government. The earl could not, of course, refuse,
for refusal in the circumstances could have been construed into a
confession of cowardice. {279} He had agreed in the Cabinet to the
_pourparlers_ with Parnell, and he was determined to give the Irish
leader an opportunity of retrieving the blunders of the Land League,
and doing so with a show of victory over the Government, which did not
care about its reputation on Irish matters provided an end was made of
the reign of the murderers.
[Sidenote: State of the country]
Immediate events justified Lord Cowper up to the hilt, who must have
watched with a grim satisfaction the terrible results of Mr.
Gladstone's Irish policy in the early eighties. When the time came
that disclosed Mr. Gladstone as the champion of Home Rule, Lord Cowper
took a leading part in the forces arrayed against his old chief. At a
meeting in a London theatre addressed by Lord Salisbury and the Marquis
of Hartington, Lord Cowper was in the chair, and his presence was a
tower of strength to the cause. After the final defeat of Liberal Home
Rule he dropped out of public life, and at his death--on July 19,
1905--he was almost forgotten by his contemporaries.
There is an admirable and eloquent description in Viscount Morley's
'Life of Gladstone' of the condition of Ireland when Lord Spencer began
his second viceroyalty: 'In 1882 Ireland seemed to be literally a
society on the verge of dissolution. The Invincibles still roved with
knives about the streets of Dublin. Discontent had been stirred in the
ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and a dangerous mutiny broke out
in the metropolitan force. Over half of the country the demoralization
of every class, the terror, the fierce hatred, {280} the universal
distrust, had grown to an incredible pitch. The moral cowardice of
what ought to have been the governing class was astounding. The
landlords would hold meetings and agree not to go beyond a certain
abatement, and then they would go individually and privately offer to
the tenant a greater abatement. Even the agents of the law and the
Courts were shaken in their duty. The power of random arrest and
detention under the Coercion Act of 1881 had not improved the morale of
magistrates and police. The Sheriff would let the word get out that he
was coming to make a seizure, and profess surprise that the cattle had
vanished. The whole countryside turned out thousands in half the
counties in Ireland to attend flaming meetings, and if a man did not
attend angry neighbours trooped up to know the reason why. The clergy
hardly stirred a finger to restrain the wildness of the storm; some did
their best to raise it. All that was what Lord Spencer had to deal
with, the very foundations of the social fabric rocking.'
[Illustration: Earl Spencer, K.G.]
The appointment of Earl Spencer was not pleasing to Mr. Forster, and he
sent in his resignation, his ostensible reason being the proposed
suspension of the Coercion Act, which had enabled the Irish executive
to imprison Parnell. Forster, however, was more concerned with his own
status. Lord Spencer would retain his seat in the Cabinet, which meant
that the Chief Secretary's position would be of less importance than
hitherto. The Prime Minister accepted the resignation without more
than the expected and usual formal expressions {281} of regret. Lord
Frederick Cavendish was selected to succeed him, and on the same day
the viceroy and the Chief Secretary crossed the Channel. This was the
fatal May 6, 1882. Lord Spencer was sworn in at Dublin Castle, and
during the afternoon he was engaged in 'that grim apartment in Dublin
Castle, where successive Secretaries spend unshining hours in saying
"No" to impossible demands and hunting for plausible answers to
insoluble riddles.' At five o'clock the Viceroy started to ride to
Phoenix Park, and at six Lord Frederick Cavendish followed. In the
Park he was overtaken by Mr. Burke, the Under-Secretary, and a few
minutes later both men were foully murdered within sight of the
Viceregal Lodge.
[Sidenote: The Phoenix Park murders]
Lord Spencer wrote the following account of his knowledge of the
murders--a statement inspired by a report that he had actually
witnessed the affray and innocently regarded it as an unimportant
scuffle:
'It is said that I saw the murder. That is not so. I had asked
Cavendish to drive to the Park with me. He said he would not; he would
rather walk with Burke. Of course, if he had come with me it would not
have happened. I then rode to the Park with a small escort--I think,
my aide-de-camp and a trooper. Curiously enough, I stopped to look at
the polo-match which Carey described, so that he and I seem to have
been together on that occasion. I then turned towards the Viceregal
Lodge. The ordinary and more direct way for me to go was over the very
scene {282} of the murder. Had I so gone the murders would not
probably have been committed. Three men coming up would have prevented
anything of that kind. But I made a slight detour, and got to the
lodge another way. When I reached the Lodge I sat down near the window
and began to read some papers. Suddenly I heard a shriek which I shall
never forget. I seem to hear it now; it is always in my ears. This
shriek was repeated again and again. I got up to look out. I saw a
man rushing along. He jumped over the palings, and dashed up to the
Lodge shouting: "Mr. Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are killed!"
There was great confusion, and immediately I rushed out; but someone of
the household stopped me, saying that it might be a ruse to get me out,
and advising me to wait and make inquiries. Of course, the inquiries
were made, and the truth soon discovered. I always deplore my
unfortunate decision to make that detour, always feeling that if I had
gone to the Lodge by the ordinary way the murders would have been
prevented. I have said that I did not see the murder, but my servant
did. He was upstairs, and saw a scuffle going on, but, of course, did
not know what it was about.'
No political crime produced as great a sensation as these senseless and
stupid murders. The news came to London late in the evening, when
Ministers were dining out. The Home Secretary was attending a
dinner-party at the Austrian Embassy when a messenger hurried in to
tell of the dreadful calamity, and very soon all his colleagues were in
possession of the dreadful tidings.
{283}
[Sidenote: Another Coercion Act]
The murders meant the end of the policy of conciliation, and the House
of Commons gave a ready assent to another Coercion Act. Parnell wrote
to Gladstone offering to resign his seat, but the premier was not the
person to judge members of the House of Commons. With perfect courtesy
he acknowledged the feeling that had prompted the Irish leader's
letter, though he must have known that if there had been no Land League
there would have been no Phoenix Park murders.
It is one of the most difficult of tasks to write familiar history in
an original manner. The worthless lives of the assassins paid the
penalty of the law, and a crude justice was meted out to Carey, the
informer, who was shot dead by O'Donnell on board the liner which was
taking him to safety. O'Donnell was brought back from South Africa and
executed, but the punishment of the actual murderers was a small part
of the after-effects of the whole disastrous episode.
It was not long before the party of progress by murder and revolution
cast off the sackcloth it had donned on the deaths of Mr. Burke and
Lord Frederick Cavendish. The viceroy, with his back against the wall,
was compelled to fight for his own life as well as for the existence of
law and order. The Parnellites, confident in their well-established
reputation for obstruction and their followers' capacity for riot,
looked forward to the day when they could dictate terms to one of the
great political parties in England. The granting of an extended
franchise in 1884 had cleared the {284} way for an all-Nationalist
Ireland. The Liberal party was, as usual, blindly handing to their
opponents weapons to be used for the destruction of Liberalism.
Mr. Gladstone was always a difficult leader to follow, but when he was
dealing with Irish affairs his movements resembled the lines created by
a maze. With the best of motives he performed the worst and most
foolish of actions, and Lord Spencer's task became more difficult every
day. The Government was defeated on the Budget, and a prolonged crisis
ensued. But before the resignation of the Cabinet Lord Spencer had to
deal with the notorious Maamtrasna case. This was, in brief, the trial
of some forty persons for the murder of an entire family. Twenty-one
of the convicted prisoners were executed, and it was alleged that some
of these were innocent. A fierce debate absorbed three days in the
House of Commons, and later on, when Lord Salisbury was premier and Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach was leader of the Commons, a motion was brought
forward censuring the administration of Earl Spencer. The only result
was to draw public attention once more to the fearless manner in which
the viceroy had carried out his duties, and even Tory members had to
rise and protest in forcible language against the action of Tory
leaders in condemning the man who risked his life to maintain law and
order.
[Sidenote: Lord Spencer's character]
A month after his retirement from the viceroyalty 300 members of both
houses of Parliament attended a banquet in his honour. It was {285}
noticed that Mr. Chamberlain was absent, but the presence of Lord
Hartington in the chair and Mr. Bright among the company testified
eloquently to the general opinion of Lord Spencer's conduct of Irish
affairs.
The three years of office that remained to Lord Spencer subsequent to
the Phoenix Park murders brought into prominence in Irish affairs Mr.
G. O. Trevelyan and Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, successive Chief
Secretaries. Neither was a pronounced success. The only person in the
limelight was the viceroy. His personal bravery dismayed his cowardly
foes, who, judging human nature by their own standard, could not but
stand in awe of the man who could ride to hounds while the country
round seethed with assassins. Trevelyan could earn the title of
'jelly-fish,' while Campbell-Bannerman utilized the position of Chief
Secretary to try and convince his superiors that he could do something
better if given greater opportunities. The viceroy was firm, just,
knowing no fear and showing no favour. The fury of his opponents found
expression in the attempt of an hysterical woman to horsewhip him, but
she got no farther than stopping the horses and brandishing her whip.
He was first called 'Rufus' because of his red beard, but this being
deemed too genial, was changed to the 'Red Earl,' and accepted as an
omen of his alleged 'red policy' of punishing murderers by hanging
them. It was hinted that the Lord Chancellor, Sir Edward Sullivan, was
the power behind the viceregal throne, and when the great lawyer died
the first {286} favourable opportunity that presented itself to taunt
the Lord-Lieutenant with leniency towards the criminal political
classes he was declared to have lost his backbone. On one occasion it
was thought that he was suffering from lumbago because he was seen
pressing his back with his hands; but a malicious wit declared that it
was only 'His Excellency feeling for his backbone.' The joke would
have been more effective if it contained just a grain of truth to
flavour it, but if there was one charge that could not be levelled
against Lord Spencer it was this taunt of lack of firmness. His only
piece of good fortune was the submission of the Irish bishops to the
Pope, who had censured them for disloyalty. This was a great help to
the castle. A keen pleasure to the viceroy and a cause of anxiety to
the police was a visit paid to Lord Spencer by the Prince of Wales on
April 8, 1885.
In the summer of 1885 Lord Salisbury formed a Government, and appointed
Lord Carnarvon Viceroy of Ireland. Within eight months a General
Election placed Mr. Gladstone in power once more, and Lord Aberdeen
spent the few but extremely critical months of life vouchsafed to the
Liberal party until Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill split up his
followers, and another General Election endorsed Lord Salisbury's claim
that the Conservatives and Unionists represented the real opinion of
the country on the question of Ireland and its government.
[Sidenote: Defeat of the Home Rule Bill]
Lord Spencer was President of the Council in 1885, and in 1892, when
Mr. Gladstone became {287} Prime Minister for the fourth and last time,
he was given the post of First Lord of the Admiralty. That ministry
brought in another Home Rule Bill, and passed it through the Commons;
but the House of Lords rejected it by the overwhelming majority of 378,
the actual figures being 419 for its rejection and 41 against. Mr.
Gladstone did not appeal to the country, and thus Home Rule passed out
of the Liberal repertoire for nineteen years.
If Queen Victoria had consulted Mr. Gladstone on the question of a
successor, he would have advised Lord Spencer's selection. Her
Majesty, however, sent for that brilliant dilettante, Lord Rosebery,
and Lord Spencer remained on at the Admiralty. There was some talk of
the premiership for him shortly before the resignation of Mr. Balfour's
Ministry at the close of 1905, but by then he was a spent force, worn
out and ill. He could not join Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Cabinet,
but he lent it his moral support, and that was not the least important
factor in bringing to reason the members of the egregious Liberal
Imperialist League, who at first viewed with suspicion the new premier,
and then rushed with one accord to be received into the strangest
political fold ever presided over by a Liberal shepherd. Lord Spencer
died in 1910 at the age of seventy-four, and it can be said of him, as
of the late Duke of Devonshire, that he could have risen to greater
heights had he not been born with a sense of modesty adorned by a good
nature that permitted younger men to pass him, and left him without a
{288} trace of rancour or bitterness. He had the satisfaction of
witnessing the amazing triumph of the Liberal party, and could die with
the knowledge that it savoured of the Gladstonian Liberalism of the
middle eighties and the early nineties--the Liberalism he fought for
and in whose interest he had sacrificed his best years.
{289}
CHAPTER XIX
Lord Carnarvon was sworn in as Lord-Lieutenant on July 7, 1885, and on
January 12, 1886, he tendered his resignation, departing from the
country thirteen days later. It was an unusually brief, yet an
exceptionally interesting, viceroyalty. He was rightfully regarded as
a man of fastidious honour and sincerity. On two occasions he had
resigned Cabinet rank because of conscientious objections to the policy
of his leaders, and there was scarcely anybody among the statesmen of
his time who commanded greater respect and confidence. The action of
Lord Salisbury in giving him the viceroyalty was rightfully interpreted
to mean that the Tory Prime Minister realized fully the gravity of the
situation in Ireland. Lord Carnarvon might have had a more exalted and
powerful position in the ministry. He accepted the viceroyalty in the
same spirit of anxiety to benefit his fellows that had been
characteristic of him since his entry into public life nearly thirty
years before. He was now fifty-four years of age, and was known to
fame as the author of the act that consolidated the British possessions
in North America in 1867. Again Colonial Secretary in 1874, the
foreign policy of the Cabinet did not {290} meet with his approval, and
he resigned, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach succeeding him.
Lord Carnarvon's state entry into Dublin evoked a display of
enthusiasm, from all classes that indicated clearly the hopes of the
people for something brilliant from his administration. Lady Carnarvon
was received for her own sake, as well as for that of her husband. She
possessed all the arts of the successful leader of society, and she
exercised them fully while in Ireland. There was keen competition to
make the acquaintance of the viceroy and his wife, and Dublin Castle
seemed likely to experience something quite different to its troubles
of the previous five years. But the wise knew that the imminent
General Election would in all probability terminate the reign of Lord
Carnarvon. The Salisbury ministry was a 'Cabinet of Caretakers,' and
the most that could be hoped for was the viceroy's return within a few
years when the electors had had another opportunity of passing a
verdict upon Gladstonian Liberalism.
[Sidenote: Carnarvon and Parnell]
Lord Carnarvon, however, quickly upset the equanimity of the prophets.
Whatever may have been his own doubts about the durability of his
position, he startled friends and foes alike by arranging for an
interview with Charles Stewart Parnell. A Tory Lord-Lieutenant
debating the policy of his Government with the Irish leader was even
more productive of astonishment than the sight of Parnell accepting a
place in the Government would have been. The interview was kept a
secret for a time, but it was too {291} important to escape disclosure
and debate, and the result of the General Election of
November-December, 1885, hastened the acrimonious and puzzling
discussion, with its sequel of denials and denunciations. The scene of
the momentous interview was a London drawing-room. The viceroy, the
moment he was alone with Parnell, appears to have taken the trouble to
explain elaborately--perhaps too elaborately--his adherence to Unionist
principles. As the representative of the queen, he could not listen to
one word involving the separation of the two countries; as a Tory
minister, he did not expect any result from the interview, and he did
not even hope for an agreement; while further, to protect himself and
his colleagues, he assured Mr. Parnell that he was acting entirely upon
his own responsibility, and as an individual, and not as a Cabinet
minister.
Despite these preliminary precautions, the Irish leader came away from
the meeting under the impression that the Tory party were willing to
grant Ireland an assembly giving it complete control of its own
affairs, and also a measure of land reform that would settle that
difficult problem. Of course, the price to be paid for this was to be
the Irish vote. On the other hand, Lord Carnarvon most emphatically
contradicted this interpretation of what had passed between them.
Nevertheless, Mr. Parnell adhered to his version.
The General Election of November-December, 1885, did not give either of
the English parties an independent majority. Of Liberals there were
{292} 335, Tories numbered 249; and 86 Irish Home Rulers, all followers
of Mr. Parnell, held the balance of power. Mr. Gladstone was now a
Home Ruler, and a Bill for establishing a separate legislature for
Ireland was introduced. It was in the early days of Mr. Gladstone's
conversion to the cause that Mr. Parnell hurled a charge against the
Tory party of having at one time been willing to purchase the Irish
vote by an eleventh-hour conversion to Home Rule. The charge was
denied indignantly, and then the Nationalist leader named Lord
Carnarvon as the Tory emissary. The ex-viceroy explained his position
in the House of Lords. This was on June 10--three days after Mr.
Parnell's speech in the Commons. The latter at once replied in a
letter to the _Times_ of June 12. It is worth reproducing:
[Sidenote: The Tory Party and Home Rule]
'Lord Carnarvon proceeded to say that he had sought the interview for
the purpose of ascertaining my views regarding--should he call it?--a
constitution for Ireland. But I soon found out that he had brought me
there in order that he might communicate to me his own views upon the
matter, as well as ascertain mine. In reply to an inquiry as to a
proposal which had been made to build up a central legislative body
upon the foundation of county boards, I told him that I thought this
would be working in the wrong direction, and would not be accepted by
Ireland; that the central legislative body should be a Parliament in
name and in fact. Lord Carnarvon assured me that this was his own view
also, and he strongly appreciated the importance of giving {293} due
weight to the sentiment of the Irish in this matter. He had certain
suggestions to this end, taking the Colonial model as a basis, which
struck me as being the result of much thought and knowledge of the
subject. At the conclusion of the conversation, which lasted more than
an hour, and to which Lord Carnarvon was very much the larger
contributor, I left him, believing that I was in complete accord with
him regarding the main outlines of a settlement conferring a
legislature upon Ireland.'
The viceroy's explanation of this was more general than particular. He
must have been satisfied with Lord Salisbury's verdict that he had
conducted the interview with Mr. Parnell 'with perfect discretion,' but
all the same it was many years before the Tory party lived down the
allegation that had he wished Parnell could have purchased it lock,
stock, and barrel, for service in the Home Rule cause.
In social circles Lord Carnarvon's popularity never waned. He was
supposed to be that contradiction in terms, 'a Tory Home Ruler,' but he
was only a high-minded gentleman who made a genuine attempt to deal
with the Irish problem. It was yet another instance of a viceroy
risking peace and popularity by trying to be impartial. One of his
opponents in Dublin expressed amazement that he should 'bother his head
about Home Rule when he had the viceroyalty and a beautiful wife.' It
is not to his discredit that he failed, and it must be remembered that
he paid a price for his interest in Ireland. The General Election
placed {294} Mr. Gladstone in power with the aid of the Nationalists,
but Gladstone soon committed political suicide, and Lord Salisbury
returned for a six years' lease of power. He did not invite Lord
Carnarvon to join his Cabinet, and at fifty-five the earl passed from
the political stage. All he gained by his brief association with
Ireland was the degree of LL.D. from Dublin University, when he replied
to the Public Orator's congratulations with an elegant Latin speech
that amazed the dons by reason of its splendour and faultlessness.
Lord Carnarvon died in 1890, only fifty-nine, but with a generous
record of work in the public service behind him. Never a party hack
nor a slave to political shibboleths, always an individualist and a
thinker, it was scarcely a fault if his good nature led him into an
unfortunate attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable. He came to
Ireland with no previous experience of the country and its people, and
so he judged them by the standard applied to average men and women. We
have been told by an authority that the Celtic temperament is
destructive, and not constructive, and the facts of history confirm
him. Lord Carnarvon forgot this, and therefore laid himself open to
the charge that he was surrendering to Parnellism and reform by crime,
and at the same time leading the Tory party to destruction. But
political catch-phrases are usually the work of the unthinking and the
illogical, and the only mistake he made was the common one of being a
little too much in advance of his time. The Tory party has travelled
many Irish miles since the day an {295} Irish viceroy and Parnell
exchanged their opinions in a London drawing-room.
[Sidenote: The Earl of Aberdeen]
The General Election of 1885 swept Liberalism out of Ireland, and gave
the House of Commons eighty-six Nationalists, the remainder of the
Irish members representing the opinions of the Unionist and
Conservative party. Mr. Gladstone had to solve the problem created by
the indecisive election, and as he finally decided to cast in his lot
with the Home Rulers, he formed a Government--his third--and appointed
the Earl of Aberdeen Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Mr. John Morley--now
Viscount Morley--entering the Cabinet for the first time as Chief
Secretary.
Lord Aberdeen was born on August 3, 1847, and in 1870 succeeded to the
earldom--the seventh to hold the title. Associated from his earliest
days with the great Liberal statesman, he had always enjoyed his
friendship and confidence. It was to Lord and Lady Aberdeen's London
residence in the eighties--Dollis Hill, near Willesden--that Mr.
Gladstone went to seek repose after giving up his London house,
recording in his diary that he felt too timid at seventy-seven to think
of acquiring another London home. When in 1894 he resigned the
premiership, it was at Dollis Hill that he spent a few days in rest and
quiet. Ever a stanch and discriminating friend, Mr. Gladstone was
delighted to bestow the viceroyalty upon Lord Aberdeen, and
accordingly, on February 10, 1886, he was sworn in at Dublin Castle.
It is almost impossible to write of contemporaries without revealing
traces of prejudice or {296} partiality. Lord Aberdeen's Liberalism
was moulded by Mr. Gladstone, who was his political mentor; and Lady
Aberdeen, his clever and energetic wife, has always displayed a
masculine knowledge of politics and politicians. She was a Miss Ishbel
Marjoribanks before her marriage in 1877, and from all accounts seems
to have been a Home Ruler before Mr. Gladstone's conversion. When she
entered Dublin in 1886 as the viceroy's wife she was under thirty, but
already had achieved considerable fame as a determined politician, a
philanthropist who had initiated common-sense methods in dealings with
the grave problems of ill-health and poverty, and a loyal friend. She
entered with zest into the social pleasures of Ireland's capital, and
practised the arts of the vice-queen which she has since brought to
perfection in Canada and in Dublin.
Their hospitality was generous, their popularity boundless. The chosen
of Gladstone could not but be an idol with the masses. Until coached
by their suspicious chieftains, the rank and file of Nationalism
idolized the viceroy and his wife. The Lord Mayor of Dublin and the
leading citizens voiced the opinions of the people, and the 'Union of
Hearts' appeared to be accomplished. At last Liberalism seemed to have
won the allegiance of the Irish.
The influence of Lady Aberdeen was considerable, and she helped to earn
success for the viceregal party. An ardent politician, she never made
the mistake of subordinating the hostess to the politician, and at her
functions all classes and {297} creeds met. It may be necessary here
to state that the story which has been in circulation some years,
describing how Lady Aberdeen was informed by the late Lord Morris that
'herself and the waiters, bedad!' were the only Home Rulers in the
room, is a wicked and malicious lie. The alleged incident never took
place, for Lady Aberdeen is not in the habit of introducing politics
during dinner-parties and canvassing for opinions when entertaining.
Lord Morris was the author of many witty sayings, and he does not
require the aid of the unscrupulous to perpetuate his memory. His
sayings will live without the help of that type of person who delights
in associating persons of eminence with their jokes, well aware that
because of their position they are compelled to ignore their slanderers.
While history was being made with startling rapidity in England, Lord
Aberdeen continued to carry out the duties of his exalted office. But
the Liberal party was by now smashed to atoms. Mr. Gladstone was
acting like a broken and disappointed man, and the life of the ministry
threatened at any time to cease. It was merely a question of time for
the Tory party and the rebellious Liberals to amalgamate and turn out
the Gladstone Government.
On July 20, 1886, Mr. Gladstone resigned, and Lord and Lady Aberdeen
left Ireland, and it was now the turn of the Tory-Liberal-Unionist
coalition to show what they could do in Ireland--the land of
opportunities of which no one seemed capable of taking advantage. Lord
Salisbury had {298} already stated his views with characteristic
bluntness. During the debate on the Home Rule Bill of 1886 he forgot
that he had not a reputation for humour, and informed his audience that
the Irish were like the Hottentots, incapable of governing themselves,
while he suggested that the best plan for Ireland would be the
application for twenty years of a stringent Coercion Act. The question
of the Imperial contribution towards the setting up of a Parliament in
Dublin he touched upon lightly by suggesting that the money would be
better employed in aiding the emigration of a million Irishmen.
This was the statesman who was given the opportunity of putting into
practice his theories of Irish administration. There was some
curiosity as to the new viceroy, and when Lord Salisbury chose the
Marquis of Londonderry the nervous felt more relieved. The premier had
selected a safe rather than a brilliant Lord-Lieutenant, and one who
was capable of perpetrating as few blunders as any of his Tory
contemporaries. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach emphasized the new importance
of the Irish Secretaryship by accepting it, and, as he had been
Chancellor of the Exchequer in the previous Salisbury Cabinet, his
action was regarded as a generous one. It was a remarkable innovation
to send a tried statesman to Dublin, for it had been the custom for
many years to utilize the position as a sort of preparatory school for
the Cabinet. It was Sir Michael's second attempt, but this was only a
half-hearted one. Two Royal Commissions were appointed--one {299} to
report on the land question, the other to examine into the material
resources of the country. Lord Cowper, an ex-viceroy, presided over
the first. Lord Salisbury was, indeed, making a worthy attempt to
effect the political salvation of the Hottentots by Act of Parliament.
The viceroy, Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart, sixth Marquis of
Londonderry, was thirty-four years of age, and had before his
succession to the peerage in 1884 represented County Down in Parliament
for six years. As a descendant of the second marquis, who earned
undying notoriety by his destruction of the so-called Irish Parliament,
he was naturally of interest to all whose affairs brought them into
close touch with Ireland. He was an Irish landlord, the husband of a
clever, ambitious woman, a daughter of the premier earl of England.
They had married in 1875, and she was a leading Tory hostess when they
transferred their headquarters from Londonderry House, Park Lane, to
Dublin Castle and the Viceregal Lodge for a period of three years.
[Sidenote: Mr. Balfour as Chief Secretary]
They were stirring times, but the viceroy, by a curious chance, was
able to stand aloof. The resignation of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach in the
March following the arrival of Lord Londonderry brought the Prime
Minister's nephew, Mr. A. J. Balfour, over as Chief Secretary. We know
how he made his years in Ireland peculiarly his own, obscuring our view
of the viceroy until at times it seems that there was only a shadow
behind the frail-looking personality that dominated Ireland in his
capacity of Chief Secretary. 'Bloody' {300} Balfour, they called him,
and plotted against his life, much to the annoyance of the viceroy, who
detested fuss, and never could understand the prevailing passion for
political principles. Mr. Balfour answered force with force, and,
remembering the history of attempts at conciliation, he went boldly and
fearlessly for the criminals, their patrons and instigators. Another
Coercion Bill was framed, and, empowered by it, he sent about thirty
members of Parliament to gaol, while evictions and murder continued to
be reported, and Parnellism became synonymous with crime.
A visit from Prince Albert Victor and Prince George towards the end of
June, 1887, was appreciated by both viceroy and people. The event had
all the charm of spontaneity and unexpectedness, and Lord and Lady
Londonderry had the one opportunity of their viceroyalty to show what
they could do as representatives of the Queen of England. There was a
brilliant State banquet in the famous old dining-room of Dublin Castle,
where the leading men of the country paid their respects to the then
second heir to the throne and the youthful Prince who was destined by
Fate to ascend the throne. A review in the famous and superb Phoenix
Park was another feature of the visit that must have appealed to the
viceroy as an oasis does to the traveller in the desert. Not that Lord
Londonderry took a too prominent part in the inevitable political and
agrarian troubles of his reign. He left those to the efficient and
indomitable Mr. Balfour, while he pursued the even way of life, gently
patronizing the elect, and {301} good-humouredly tolerating the
non-elect who are the clamouring and unsought satellites of every
Viceroy of Ireland. Lady Londonderry, who is clever enough to deserve
a better title than that of mere giver of dinners, softened the
crudities of office and gained a popularity in Ireland not confined to
her political friends--a rare achievement in a confessedly party woman.
She is the author of a study of Viscount Castlereagh, second Marquis of
Londonderry.
[Sidenote: The Mitchelstown affray]
The affray at Mitchelstown in the September of 1887 was dealt with by
Mr. Balfour with his usual splendid disregard for public opinion, and
it was succeeded by the Parnell Commission. During these historic
incidents the viceroy remained in the background, jogging amiably
along, and no doubt thanking Heaven that had cast his lot in pleasanter
times than those that fell to Lord Cowper and Lord Spencer. He
resigned the office in 1889. Eleven years later he sat in his first
Cabinet as Postmaster-General, and when Mr. Balfour succeeded his uncle
in the premiership he appointed his colleague President of the Board of
Education--a nice, respectable post that nobody took seriously, and
wondered why it was represented in the Cabinet at all. The 'tariff'
resignations in 1903 placed several important portfolios at Mr.
Balfour's disposal, and he thereupon added to Lord Londonderry's
official duties by making him Lord President of the Council. And as
President of the Board of Education and President of the Council the
marquis continued to attend the Cabinet until the ministry perished in
the {302} maelstrom that swallowed up the Tory party and astonished the
world within a few weeks of Mr. Balfour's resignation of the
premiership. The Tory ex-Prime Minister appeared to have left most of
his courage behind him in Ireland, where he went as 'Clara,' and stayed
to earn the more flattering, if inelegant, sobriquet of 'Tiger Lily.'
{303}
CHAPTER XX
From out of the solid phalanx of Tory peers eligible for the post Lord
Salisbury chose the Earl of Zetland, and sent him to Dublin. The
viceroy was then in his forty-fifth year, was chiefly distinguished by
his fondness for horse-racing, while a painstaking press recorded the
fact that his mother was an Irishwoman. In 1871 he married Lady Lilian
Lumley, a daughter of the ninth Earl of Scarborough, and the following
year he was elected for the family borough of Richmond, Yorkshire. The
death of his uncle in 1873 terminated his career in the House of
Commons, and until his appointment to Ireland in 1889 he led the life
of a country gentleman and a sportsman.
His viceroyalty was somewhat similar to that of Lord Londonderry's,
though he soon lost the aid of Mr. Balfour, who was replaced by Mr. W.
L. Jackson, raised to the peerage as Lord Allerton in King Edward's
Coronation year. He had not been long in office when the report of the
Parnell Commission became the sensation of the season; indeed, it was
all Parnell and no Zetland from the beginning to the end of his term.
The Commission was followed by the divorce case that {304} extinguished
the Irish leader; then came the sharp and bitter party schisms, the
intervention of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and last of all the death
of the central figure of the sordid and miserable tragedy. It was
quite impossible for either viceroy or Chief Secretary to do more than
be there if he was wanted, and, perhaps fortunately no great crisis
called for their intervention. A Tory Lord-Lieutenant can always have
a comfortable and easy life in Dublin provided he is not ambitious to
be up and doing. Lord Zetland was disinclined to create precedents or
seek to alter established things. Every good cause received his
approval and the benediction of Lady Zetland. They were not more
political than they had to be, while the viceroy's fondness for the
Turf was not without its effect, although the Irish sportsman is quite
a different type to the Irish, and 'never the twain shall meet.' The
viceroyalty jogged on gently to its predestined end, and the General
Election giving Mr. Gladstone a majority the six-year-old Salisbury
Administration came to an end.
[Sidenote: Mr. Gladstone in power]
The return of Mr. Gladstone to the premiership caused great
perturbation in Unionist circles in Ireland. At last the polls had
given him a mandate for Home Rule, and there was no prospect of
rebellious Liberals rising again to destroy their chief. There
remained the House of Lords, ever the bulwark of the liberties of the
people--whether the people appreciated it or not; but there was a doubt
whether the Upper Chamber would peril its existence by defying
Gladstone again. Nevertheless, Unionist Ireland, with a {305}
fanaticism and a determination not unworthy of the Irish Nationalist
representatives, determined to fight the odds against them inspired by
a 'No surrender' spirit. They resolved not to touch Gladstone or his
noble representative with a forty-foot pole, and, numbering in their
ranks the majority of the gentry and nobility, their decision to
boycott the incoming viceroy meant much more than it appeared on the
surface. It is true that any Tory viceroy can create the sort of court
he pleases, and so can a Liberal in ordinary circumstances, but Lord
Houghton was viceroy at a time when every snob, whether he took any
interest in politics or not, became a Unionist in order to be known as
a member of the gentlemanly party. It was simply 'bad form' to favour
Home Rule, and that was sufficient to unite Unionists as they have
never been united before or since.
Mr. Gladstone was in the position of having very few candidates for the
viceroyalty. Mr. John Morley was, of course, the Chief Secretary, and
he could be depended upon to do all the political work. The premier
offered the viceroyalty to the then Lord Houghton, and it was accepted
in the hope that it would lead to better things.
[Sidenote: Lord Houghton]
Lord Houghton was born in 1858, on January 12, so that he was in his
thirty-fifth year when he was sworn in as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
His official training had been meagre, comprising the not fatiguing
post of Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Granville during part of
that statesman's occupancy of the Foreign Office in Mr. Gladstone's
second Administration, and a few months as Lord-in-Waiting {306} to
Queen Victoria in 1886. The son of Monckton Milnes was always an
object of interest to students of history, literary and political, and
Lord Houghton had shown that he was not inexpert by writing a number of
stray verses that exhibited a talent for rhyming. His ability for
statesmanship was, however, more doubtful, and, as events proved, he
was not the man to conciliate the important body of opinion adverse to
the Government he represented. The position, certainly, was most
difficult, and abler men than Lord Houghton would have failed. He
could not forget his own dignity, and therefore never attempted to
conciliate the Opposition. The distrust of the Nationalists must have
struck him as savouring of ingratitude, and as every Liberal viceroy
has found it, Lord Houghton was an object of suspicion and distrust to
all Irishmen.
[Illustration: Lord Crewe]
Irish society boycotted the Liberal viceroy. He started badly by
declining to receive a loyal address because it contained a reference
to the Home Rule question. Lord Houghton, being temperamentally
incapable of inspiring affection in inferiors, adopted an attitude of
extreme _hauteur_, offending every class in turn. Mr. Gladstone was in
the midst of the battle of his life, ably seconded by Mr. John Morley;
but the Lord-Lieutenant of the Government sat in gloomy solitude in
Dublin, cognisant no doubt of the fact that for the first time since
1172 Dublin Castle and Viceregal Lodge invitations were being declined
or ignored by a society which in the ordinary course of events would
sacrifice {307} anything rather than the _entrée_ to the miniature
court of the viceroy. No help could come from Ireland, where the
masses watched the efforts to plant a Parliament in College Green with
a sullenness of demeanour that indicated their lack of enthusiasm. The
educated classes were almost to a man and a woman Unionists, and the
movement against the viceroy was inspired by party feelings, but Lord
Houghton's personality did not tend towards the softening of the
austerities. The members of his _entourage_ suffered from the general
disfavour, and the aides-de-camp, who are usually almost danced to
death every season, ended their labours as fresh as they began them.
The entertaining that had to be done was in the capable hands of the
Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker, Lord Houghton's sister, a lady of many
accomplishments. The viceroy was a widower then, and some years from a
second wife, an earldom, an heir, and a marquisate.
Lord Houghton's position in Ireland was certainly unique. In a country
overwhelmingly Nationalist--using the word in its party sense--he was
supposed to belong to the popular side. Hitherto, the Lord-Lieutenant
had been more or less a Tory, for the average Liberal was too superior
to descend into the cockpit of Irish politics; but Lord Houghton was
the Heaven-sent embodiment of Ireland's hopes of legislative
independence. He was a member of the Government that had for its first
and only object the settlement of the Irish question, and yet the
viceroy, with all these aids, might have been the most {308} bigoted
Tory of Tories, judging by the attitude of the Nationalists. The
native politician well maintained his reputation for suspecting his
best friends. The prophets of gloom foretold of the fatal intervention
of the House of Lords, and were so certain of defeat as to contribute
towards it themselves. Lord Houghton was regarded as a sham,
Gladstone's noble self-sacrifice as a mere trick; the whole body
politic seemed destitute of honour and honesty. Wherever the viceroy
went he was received in silence; there were no popular demonstrations
in town or country. Ireland was in the position of the beggar who
awaits charity with curses ready on her tongue in the case of refusal
or dissatisfaction. She could not--would not--believe and understand
that Mr. Gladstone was risking his own life, and that of his party, in
his endeavour to grant the Nationalist demands. Eventually he wrecked
Liberalism, but it has since recovered--Ireland has not.
The House of Lords is the stock enemy of Liberalism, but the peers did
Lord Houghton a good turn when they rejected Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule
Bill and numbered the days of the ministry. Heroically enough, the
viceroy agreed to continue in office when Lord Rosebery was
unexpectedly given the premiership; but all men knew that the
Government was merely a makeshift, and that a General Election and a
Conservative-Unionist triumph was to be expected as a matter of course.
It came in 1895, and with it the end of Liberalism for ten years. Lord
Houghton resigned with the ministry, and left {309} Dublin as glad to
be out of the country as the country was as pleased to see the last of
him. When the whirligig of time brought its revenges, and the Lord
Houghton of the 1892-95 viceroyalty was an earl of ten years' standing,
earls being remarkably scarce on the Liberal red benches, he was
admitted to the Cabinet in the respectable capacity of Lord President
of the Council. This post was vacated for a time when in Mr. Asquith's
Ministry he was Lord Privy Seal and Secretary of State for the
Colonies. In 1910 he became Secretary of State for India, exchanging
offices with Viscount Morley.
Lord Crewe's marriage in 1898 to Lady Margaret Primrose, the youngest
daughter of the Earl of Rosebery, was a brilliant social function, and
the birth of a son and heir in 1911 was more welcome than the
marquisate which came to the Indian Secretary in the Coronation
Honours' List.
[Sidenote: Tory ascendancy]
The triumph of the Conservative and Liberal-Unionist coalition cleared
the political atmosphere. Once more the rival parties in Ireland were
on their old footing; the Castle and the Lodge would be exclusively
Unionist, and the other side was saved the embarrassment of having a
friend in power. Lord Salisbury, in looking round for a suitable
viceroy, found in his intimate friend and colleague, Lord Cadogan, the
ideal viceroy. Twenty years previously they had been members of the
same Government--Lord Salisbury in the Cabinet, and Lord Cadogan
Under-Secretary at the War Office and the Colonial Office in turn.
{310} In Lord Salisbury's Government of 1886-92 he was Lord Privy Seal.
Their political friendship served to cement a private friendship that
lasted until Lord Salisbury's death, and it was the premier's
resignation in 1902 that caused the then viceroy to retire.
[Illustration: Earl Cadogan, K.G.]
Lord Cadogan was born in 1840, and in 1865 he married Lady Beatrix
Craven, who died in 1907. Succeeding to the earldom in 1873, he was
obliged to leave the House of Commons, to which he had been elected by
the citizens of Bath the same year. From the day of his elevation to
one of the wealthiest places in the peerage Lord Cadogan became a
valued asset of the Conservative party. An intimate friend of the then
Prince and Princess of Wales, given to hospitality, married to a lady
with more than the usual gift for entertaining, the owner of Chelsea
House and his wife became social leaders of the party. Lord Salisbury
was fortunate in securing Lord Cadogan for the viceroyalty, and a seat
in the Cabinet was only right and proper for one whose influence and
support were of paramount importance. As Chief Secretary, Mr. Gerald
Balfour accompanied Lord Cadogan, and after an imposing state entry on
August 12, 1895, they settled down to work.
In Dublin Castle there is an object-lesson of the relative political
importance of the two chief executive officers of the Government in
Ireland. The Lord-Lieutenant's room is small and unpretentious, that
of the Chief Secretary roomy, well furnished, and comfortable; but
during Lord Cadogan's term he overshadowed his first Chief {311}
Secretary, although the latter was a brother of the leader of the House
of Commons.
[Sidenote: Lord and Lady Cadogan]
Lord and Lady Cadogan quickly earned that popularity which never left
them. Charming to everybody, the soul of courtesy to all ranks and
classes, ideal host and hostess, and spending their great wealth
freely, it would have been surprising, indeed, if the viceroy and his
wife had not achieved success. Nationalists, professional and amateur,
learnt the advantage of having a wealthy Lord-Lieutenant, even if he
had been nominated by the hated and detested Tories, and the
unostentatious munificence of the viceregal pair was not the least
factor that contributed towards their success. As a member of the
Cabinet, Lord Cadogan's political sympathies were obvious, yet in an
extraordinary way he managed to conceal the politician in the
administrator. He was even accused of favouring the Nationalists and
Roman Catholics, and aggrieved place-hunters ruefully declared that the
only qualification for office and promotion was Nationalist leanings or
adherence to the Church of Rome. Nevertheless, Lord and Lady Cadogan
lost nothing of their influence over all classes. Every Dublin season
was brilliant and successful, simply because Lord and Lady Cadogan had
the power to do things, and knew how to do them. The visit of the then
Duke and Duchess of York in 1897--a brilliant success--was a triumph
for Lord Cadogan's political perspicacity. The Local Government Bill
of 1898--a measure frankly Liberal in tone--would have wrecked any
other Lord-Lieutenant; it left Lord Cadogan as strong {312} as ever.
It is the irony of fate that the Conservative-Unionist party should
have done, and still be doing, more for Ireland than Gladstone or his
colleagues ever did. The Local Government Bill meant that the control
of local affairs should pass from the hands of the minority to the
majority. Protestant and Unionist councillors, Chairmen of County
Councils, aldermen, magistrates, and other minor dignitaries were swept
out of existence, and that nebulous host, the people, reigned in their
stead. Had Gladstone proposed such a measure, and carried it, there
would have been a revolt of the Unionists in Ireland, but as a
Salisbury Government fathered the Act it was accepted without demur,
and the revolution on the Nationalist side was a peaceful one. In a
single phrase, the Act meant that in future the Catholic majority
should be the masters of the Protestant minority. There is no quarter
given or asked in Irish politics, and from that day to this the
Protestants have had no share in the administration of local government
in the country.
{313}
CHAPTER XXI
The outbreak of the South African War initiated a display of disloyalty
in Ireland which might have embarrassed a less adroit Administration.
The policy of killing Home Rule by kindness had not succeeded, and it
was very evident that the throwing open of practically every office to
the people had not satisfied them. Every Boer victory was received
with jubilation, but it was mostly superficial. An English tourist,
tactfully extracting the opinions of a cabdriver, was informed that the
English deserved to be beaten, as he hoped they would, adding with a
grin of delight, 'But we did make them run, sor, didn't we?' referring
to the account of an English victory over the enemy the day before in
which an Irish regiment had gained fresh laurels. Nothing is more
ludicrous than the fervent politician who attempts unearthly
consistency in thought, word, and deed. Few persons take seriously the
over-serious politician.
The General Election of 1900 was preceded by a visit from Queen
Victoria--the last of a successful series. It was a tribute to the
good sense of the Irish and their innate loyalty, and Lord Cadogan did
much to bring the queen to Ireland by {314} assuring the Cabinet that
there was not the slightest danger. Four and a half years' residence
in the country had taught the viceroy a great deal about the Irish
people, and his trust and confidence in them were confirmed when, on
April 3, 1900, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir Thomas D. Pile, Bart.,
presented Her Majesty with the keys of the city and the civic sword.
She entered Dublin in triumph, and was received by Lord and Lady
Cadogan at the Viceregal Lodge amid great rejoicing and splendour. The
following day more than 50,000 children were reviewed in the Phoenix
Park by the queen--a happy inspiration on the part of her advisers.
There was, of course, a review of the troops, the queen's youngest son,
the Duke of Connaught, in command, and several other incidents of an
historic occasion passed off with as much success as though there was
'no such a thing' as Irish disloyalty. Thousands of persons who had
cheered Boer victories without quite knowing why they did it cheered
the queen until they were hoarse, because heart and head combined to
welcome their illustrious visitor. Well might the aged monarch write a
letter reflecting the emotion of a grateful and proud queen. No other
monarch had the happy inspirations Queen Victoria constantly displayed
in her messages to her people, and the secret of it all was that she
wrote them as a woman, though compelled to publish them as a queen.
Shortly after the conclusion of her visit she wrote to Lord Cadogan:
'How very much gratified and how deeply touched she had been by her
{315} reception. After the lapse of thirty-nine years her reception
had equalled that of previous visits, and she carried away with her a
most pleasant and affectionate memory of the time she had spent in
Ireland, having been received by all ranks and creeds with an
enthusiasm and affection which cannot be surpassed.'
[Sidenote: Death of Queen Victoria]
The next important event was the reconstruction of the Salisbury
Ministry following the Election of 1900. Mr. Gerald Balfour, not too
successful at the Irish Office, was transferred to the Board of Trade,
and Mr. George Wyndham took his place in Ireland. The new Chief
Secretary was eager to effect reforms, but the influence of the
Lord-Lieutenant and the Prime Minister compelled him to pursue the
conventional course of Chief Secretaries who are neither poets nor
dandies. The death of Queen Victoria in January placed the court in
mourning for a year, and when that was over the resignation of Lord
Salisbury became an imminent event. To Lord Cadogan it meant something
more than the severance of old ties. Lord Salisbury and he were bound
together by numerous social and political ties, and when the great
statesman resigned in the summer of 1902 Lord Cadogan immediately
tendered his resignation to the king of the high office of
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Speaking to his tenantry on the subject,
the viceroy declared that all his political life had been bound up with
Lord Salisbury's, and he had no desire to continue in it now that his
old chief was retiring. He had spent seven years in Ireland--seven
years of peace--and {316} his success was notable and inspiring. Mere
wealth could not have achieved it unaided; it was personality and the
desire to be as non-political as one in his position could be. It is
no exaggeration to say that his departure was universally regretted.
For the time the acerbities of political life were forgotten, and
Ireland turned out to say good-bye to a good friend and his charming
comrade, Lady Cadogan. On all sides people expressed the opinion that
Mr. Balfour would find it impossible to nominate a suitable successor,
and bad times were predicted for the man brave enough to attempt to
follow Lord Cadogan in the viceroyalty.
Had he chosen to do so, the retiring viceroy might have taken a high
post in Mr. Balfour's ministry, but he stood aside to accompany Lord
Salisbury into private life--that is, as private as the husband of a
political hostess can be. His social services were still at the
disposal of the party to which he belonged, and they were strong
supporters of the Balfour régime.
In 1907 Lady Cadogan died, and this tragedy was succeeded by the death
of his eldest son, Viscount Chelsea, in 1908. Two years later his
grandson and heir passed away. These events isolated Lord Cadogan, and
he led a somewhat lonely life until he married for a second time. The
marriage took place on January 12, 1911, the bride being the Countess
Adele Palagi, a cousin of the bridegroom.
About two years after Lord Cadogan's retirement from the viceroyalty a
deputation of leading {317} Irishmen called at his London residence to
present him with a token of the esteem in which he was held by all
those who had come in contact with him during his viceroyalty. The
deputation was headed by Lord Iveagh, and included Sir David Harrel,
Sir James Blyth, Sir Thomas Pile, Sir Lambert Ormsby, and Sir James
Henderson. They represented all Ireland, and on their behalf the
chairman presented the earl with an address, a silver bowl, and his
portrait painted by Mr. Solomon J. Solomon, R.A. It was a unique
ceremony, this tribute to one of the most successful viceroys Ireland
had ever known.
[Sidenote: Lord and Lady Dudley]
Lord Dudley succeeded to the viceroyalty at the youthful age of
thirty-five. For seven years he had been Parliamentary Secretary to
the Board of Trade, and had proved himself to be a hard-working,
ambitious peer. Immensely wealthy and generous, he was the most
suitable man to follow Lord Cadogan, especially as Lady Dudley was a
hostess of renown--one of the most popular of the younger
hostesses--and a general favourite with royalty.
The Dudley reign in Ireland was full of incident, social and political.
It opened unluckily enough, for in the early days of December, 1902,
Lady Dudley was seized with a serious illness at the Viceregal Lodge,
and at one time the gravest fears were entertained. The operation for
appendicitis, however, was successful, and the countess recovered to
adorn the office she shared with her husband. The mother of a young
family, she won the hearts of all Ireland by sending one of {318} her
daughters to the Alexandra High School--an institution deservedly
famous for its successful training and teaching of girls. This was one
of many triumphs achieved by tact and good nature, and within a few
months of her arrival in Ireland there was no more popular person in
the country. Mr. Balfour had been fortunate, indeed, in finding a Lady
Dudley to follow a Lady Cadogan, while the Lord-Lieutenant at once
proved himself to be strong, fearless, open-minded, and just. It was
said of a Chief Secretary--Sir Robert Peel--that his one-sided opinions
of Irish affairs were due to the fact that he had driven through the
country on an outside car. Lord Dudley went all over Ireland in a
motor-car, and therefore could not help but see both sides. Ever an
enthusiastic motorist, His Excellency pursued his hobby all the time he
was in Ireland, and unexpected visits to remote hamlets were numerous.
This passion for motoring had a practical result--it enabled the
viceroy to gather a great deal of first-hand information about the
country and the people; and when he consented to become chairman of the
Royal Commission on Congestion in Ireland, the year he retired from the
viceroyalty, he brought to bear upon the subject and the problem a
knowledge unequalled by any other non-Irish member of the Board.
[Illustration: Lord Dudley]
[Sidenote: The Wyndham Land Act]
The supreme political event of Lord Dudley's term was undoubtedly Mr.
George Wyndham's Land Act of 1903. Had Gladstone lived to witness a
Tory Chief Secretary piloting such a measure through Parliament he must
assuredly have gasped. {319} It caused great searchings of heart
amongst the colleagues of Mr. Wyndham, but it came into the
statute-book--another proof of the political axiom that the Tory party
have done more for Ireland than the Liberal, that Tory Cabinets have
worked more for Home Rule than their political rivals.
The revolutionary Tory Chief Secretary aroused the suspicions of his
friends. Loud-voiced Unionists in Ireland declared that he was at
heart a Home Ruler, and when the Lord-Lieutenant declined to take this
accusation seriously he was in his turn labelled Home Ruler, too.
Reports were sent to London of the dreadful backsliding of Lord Dudley.
As time crawled by he was described as an out-and-out Nationalist, a
traitor to the party he was sent to represent in Ireland. The
devolution scheme ascribed to Lord Dunraven, the late Captain Shaw, and
others, was said to have received the viceroy's benediction.
Superficially, that plan seemed the easiest method by which the eternal
Irish question could be settled; it appeared so nice and equitable.
But there was the dangerous rock of finance, on which all devolution
schemes must be wrecked. During the uproar the Lord-Lieutenant was
compelled to adopt measures of precaution. The party leaders in
England demanded a sign from him, for it would not do to permit Liberal
and Nationalist orators to assure receptive and eager audiences night
after night that the Tory Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland had learned by
experience in Ireland that the only cure for the evils of the country
was Home Rule. The Wyndham Land Act was merely a palliative, {320}
they added. It was deemed necessary that Lord Dudley should write an
elaborate explanation of his views on Ireland, and entrust the document
to Lord Lansdowne, the leader of the Government in the House of Lords.
This precious epistle was to recline in the noble marquis's pocket
until, goaded by the taunts of the Opposition, he should be able to
produce it dramatically and confound the scoffers and unbelievers. The
letter was written, but never read in the Lords, the minds of men
turning to other matters when Mr. Wyndham was recalled from Ireland and
Mr. Walter Long appointed Chief Secretary. It was Mr. Balfour's way of
announcing his dislike of the already dead and buried devolution plan.
The period of doubt left the viceroy unshorn of his friends. Those who
knew him personally were well aware that he was a genuine friend of
Ireland, and the whole country knew that this English nobleman stood
rather to lose than gain by any active display of good-will towards the
people he ruled in the name of the king. The personal popularity of
Lord and Lady Dudley was such that no political crisis could affect
materially. Lady Dudley, a clever woman of rare charm, an artist and a
linguist, was not without experience of the vicissitudes of life, and
her knowledge of things human had been increased thereby. The daughter
of a once wealthy banker, she knew what poverty was, and at one time
she was associated along with her sister in the millinery shop their
mother started in London soon after the Gurney bank failure. The shop
was not a {321} success, and had to be abandoned. The girls were
adopted by friends of the family, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford
taking charge of Miss Rachel Gurney. Under their wing she made the
acquaintance of the young Earl of Dudley, and they were married in
1891, society, headed by the Prince of Wales, attending the function.
Never very strong, and often suffering great pain, Lady Dudley,
nevertheless, preserved a sweetness of temper and a kindliness to all
and sundry that both in Ireland and Australia helped immensely in
establishing the influence of her husband. In Ireland, especially, a
viceroy's wife has many opportunities, and they are not always easy to
grasp. Lady Dudley succeeded every time, and it is not to be wondered
at that by thousands of those whose experience entitle them to be
considered experts on the subject she is named as the most successful
and popular 'vicereine' the country has known for over a hundred years.
[Sidenote: Royal visitors]
The busiest social year of the Dudley régime was that of 1903, when
King Edward and Queen Alexandra visited Ireland. It was the first
occasion a King of England was seen in Ireland for eighty-two years,
and the people marked the honour by a display of enthusiasm unequalled
in the history of the country. The king and queen were greatly touched
by the loyalty of the Irish, and under the capable direction of Lord
and Lady Dudley the series of festivities went with a vim that
gratified the distinguished visitors and added fresh laurels to those
already earned by the _chatelaine_ of the Viceregal Lodge and Dublin
Castle. {322} A royal visit produces more anxiety than pleasure, as a
rule, for those whose duty it is to see that the arrangements for
entertaining the guests are perfect and carried out to the letter; but
a genius for organization displayed itself in the arrangements devised
for the filling up of their Majesties' programme, and that was the
genius of the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife. The most significant event
of the visit was the Levee held at Dublin Castle by the king. All the
leading men of Ireland were invited, irrespective of politics and
religion. It was a daring thing to do, but Lord Dudley could count
upon his own popularity, and he confidently invited Roman Catholic
Archbishops, Catholic gentlemen, Nationalists, and many others whose
political opinions were against the Government. The occasion was
historic--a King of England holding a Levee in 'the worst castle in the
worst situation in Christendom,' as a former viceroy described it--and
it was almost unprecedented. With characteristic good feeling and
understanding all classes and creeds attended to do homage to His
Majesty, who had the gratification of receiving many notable Irishmen
and seeing them mingling together, their differences forgotten in the
presence of their Sovereign. The success of that Levee was a splendid
tribute to Lord Dudley's tenure of the post of Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland. Another visit by King Edward and Queen Alexandra the
following April was equally successful.
The dying days of the Balfour ministry found Irish affairs inert. The
respectable Mr. Long was {323} ready to do anything to prove his stanch
Unionist principles, but both countries and parties were in that frame
of mind produced by a sense of impending death. There had been ten
unbroken years of Unionist sway in Ireland; two viceroys of great
wealth and popularity had carried on the Government, assisted by Chief
Secretaries of varying qualities of statesmanship; the country had
grown accustomed to Tory control, and rather liked it, judging by the
experience of Liberal predecessors. Every charitable cause had met
with a ready response from the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife, and for
ten years the viceroy had appeared almost non-political. The
numberless acts of kindness placed to the credit of Lady Cadogan and
Lady Dudley created for them a genuine feeling of admiration and
affection. The heads of the Government in Ireland were no longer mere
party 'jobbers.' The anxiety to be impartial was at times almost
painful, but it was not without effect.
[Sidenote: Social splendour]
Socially, the two viceroyalties had been brilliant successes. The Tory
Government had everything in its favour. Two such hostesses as the
wives of Lords Cadogan and Dudley are rarely met with, and for ten
years in succession the Dublin season was ever one of splendour. There
had been periods of mourning, but, apart from these, the years were
notable.
And yet the cry for Home Rule was not less shrill nor less determined.
Nationalists could say with some reason that all that Lord Cadogan and
Lord Dudley had done could be done again with {324} a Parliament in
College Green. The growing feeling in English constituencies against
the Conservative Government was hailed with delight by the Irish party.
They saw Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, an avowed Home Ruler, gladly and
eagerly putting their demand for Home Rule in the forefront of the
great fight, and when the polls had placed him in power making Home
Rule the first plank in the programme of the resuscitated Liberal party.
England could not be expected to be impressed by the successes of the
Tory Government in Dublin. As a matter of fact, English electors were
feeling rather bored with Irish affairs, and at the polls they scarcely
stopped to think about Home Rule, but voted for the Liberal candidate
for the negative reason that they did not like his opponent. The
General Election was a triumph for the pure, undiluted political faith
of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and, besides smashing all hopes that
the Irish party would be the masters of the situation, compelled those
minute particles of Liberalism labelled Imperialists, Radicals, and so
on, to unite under the lead of the new Prime Minister.
[Sidenote: The spirit of conciliation]
In the ordinary course of events Lord Dudley resigned with the
Conservative Ministry, and on the appointment of a successor departed
from Ireland. A few months' previously--September 21, 1905, to be
exact--he had escaped death in the waters of Lough Erne, where, with a
small party, he was unlucky enough to see his yacht capsize during a
race. It was one adventure of many he {325} has experienced in his
comparatively brief life. Following his resignation, he still evinced
a keen interest in Ireland, and when the Liberal premier asked him to
preside over the deliberations of a Royal Commission on Congestion, he
accepted it as one who has never allowed his actions to be guided and
controlled solely by party motives. The work of the Commission
finishing, he went to the other end of the world as Governor-General of
Australia, holding the post for three years, when Lady Dudley's
ill-health compelled him to return home in 1911. This willingness to
serve the Liberal party has been taken by some as additional evidence
of his lukewarm Unionism, but Lord Dudley remains a member of the party
that made him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and he is a Unionist at
heart, though he permits himself the luxury of thinking on the subject.
It is certain that while in Ireland he examined the claims and
pretensions of the Home Rule party, and endeavoured to arrive at an
understanding. The fact that he was not hounded out of the country by
his fellow-Unionists is proof positive of the fact that a new spirit of
conciliation has arisen, and that Irish political controversialists are
aware that there can be two sides to every question, even an Irish one.
{326}
CHAPTER XXII
[Sidenote: Lord Aberdeen's return]
Lord Aberdeen's return to Ireland, twenty years after his first entry
into Dublin as Lord-Lieutenant, was announced immediately after the
resignation of Mr. Balfour's ministry. It was to a new Ireland that
the viceroy came. Much history had been made since the days when the
'Union of Hearts' presaged a smooth passage to popularity for the Earl
of Aberdeen. Successive Tory Governments had laboured upon Irish
affairs, and if they had stopped short at Home Rule they had come very
near it. The Nationalist party was inclined to be sullen, realizing
their futility, and compelled to wait humbly upon Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman's pleasure. He was independent of them. They were
free to join the Opposition if they chose to do so, although the Prime
Minister, always consistent, hinted that a Home Rule Bill was about to
appear on the Parliamentary horizon. There was the South African
business to be got through first; then the fiscal question seemed
capable of wasting more public time, and questions of Empire and home
finance all blocked the way to the ambitions of the group led by Mr.
John Redmond. Astute Nationalists quickly understood that they must
wait for another General Election, perhaps two, before {327} their
hopes could be realized, and therefore they stood aside while the
country blinked its eyes at the unusual sight of Liberals sitting in
the seats of the mighty, and new men with even newer names flocking to
the Cabinet room in Downing Street.
Meanwhile, the Viceroy of Ireland took possession of his high office.
For nearly eight years he had lived in retirement, his
Governor-Generalship of Canada beginning in 1893 and ending in 1898.
The Canadian period was another record of success for the viceregal
pair, who were undoubtedly the most valuable at the disposal of the
Government for viceregal positions requiring a long pedigree, a long
purse, and the royal attribute of being all things to all men.
The position of a Lord-Lieutenant nominated by a Liberal Prime Minister
is the most anomalous and difficult in the Government. He is selected
because he is a member of the party in power, and asked to fill a post
in which, as the representative of the king, he must not display any
political leanings. His Majesty is above politics, and the man who is
accorded royal honours in Ireland must represent the king
non-politically. Even in this attempt he must needs lay himself open
to the charges--eagerly laid against him--of showing favour to either
political party, for even a Viceroy of Ireland cannot help being aware
of the politics and religion of some of those upon whom he bestows
office. In the case of a Liberal Lord-Lieutenant he dwells in a
country where Liberalism has been buried for more than a generation,
where {328} a religious motive colours every political action, and
where bones of contention provide the only food for the hungry
politicians.
But the severest handicap to which a Liberal Lord-Lieutenant is
subjected arises out of the prevalent notion that Nationalism and
disloyalty are almost interchangeable terms. This enables every
Unionist to charge the viceroy with pandering to the prejudices of the
disloyal majority, and thereby degrading the dignity of his office by
condoning insults to the king whom he represents. From time to time
Nationalist politicians have declined to drink the king's health, or
have marched out of a hall or room at the sound of the first bars of
'God save the King.' Instances readily occur to all acquainted with
Ireland. Unionists naturally make the most of this, and the
Lord-Lieutenant finds himself criticized by all, the fiercest being
those who ought to support him. Had Daniel O'Connell and his fiery
successors bred a spirit of personal devotion to the throne of England,
Home Rule might have been an accomplished fact thirty years ago, but
the attitude adopted by Home Rule's leading propagandists has alienated
the sympathies of the voters of Great Britain. Comfortable politicians
in Westminster can legislate and talk of Ireland far from the centre of
the problem, and unhampered by the local difficulties that are to be
met with in Ireland. They know nothing, or else conveniently forget
that, while Liberalism in England can, and does, hold Home Rule
compatible with loyalty to the king, such an amalgamation of ideas has
not been {329} recognized hitherto in Ireland. The viceroy, however,
has to face the music, and as the embodiment of kingly rule in Ireland
he has to remain a Liberal and a Home Ruler despite the knowledge that
Nationalists feel bound to hold aloof from the king's representative
until self-government is granted.
Very few Viceroys of Ireland have been Cabinet ministers, and it is,
indeed, surprising how any statesman can be expected to act as king in
Ireland and as an exponent of his party's policy in Downing Street; but
the fact that viceroys do not often sit in the Cabinet does not remove
the political aspect of the post. The unwritten law seems to be that
while a Tory occupant of the Viceregal Lodge may be as partisan as he
wishes, no Lord-Lieutenant chosen by a Liberal premier must open his
mouth on the political questions of the day. It is easy to account for
this. Unionism superficially means this, at any rate--that the party
believes in loyalty to the Crown and the Constitution, while the other
side can only retort by declaring that a readjustment of the
Constitution would not affect the indissolubility of the Crown.
[Sidenote: Nationalists and the Castle]
Then, Nationalists are by training and instinct suspicious of the
Castle. Irishmen are seldom cowards, but it is only necessary to bring
a charge of sycophancy against an Irishman to make him forswear the
Castle and all its works. It is, in his opinion, the greatest insult
you can offer him. You may question the honour of his ancestors, doubt
his honour, or even deride his alleged sense {330} of humour--all these
things will leave him cold; but hint that he wants a job, sneer at him
because you imagine he is hankering after the fleshpots of Castle Yard
or the messes of the Viceregal Lodge, and then take steps to insure
your safety. This weapon has proved most effective in the hands of
Nationalist writers and journalists, though it has not always succeeded
in preventing men holding Nationalist opinions from serving their
country on the bench or in the administration of the Government of the
land.
English ministers possess more patronage than the Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland, and jobbery is ever rampant in London; but the business of the
metropolis is not stopped in order that the multitude may hold up their
hands in horror at the action of the jobbers. Happily, England's
strength is not in its Civil Service. In Ireland it is different, and
whereas the ambition of every family was to have a priest amongst its
sons, now a Civil Servant within its ranks is considered more
desirable. And the Lord-Lieutenant, as Chief Patron, is the natural
prey of the eager, and hopeful, and the disappointed.
Not since the mayoralty of T. D. Sullivan in 1886--during Lord
Aberdeen's previous term of office--has the Mansion House in Dawson
Street known the presence of a viceroy. Successive Lord Mayors of
Dublin have held aloof from the Government--some from conviction, the
majority frightened by the bogie of sycophancy. Amateur politicians
continue to practise the art of debate on the floors and in the
galleries of the City Hall, and their brethren in a more sophisticated
manner {331} demonstrated their statesmanlike qualities in Westminster;
while the Lord-Lieutenant, the symbol of England's despotic rule,
mingles with the aristocratic and official sets, which are mainly Tory.
In fact, the Nationalists are afraid to indicate loyalty by accepting
the hospitality of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and, curiously
enough, the extreme Unionists adopt precisely the same course when a
Liberal Government is in power.
[Sidenote: Welcoming the Lord-Lieutenant]
Lord Aberdeen made his state entry on February 3, 1906. Only veterans
could recall the doings of the Lord-Lieutenant of 1886, but Lord and
Lady Aberdeen's names were household words, as they had been no
strangers to Ireland during these twenty years, but had identified
themselves with much work for the benefit of her industries and
welfare, and in many ways the new viceroy and his wife received a
sympathetic welcome. They were anxious to mark their term of office by
social reform, and to keep the office as far removed from party
politics as possible.
Two notable deputations waited on the viceroy at Dublin Castle within a
fortnight of his arrival. One consisted of the survivors of the
extraordinary popular demonstration that had escorted Lord and Lady
Aberdeen out of Dublin in 1886. On that occasion the Lord Mayor of
Dublin and members of the Corporation had headed the procession, which
was intended to show the affection of the Home Rule party for the Home
Rule viceroy. The survivors now read an address of welcome to the
Lord-Lieutenant, and as all addresses to the viceroy are carefully
subedited, Lord Aberdeen {332} was able to listen to the compliments
this particular one contained, and reply in set terms indicating his
desire to work in sympathy with all parties in Ireland. Twenty years
earlier a different reply might have been possible, but during the
interval between the first and second Aberdeen reigns the Tory party
had stolen much of the Liberal thunder, and the deputation represented
something as Victorian as an antimacassar.
The second deputation was from the City of Belfast, and expressed
devotion and loyalty to the throne and to the king's representative.
In other words, it was a grim reminder to Lord Aberdeen that the
Unionists had their eye on him, and that it behoved him not to air his
Home Rule opinions during his viceroyalty. There is an unwritten law
that all Lord-Lieutenants of Ireland must be non-political in thought
and word, if not in deed, and the rule is always applied with rigour in
the case of a Liberal viceroy. To this and all other addresses of
welcome it was easy to return a speech of thanks, and Lord Aberdeen
promised to visit Belfast at the first available opportunity--a promise
which was soon fulfilled, and resulted in many subsequent visits to the
northern capital, where Lord and Lady Aberdeen have always been
accorded a hearty welcome.
[Sidenote: Lord Aberdeen in Rome]
It was not very long before the viceroy provided his watchful opponents
with food for criticism. In January, 1907, he actually visited Rome
without taking the trouble to obtain the consent of the Orangemen, who
were horrified to hear that the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland had been
received {333} in audience by the Pope. In this atrocious act they
discovered all the evidence of the intention of the Government to
consign the lives and property of Protestants to the inquisitorial
mercies of the Catholics. The ministry was going to pass Home Rule at
once, and in order to make it complete sent the Viceroy of Ireland to
interview the Pope, and obtain his views on the matter. This was the
opinion of the easily terrified Opposition. These excitable
religionists were well aware of the fact that Lord Aberdeen is a
Presbyterian, and an office-bearer in that Church. Ready themselves to
sacrifice every shred of religion in the cause of politics, they
doubted the sincerity of others, and the Lord-Lieutenant was accused of
selling his soul to Rome to further the ends of the Government he
represented. Religious extremists, whether they be Protestants or
Catholics, always present an unedifying caricature of human nature and
human sense. English Protestants made themselves just as ridiculous
over the visit of the late King Edward paid to the Pope a few years
ago. We know that, in the phrase of a great Irishman, the Catholics in
England are a sect, while in Ireland they are a nation; but the
brass-tongued minority in Ireland seem to dominate the country when
they have any opportunity to bring charges against their Catholic
fellow-countrymen. Lord Aberdeen passed from the Vatican to the
presence of the king of Rome, but this act did not serve to mitigate
the heinousness of his first offence.
The year of 1907 was a full and exciting one for all concerned in the
viceregal administration of {334} Ireland. On January 24 Mr. Augustine
Birrell became Chief Secretary, as Mr. James Bryce was appointed to the
embassy at Washington--or, at any rate, was induced to think so--and
the new broom came with the intention of sweeping out many abuses.
There was to be a superb Irish University; there were whispers of a new
Land Act that would bring peace to all concerned; the reform of Trinity
College would be accomplished on the advice of the Royal Commission
appointed the previous June; and, finally, there was a promise of Home
Rule. Apart from these more or less political topics, quieter folk
discussed the forthcoming visit of the king and queen, who were
venerated by their Irish subjects.
[Illustration: King Edward conversing with Lord Aberdeen at the Irish
International Exhibition, 1907]
[Sidenote: The Dublin Castle jewels]
The royal visitors were expected to arrive during the second week of
July, and a few days before--on the 6th--it was announced that the
famous collection of jewellery, known as the Dublin Castle jewels, had
disappeared. The pecuniary value of the jewels was about £40,000, but
their intrinsic worth was considerably more than this. The public
amazement was nothing compared with the official consternation. These
jewels were to have been used during the installation of Lord Pirrie as
a Knight of St. Patrick, and King Edward was to have presided at the
ceremony. Strange rumours flooded Dublin and travelled on to London.
No name was too high or too sacred to be associated with the theft, and
every bar-loafer could pose as a _persona grata_ in Court circles by
slyly mentioning the mystery and declaring that 'everybody' knew
So-and-so was the thief, and that his family {335} were paying ransom
for him. It seemed as though the police confined their investigations
to Debrett, ignoring those whose lack of rank and title disqualified
them for suspicion. The circumstances of this official tragedy were
well in keeping with the romantic result. Dublin Castle is the
headquarters of the police force and the detective staff, and on
ordinary days presents the appearance of a German fort. Those
acquainted with Dublin Castle declined to believe for a moment that
professional thieves had entered this glorified police-station and
stolen the most rigorously-guarded collection of jewels in the country.
King Edward and Queen Alexandra entered Ireland to the accompaniment of
ringing cheers, the people being independent of Crown jewels or any
other baubles to symbolize their loyalty. The Irish love a sportsman,
and if he should happen to be a king as well they love him all the
better for that. The magnetic personality of Edward VII. and the
infectious charm of Queen Alexandra triumphed in Ireland, and everybody
forgot for the time being that there was a Home Rule Government in
power, and that a Liberal peer was their Majesties' host. Dublin was
favoured greatly by the royal visitors, who daily performed some public
act and received the salutations of the people. Those who expected
that the absence of the Crown jewels would tend to depreciate the
importance and effect of the visit were disappointed agreeably.
It is scarcely necessary to record that throughout the memorable visit
of the king and queen {336} Lord and Lady Aberdeen displayed to the
best advantage those perfect social qualities for which they are
renowned in two continents. Such a period is necessarily one of hard
and often anxious work, and the thousand and one questions to be
settled offhand, the numberless applications for invitations to be
studied and settled, and the natural anxiety for the safety and comfort
of their royal guests, are matters that would place the average person
at a disadvantage. Lord and Lady Aberdeen, however, have the happy
quality of rising to the great heights great occasions demand, and so,
if their Majesties' reception was tumultuous and their welcome regal,
that accorded day after day to the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife can be
described as viceregal. Second only in popularity to their illustrious
guests, they proved to the thousands of strangers who visit Ireland in
the wake of royalty that it is by no means certain that a Liberal
viceroy cannot earn the affection of the country. Common courtesy
might account for the respect royalty and royalty's representatives
meet with in Ireland, but only genuine affection could inspire the
enthusiastic welcomes accorded to King Edward and his son and their
viceroy, the Earl of Aberdeen.
The report of the Viceregal Commission appointed to inquire into the
circumstances of the theft of the Crown jewels appeared on February 1,
1908. It stated that Sir Arthur Vicars, the Ulster King of Arms, who
was the official custodian of the jewels, did not exercise due
vigilance or proper care. His resignation followed as a matter of
{337} course, though it must be recorded that there was a general
impression that Sir Arthur Vicars had been made the official scapegoat.
The decision of the Commission by no means satisfied public opinion,
and rumour raged furiously again, inspired by all sorts and conditions
of statements said to have been omitted from the report, although
stated in evidence before the Commissioners. One of these days the
secret history of the disappearance of the Dublin Castle jewellery may
be revealed. Until that time, it must be classed among the unsolved
mysteries of the twentieth century.
A state visit to Belfast in the autumn of 1907, and the unveiling of a
statue of Queen Victoria in Dublin on February 15, 1908, were the most
notable events of these years. The tragic death of the Hon. Ian
Archibald Gordon, their Excellencies' youngest son, took place in
November, 1909, the result of a motor-car accident. Mr. Gordon had
just become engaged to Miss Violet Asquith, the daughter of the Prime
Minister, and the marriage had been looked forward to with pardonable
eagerness on both sides, as it would have united at the altar two
families bound together by many ties of friendship. The engagement was
a secret until the fact was published that Lord Aberdeen's son was at
the point of death. Great sympathy was expressed with his devoted
parents.
[Sidenote: Death of King Edward]
The termination of King Edward's brief and splendid reign necessarily
placed the court in mourning for twelve months, and the viceroyalty
underwent a period of quiescence. King George's {338} accession was
proclaimed in Dublin and other cities on May 11, 1910.
The visit of King George and Queen Mary in July, 1911, was the great
event of the year. Fresh from the Coronation, their Majesties arrived
in Dublin on July 8, holding a Levee, a garden-party, and a
drawing-room, reviewing troops in Phoenix Park, and visiting hospitals
and institutions. And all in five days! The Prince of Wales and
Princess Mary of Wales accompanied their parents, and won for
themselves no little popularity. The magnificent reception accorded to
the king and queen astonished even those who possessed a knowledge of
previous royal visits. At times it exceeded in warmth that extended to
King Edward--a feat which many declared to be impossible until it was
an accomplished fact. Again Lord and Lady Aberdeen demonstrated their
ability and popularity. Once more they were second only to the king
and queen. The perfect organization that had displayed itself on the
occasion of King Edward's visit was seen again, and if their Majesties
had a most strenuous time, they were equally as pleased as their
subjects and their viceregal representatives. Not a single discordant
note was struck throughout the series of public and private ceremonies
performed by the king and queen, and well might Nationalists fear that
the spectacle of Irish men and women outdoing the welcome accorded to
the king and queen at their Coronation would give to all the world the
impression that Ireland's dislike of England was purely a paper one.
{339}
When the visit was over, King George telegraphed from the royal yacht
expressing his thanks to Lord and Lady Aberdeen.
'Having just arrived, after a most beautiful passage,' he said, 'the
queen and I, with the hearty cheers of the Irish people still ringing
in our ears, wish once more to express to you and Lady Aberdeen our
warm appreciation of all your kindness and trouble to insure our stay
in Dublin being a happy and pleasant one. You have indeed succeeded,
and we thank you sincerely.'
[Illustration: The Countess of Aberdeen]
[Sidenote: Lady Aberdeen]
From the earliest days of her husband's viceroyalty Lady Aberdeen
worked actively in connection with numerous philanthropic societies. A
champion of women, with a record dating back to the seventies, her
specialities are the eradicating of consumption and the improvement of
the lot of female workers. Her enthusiasm has led her into conflict
with the old order, but Lady Aberdeen has ever been inspired with the
best of motives, and she has done a great deal of good.
Lady Aberdeen founded the Women's National Health Association of
Ireland in 1907, and the fact that this society has united
representatives of every creed and party in the cause of public health
and the stamping out of consumption has in itself wrought much indirect
good in all parts of Ireland, in addition to the direct result of
reducing the death-rate from consumption by one-seventh in three years.
There are now over one hundred and fifty branches of this organization,
composed of men and women representing all sections of the community,
in all parts of Ireland, working {340} devotedly together for the
welfare and the happiness of the people as a whole; and these workers
have shown a power of initiative in meeting local needs by providing
meals for school-children; forming Babies' Clubs, where mothers and
their elder daughters are taught how to care for the babies, and how to
make small resources go a long way in selecting nourishing food and
suitable garments; turning derelict spaces into garden playgrounds;
organizing health lectures, health exhibitions, travelling health
caravans, besides supporting sanatoria, hospitals, convalescent homes,
and maintaining nurses for the care of tuberculosis patients in their
own homes.
The success of other notable undertakings might be quoted as an
evidence of the support which the present occupants of the Viceregal
Lodge can count upon when they identify themselves with any special
enterprise.
The Irish Lace Ball of 1907 at the Castle, the Pageant of Irish
Industries of 1909, the great Ui Breasail Exhibition and Fête of Irish
Industries and Health in 1911, visited by over 176,000 persons in
fourteen days, of every shade of opinion and of every class of the
community, are events which will be long remembered in the Irish
capital in connection with Lord Aberdeen's lengthy reign.
There was a 'storm in a teacup' during the General Election of
December, 1910, when Lord Aberdeen aroused the wrath of the
Conservatives and Unionists by telegraphing to the Liberal candidate in
West Aberdeenshire expressing his own belief that the apprehension that
under Home {341} Rule the Protestant minority would suffer was
unfounded. A Committee of Privileges composed of members of both
Houses of Parliament inquired into the matter, and reported that they
found that the viceroy's action had not contravened any Standing Order
or regulation. This was accepted, and nothing more was heard of the
matter.
Further criticism fell his way when Ireland was in the grip of a
railway strike, and he was spending a holiday in Scotland. There was a
clamour for the viceroy's presence in Ireland. He was already on his
way thither, but though he had been successful in settling the
Carriers' Strike some years previously, the present occasion did not
offer an opportunity for personal mediation.
[Sidenote: The place-hunters]
When his term of office ends, Lord Aberdeen can look back upon several
years of success in Ireland. He may not be a racing man, and
Punchestown may not be a favourite haunt of his, but sterner qualities
than a fondness for horse-racing are necessary to succeed as
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In the most favourable times it requires a
vast amount of tact, a keen sense of humour, and a sense of proportion.
Place-hunters abound and office-seekers are innumerable. Dublin Castle
is regarded as the haven of hope for all younger sons without talent
and briefless barristers hungering for a regular income. They are all
suppliants of the Lord-Lieutenant, and several hundreds of years of
ascendancy have given them a sense of right in receiving favours, and
one of indignation and injustice in the case of refusal. But when all
is said and done, the {342} outcry over jobbery in Ireland is absurd,
for it is a fact that there is more jobbery in London in a month than
in the whole of Ireland in a year.
There have been some attempts to abolish the viceroyalty, but if
ornamental it is also useful, because the Irish instinctively respect
royalty, and a country populated by the descendants of kings could not
be expected to have an instinctive respect for any form of government
savouring of Republicanism, or one that left wholly to the imagination
the majesty of the Sovereign ruler.
To satisfy all classes, to tolerate the intolerant, and to represent
the non-political King of England, although appointed for his political
opinions, are the duties of the Lord-Lieutenant. Surrounded by
lynx-eyed critics, Tory and Nationalist, he has to be something more
than the shadow of the monarch, and he is not allowed to escape
criticism, although the king for whom he acts as deputy is supposed to
be above it. It is not an enviable post, and never will be. That Lord
Aberdeen and Lady Aberdeen have been successful nobody will deny, and
Ireland will lose two good friends when their term of office comes to
an end.
The introduction of Mr. Asquith's Home Rule Bill makes the Irish
viceroy's position more delicate than ever. Its success means the end
of the official ascendancy, and bureaucracies always fight desperately
until the first shot is fired. When Liberalism has achieved its
ambition, the Irish bureaucracy will cease to hold the power that makes
or mars every viceroyalty.
{343}
INDEX
Abercorn, Marquis and first Duke of, 264
Abercorn's second viceroyalty, Duke of, 273
Aberdeen and Belfast, Lord, 332
Aberdeen and Gladstone, Lord, 295
Aberdeen, fourth Earl of, 257
Aberdeen's first viceroyalty, Lord, 295
Aberdeen, Lady, 296
Aberdeen's second viceroyalty, Lord, 326-342
Aberdeen, seventh Earl of, 295
Aberdeen's visit to Rome, Lord, 332
Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 204
Addison, Joseph, 131
Albert, visit of Prince, 300
Ambrose, Eleanor, 150
America, British North, 216
Andrews, Dr., 157, 175
Anglesey and George IV., Lord, 229
Anglesey and O'Connell, 234
Anglesey divorced, Lord, 230
Anglesey, Marquis of, 227
Anglesey on agitation, 232
Anglesey's second viceroyalty, Lord, 234
Anglo-Irish, Rise of, 31
Annesley, Arthur, 89
Armagh, Archbishop of, 52
Arran, Lord, 128
Asquith's Home Rule Bill, Mr., 342
Asquith, Miss Violet, 337
Bagenal, Sir Nicholas, 74
Balfour, Mr. A. J., 299
Balfour, Mr. Gerald, 310, 315
'Baratariana,' 176
Bedford, fourth Duke of, 161
Bedford, Jasper, Duke of, 57
Bedford, sixth Duke of, 211
Belfast and Lord Aberdeen, 332
Belfast Volunteer Review, 195
Bellingham, Sir Edward, 67
Beresford, 199, 201
Berkeley, Lord, John, 98
Berkeley, Lord Justice, 123
Berkeley, Mary, 72
Berwick, Duke of, 118
Bessborough, fourth Earl of, 247
Bessborough, Lady, 248
Bessborough, O'Connell and Lord, 247
Birch _v._ Clarendon, 253
Birrell, Mr. Augustine, 334
Blyth, Sir James, 317
Boisseleau, 118
Bolton, Charles Paulet, Duke of, 135
Bosworth, Battle of, 57
'Bottle riot, the,' 225
Boyle, Earl of Shannon, 158
Boyne, Battle of the, 117
Brabazon, 67
Brabazon, Captain, 101
Brereton, Sir William, 66
Brigham, Sir Richard, 74
Bristol and Edmund Burke, 184
Bristol, Lord, 171
British North America, 216
Bruce, Edward, 26
crowned King of Ireland, 25
defeated and killed, 26
Bruce, Robert, 25
and Prior Roger Utlagh, 28
Bryan, Sir Francis, 67
Bryce, Mr. James, 334
Buckingham, Duke of, 103
Buckingham, Marquis of, 192
and Grattan, 190
and Parliament, 190
Buckinghamshire, Earl of, 181
Burke, Edmund, 169
and Bristol, 184
and Irish trade, 184
Burke, murder of Mr., 281
Byron, Lord, 185
Cadogan, Earl, 309
Cadogan's resignation, Lord, 315
Camden, Lady, 203
Camden, Lord, 200
Camden on the Union, 204
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H., 285
Canada, 216
Canning, 227
Capel of Tewkesbury, Lord, 122
and Jonathan Swift, 122
Carew, John, Lord, 34
Carlisle and Grattan, 184
Carlisle, fifth Earl of, 181
Carlisle, seventh Earl of, 258
Carnarvon and Dublin University, 294
Carnarvon and Parnell, Lord, 290
Carnarvon interview, Parnell on, 292
Carnarvon, Lady, 290
Carnarvon, Lord, 286, 289
Caroline, Queen, 147
Carteret and Swift, 142
Carteret, John, Lord, 139
Cary, 283
Cary, Sir George, 80
Cashel, Archbishop of, 26
Castle, Dublin, 16
Castle, Dudley, 68
Castle, Fotheringay, 76
Castle, Kilcolman, 73
Castle, Ludlow, 69
Castle, Rathfarnham, 173
Castle rebuilt, Dublin, 20
Castlemaine, Ormonde and Lady, 97
Caatlemaine, Phoenix Park and Lady, 97
Castlereagh and Roman Catholic Church, 202
Castlereagh, Lord, 174, 202
Castlereagh's methods, 207
Catholic Association, 232
Catholic Association, O'Connell founds, 226
Catholic Bill, rejection of, 204
Catholic committee, 194
Catholic convention, 196
Catholic disabilities, 196
Catholic Emancipation, 212, 228
Catholic Emancipation, Cornwallis and, 209
Catholic Emancipation and Union, 207
Catholic relief, struggle for, 197
Catholics emancipated, 232
Cavendish, Lady Dorothy, 186
Cavendish, Lord John, 187
Cavendish, murder of Lord Frederick, 281
Chamberlain, Mr., 285
Charles I. and Ormonde, 88
Charles I., Irish money for, 83
Chesterfield and Eleanor Ambrose, 150
Chesterfield and Phoenix Park, 151
Chesterfield, Lady, 151
Chesterfield on Ireland, 151
Chesterfield on Irishmen, 154
Chesterfield on the Irish Parliament, Lord, 154
Chesterfield's 'Letters,' 147
Chesterfield's marriage, 147
Chesterfield's political legacy, 149
Chesterfield, the Earl of, 146
Chichester House, 143
Chichester, Lord, 80
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 275
Church, Gladstone and the Irish, 262
Church of Ireland, Disestablishment of, 267
Clanricarde, Earl of, 61
Clanricarde, Thomond, Earl of, 68
Clare, attempt to lynch Lord, 201
Clare Election, 231
Clare, O'Connell stands for, 231
Clarence, George, Duke of, 54
Clarendon and O'Connell, 249
Clarendon, fourth Earl of, 248
Clarendon, Henry Hyde, Earl of, 107
Clarendon _v._ Birch, 253
Clement V. and Dublin University, 25
Cleveland's plot, Duchess of, 101
Clifford, Rosemond, 21
Clonmel, Siege of, 92
Coercion Act of 1881, 280
Coinage, introduction of special, 20
Commissioners, Parliamentary, 89
Conellan, Mr. Corry, 252
Coningsby, Lord Justice, 120
Connaught, Visit of Duke of, 270
Cooke, military secretary, 199
Cornwallis and Catholic Emancipation, 209
'Cornwallis Correspondence,' 187
Cornwallis, Lord, 203, 205
Cornwallis, surrender of Humbert to, 207
Corunna, 229
Coventry, Bishop of, 18
Cowley, Lord, 230
Cowper, Earl, 275
Crampton, Sir Philip, 220
Craven, Lady Beatrix, 310
Cromwell, Henry, 94
Cromwell, Oliver, and Ireland, 90
Croft, Sir James, 67
Cullen, Cardinal, 272
Cumberland, Richard, 167
Curragh, George IV. at, 220
Curran, 215
Curran and Emmet, 211
Curran and the Union, 208
Curwen, Archbishop of Dublin, 68
Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, 49
d'Arcy's parliament, 31
d'Arcy, Roger, 33
d'Audeley, Jacques, 23
d'Ardingselles, Guillaume, 23
Deane, Henry, 61
de Balscot, Alexander, 40, 43
de Bermingham, Jean, Earl of Louth, 26
de Bermingham, Walter, 34
de Blaquerie, Lord, 179
de Bromwich, John, 40
de Burgh, Guillaume Fitz-Aldelm, 17
de Burgh, Richard, 22
de Burgh, Sir Guillaume, 24
de Burgh, Sir Thomas, 29
de Burgh, William, Earl of Ulster, 29
de Burghs, the, 30
de Cherlton, Sir John, 29
de Colton, Dean, 39, 41, 44
de Courcy, 19
de Courtenay, Philip, 41
de Dagworth, Sir Nicholas, 39
'Defenders, the,' 197
de Gaveston, Piers, 24
de Gorges, Sir Ralph, 27
de Gray, Sir John, 49
de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, 21
de Grey, Earl, 243
de Grey, Lady, 243
de Joinville, Geoffery, 23
de Lacy, assassination of Hugh, 19
de Lacy, Hugh, 16
de Lacy, Hugh, 18
de Lacy II., Hugh, 19
de la Haye, Guillaume, 23
de la Rochelle, Sir Richard, 23
de la Zouche, Alain, 22
de Londres, Archbishop of Dublin, 21
de Marreis, Geoffery, 22
de Mortimer, Edmund, 40, 49
de Mortimer, Roger, 26
de Mortimer, Roger, 43
de Mortimer, Sir Thomas, 41
de Peche, Richard, 18
de Pembridge, Sir Richard, 38
Derby, Lord, 256, 264
de Rokeby, Sir Thomas, 34
de Saundford, Archbishop of Dublin, 23
Desmond, Earl of, 31
Desmond, Earl of, 54
Desmond, Gerald, fourth Earl of, 37
Desmond, Maurice, Earl of, 34
Desmonds, the, 30
de Stanley, Sir John, 43
de Stanley, Sir John, 44
de Taney, William, 39
de Valognes, Hamon, 19
de Verdun, Theobaude, 25
de Vere, Earl of Oxford, 42
de Vesci, Sir Guillaume, 23
Devolution, 319
Devonshire, William, third Duke of, 145
de Welles, Sir Leon, 49
de Welles, William, 49
de Windsor, Sir William, 38
de Windsor, Sir William, 39
D'Exeter, Richard, 23
'Diamond, Battle of,' 197
Disraeli, 264
Disraeli and Marlborough, 273
Doon, the auction at, 235
Dorset and Mrs. La Touche, 157
Dorset and Peg Woffington, 157
Dorset and the Irish Parliament, 159
Dorset, Duchess of, 217
Dorset, Duke of, 216
Dorset, Lionel Sackville, Duke of, 144, 155
Doyle, Bishop, 247
'Drapier's Letters,' 140
Drogheda, massacre of, 91
Drummond, Thomas, 258
du Bouchet, Mdlle., 147
Dublin after the Union, 209
Dublin Castle, 16
Dublin Castle rebuilt, 20
Dublin Corporation, Perrott's present to, 75
_Dublin Evening Post_, 214
Dublin, Exhibition of 1870, 270
Dublin Exhibition of 1853, 258
Dublin, Marquis of, 42
Dublin Parliament, 31, 41
Dublin in the eighteenth century, 137, 156
Dublin in the fourteenth century, 34
Dublin in the seventeenth century, 100
Dublin streets, famous, 169
Dublin trade and England, 115
Dublin University and Lord Carnarvon, 294
Dublin University, first mention of, 25
Dublin, university opened in, 27
Dudley Castle, 68
Dudley, Earl of, 317
Dudley, Edmund, 55
Dudley, Lady, 320
d'Ufford, Sir Raoul, 31
D'Ufford, Sir Robert, 23
Duncannon, Lord. See Bessborough
Dundas, 196
Dunraven, Lord, 319
Ebrington, Viscount, 242
Ecclesiastics, banishment of, 82
Ecclesiastical deputies, 23
Eden, Sir William, 182
Edgecumbe, Sir Richard, 58
Edward II., 24
Edward III., 28
Edward IV. and Desmond, 54
Edward VII., death of King, 337
Edward and Queen Alexandra, last visit of King, 335
Edward and Queen Alexandra, visit of King, 321
Edward, Prince, 57
Eglinton and Winton, Earl of, 256
Eglinton tournament, 256
Eldon, Lord, 228
Election of 1885, result of General, 292
Election of 1906, General, 324
Emmet and Curran, 211
Emmet, Robert, 211
Enniskillen, Earl of, 243
English defeats, 19, 34, 43, 44
Erne, Lord, 240
Essex, Arthur Capel, Earl of, 99
Lady, 100
death of, 102
Essex, Captain Brabazon and Lady, 101
Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of, 76
and Mountjoy, 77, 79
Etienne, 23
'Faerie Queen,' Spenser's, 73
Falkland, Lady, 82
Falkland, Viscount, 82
Famine, the great, 249
Faughard, Battle of, 26
Faulkner, Mary Ann, 165
Fenianism, 260
Fenianism and Mr. Gladstone, 267
Fenianism, Gladstone on, 260
'Field of the Cloth of Gold,' 63
Fitz-Eustace, Edmund, 52
Fitz-Eustace, Sir Roland, 54
Fitz-Geoffery, Jean, 22
Fitzgerald and Clare, Mr., 231
Fitzgerald, Capture of Lord Edward, 206
Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, Thomas, 26
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 202
Fitzgerald, Maurice, 22
Fitzgerald, Maurice Fitzmaurice, 23
Fitzgerald, Sir James, 64
Fitzgerald, Sir Maurice, 62
Fitz-Gislebert, 17
Fitzmaurice, Thomas, 23
Fitz-Simon, Walter, 59
Fitz-Thomas, Earl of Kildare, 26
Fitzwilliam, Earl, 199
Fitzwilliam, Lady, 75
Fitz-William, Sir William, 68, 75
Fleetwood, Sir Charles, 93
Flood, Henry, 169
Foley's statue of Carlisle, 259
Forster, Mr. W. E., 276
Forster, resignation of, 280
Fotheringay Castle, 76
Fox, Charles James, 182
Franklin, 196
Free Trade and Grattan, 181
Free Trade for Ireland, 181
Froude on Ireland, 206
Froude on Irish Volunteers, 195
Furlong on Lord Wellesley, 226
Gainsborough, Lord, 76
Gardiner, Sir Robert, 76
George and Queen Mary, visit of King, 338
George II. and Lord Chesterfield, 146
George IV. and Lord Anglesey, 229
George IV.'s visit, 219
George on his visit, King, 339
George proclaimed, King, 337
George, visit of Prince, 300
Geraldine family, first of, 17
Geraldines, the, 30
Gladstone and Ireland, 268
Gladstone and the Irish Church, 262
Gladstone and Irish University, 271
Gladstone and Lord Aberdeen, 295
Gladstone on Fenianism, 260
Gloucester, Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of, 43
Goderich, 227
Godolphin, 127
Gordon, death of Hon. Archibald, 337
Gormanstown, Lord of, 35
Gormanstown, Viscount, 57
Gormanstown, Viscount, 62
Gormanstown, Viscount, 59
Government bribery, 202
Grafton, Duke of, 138
Grattan and Dolly Munroe, 174
Grattan and Free Trade, 181
Grattan and Lord Carlisle, 184
Grattan and Phoenix Park, 183
Grattan, Henry, 169
Grattan's position, 183
Grenville, 211
Greville, 233
Grey, Elizabeth, 54
Grey, Lady Elizabeth, 63
Grey, Lord, 56
Grey of Ruthyn, Reginald, 44
Grey of Wilton, Lord, 71
Grouchy, 202
Gunning sisters, the, 154
Habeas Corpus Act, suspension of, 277
Halifax, George, second Earl of, 163
Halifax, Lord, 268
Haddington, Earl of, 237
Hamilton, 'Single-Speech,' 167
Hamilton, Sir George, 111
Hardwicke, Lady, 210
Hardwicke, Lord, 210
Harcourt, Lord, 177
Harcourt, Lord, 179
Harding, 140
Barrel, Sir David, 317
Harrington, William Stanhope, Earl of, 152
Hartington, Lord, 161
Henderson, Sir James, 317
Henniker, Hon. Mrs. Arthur, 307
Henry II. invades Ireland, 15
Henry III. and viceroy, 21
Henry IV. and English colony, 45
Henry VIII., 60
Hereford, Bishop of, 30
Hertford, Earl of, 168
Heytesbury, Lord, 244
Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, 273, 284, 299
Hobart, 196
Hoche, 202
Holbein's portrait of Kildare, 64
Holland, Lord, 86
Home Rule Bill, defeat of second, 308
Home Rule Bill of 1912, Mr. Asquith's, 342
Home Rule, Gladstone and, 279
Home Rule, Tory party and, 291
Houghton, Lord, 305
'Hours of Idleness,' 185
Humbert to Cornwallis, surrender of, 207
Hyde, Anne, 120
Hyde, Laurence, 107
Ireland and the English party system, 264
Ireland and the Pope, 15, 18
Ireland, Duke of, 42
Ireland, Edward Bruce crowned King of, 25
Ireland, first viceroy of, 16
Ireland, Gladstone on, 268
Ireland, Henry II. invades, 15
Ireland in 1882, 279
Ireland, Jacobean war in, 116
Ireland, proposal to create King of, 42
Ireton, Henry, 93
Irish land, prices of, 72
Irish land, struggle for, 30
Irishmen, Chesterfield on, 154
Irish Free Trade, 181
Irish mines, 32
Irish Parliament and the Civil War, 83
Irish Parliament, character of, 170
Irish Parliament, Declaration of Independence of, 53
Irish Parliament and Duke of York, 53
Irish Parliament's independence, 182
Irish party and Melbourne, 237
Irish trade, 114
Irish trade, Burke and, 184
Irish volunteers, 183
Iveagh, Lord, 317
Jackson, Mr. W. L., 303
Jacobean war in Ireland, 116
James II. and Lady Tyrconnel, 115, 117
James II.'s grant to Tyrconnel, 118
James II. in Ireland, 115
James II.'s Irish policy, 107
Jean, Constable of Chester, 18
Jewels, disappearance of Castle, 334
John in Ireland, King, 20
Jones, Colonel Michael, 89
Kauffmann, Angelica, 174
Kendal, Duchess of, 139
Kenmare, Lord, 194
Keogh, John, 194
Kilcolman Castle, 73
Kildare and London society, 60
Kildare, death of, 65
Kildare, Earl of, 55
Kildare, execution of tenth Earl of, 66
Kildare, Gerald, fifth Earl of, 46
Kildare, Gerald, ninth Earl of, 55
Kildare, Holbein's portrait of, 64
Kildare, Jean Fitz-Thomas, Earl of, 26
Kildare, Maurice, fourth Earl of, 35
Kildare, Maurice Fitz-Thomas, Earl of, 39
Kildare, release of Earl of, 33
Kildare, Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of, 26
Kildare, Thomas Fitz-Gerald, Earl of, 52
Kildare, Thomas, second Earl of, 28
Kilkenny Castle and William III., 125
Kilkenny Election of 1828, 247
Kilkenny, Statute of, 36
Kilmainham Treaty, 278
Kimberley, Lord, 263
'King Kildare,' 65
King, Sir R., 89
Kingale, 115
Knocdoe, Battle of, 61
'Lady of the Sun, the,' 40
Lake, General, 204
Lambert, Major-General, 93
Land Act of 1870, 267
Land Act of 1870, 269
Land Act of 1881, 277
Land Act of 1903, 318
Land League founded, 277
Langrishe, Hercules, 174
La Touche, Elizabeth, 184
La Touche, Mrs., and Dorset, 157
Laud, 79
Lauzun, 118
le Botiller, Earl of Ormonde, 35
le Botiller, Prior Thomas, 47
le Botiller, Sir Edmund, 25
Lech, Archbishop of Dublin, 25
le Dene, Guillaume, 23
le Gros, Raymond, 17
Leicester, Robert Sidney, Earl of, 84
Leinster, Duke of, 266
Leinster, King of, 16
le Petril, Guillaume, 19
le Scrope, Sir Stephen, 46
le Strange, Sir Thomas, 49
Liberalism in Ireland, 295
'Lilli Burlero, Bullen a la,' 130
Limerick, Siege of, 93
Limerick, Siege of, 118
Limerick, Treaty of, 119
Lionel's army, defeat of Prince, 35
Lionel, Prince, 35
Lincoln, John de la Pole, Earl of, 57
Lisle, Lord, 85
Local Government Bill, the, 311
Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, 71
Loftus, Lady, 173
Loftus, Lord, 173
Londonderry, Lady, 301
Londonderry, sixth Marquis of, 298
Londonderry, third Marquis of, 274
Long, Mr. Walter, 320
Lord-Lieutenant, first mention of, 29
Louise, visit of Princess, 270
Louth, Jean de Bermingham, Earl of, 26
Lucas, Charles, 152
Ludlow Castle, 69
Lyndhurst, Lord, 228
Maamtrasna case, the, 284
McNally, treachery of, 206
'Magna Charta,' 21
Malmesbury, Lord, 241
'Manchester Martyrs,' 262
Mansion House, last visit by viceroy to, 330
Mansion House Relief Fund, 274
Marechal, Guillaume, 22
Marechal, Guillaume, Earl, 19
Marlborough and Disraeli, 273
Marlborough, Earl of, 118-119
Marlborough, sixth Duke of, 273
Mary of Wales, Princess, 338
Maynooth Castle, Siege of, 65
Maynooth College, foundation of, 201
origin of, 202
McMurrough, Dermot, 16
Melbourne, Irish party and Lord, 237
Melbourne, Lord, 237
Melbourne, O'Connell and Lord, 238
Mirabeau, 195
Mitchelstown affray, 301
Molyneux, 196
Monck, General, 97
Montgomery, Anne, 175
Montgomery, Barbara, 199
Montgomery, Captain, 178
Moor, Colonel John, 89
Moore, Sir John, 229
Moriz, Sir John, 30
Morley, Mr. John, 295, 305
Morley's 'Life of Gladstone' quoted, 279
Mornington, Earl of, 210
Mountjoy and Essex, 77, 79
Mountjoy, Charles Blount, Lord, 78
Mountjoy, Lady, 79
Mulgrave, Lord, 237
Mulgrave, William IV. and Lord, 239
Municipal Bill, Irish, 258
Munroe, Dorothea, 173
Munster, plantation of, 72
Naas Parliament, 56
Napoleon, 216
Napoleon, Louis, 241
Nationalism, beginnings of, 153
'Nation, the,' 252
Norbury, murder of Earl of, 240
Norbury, Toler, Lord, 199
Norfolk, Duke of, 63
Normanby, Lord. See Mulgrave, Lord
Norris, Sir Thomas, 76
Northampton, Lord, 276
Northington, Lord, 189
Northumberland, Hugh Percy, Duke of, 233
Northumberland, Hugh Smithson, Earl and Duke of, 167
Northumberland, Lady, 168
Nugent, Richard, 51
O'Brien, William Smith, 244, 246, 250
O'Connell abandons Repeal, 245
O'Connell and Lord Anglesey, 234
O'Connell and Lord Bessborough, 247
O'Connell and Lord Clarendon, 249
O'Connell and Lord Melbourne, 238
O'Connell and Lord Wellesley, 225
O'Connell and the Duke of Richmond, 214
O'Connell and the viceroyalty, 242
O'Connell arrested, 244
O'Connell, Daniel, 219
O'Connell founds Catholic Association, 226
O'Connell stands for Clare, 231
O'Connell starts Repeal movement, 233
O'Connor, King, 18
O'Donnell, 283
Offaly, Thomas, Lord, 65
Orange Government, 120
Orange lodges, 225
O'Malley, Grace, 69
O'Neill and Cromwell, 92
O'Neill, defeat of, 78
O'Neill, Shane, 67
Ormonde and Wiltshire, Earl of, 53
Ormonde, Cromwell and Lady, 94
Ormonde, death of, 106
Ormonde, Earl of, 63
Ormonde, Earl of, 73, 76
Ormonde, James Butler, first Duke of, 86
and the Civil War, 85
Ormonde, James Butler, first Duke of, and Stafford, 88
honours showered upon, 95
and Lady Castlemaine, 97
recalled, 97
attempt to assassinate, 103
return to Ireland, 104
and the Catholics, 105
superseded, 106
Ormonde, James le Botiller, Earl of, 40
Ormonde, second Earl of, 35
Ormonde's exile, 128
Ormonde, the second Duke of, 124
Ormonde, third Earl of, 43
Ormsby, Sir Lambert, 317
O'Ruarc, murder of Tiarnan, 17
Ossory, death of Lord, 105
Ossory, Earl of, 64
Ossory, Lord, 103
Oxford, Earl of, 55
Pakenham, Catherine, 198
Palmer, Lady. See Ambrose, Eleanor
Palmerston, Lord, 241, 259
Parese, Christopher, 65
Parliament and Act of Union, Irish, 207
Parliament and the Civil War, Irish, 83
Parliament at Naas, 56
Parliament at Trim, 56
Parliament, bribing the Irish, 208
Parliament, character of Irish, 170
Parliamentary commissioners, 89
Parliament, Declaration of Independence of Irish, 53
Parliament, Dorset and the Irish, 159
Parliament House, rebuilding of, 143
Parliament in Dublin, 31, 41
Parliament, Lord Chesterfield on the Irish, 154
Parliament's independence, Irish, 182
Parliament, Townshend and Irish, 171
Parnell and Lord Carnarvon, 290
Parnell and Phoenix Park murders, 283
Parnell arrested and discharged, 277
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 274
Parnell Commission, 301
Parnell, death of, 304
Parnell's leadership, 276
Parnell on the Carnarvon interview, 292
Parnell's second arrest, 278
'Paston Letters,' 60
Patterson of Baltimore, Mrs., 227
Peel, Sir Robert, 214, 218, 228, 232, 242, 243
'Peep o'-day' Boys, 197
Pelham, Sir William, 71
Pembroke, Thomas Herbert, Earl of, 127
Ferrers, Alice, 39
Perrott, Sir John, 72
charges against, 74
and Spanish Armada, 74
Perrott, Thomas, 72
Petersham, Lady Caroline, 155
Phoenix Park and Grattan, 183
Phoenix Park, Chesterfield and, 151
Phoenix Park, Lady Castlemaine and, 97
Phoenix Park murders, 281
Phoenix Park murders, Parnell and, 283
Pile, Sir Thomas D., 314
Pipard, Pierre, 19
Pirrie, Lord, 334
Pitt, William, 161, 193, 196
and the Union, 205
Plantagenet, Maud, 32
Plantation methods, attempt to revive, 94
Plantation of Ireland, 71
Pole, Cardinal, 66
Poor Law Bill, Irish, 258
Pope, Alexander, 136
Pope and Ireland, the, 15, 18
Pope and viceroy, the, 21
Porter, Lord Justice, 120
Portland, third Duke of, 186, 202
Portsmouth, Duchess of, 98
Powis, Lord, 211
Poynings, Sir Edward, 60
Preston, Elizabeth, 86
Primrose, Lady Margaret, 309
Purcell, 130
Radnor, Earl of, 245
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 73
Rathfarnham Castle, 173
Rebellion of 1641, the, 84
Rebellion of '98, 204
Rebellion, Robert Emmet, 211
Redmond, Mr. John, 326
Religious persecution, beginning of, 67
Repeal Movement, O'Connell starts, 233
Repeal, O'Connell abandons, 245
Restoration, the, 95
Ribbonmen, 225
Rich, Lord, 79
Richard II., deposition of, 28
Richard II. in Ireland, 28, 43
'Richard in Iron,' 69
Richmond and Lennox, fourth Duke of, 212
Richmond's libel action, Duke of, 214
Robarts, Lord, 97
Rochester, Earl of, 106
Rochester, Laurence, Earl of, 123
Rockingham, Lord, 185
Roland, Hyacinthe Gabrielle, 224
Roman Catholic Church, plan to endow, 202
Rosebery, Lord, 263
'Rose of Raby, the,' 51
Royal Commissions, 299
Russell, Lady Louisa, 264
Russell, Lord John, 212, 238, 246
and Gladstone, Lord John, 212
and abolition of viceroyalty, 212
Russell, Sir William, 76
Rutland, Duke of, 189
Rutland, Edmund, Earl of, 53
Rye House plot, 102
Sackville, Lord George, 157
Salisbury, Bishop of, 18
Salisbury, Guillaume, Earl of, 21
Salisbury, Lord, 279, 284, 310
Salisbury Ministry, 290
Salisbury's retirement, Lord, 315
Sarsfield, Patrick, 116
St. Albans, Battle of, 52
St. Amaud, Lord of Gormanstown, 35
St. Germans, Earl of, 257
St. John, Elizabeth, 60
St. John, Sir Oliver, 81
St. Leger, Sir Anthony, 66
St. Patrick, creation of Order of, 188
Shannon, Earl of, 158
Shaw, Captain, 319
Sheil, Richard Lalor, 225
Shelburne, Lord, 187
Sheridan, 142
Sheridan, 155
Sheridan, actor, 159
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 169
Sherwood, Bishop of Meath, 54
Shrewsbury, Charles, Duke of, 133
Shrewsbury, Sir John Talbot, Earl of, 49
Sidney on the viceroyalty, 68
Sidney, Sir Henry, 67
Sidney, Viscount, 120
Simnel, Lambert, 57
crowned King of Ireland, 57
Skeffington, Sir William, 64
Solomon, R.A., Mr. Solomon J., 317
Somers, 127
Somerville, Sir William, 252
South African War, Ireland and, 313
Spanish Armada and Perrott, 74
Spencer, Earl, 267
on Phoenix Park murders, 281
motion of censure on, 284
banquet to, 284
second viceroyalty, 278
and the Premiership, 287
Spencer, Lady, 270
Spenser, Edmund 73
Statute of Kilkenny, 36
Stephens, James, 260
Stoke, Battle of, 58
Stone, Archbishop, 158
Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of, 83
and Ormonde, 88
Suffolk, Henrietta Howard, Countess of, 147
Suffolk, John de la Pole, Duke of, 55
Sullivan, Lord Mayor, T. D., 330
Sullivan, Sir Edward, 285
Sunderland, Earl of, 137
Surrey, Thomas Holland, Duke of, 44
Sussex, Earl of, 67
Sutton, Sir John, 49
Swift, Jonathan, 122, 126, 131, 136, 142, 143
Talbot and his salary, Sir John, 48
Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, 49
Talbot, Lord, 218
Talbot, Richard. See Tyrconnel, Earl of
Talbot, Sir John, 48
Tempest, Lady Frances, 274
Temple, Earl, 188
Thomas of Lancaster, Prince, 45
Thurlos, Battle of, 20
Tithe Bill, Irish, 258
Tithe Commutation Act of 1838, 236
Tithe War, the, 235
Tithe War, cost of, 236
Toler, Chief Justice, 240
Tone, Wolfe, 202
Townshend and duelling, 177
Townshend and Irish Parliament, 171
Townshend, death of Lady, 173
Townshend, Lord, 169
Townshend marries Anne Montgomery, 179
Tory party and Home Rule, 291
Treaty of Limerick, 119
Treaty, the Kilmainham, 278
Trench on disestablishment, Archbishop, 267
Trevelyan, Sir G. O., 285
Trim Castle, mint at, 53
Trim Parliament, 56
Trinity College, 334
Tyrone, Earl of, 76
Tyrconnel and James II., Lady, 115, 117
Tyrconnel, James II.'s grant to, 118
Tyrconnel, Lady, 113
Tyrconnel, Lord, 107
Tyrconnel's death, 118
Ulster, colonization of, 81
Ulster, Countess of, 29
Ulster, murder of Earl of, 29
Ulster, William de Burgh, Earl of, 29
'Undertakers,' 72
Union, Camden on the, 204
Union carried, Act of, 208
Union, Catholic emancipation and Act of, 207
Union, Curran and the, 208
Union, defeat of Act of, 207
Union, Dublin after the, 209
Union, first articles of the, 207
Union, first thoughts of, 181
'Union of Hearts, The,' 296
Union, Pitt and the, 205
United Irishmen, the, 202
University and Lord Carnarvon, Dublin, 294
University, Clement V. and Dublin, 25
University, first mention of Dublin, 25
University, Gladstone and Irish, 271
University opened in Dublin, 27
Utlagh and Robert Bruce, 28
Utlagh, charge against, 28
Utlagh, death of, 30
Utlagh, Prior Roger, 28
Verulam, Earl of, 249
Vicars, Sir Arthur, 336
Viceregal allowance, 39
Viceregal Commission on Castle jewels, 336
Viceregal contracts, 19
Viceregal lodge, purchase of, 182
Viceregal profits, 33
Viceroy and cattle-stealing, 30
Viceroy and Dublin tradespeople, 21
Viceroy and Henry III., 21
Viceroy and Pope, 21
Viceroy of Ireland, the first, 16
Viceroy, petition against, 21
Viceroy sued, 253
'Viceroy, the Hanging,' 71
Viceroy's army, defeat of, 25
Viceroys, character of early, 17
Viceroy's debts, 21
Viceroys, rival, 56
Viceroy's salary, 22, 46
Viceroy's salary increased, 189
Viceroy's salary in eighteenth century, 165
Viceroyalty, early English views regarding, 24
Viceroyalty, Nationalist attitude towards, 329
Viceroyalty, O'Connell and the, 242
Viceroyalty, proposal to abolish, 212
Viceroyalty, Sidney on the, 68
Victoria and Prince Consort in Ireland, Queen, 258
Victoria, death of Queen, 315
Victoria on her visit, Queen, 314
Victoria's first visit to Ireland, Queen, 251
Victoria's last visit, Queen, 313
Victoria's third visit, Queen, 260
Volunteers, Irish, 183
Volunteer review, Belfast, 195
Volunteers, revival of, 195
Wakefield, Battle of, 54
Wales, Edward, Prince of, 338
Wales in Dublin, Prince of, 262
Wales, visit of Prince and Princess of, 265
Wales, visit of Prince of, 286
Wallop, Sir Henry, 71
Walpole's 'Journal of George III.'s Reign,' 193
Walsingham, Petronilla, Countess of, 147
Wandesford, Sir Charles, 84
Warbeck, Perkin, 59
Warrenne and Surrey, Earl of, 22
Warwick, Earl of, 55
Washington, 196
Waterford, Siege of, 91
Waterloo, Battle of, 214
Wellesley, Arthur, 198, 213
Wellesley, Marquis, 222
marriage, 199
attacked in theatre, 225
and O'Connell, 225
Furlong on Lord, 226
second marriage, 227
second Viceroyalty, Lord, 237
Wellington, Duke of, 227
Wellington, Prime Minister, Duke of, 231
Westmoreland, tenth Earl of, 193
Wexford, massacre of, 91
Wharton, the first Lady, 131
Wharton, the second Lady, 131
Wharton, Thomas, Earl of, 128
Whiteboys, 225
White, Mathew, 92
White, Richard, 43
Whitshed, Chief Justice, 141
Whitworth, Lord, 216
William III. at Kilkenny Castle, 125
William IV., 238
William IV. and Lord Mulgrave, 239
Wiltshire, Earl of, 52
Wodehouse, Lord, 260
Woffington and Dorset, 156
Wogan, Sir Jean, 23, 25
Wolfe, Solicitor-General, 199
Wolsey and Kildare, 63
Women's National Health Association of Ireland, 339
Wood's halfpence, 139
Woodville, Elizabeth, 63
World, the, 253
Wyndham Land Act, 318
Wyndham, Mr. George, 315
York, Richard, Duke of, 50, 57
York, visit of Duke and Duchess of, 311
Yorke, Lord Chancellor, 210
Yorktown, Cornwallis's surrender at, 205
Young Ireland insurrection, 249
Zetland, Earl and first Marquis of, 330
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