The Viceroys of Ireland Part 9

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 Amba.s.sador 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 a.s.surance of a great n.o.bleman 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 cla.s.s 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 grat.i.tude 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 n.o.blemen.

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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 pa.s.sion 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 levee followed by a ball, where the official cla.s.ses welcomed him because of his rank and birth. Dublin loved a lord, but was pa.s.sionately 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 cla.s.s, 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 n.o.bleman, whose feeble attempts to stem the vigorous and unscrupulous polity of Lord Castlereagh might be humorous if they had not done so much harm.

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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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 n.o.bility 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 n.o.blemen 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 pa.s.sed 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 cla.s.ses 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 n.o.bleman, was selected to succeed him at Dublin.

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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 n.o.blemen. To his astonishment he found the most determined opposition everywhere.

n.o.body 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 cla.s.ses.

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 n.o.blemen 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 cla.s.ses 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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 n.o.bility maintained in their country castles, and he carried out his resolve. Accompanied by the d.u.c.h.ess, he journeyed from place to place, staying whenever possible at the residences of well-disposed n.o.blemen. 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 const.i.tution 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.sume 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 princ.i.p.al 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 emanc.i.p.ation, 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 Emanc.i.p.ation, 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 pa.s.sed 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 munic.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sion 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 G.o.d.' 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.