country, so profligate and shameless, so barbarous and rapacious as our Irish peers ?"

MOUNTJOY. "Little better, I confess it, than the Poles."

LORD EDWARD. "In Poland, every thing is noble that is not a slave; in Ireland, every thing that is—"

MOUNTJO "Our peerage, with the exception of six or seven."

LORD EDWARD. "Take the six, give me the seventh, and I pay you down his weight in rubies: such scrapings from sugar-casks and tobacco-wrappers never was flung among the muscle-shells and skate-tails of Kelvoc slugs of Flushing so disorderly a gang of cut-throats and cut-purses never sat on the same benches in any galley of Tripoli or Marseilles.* The poor are sent back to their parishes; it were greater equity to send back the rich, who, without some gross injustice, some intolerable grievance, ought not to live away. Have we no cart to carry, no constable to escort our packed peddlery? Wonderful it must appear, that England, as a residence, is preferable to Ireland among those who, in the London gaming-houses, are liable to be mistaken for the candle-snuffers whenever, in the hurry of their rapacity, they forgot to put a star before them for a light to steer by."

MOUNTJOY. "Your estimation of our peerage is pretty correct, and you are as little to be accused of envy as of ambition; you yourself are likely to be, one day, the first nobleman in the empire; for where there is only one duke, surely that one is above any, where there is fifteen or twenty."

LORD EDWARD. "I have never permitted the contingency to enter into my calculations. Were I a duke to-morrow, and every thing went on well and prosperously both with me and with our country, I declare, before you and before God, I could throw my dukedom off my back, if by so doing I could run the quicker to raise up one honest and brave fellow from oppression."

MOUNTJOY. "I believe you, and you are the only man I could believe who should make me a similar protestation."

LORD EDWARD. "The better of the lords are very hostile to me, not for what I think about the rest, but for what I would do in regard to all."

MOUNTJOY. "No wonder."

LORD EDWARD. "And yet, Mountjoy, such men as yourself, for instance, ought to rejoice at being no longer confounded with brokers, and bankers, and bullock-drivers-ought to rejoice at that personal distinctness which alone is true distinction-ought to rejoice at that superiority as gentleman which is seen more advantageously when people are not standing upon stilts about you. Is it not a shame to hold by favor from another what we can take to ourselves by right? Reason has a long time lain fermenting in the canker of society, and must soon cast off the froth. The generous juice, I swear by

* Lord Edward Fitzgerald may be imagined to have formed this erroneous opinion on the Irish peers, whom (equally erroneous) he deemed actuated by corruption in the business of the Union; he spoke unguardedly of all whom he thought rogues, and it would have been well for him if he had been more suspicious than he was.-W. S. L.

God and my country! shall be distributed by a hand both steady and unsparing."

MOUNTJOY. "I will not irritate you nor myself by discussing the views of a political body so universally hated and despised, yet I hope, Lord Edward, you do not believe the invidious and spiteful story raised about them by the factions, that Mr. Pitt intends a union of the two nations, by means of their giving each member of the peerage a thousand pounds a year, and other indemnities for loss of privilege."

LORD EDWARD. "No, no, my lord, what I have said of them I think is pretty near enough the truth. The Irish would tear them in pieces as betrayers; the English would feed the eels of the Thames with them, rather than endure such bloodsuckers on their shoulders. I am no visionary in evil; I see enough of it. I know its proximity and magnitude; I distinguish its form and color. I want neither telescope nor darkened glass."

MOUNTJOY. "Let us attempt to allay the passions of the multitude, and to enlighten the prejudices of the rest."

LORD EDWARD. "The only chance of assuaging the multitude is in their being used to suffer. Weak as a hope, and weaker as an argument; and what are the prejudices of the rest? and where do they exist? Take from them the prospect of living on the plunder of their country, and what you call prejudices vanish. I came to your house, my dear Mountjoy, with intentions which I ardently wish may not be quite so fruitless. The people are more angry with those whom they know to be patriotic, and yet who will not join them when they are with the old stagers on the king's highway of oppression and speculation. Hence their love for you, which was unrivaled, is converted into acrimony!"

MOUNTJOY. 66

Whatever I could do, constitutionally and conscientiously, I have always done for them, and will do always. It would not become me to throw up my commission in the hour of danger; would you yourself commend me if I did! Your silence shows me that, if any thing were necessary to show it, my resolution is right."

LORD EDWARD. "There are questions that might involve my security, my life itself, which I could answer you at the first appeal; this I can not. Let me guard as warmly as I wish, and as effectually as I can, the safety of a citizen and a soldier more widely and more worthily esteemed than any other in Ireland. I need not inform you of armed bands in every part of the kingdom-I have already told you of their exasperation against you. Let me now come to that point which pains me, and warn you that I have heard your life threatened should you appear in any array against them. Why do you laugh?"

MOUNTJOY. "What man's life is not threatened who appears in arms, and in the face of an enemy?"

LORD EDWARD. "Faith, I did not think about life or danger in the common accidents of war; but in America there began a custom which nothing short

of national independence can ever authorize-the custom of singling out officers!"

MOUNTJOY. A high compliment, if hand to hand !"

LORD EDWARD. But the rifleman is rude at compliments, and I should be grieved to the heart at your falling, be the cause what it may."

MOUNTJOY. "I have little inclination to die just at present, and less to desert my station. If you heard any threats against my life, individually, you ought to have seized the threatener by the collar, and to have delivered him over to the laws."

LORD EDWARD. "I chose to do what I believe to be more efficacious. The apprehension of one would excite a thousand to avenge him, by doing what he left undone. Should you be ordered to quell any disturbance, vain as I know it is to request you not to be the foremost, let me entreat you rather to be heard and known among your own men than by those opposite."

MOUNTJOY. "Lord Edward! both sides shall hear and know me. The serv ice that is imposed on me is indeed most painful, and, for this very reason, the discharge of it shall be complete and prompt. We are lost when our affections glide in between us and our duties; and I perceive you do not like a moralizer, and look graver than one yourself.”

LORD EDWARD. "If all moralizers were Mountjoys, I could listen in the thickest of a sermon. In general, men are given to moralizing when their most ravenous desires are crop-full, and when they are determined to sit quiet and enjoy their sunny side of life; you take to it, for the first time, when you are resolved on more activity than ever, and are as ready to die as to live."

MOUNTJOY. "Lord Edward! in this I am confident we agree that a glorious death is the best gift of heaven, and that an early one is not the heaviest of its dispensations."

LORD EDWARD. "Truc, true; God bless you, Mountjoy (going). I must not falter; but are all the rest in the kingdom worth this man?”

No. XIV.

LETTERS TO AND FROM LORD BLESSINGTON.

Letters from the late Duke of Richmond to Lord Mountjoy :

"Dublin Castle, March 24th, 1810. "MY DEAR MOUNTJOY,I perfectly remember your speaking to me on the subject of an earldom, which I understood from you the Duke of Portland had given you hopes of when any promotion to that dignity should take place, and am glad to find it is recognized by Mr. Perceval.

"With respect to the next vacancy in the order of St. Patrick, I can assure you that it is not promised, and that I shall be glad to take your wishes into consideration with other claims; at the same time, I must say that there are several stanch supporters of the present administration who have not, so lately at least as yourself, received a mark of their good wishes. I am sure I

need not say that I shall, on many accounts, be glad to attend to your wishes when I conceive I can, with fairness to the general good of the country and of other well-wishers to government. Yours, dear Mountjoy, very sincerely, "RICHMOND."

"Phoenix Park, January 12th, 1811. "I will take a note of your wishes respecting your chaplain, Mr. Ellison, and also Humphries.

"The difficulties are, however, great. Formerly the supporters of government claimed sinecures for themselves. Those are nearly done away, so that they now ask for livings for their relatives and friends. By this means the claims for Church preferment have increased enormously.

"As for Humphries, I do not exactly see what can be done for him. Few things are compatible with the situation he holds.

“If any thing should occur that would answer for him, and which, consistent with necessary arrangements, I could appoint him to, I shall have much pleasure in so doing.* RICHMOND."

"Phonix Park, June 30th, 1811.

"I am sorry it so happens that you will not be in Ireland at the time I shall be in your part of it. The reasons, however, are good; I hope we shall yet meet before your return to England.

"I am very much obliged to you for the bust of Charles the Second. "Charles Gardiner and one of the 7th have hired a cottage at Clontarf; it is generally called 'Rattletrap.' RICHMOND."

"Phoenix Park, August 3d, 1811.

"At present it is impossible for me to settle about the winter shooting; but if I remain in Ireland, and can manage it, I shall be happy to accept your invitation and that of Mr. Browne.

"As for a room, I care not one farthing about it, and can sleep quite as well on a floor as in a bed. I am obliged to him for his offer of the Tyrone mountain. RICHMOND."

Letter from Mrs. Siddons to Lord Mountjoy :

"Westbourne House, Paddington, July 1st, 1812. "MY DEAR LORD,-It is impossible to express the vexation which I have felt from being deprived of the honor of your presence at the theatre on the 29th; and it is more, much more grievous to me, that you, to whom I feel indebted for so many polite and gratifying attentions, should be the only per

In a letter of a previous date, October 28th, 1809, the following passage relating to the major above-mentioned occurs: "I have appointed Brigadier Major Humphries to your district. He is an active, jolly man, and will, I am convinced, give you satisfaction. Pray let me recommend him to your notice."-RICHMOND. VOL. II.-X

son who has had cause to complain of the arrangements of that night. Allow me, my lord, to trouble you with the inclosed vindication of my conduct and attentions, and with my most grateful acknowledgments for your temper and forbearance on so vexatious a predicament. Indeed, indeed, my lord, your gentle and considerate goodness upon that occasion has left an impression of your character upon my mind of higher value than all those gifts, whether of birth, or taste, or talents, with which you are endowed and ever possibly have made. I have the honor to be, my lord, your lordship's most obliged and obedient servant, SARAH SIDDONS."

Letters from Lord Blessington to Charles James Mathews, Esq. :

"Villa Gallo, Tuesday, October, 1824. "MY DEAR C. MATHEWS,—In returning to you your sketch of the house we proposed to build, I wish to say a few words respecting the deferring of a project which I had last year so much at heart. You may recollect that it was determined, in case the site and ground plan were approved, the foundation should be commenced this summer, so that in five years, at farthest, the building should be completed; at the same time I said, whatever faults there were in the plan should be attributed to me, leaving you any praise which it might receive.

"It appeared to me the project was not warmly received, and I said no more about it, but wrote to your father, telling him to say nothing to you, as, after the trouble taken, it might be disheartening.

"There was a point which I did not mention to your father, but one of some consequence, namely, that I found the plan suggested by Mr. Branson to raise funds to meet the annual expenditure would not succeed. I told your father that I would patch on, looking forward to better times for a building suitable to the grounds. I still look to that 'golden age.'* I also told him that if you would give me your opinion and advice in my patch-work, I would be much obliged, but I should be cautious not to injure your reputation as an architect by letting people believe you could be to blame for the faults committed by me.

"This will make your family and friends perfectly understand that no change took place in my opinion of you, or my confidence in your zeal and abilities.

"The project has caused one solid good: it led to a year's study in Italy, and has enlarged your mind without endangering your morals. You will therefore return to your home improved in taste and uncorrupted in heart.

66

'May you live to be a blessing to the mother who adores you, and a true friend and comfort to so fond and kind a father as yours. And believe me to be your sincere friend, BLESSINGTON."

"N.B. With respect to the elevation, I wish, at your leisure, you would

That "golden age" of Irish landlordism which has loomed so long in the distance, and merges at last in the era of the Encumbered Estates' Court.-R. R. M.