PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. THE kindness with which this work has been received having already rendered a new edition necessary, I have taken the opportunity thus afforded of endeavouring to make it more complete. For some interesting additions to the notices of Hussey Burgh and Lord Avonmore, I am indebted to the politeness of Mr J. O'Donoghue of the Irish bar, to whom I beg to offer my grateful acknowledgments. A variety of anecdotes have also been introduced, and one or two omitted which did not seem sufficiently authenticated. The sketch of the Duke of Wellington has been suggested by the perusal of his Despatches, which for the first time opened, at least to me, a perfect view of his character. My authorities for the opinions advanced in it have been extracted from these unquestionably authentic sources, and will be found in the notes appended to each page. As to the ardour with which these opinions may to some appear to be expressed, I have neither qualification or apology to make. The facts once admitted, and they cannot be denied, too high an estimate of our glorious countryman seems scarcely possible. The sketch will be found to differ from most others in the volume, by the omission of all merely personal anecdotes. This has by no means arisen from there being none in circulation; but, from my own repugnance to blend aught approaching to familiarity with the contemplation of so grand an original. The reader will more readily apprehend my feeling on this subject, by the perusal of an anecdote told of an admirer of the celebrated Mrs Siddons. This great actress, eminent for her genius, was equally remarkable for the majesty of her deportment and the magnificence of her representations. Her grandeur was colossal. On one occasion, when an enraptured eulogist was more than usually lavish of his incense, a friend insinuated that he had fallen in love with her. "In love with Mrs Siddons!" exclaimed the awestricken devotee; "why, I would as soon think of making love to a cathedral." Any approach to familiarity with such a character as the Duke of Wellington seems to me equally impossible. I cannot suffer this edition to go forth without the expression of my grateful thanks to the Press for the indulgence with which this book has been so very generally received. LONDON, June 1851. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. THE book upon which the present work is founded, after having gone through two editions, has been now out of print for very many years. Constant occupation in a laborious profession hitherto rendered its revision impossible, and I was unwilling that a third edition should issue in its originally crude and imperfect state. Comparative leisure now enables me to reproduce it, let me hope, somewhat more deserving of the indulgence with which it was received. The period of which it treats was one of vital interest to Ireland, and the men produced during that period were not unworthy of it. My object has been, touching as lightly as possible on the politics of the time, to give merely personal sketches of the characters, as they appeared upon the scene, to me. Many of these were my acquaintances-some of them my intimates; and the aim throughout has been-a verisimilitude in the portraiture; in short, to make the reader as familiar with the originals as I was myself. Of many of these it is possible he may not have even heard the names, and, of many others, very little more. Let me hope that he will rejoice in a more intimate acquaintance with them; and that, in endeavouring to elevate the land of my birth, I may also have made some humble return for the kindness bestowed on me by that of my adoption. LONDON, November 1850. |