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 L16,000 to L20,000 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 fiancee. 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}