Dr. Fowler, Archbishop of Dublin, was held in the New Theatre, at the
instance of the Provost, in reference to the complaint of Mr. Allen of
having been unjustly kept out of Fellowship in 1790. The Visitors ruled
that the question was not open to discussion, in consequence of the length
of time which had elapsed. The Provost then brought forward his claim to
the negative power over the proceedings of the Board, and was replied to
by Drs. Kearney and Brown. The Provost argued from the Statutes and
especially from the _Una cum Praeposito_ clauses, and spoke for three hours
and a half with great ability. Mr. Miller spoke on behalf of the Junior
Fellows, touching their right to retain the emoluments of their pupils
when they went out on livings. Miller was rebuked by the Chancellor for
accusing the Provost of wanting to turn the disposal of pupils into a
matter of patronage. The Rev. Mr. Burrowes and Mr. Magee spoke on the same
side. Magee was personal, and on the Provost's protest the Chancellor
stopped him. The Visitors declined to decide whether the Provost has an
arbitrary election negative at the election of Fellows and Scholars; they
ruled that the Provost has the power of disposing of pupils; and that he
is bound by the majority of the Board. The Lord Chancellor bewailed the
internal dissensions, alluded to his "own education in the College, and
declared that there was not another University in Europe better
calculated for the great purposes of promoting virtue and learning." The
Visitation lasted three days.
In 1792, Hutchinson saw the Gardiner-Hobart Catholic Relief Bill carried,
and three days after, the 26th of February, he saw the House of Parliament
burned. On the 1st of March following Sir John Blacquiere repaid the
University for its honorary degree by moving the thanks of the house to
the College students for their spirited exertions in extinguishing the
fire; and by suggesting that in acknowledgment of the daring bravery of
the youths their old privilege of right of admission to the gallery should
be restored to them. Mr. Hutchinson, the Member for the University,
acknowledged the compliment with becoming pride and dignity. The Provost's
last reported appearance in parliament was on the 6th of July, 1793, when
he spoke in support of the Bill for the Charitable Musical Society. In the
previous month, on one of the Militia Bills, he defended his son Francis
from a rebuke of Mr. Secretary Hobart, though he voted against the son.
In that his last session, he saw carried--and along with Grattan, Forbes,
Yelverton, Gardiner, and the other Liberals helped to carry--the Place,
Pensions, Barren Land, and India Trade Acts. He introduced the bills for
the Parliament grant of L1,300 to establish the College Botanical Gardens,
and he earnestly supported Knox's Bill for admitting Catholics to
Parliament.
He presided at the Board of Trinity College for the last time on the 25th
of August this same year. His health was giving way, and his old enemy,
the gout, was prevailing against him.
In the political side of his career Hutchinson saw a wondrous change in
the meaning and method of Irish parliamentary life. When he began (1759)
to take part in public affairs, the Irish parliament was at about its
lowest level of degradation. Having been abolished by Cromwell and
re-created by Charles II., it had become from the time of the Restoration
little else than an office for registering and levying the English orders
for pensions and salaries, and for passing the Money Bills. Poyning's Act
and the 6th of George I. were in such active operation that the Government
asserted the power of originating and altering the Money Bills, and that
Anthony Malone was dismissed first from the Prime Serjeancy and later from
the Exchequer Chancellorship for denying his right. A few years later,
Lord Lieutenant Townshend, came over here for the express purpose of
smashing the Irish Junto, and he smashed it by the simple process of
taking the bribery into his own hands,[87] and making it, what Sir Arthur
Wellesley[88] forty years after found it, an English state department.[89]
He was so indignant with the Commons for rejecting an altered Money Bill
that he entered a protest on the Lords' Journal and prorogued the
Parliament.[90] Down to Hutchinson's time the Lord Lieutenants were
absentees, and the Lords Justices were the centre of the Junto of
"Undertakers" who undertook to the English Government to manage business
here--i.e. "their own business"--on their own conditions. In the National
Senate there was no national or intellectual life, and scarcely a name has
survived in history.
There are no Reports of debates until the year 1781; for over 50 years
scarcely a single important measure was passed;[91] place holders in
parliament were multiplied, and the pension and salary lists increased in
proportion.[92] To lessen the balance available for this bribery, the
surplus revenue was expended in local and private jobs.[93] The Mutiny Act
was perpetual; parliaments ran for the monarch's life, judges held at
pleasure, Catholics were debarred the franchise and education; Anglican
State Protestantism was built up by cruelty and crime, complaints of
grievances were met by commendations of the Charter Schools, and the
trade and industries of the country were suffered, without remonstrance,
to lie strangled under the jealous and grasping commercial restraints
imposed by the English Parliament.
All these things Hely Hutchinson saw when he first looked out on the field
of Irish administration; and before he died he saw most of these
reproaches swept away by the operation of the courage, and intellect, and
vigour which, contemporaneously with himself, found their way into the
Commons House. Sexten Pery was a few years before him, and "Sexten Pery,"
says Grattan, "was the original fountain of all the good that befell
Ireland." Flood entered parliament the same year as Hutchinson, Hussey
Burgh, and Gardiner a few years later, and then came Yelverton and
Grattan, and by the power of these resolute anti-Englishers the face of
the country was changed. They found Ireland a child, and they watched her
growth from infancy to arms, and from arms to liberty. They led the
Volunteers to victory, and wrung back a portion of the people's rights
from the frightened oppressor.[94]
To this change Hutchinson directly, and still more indirectly,
contributed. He quickened the parliamentary tone, and lifted its level. He
was the father of the cultivated style of oratory which henceforward
characterised the debates; he was the best debater in the house, and,
after Grattan, the finest speaker. He could patriotise, and he could
philippise; and whether he patriotised or philippised, he did it
formidably and efficiently. He was venal, but he feared no man's face; he
was a ready-money voter, but he could go out in all weathers. He
trafficked, without satiety, in patents and sinecures for himself and his
sons, but he insisted on Free Trade for Ireland.[95]
Take him for all in all, and the first John Hely Hutchinson certainly
presents a very rare combination of striking features. He was a
representative man of a remarkable age, and he sprung out of the
conditions of a period which he very much helped to mould. He was endowed
with leading abilities, and was disfigured by hideous blemishes. From an
humble start in life he made his way to the high places of the field, and,
without any surroundings, he raised himself to be a living power in the
State. He was mighty in speech, in courage, in council, and in
achievement; and he could be craven, vindictive, corrupting, and paltry.
In invective he was unequalled; and he was more sorely scorched by
ridicule and rebuke than any man of his day. He lived in perpetual
discords and in endless schemes, and the success which, in the main,
followed him was chequered by bitter defeats and mortifications. He
enjoyed a splendid fortune, maintained a lordly style, and wielded vast
influence, and not a single generous action is recorded of him. Negligent
of learning, he became the head of the University in one of its periods of
peculiar brilliancy, and, having for twenty years drawn its revenues and
exploited its resources, he is not named in its list of benefactors. He
reared a numerous, affectionate, gifted, and successful family, and he
founded a peerage.[96]
However unprincipled Hutchinson was in his bargainings with the Castle, he
was often sound and straight on national and Catholic questions. He was an
enthusiastic admirer of Grattan, and, on essential matters touching the
interests and dignity of the country, he gave Grattan a cordial and
effective support. The proudest passage in his life was the day (16th
April, 1782) when, as Principal Secretary of State, he read out to the
Irish Parliament the king's message, practically conceding
independence.[97] There is not in Anglo-Irish history another event of
equal grandeur; and Hely Hutchinson's Provostship for ever and inseparably
connects the College with the climax of a triumph over English arrogance
and obstinacy which, in the main, was won by a phalanx of her own sons
when the prince of all the land led them on.[98]
* * * * *
The Will of "John Hely Hutchinson, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of
State," made in 1788--proved and probate granted in November, 1794, by the
Right Worshipful Patrick Duigenan, Doctor of Laws, Commissary, and so
forth, is in the Public Record Office.
There are seven codicils of various dates, down to the year of the
Provost's death. He says that no man ever had better or more dutiful and
affectionate children--God bless them all--and amongst them he left L5,000
to each of his two eldest daughters, with 5 per cent. interest, and L4,000
to each of the two younger. He left L5,000 to his son Francis, as engaged
at the time of his marriage, and to his sons John, Abraham, Christopher,
and Lorenzo L4,000 each; L500 to Jane, eldest daughter of his worthy
friend, Dr. Wilson. If any children should die before 21, or marriage,
their share was to go amongst the younger children, but so as no younger
child was to have more than L5,000 on the whole. All his real and personal
estate,[99] subject to the foregoing legacies, he left to his
dearly-beloved son, Lord Donoughmore, his sole executor. He was to raise
the portions of the two younger daughters to L5,000, if the estate could
afford it. His office in the Port of Strangford he considered part of his
personal estate, having purchased it with the knowledge and at the desire
of the Irish Government;[100] and he included it in the bequest to Lord
Donoughmore for the lives in being. In a codicil (1789) he bequeathed L200
each to John, and to Abraham and Christopher while they shall continue at
the Temple. Later codicils mention that some of these sums had been paid
in full, and the legacies were accordingly revoked. He left his books on
Morality, Divinity, and Poetry to Abraham, the law books to Francis, and
the rest of his books to John. In a codicil of 1794, he left to Abraham
"whose health is delicate," L100 a year till he shall obtain a net income
of L200 yearly by some ecclesiastical preferment, this being in addition
to the former legacy.[101] To his butler he left L20 a year, and to
another servant L20. He desired his manuscript essay towards a history of
the College[102] to be published, being first perused by his son, Lord
Donoughmore.[103] He directed his body to be opened, and to be laid by his
late dear wife.
* * * * *
The following Will which laid the foundation of the fortunes of the family
is also in the Public Record Office:--
"The last Will and Testament of Richard Hutchinson of Knocklofty, in the
county of Tipperary, Esq. Whereas I have this day executed a deed, whereby
it appears that there are several sums now affecting my estate, and
amounting in the whole to the sum of ten thousand nine hundred and
fifty-two pounds four shillings and a farthing; and whereas Ann Mauzy,
widow, and Lewis Mauzy, her son, have agreed to accept the sum of four
thousand pounds in lieu of all their claims and demands. Now it is my will
that such personal fortune as I now, or at the time of my death shall be
possessed of shall be applied, in the first place, towards paying and
discharging such sums of money as John Hely Hutchinson, Esq., shall think
proper to pay the said Ann Mauzy, provided the same does not exceed the
said sum of four thousand pounds; and the rest and residue of my personal
estate and fortune if anything shall remain, I bequeath to my beloved
niece, Christian Hely Hutchinson.
"Witness my hand and seal, this fourth day of August, one thousand seven
hundred and fifty-seven.
"RICHARD HUTCHINSON."
NOTES.
NOTE A. Page x.
THE HUTCHINSON FAMILY.
The Provost left six sons and four daughters. Five of the sons took
degrees in the University, viz.:--
Richard Hely--on an Oxford Ad Eundem--B.A. 1775, M.A. 1780, LL.B. and
LL.D. 1780.
Francis Hely--B.A. 1779, M.A. 1783.
Christopher Hely--B.A. 1788.
Abraham Hely--B.A. 1788, M.A. 1791; and Lorenzo Hely--B.A. 1790.
RICHARD HELY, the eldest son, and the first Lord Donoughmore, was a
Commissioner of Accounts, Second Remembrancer, Chief Commissioner of
Excise, Commissioner of Customs, Commissioner of Stamps, and
Postmaster-General.
In 1776, he was elected simultaneously representative for Sligo and for
the University (against the Attorney-General, Philip Tisdall), and chose
the latter. He was unseated by parliamentary committee as not duly
elected; and, in 1777, he was re-elected for Sligo without a new writ. In
the University he was replaced by John Fitzgibbon (Earl of Clare). In 1783
he was M.P. for Taghmon. In 1788, he succeeded to the title, on the death
of his mother, and served in the Upper House, while his father and his two
brothers were in the Commons. In 1794, according to the custom of the
times, he raised a regiment, and got the command of it for his celebrated
brother John.
FRANCIS HELY was returned for the University in the election of 1790. In
the following year took place the celebrated petition against his return,
which is related in page xlii, &c. In 1799, he was member for Naas, and
was re-elected in 1800, on having been appointed to the office of
collector for the Port of Dublin. In 1792, on the debate on receiving the
Catholic petition in connection with Langrishe's Bill for giving, or
giving back, the franchise, &c., to the Catholics, Mr. Froude says that:
"Francis Hutchinson, the Provost's second son, soared into nationalist
rhetoric. 'When the pride of Britain was humbled in the dust,' he said,
'her enemies led captive the brightest jewel of the imperial crown torn
from her diadem, at the moment when the combined fleets of the two great
Catholic powers of Europe threatened a descent upon our coasts, from whom
did we derive our protection then?'... 'We found it in the support of
three millions of our fellow-citizens, in the spirit of our national
character--in the virtue of our Catholic brethren.' The motion for the
petition was lost by 208 votes to 23, and Langrishe's Bill was
carried."--[_English in Ireland_, vol. iii., p. 53.]
Sir Jonah Barrington, in his "Personal Sketches." tells of the duel which
Francis had at Donnybrook with Lord Mountmorris in 1798, in which his
lordship was wounded.
CHRISTOPHER HELY was called to the Bar, but never much relished the
profession, being altogether of a military turn. In 1795 he was elected
member for Taghmon, county Wexford, in the Irish parliament on his
father's death; and after the Union he represented Cork city in the
Imperial parliament. He was Escheator of the Province of Munster. He was
an earnest champion of the Catholic claims, as were also his father and
brothers; he was a thorough supporter of the liberal policy of Lord
Lieutenant Fitzwilliam; he mistrusted Lord Lieutenant Camden and Pitt, and
he opposed the Union scheme. He is, however, far more celebrated as a
soldier than as a lawyer or politician, and in 1796 he resigned his seat.
He adored his brother John, rivalled his brilliant courage, and served
under him and with him at home and abroad with great distinction. He
joined him in Ireland as a volunteer on the breaking out of the
disturbances in 1798; but both of the brothers speedily got disgusted with
the odious work, as did Cornwallis, and Moore, and Abercrombie, and Lake,
and every other high-minded soldier, including Colin Campbell, afterwards
in the tithe war. John soon got ordered off to Flanders, under
Abercrombie, to fight the French; and thither Christopher followed him,
and was wounded at the battle of Alkmar. Christopher followed John also to
Egypt, and afterwards on his mission to St. Petersburgh, and to Berlin.
Christopher, on his own account, fought in the Russian ranks against the
French, and was badly wounded by Benningsen's side at the battle of Eylau,
in 1807. He fought also at the battle of Friedland. He died at Hampsted in
1825--[_Suppl. Biog. Univer._] It is worth noticing that this invaluable
biographical dictionary makes a mistake in regard of the Castlebar battle
in 1798, and a mistake of a kind that is not usual in French historians in
affairs that concern the military glory of France. At Castlebar the French
were victorious, and the Hutchinsons and the English troops were defeated
disgracefully. The _Biog. Univer._, however, under "_Christophe Elie
Hutchinson Cinquieme fils de Jean Elie Hutchinson, Prevot de l'Universite
de Dublin_," says: "_Il eut part a l'affaire de Castlebar et fit
prisonniers les deux Generaux Francais Lafontaine et Sorrazin au moment ou
environne par leur corps il se croyait et devoit se croire perdu, et
s'acquit ainsi l'estime de General en Chef Lord Cornwallis_." The writer
confounds Castlebar with Ballinamuck.
ABRAHAM HELY was Commissioner of Customs, and Port duties, according to
the Lib. Mun. and Sir Bernard Burke; and a clergyman, according to his
father's will.
Lorenzo Hely took Holy Orders.
Besides these five the Provost had a son--his second born--
JOHN HELY HUTCHINSON, the most distinguished of all. He was born in 1757,
and entered the army in 1774, the year in which his father was made
Provost. In 1789 he became M.P. for Taghmon, county Wexford, on his
brother Richard's call to the upper house, and in 1790 he became member
for Cork city (the father going to Taghmon), and continued so until the
Union. In 1792, in the debate on receiving the Catholic Petition,
"Prominent amongst their (Catholic) champions was Colonel Hutchinson, the
Provost's son, who inherited his father's eloquence without his
shrewdness. He talked the Liberal cant of the day, which may be compared
instructively with the modern Papal syllabus."--[_Froude_, vol. iii., p.
53.]
Mr. Froude cannot have read this speech. It is a fervid denunciation of
the penal laws, and of their cruelties and mischief; and it does not "talk
either Liberal cant or Papal syllabus." Colonel Hutchinson's two speeches
on the Petition and on Langrishe's Bill, even as summarised in the Irish
Parliamentary Report, are enlightened, able, and eloquent oratory. He was
for complete emancipation. His liberal address to the Cork constituency,
in 1796, is given by Plowden.
Hutchinson was an enthusiastic admirer of Lafayette, and of his ardent
principles of popular liberty. When in Paris he attached himself closely
to the general, and served on his personal staff.
During the troubles of 1798 he was employed here at the head of his
brother's regiment, under Abercrombie. He sat in the Irish parliament in
1800, and voted for the Union!--[_Webb, and Barrington's "Black List."_]
He commanded against the French at Castlebar, and he shared in the
humiliating defeat which Humbert's handful of men, supported by a body of
Irish peasantry, inflicted on the royal army. Hutchinson was unable to
stay the panic. His troops, which had signalised and enervated themselves
by their licentious brutalities on a defenceless population, broke and
fled--as Abercrombie foretold they would do--before the enemy. Their rout
was as complete as it was disgraceful, and the barbarities which they
committed on their retreat were diabolical. Hutchinson afterwards had the
satisfaction of taking part in the affair at Ballinamuck, county Longford,
where the French, including Generals Humbert, Sorrazin, and La Fontaine,
laid down their arms.--[_Cornwallis's Correspondence_, vol. ii., p. 396;
_Knight's History of England_, vol. vii., p. 367; _Haverty's History of
Ireland_, p. 760; _and Bishop Stock's Narrative of Killala_.]
Hutchinson left the sickening Irish scenes, along with Abercrombie, for
Flanders, in the Duke of York's expedition. After that he accompanied
Abercrombie to Egypt as second in command, and on his death at Aboukir he
succeeded as chief. He was reinforced from home, and by Sir David Baird's
expeditionary contingent from India, took Alexandria and Cairo, and drove
Menou and the French out of Egypt. For these distinguished achievements he
was created Lord Hutchinson of Alexandria and Knocklofty; and,
notwithstanding these achievements, he was never again employed in war
service by the English Government. He made no secret of his anti-Toryism,
and this was enough to ensure his rejection by a Government that selected
the Chathams and Burrards. Lord Hutchinson was afterwards employed on some
high diplomatic commissions at St. Petersburg and Berlin, and in these his
independence of judgment was not altogether palatable to the London
authorities. In 1825, on the death of his eldest brother, he succeeded to
the Donoughmore title and estates, which, on his death without issue, in
1832, passed to his nephew, the third peer, better known as "Lavalette
Hutchinson."
This JOHN HELY HUTCHINSON, the third of the name, was born in Wexford, in
1788. Having served through the Waterloo campaign, he was, on the allied
occupation of Paris, in 1815, quartered there as Captain of the First
Regiment of Grenadiers of the Guards. While there, in 1816, he, together
with Lieutenant Bruce of his own regiment, and the celebrated Sir R.
Wilson, effected Lavalette's escape from France, after his deliverance
from the Conciergerie by the romantic devotion and bravery of his wife.
The three friends were prosecuted in Paris for this violation of the law.
They declined to insist on their right of having half the jury English,
and trusted themselves entirely to the honour of the Frenchmen. They
admitted what was charged against them, and were condemned in the mild
sentence of three months' imprisonment, and the costs of the prosecution.
Captain Hutchinson, on the trial, told how he had lodged Lavalette in his
own chambers for one night, supplied him with an English officer's costume
from a Paris tailor, procured passes, and on horseback escorted to the
frontier Lavalette, who was in a carriage with Wilson. He was willing to
give a distinct answer to any fair question about himself, but he
peremptorily refused to say anything that would compromise anyone else. He
declared that there was not a particle of political animus in the
adventure. The French historians tell how the chivalrous young Irishman's
exploit was applauded by the whole nation, and how, on the trial, his
manly and gracious bearing captured the court, which had to find him
guilty of the deed that he acknowledged and related. Sir R. Wilson had
been aide-de-camp to Hutchinson's uncle the general. [_Biog. des Contemp.
and The Accusation, Examination, and Trial of Wilson, Hutchinson, and
Bruce._]
Captain Hutchinson succeeded to the title in 1832. He lived and died at
Palmerston, and in Chapelizod church a memorial tablet is erected to him,
with the following inscription:--"Sacred to the memory of John Hely
Hutchinson, third Earl of Donoughmore, Knight of St. Patrick, Lord
Lieutenant of the county of Tipperary, and a Privy Councillor, having
served his country in the Peninsular War and the Senate; and his country
in troublous times. He died on the 12th of September, 1851, in the 64th
year of his age, loved, respected, and regretted by all who knew him. This
tablet has been erected in the church where he usually worshipped to
record his many virtues by his widow."
In Chapelizod churchyard there is a tombstone inscribed: "Beneath this
stone rest the earthly remains of Mrs. Hely Hutchinson; departed this life
1st June, 1830, aged 72 years.
Between the Provost and his four sons they represented, for over 40 years,
11 constituencies, and besides this, one was in the Irish and English, and
another in the English House of Lords.
The names of the Provost and of his son Richard are on the roll of the
Irish M.P.'s (1783-90) which Dr. Ingram has had framed and hung up in the
Fagel wing of the College Library.