on the information given to Government by Thomas Reynolds, a man
intimately acquainted with the revolutionary counsels in Ireland. He
gave notice that a meeting of the conspirators would be held at the
house of a well-to-do merchant in Dublin, and important arrests were
made in consequence. Several of the leaders were not present, but
were taken soon after, and Lord Edward alone succeeded in eluding
the close search. He remained the whole time hidden in Dublin or the
neighbourhood, notwithstanding the rumours to the contrary, and most
of his relations had no certain knowledge of his whereabouts. In the
meantime preparations for a rising continued under his supervision, and
the intelligence that May 23 was fixed for the outbreak increased the
desire of Government to secure his person. A further act of treachery
brought about his arrest, which took place on May 19.
[202] The Duke of Portland was at the Home Office from 1794 until 1801.
[203] _Consolation à Monsieur du Périer sur la mort de sa fille._
[204] Arthur O’Connor (1763–1852), born in co. Cork. He was called
to the Irish Bar in 1788, and entered the Irish Parliament three
years later. He became deeply imbued with the spirit of the French
Revolution, and resigned his seat in 1795. The year after, he joined
the United Irishmen and became chief editor of their organ, _The
Press_. After his release from prison he went to France, and was
appointed a general of division by Napoleon, but never saw active
service. He married, in 1807, Élize de Condorcet, and became a
naturalised Frenchman.
He was tried at Maidstone, before Mr. Justice Buller, on a charge of
high treason, with O’Coigly and others, but was acquitted. Bow Street
runners were, however, in attendance to rearrest him on a second
charge, and in the confusion which arose in court after judgment
had been delivered, certain of his friends and one of his counsel,
Robert Fergusson, were said, rightly or wrongly, to be implicated in
an attempt to contrive his escape. Lord Thanet, Fergusson, and Denis
O’Brien were arraigned on this count some months later, and the two
first named were sentenced to imprisonment and fine.
[205] James O’Coigly, son of a Roman Catholic farmer in Armagh. He
was partly educated in Paris, and later took orders. He was found
at Margate in 1797 with papers in his possession implicating him
in correspondence with the French regarding a proposed invasion of
England, and in other treasonable practices.
[206] Thomas Hardy, Horne Tooke, and others had been tried in October
1794, before a special commission, for nine specified acts of high
treason. They were acquitted on each count.
[207] Lady Holland’s account of the arrest is not accurate. From the
account of eye-witnesses Lord Edward was the first to use weapons. Lady
Louisa Conolly, in a letter to Mr. Ogilvie, states that his wounds
were attended to at once by Mr. Stewart, the surgeon-general at Dublin
Castle, and that Lord Camden had ordered him a room, but owing to the
acts of violence he was removed to Newgate. No mention is elsewhere
made of the attempts at rescue, and Murphy, in whose house he was
taken, was not hanged, but was imprisoned, without any trial, for over
a year before he was released.
[208] The Lord-Lieutenant.
[209] For Lady Louisa Conolly’s account of this visit, see her letter
to Mr. Ogilvie (Moore’s _Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald_, ii. 135).
[210] Lord Henry Fitzgerald.
[211] The insurrection broke out on the appointed day, May 23.
[212] John, fifteenth Earl of Suffolk and eighth Earl of Berkshire
(1739–1820). He succeeded to the titles in 1783 on the death of a
distant cousin. He became a general in the army, and married, in 1774,
Julia, daughter of John Gaskarth, of Penrith.
[213] Grattan was arrested by mistake for Mr. Henry, of Straffan.
Lawless (afterwards Lord Cloncurry) wrote in a letter to Ireland, which
fell into the hands of Government, the names of various subscribers
to a fund raised for O’Coigly’s defence. Among other entries was,
‘Little Harry has put down 50_l._’ ‘Little Harry’ was taken by the
Government to mean Grattan; hence the error.
[214] _Voyage to South America_, translated from the Spanish by
John Adams.
[215] _Account of conduct of D. of M. from her first coming to Court
to 1710, in letter from herself to my Lord_ ---- 1742 (N. Hooke).
[216] Another account states that the Duchess thus treated the picture
of Lady Anne Egerton, her grand-daughter and daughter of Elizabeth,
Duchess of Bridgewater.
[217] Hon. John Spencer, youngest son of Charles, third Earl of
Sunderland, and Anne, daughter and co-heiress of the Duke and Duchess
of Marlborough. His only son was created Earl Spencer. His elder
brother Charles became Duke of Marlborough.
[218] It was written by Nathaniel Hooke, who is said to have received
5000_l._ for his assistance. David Mallet, a writer of plays and
miscellaneous poems, was selected by the Duchess a short time before
her death to write a life of the Duke in collaboration with Richard
Glover. She left 500_l._ to each in her will to continue the work,
but though Mallet accepted the money he never carried out his contract,
and the task was practically uncommenced at the time of his death.
[219] The seat of Frederick, fifth Earl of Carlisle (1748–1825), who
succeeded to the title on his father’s death in 1758. He held the posts
of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 1780–82, and Privy Seal 1783. He married,
in 1770, Margaret Caroline, daughter of Granville, first Marquess of
Stafford. He was a well-known figure in society, and if his verses are
not of the highest merit, they were well spoken of at the time. His
eldest son, Lord Morpeth, who succeeded him, is frequently mentioned in
these pages.
[220] A cast iron bridge uniting Monkwearmouth with Bishopwearmouth. It
was commenced in 1793, and was opened by the Duke of Gloucester in 1796.
[221] Comte d’Artois, afterwards Charles X. He came over to England in
1795, and lived at Holyrood for some years. Besides this residence he
received a sum of 24,000_l._ from the British Government. Most of
this money was expended in intrigues and secret endeavours to recover
the throne of France for the Bourbons.
[222] The Hon. Henry Erskine (1746–1817), second son of Henry, tenth
Earl of Buchan, and brother of Thomas Erskine, the Lord Chancellor. He
held the post of Lord Advocate in the Coalition Ministry, and again in
1806.
[223] George William, Marquess of Lorne (1766–1839), who succeeded his
father as sixth Duke of Argyll in 1806.
[224] Thomas Beddoes, M.D. (1760–1808). Reader in chemistry at Oxford
for some years. He resigned the post in 1792. The last years of his
life were spent at Clifton, where he became a fashionable physician.
[225] The Battle of the Nile was fought on August 1, with the immediate
consequence that the French force in Egypt was obliged to fall back
upon its own resources and those of the country.
[226] The official letters were published in the course of the year,
but the private portions of the letters here quoted have no place in
the series.
[227] Joseph Bonaparte. Bourrienne relates (i. 187) that he was the
eyewitness of a conversation between Napoleon and Junot on the subject
of Josephine’s infidelities at Messoudiah in February 1798. It seems
doubtful, however, whether Junot was then with the army. Bourrienne
says that Berthier left Egypt for France in January.
[228] John James, ninth Earl and first Marquess of Abercorn
(1756–1818), who succeeded his uncle in 1789, was raised to a
Marquisate the following year. He married, first, in 1779, Catherine,
daughter of Sir Joseph Copley, Bart. She died in 1791, leaving two
sons and three daughters, and he married, secondly, in 1792, his first
cousin, Cecil, daughter of Hon. and Rev. George Hamilton. This lady,
here alluded to, ran away with (and subsequently married after the
divorce) Joseph Copley (who succeeded his brother in the Baronetcy in
1806), brother of Lord Abercorn’s first wife. He married, thirdly, in
1800, Lady Ann Hatton. He received the nickname of ‘Blue Beard.’
[229] Wraxall states she had four sisters older than herself.
[230] In _Les Muses Rivales_, or _L’Apothéose de Voltaire_,
published in 1779.
[231] Lloyd, first Baron Kenyon (1732–1802), appointed Master of the
Rolls, 1784, and Lord Chief Justice in 1788.
[232] Thomas Pelham was first appointed Chief Secretary by Lord Camden
when he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1795. Owing to ill-health
he was often absent, and early in 1798 Lord Castlereagh temporarily
took his place. Pelham finally resigned the post on November 2.
[233] See _ante_, p. 12.
[234] Mrs ‘Bobus’ Smith. Lady Warwick was her sister (see _ante_,
p. 163).
[235] In February 1797, when owing to the scarcity of specie the
Ministers issued an Order in Council prohibiting cash payments until
measures had been taken by Parliament to restore the credit of the
country.
[236] On December 11, in favour of concluding peace with the French
Republic, whenever a suitable opportunity should occur. Pitt called the
speech ‘one of the best ever heard on any occasion.’
[237] Lord Lauderdale in a letter, written in 1809, to Lord Holland,
strongly upholds this view, and gives an amusing story of Sheridan’s
groom’s opinion of Canning. ‘Sheridan’s groom being told by his butler
many years ago that he had laid a plate too few at table, enumerated
the company he supposed was to dine, and on being informed that he
had forgot Mr. Canning, said, “D--n that fellow. He has impudence for
anything! What! Come here and dine with my master after deserting all
the principles that you and I have heard him so often hold forth upon”’
(Holland House MSS.).
[238] Charles Rose Ellis (1771–1845), son of John Ellis, of Jamaica,
and Elizabeth, daughter of John Pallmer, also of that island. He
entered Parliament in 1793 and sat continuously for various seats until
his elevation to the peerage, by Canning’s influence, in 1826, as Baron
Seaford. He married, first, in 1798, Elizabeth Catherine, only daughter
of John Augustus, Lord Hervey, and grand-daughter of Frederick, Earl of
Bristol and Bishop of Derry. Their son succeeded his great-grandfather
in the title of Lord Howard de Walden.
[239] He was placed in confinement by the French, into whose hands he
had fallen, and at the same time a valuable collection of antiquities
which he was about to despatch to England was confiscated.
[240] On January 22 a message was presented to both Houses of
Parliament from the King suggesting that their immediate attention
should be directed to measures for obtaining a closer and more
satisfactory connection between the kingdoms of England and Ireland.
A few days after, a proposal for a Union was laid before the Irish
Parliament, but was rejected, Pitt, in the debate in the House of
Commons on the 31st, stated that he thought it proper to unfold his
proposed scheme, though he was fully aware that there was no chance of
its adoption unless the Irish Parliament were willing to alter their
present views.
[241] On January 22. ‘The banner of party is furled, but it is not
beaten down. I trust that it will again be displayed and that it will
assemble round it the steady friends to true liberty, hostile alike to
despotic rule, and to wild innovation.’
[242] James Hare (1749–1804), son of an apothecary at Winchester, and
grandson of Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester. He was brought up at
Eton and Oxford, and there became intimately acquainted with Charles
James Fox and many others of the Whig circle. He married, in 1774,
Hannah, only daughter and heiress of Sir Abraham Hume. He sat in
Parliament for many years, but only once addressed the House. He was
sent as Minister-Plenipotentiary to Poland, 1779–82.
[243] Hon. William Lamb (1779–1848), afterwards Prime Minister, son of
Peniston, first Viscount Melbourne, whom he succeeded in the titles in
1819.
[244] Imitations in verse of two satires of Juvenal, which were
entitled _Secession_ and _The Yeoman_. The subject of the
latter, which was addressed to Lord Wycombe, was the excesses of the
military in Ireland.
[245] Lord Minto mentions him in Paris, in a letter dated 1793. ‘Fish
Crawfurd, with whom Madame du Deffand, being blind, was in love, was of
the party the other day’ (_Life and Letters of Sir G. Elliot_).
[246] The Right Hon. Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), second son of
George Grenville and brother of Lord Grenville. He was sent on an
embassy to Berlin in order to persuade the King to join England against
the French. He left Yarmouth on January 29 in the _Proserpine_
frigate, but in attempting to ascend the Elbe the ill-fated vessel was
driven ashore. Abandoning the ship the passengers and crew escaped
across the ice to Cuxhaven with only the clothes in which they stood.
An interesting account of their hardships is given in the _Annual
Register_ for 1846. The delay proved fatal to the object of Mr.
Grenville’s mission, for Sieyès arrived in time to persuade Frederick
William to remain neutral.
[247] By Madame de la Fayette.
[248] François le Vaillant (1753–1824), author of _Voyage dans
l’intérieur de l’Afrique par le Cap de Bonne Espérance_, and
_Second Voyage_, &c.
[249] Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont (1759–1829), born at Geneva. His
family was French, but had fled to Switzerland in the sixteenth century
to escape religious persecution. He became a preacher, and came to
England about 1783 to superintend the education of Lord Lansdown’s
sons. He there made the acquaintance of Bentham, whose secretary he
became later in life. He espoused the cause of the French Revolution
with enthusiasm at its commencement, but became terrified by its
excesses, and left France soon after his friend Mirabeau’s death.
[250] Richard Hurd, D.D. (1720–1808), Bishop of Lichfield (1774),
and of Worcester (1781). He was offered the Primacy in 1783, but
refused to take it. The _Dialogues_ were published in 1759, and
introduce historical persons, who are made to discuss the themes under
consideration.
[251] Mr., afterwards Lord Archibald, Hamilton (1770–1827), youngest
son of Archibald, ninth Duke of Hamilton and sixth Duke of Brandon, by
Harriot, daughter of Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway. He was a close
friend and frequent correspondent of Lord Holland.
[252] Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734–1802), Louis XVI.’s Minister
of Finance. His system of taxation was so arbitrary and unbearable, and
his statement of public accounts in 1787 so unsatisfactory, that he was
deprived of his honours, and banished to Lorraine. He came to England,
where he remained until 1802. Bonaparte then granted his request to
return to France, but he died almost immediately upon his arrival in
that country. Lord Holland relates in his _Foreign Reminiscences_
that Calonne’s death was due to mismanagement, and that he wrote in
pencil to his doctor when no longer able to speak, ‘Tu m’as assassiné,
et si tu es honnête homme tu renonceras la médecine pour jamais.
[253] Lord Bessborough’s brother-in-law. He married Lady Charlotte
Ponsonby in 1770.
[254] Lord Robert Fitzgerald (1765–1833), sixth son of James, first
Duke of Leinster, and Emilia Mary, daughter of Charles, second Duke of
Richmond.
[255] Sir Lionel Copley, Bart., of Sprotborough. He was born about
1767, succeeded to the title in 1781, and died in 1806.
[256] Sir Gilbert Affleck, Lady Holland’s stepfather.
[257] A friend of Lord Wycombe, who introduced him to Lord Holland.
[258] Emily Charlotte (_d._ 1832), the Duchess’s daughter by her
second husband, William Ogilvie. She married, in 1799, Charles George
Beauclerk (1774–1846), only son of Topham Beauclerk and Lady Diana.
[259] Sackville Tufton, ninth Earl of Thanet (1767–1825), son of
Sackville, eighth Earl, and Mary, daughter of Lord John Sackville. He
married, in 1811, a Hungarian lady, Anne de Bojanowitz.
[260] Robert Cultar Fergusson (1768–1838), son of Alexander Fergusson,
of Craigdarroch, Dumfriesshire. He was called to the Bar in 1797, and
was counsel to Allen, one of O’Connor’s fellow prisoners at Maidstone.
After his release from prison he went to Calcutta, where he became
Attorney-General. He obtained a seat in Parliament in 1826, and became
Judge-Advocate-General in 1834.
[261] Gunter Browne, Esq.
[262] Edward Fox Fitzgerald (1794–1863). He was educated by his
grandmother, the Duchess of Leinster, and served in several cavalry
regiments. He married a daughter of Sir John Paul in 1827.
[263] Lady Lucy Fitzgerald, the Duchess of Leinster’s daughter. She
married Admiral Sir Thomas Foley, G.C.B., in 1802, and died in 1851.
[264] Son of Thomas Adderley, Esq., of Innishannon, Co. Cork, and
Margaretta, daughter of Edmund Bourke, Esq., of Urrey. His mother
married, secondly, in 1792, Robert, Lord Hobart.
[265] Charles, third Duke of Richmond (1735–1806), Lady Lucy
Fitzgerald’s uncle.
[266] The Protest was signed by Lords Holland, Thanet, and King. It
remains on the records.
[267] Robert, Lord Hobart (1760–1816), son of George, third Earl of
Buckinghamshire, whom he succeeded in 1804. He married, in 1792,
Margaretta, daughter of Edmund Bourke, Esq., of Urrey, and widow of
Thomas Adderley, Esq. She died in 1796, leaving one daughter, and Lord
Hobart married, in 1799, Eleanor, daughter of William, first Lord
Auckland.
[268] Called in the _Annual Register_ for 1799 the battle of
Ostrach.
[269] Louise Marthe de Conflans d’Armentières, the wife of
François-Marie-Casimir, Marquis de Coigny. She was celebrated for her
wit and quickness of repartee, and many anecdotes are told of her
curious tastes, and the hold she maintained on society at the time.
Marie Antoinette once said that she was only Queen of Versailles, but
Madame de Coigny was Queen of Paris.
[270] Right Hon. Lord John Townshend (1757–1833), second son of George,
first Marquess Townshend. Lord of the Admiralty 1782–1783. He married,
in 1787, Georgina Anna, daughter of William Poyntz, Esq., of Midgham,
Berks, the divorced wife of Everard Fawkener, Esq. His second son,
John, succeeded to the Marquisate in 1855.
[271] Henry Richard, Lord Brooke (1779–1853), son of George, second
Earl of Warwick, by his second marriage with Henrietta, daughter of
Richard Vernon, Esq., and Evelyn, first Countess of Upper Ossory. Lord
Brooke succeeded his father as third Earl in 1816.
[272] Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, fifth Baronet (1772–1840), son of
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn (who died in 1789), and his second wife,
Charlotte, daughter of the Right Hon. George Grenville.
[273] _Alonzo the Brave_, first published in _The Monk_ (vol.
iii.).
‘A warrior so bold and a virgin so bright
Conversed, as they sat on the green;
They gazed on each other with tender delight;
Alonzo the Brave was the name of the knight,
The maid’s was the fair Imogene,’ etc.
[274] The Hon. and Rev. Augustus George Legge (1773–1828), youngest son
of William, second Earl of Dartmouth.
[275] John Fitzmaurice, Viscount Kirkwall (1778–1820), only son of Hon.
Thomas Fitzmaurice (brother of William, first Marquess of Lansdown),
and Mary, Countess of Orkney in her own right. He married, in 1802,
Anna Maria, daughter of John, Baron de Blaquière, of Ardkill, but
predeceased his mother, who died in 1831.
[276] Jane, daughter of Sir William Maxwell, and first wife of
Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon, whom she married in 1767. She died in
1812.
[277] Lord Boringdon.
[278] He said that ‘her creation betokened a “glorious mood” in her
creator’ (Sichel’s _Emma, Lady Hamilton_).
[279] Compare _Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot_, ii. 364, 365. ‘With
men her language and conversation are exaggerations of anything I ever
heard anywhere, and I was wonderfully struck with these inveterate
remains of her origin, though the impression was very much weakened by
seeing the other ladies of Naples.’
‘We had the _attitudes_ a night or two ago by candle-light; they
come up to my expectations fully, which is saying everything. They
set Lady Hamilton in a very different light from any I had seen her
in before; nothing about her, neither her conversation, her manners,
nor figure announce the very refined taste which she discovers in this
performance, besides the extraordinary talent that is necessary for the
execution; and besides all this, says Sir _Willum_, “she makes my
apple pies.”’
[280] The Hon. Charles Francis Greville (1749–1809), second son of
Francis, first Earl of Warwick, of this creation, and Elizabeth,
daughter of Lord Archibald Hamilton and sister of Sir William Hamilton.
[281] Frere succeeded Canning as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs
early in 1799.
[282] The actor.
[283] Elizabeth, daughter of Charles, second Duke of Marlborough, who
married Henry, tenth Earl of Pembroke, in 1756, and died in 1831. She
was Charles Beauclerk’s aunt. Her son, George Augustus, who succeeded
as eleventh Earl of Pembroke in 1794, married, in 1787, Beauclerk’s
sister, Elizabeth. She died in 1793.
[284] Lord Lansdown.
[285] Edward Law (1750–1818), afterwards created Lord Ellenborough;
appointed Attorney-General in 1793.
According to the published account of the trial, Law in his questions
to Sheridan tried to obtain the admission that in his opinion Thanet
and Fergusson meant to favour O’Connor’s escape. This Sheridan refused
to answer, and he was justified in doing so. He stated, however, most
clearly that he saw nothing which would lead him to that conclusion,
though perhaps they may have ‘_wished_,’ for the escape.
The fracas took place after judgment was delivered, which was not until
1.30 A.M. Sheridan, in a letter to his wife, written at the
time, says that O’Connor had no thought of escaping himself, but that
‘three or four injudicious friends’ were responsible for the attempt
to hustle him away. He also mentions that he himself was the means of
preventing ‘some serious mischief’ after ‘the soldiers got in,’ for
which conduct he was thanked by the Judge.
[286] The French fleet lying in Brest was able to escape from the rigid
blockade maintained by the Allies, and appeared in the Mediterranean.
There they remained until the beginning of June, when they returned to
Brest with the Spanish fleet, which had joined them off Cadiz.
[287] Claire Hippolyte Legris de Latude, better known as Mlle. Clairon,
the celebrated French actress. Born in 1723; died in 1802.
[288] Benjamin Flower, of Cambridge, a printer.
[289] Lady Anne Fitzpatrick, Lord Upper Ossory’s daughter.
[290] A political association founded under the guidance of Major
Cartwright to promote reform.
[291] The French plenipotentiaries were assassinated on April 19 just
outside the town of Rastadt by some drunken hussars of the Austrian
regiment of Szeckler, only one of them escaping with his life.
[292] Sir Francis Burdett married, in 1793, Sophia, daughter of
Thomas Coutts (1735–1822), founder with his brother James of the
banking-house, and banker to George III. Sir Francis’ advanced and
independent views on all the political questions of the day are well
known.
[293] Sir James Mackintosh (1765–1832), the celebrated writer and
conversationalist. It was a visit to Burke in 1797 which cooled his
revolutionary ardour, and led him to change his views so completely
upon the course of events in France.
[294] William Sturges-Bourne (1769–1845), a follower of Canning. A Lord
of the Treasury 1807–9, and Home Secretary 1827.
[295] Sir Philip Francis (1740–1818), the reputed author of the
_Junius Letters_. He was son of the Rev. Philip Francis, a
_protégé_ of Henry, first Lord Holland. He commenced life as
a clerk in Government offices, and in 1773 obtained a seat on the
East India Council. On his return to England he obtained a seat in
Parliament (1784), and became a staunch supporter of the Whigs. He was
twice married, first, in 1761, to Elizabeth Macrabie; and secondly, in
1814, to Emma Watkins, daughter of a Yorkshire clergyman.
[296] Sir Lionel Copley. His brother, Joseph, succeeded him in the
Baronetcy, and died in 1838.