Charles Kingston O'Mahony

“ King Edward and Queen Alexandra entered Ireland to the accompaniment of ringing cheers, the people being independent of Crown jewels or any other baubles to symbolize their loyalty. The Irish love a sportsman, and if he should happen to be a king as well they love him all the better for that. The magnetic personality of Edward VII. and the infectious charm of Queen Alexandra triumphed in Ireland, and everybody forgot for the time being that there was a Home Rule Government in power, and that a Liberal peer was their Majesties' host. ”

“ The Parliament had been just as unscrupulous as the numerous decadent and dishonest viceroys who had plundered the country, but in the eyes of the nation the Parliament and the viceroyalty were one and the same, the outward and visible sign of Ireland's importance. Society followed the lead of the viceroy with dumb obedience, and society feared that it might cease to exist if the Parliament were abolished. Those not in society were anxious to retain the Parliament because it meant prosperity of the capital. ”

“ But the most important change lay in the people themselves. The English influence was, of course, paramount, and those who wished to be considered fashionable aped London manners, but slowly and surely there was an awakening of the national spirit; the so-called English colony was beginning to realize the danger of allowing themselves to be subject to the caprices of a Government in London ignorant of Irish affairs. They clamoured for legislative independence, and if their motives were purely selfish and local, yet on the whole they benefited Ireland. ”

“ Charles wanted every available soldier, and Ireland was left to look after itself. There was a nominal Government in Dublin, and the Earl of Ormonde, at the beginning of his splendid career, was Commander-in-Chief. Ormonde was a devoted royalist, and in the king's hour of need sent him 5,000 soldiers from Ireland, paying their expenses himself. In the midst of his worries Charles found time to show his gratitude by making Ormonde a marquis, and appointing him Viceroy of Ireland. This was in 1644, but strong man as he was, Ormonde's tenure of office was shorn of all its glory and strength. ”

“ It is the irony of fate that the Conservative-Unionist party should have done, and still be doing, more for Ireland than Gladstone or his colleagues ever did. The Local Government Bill meant that the control of local affairs should pass from the hands of the minority to the majority. Protestant and Unionist councillors, Chairmen of County Councils, aldermen, magistrates, and other minor dignitaries were swept out of existence, and that nebulous host, the people, reigned in their stead. ”

“ Lord Bessborough was sixty-six, and his death was regretted by everybody. Those who had the welfare of the country at heart had been hoping that, with an Irishman and a resident landlord at the head of the Irish executive, peace might come to the nation, were left to seek consolations in speculations on the 'might-have-been,' while the party of revolution were relieved of the embarrassment of rebelling against the Government represented by a man against whom no charge of self-interest or lack of patriotism could be hurled. ”

“ The conquest of Ireland was to be short, sharp, and decisive. The natives appeared to know nothing of the fine art of war, and even Henry must have tasted of courage when he viewed the ill-armed {16} legions he had to fight. From Waterford he marched to Dublin, but the result of several battles and skirmishes was an attenuated army and unexpected defeat. Had it not been for the inevitable Irish traitor, Henry and his followers would have been swept into the sea, but it is Ireland's tragedy that she produces almost as many traitors as heroes. ”

“ To satisfy all classes, to tolerate the intolerant, and to represent the non-political King of England, although appointed for his political opinions, are the duties of the Lord-Lieutenant. Surrounded by lynx-eyed critics, Tory and Nationalist, he has to be something more than the shadow of the monarch, and he is not allowed to escape criticism, although the king for whom he acts as deputy is supposed to be above it. ”

“ Even in the eighteenth century it was sometimes distinguished to act with the minority, and Chesterfield adopted the now favourite modern pose of championing the weak. He railed at the Government, wrote pamphlets against it, hired men of letters to aid him, and quickly became the leader of that ever-present body of men and women who are dissatisfied, and yet know not what they want. He patronized Johnson and Pope and many others, the majority completely forgotten, and chiefly with their help and his own ready tongue attained the distinction of being the most sought-after man in London society. ”

“ When his term of office ends, Lord Aberdeen can look back upon several years of success in Ireland. He may not be a racing man, and Punchestown may not be a favourite haunt of his, but sterner qualities than a fondness for horse-racing are necessary to succeed as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In the most favourable times it requires a vast amount of tact, a keen sense of humour, and a sense of proportion. ”

“ Place-hunters abound and office-seekers are innumerable. Dublin Castle is regarded as the haven of hope for all younger sons without talent and briefless barristers hungering for a regular income. They are all suppliants of the Lord-Lieutenant, and several hundreds of years of ascendancy have given them a sense of right in receiving favours, and one of indignation and injustice in the case of refusal. But when all is said and done, the {342} outcry over jobbery in Ireland is absurd, for it is a fact that there is more jobbery in London in a month than in the whole of Ireland in a year. ”

“ It was no misfortune for Ireland that the fall of the Government entailed Wharton's recall in {133} October, 1710, and the Duke of Ormonde's reappointment was at once announced. Wharton, cynical and contemptuous, looked upon his supersession with indifference. He had exhausted all the pleasures Dublin had to offer, and so London knew him once more. He lived until 1715, and saw King George on the throne and his rival, Ormonde, a penniless fugitive. The latter fact must have enabled him to believe that there were compensations in this world even for a man who defied it. ”

“ In social circles Lord Carnarvon's popularity never waned. He was supposed to be that contradiction in terms, 'a Tory Home Ruler,' but he was only a high-minded gentleman who made a genuine attempt to deal with the Irish problem. It was yet another instance of a viceroy risking peace and popularity by trying to be impartial. One of his opponents in Dublin expressed amazement that he should 'bother his head about Home Rule when he had the viceroyalty and a beautiful wife.' It is not to his discredit that he failed, and it must be remembered that he paid a price for his interest in Ireland. ”

“ That Lord Aberdeen and Lady Aberdeen have been successful nobody will deny, and Ireland will lose two good friends when their term of office comes to an end.
The introduction of Mr. Asquith's Home Rule Bill makes the Irish viceroy's position more delicate than ever. Its success means the end of the official ascendancy, and bureaucracies always fight desperately until the first shot is fired. When Liberalism has achieved its ambition, the Irish bureaucracy will cease to hold the power that makes or mars every viceroyalty. ”

“ Lord Carlisle was a typical product of his age, when to graduate as a statesman one had to be at school or university with the reigning minister and have gambled one's way recklessly into favour. Every gentleman was a gambler, and Lord Carlisle was no exception to the rule. Before his sudden desire to shine as a politician he ruined himself at the card-tables, generously backing Fox's debts of honour, and, of course, paying them. It was the influence of Fox that led to his appointment to Ireland. ”

“ London society was not displeased to get rid of the bully so easily, for in their estimation Ireland was still a place of exile, especially so in view of the comfortable statesmanship practised by Charles and his satellites in the palace of Whitehall. Talbot went to Ireland eagerly, knowing that the qualities which had won for him contempt in London would idealize him in Ireland. With the aid of the Duke of York, and also helped by the indolence of Charles, he knew that he could make his office of Commander-in-Chief at least equal to, if not more powerful than, the viceroyalty. ”

“ Religious extremists, whether they be Protestants or Catholics, always present an unedifying caricature of human nature and human sense. English Protestants made themselves just as ridiculous over the visit of the late King Edward paid to the Pope a few years ago. We know that, in the phrase of a great Irishman, the Catholics in England are a sect, while in Ireland they are a nation; but the brass-tongued minority in Ireland seem to dominate the country when they have any opportunity to bring charges against their Catholic fellow-countrymen. ”

“ It was, indeed, in remarkable contrast to Lord Chesterfield's brief and brilliant reign.
Peg Woffington
The Dublin of Dorset's time was squalid, dirty, and disease-ridden. The gentry were drinking themselves into penury; the city was crowded with young bloods, who gambled, and drank, and called out each other to give satisfaction on the famous duelling-ground of Phoenix Park. Clubs of all sorts abounded, and were in reality drinking dens. The most famous of all, Daly's, was the headquarters of most of the notorious gamblers and debauchées of the metropolis. ”

“ This weapon has proved most effective in the hands of Nationalist writers and journalists, though it has not always succeeded in preventing men holding Nationalist opinions from serving their country on the bench or in the administration of the Government of the land.
English ministers possess more patronage than the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and jobbery is ever rampant in London; but the business of the metropolis is not stopped in order that the multitude may hold up their hands in horror at the action of the jobbers. Happily, England's strength is not in its Civil Service. ”

“ The viceroyalty remained, but it was shorn of some of its glory. With the death of the Irish House of Commons and the admittance of Irish peers to the English House of Lords, there was no longer any need for the native nobility to maintain expensive houses in Dublin. London became their centre, and they made their country houses their headquarters while in Ireland. Gradually the social power fell into the hands of the professional classes and the higher-grade civil servants; doctors, lawyers, officers in the army, and others of the professions dominated Dublin society. ”

“ Very few Viceroys of Ireland have been Cabinet ministers, and it is, indeed, surprising how any statesman can be expected to act as king in Ireland and as an exponent of his party's policy in Downing Street; but the fact that viceroys do not often sit in the Cabinet does not remove the political aspect of the post. The unwritten law seems to be that while a Tory occupant of the Viceregal Lodge may be as partisan as he wishes, no Lord-Lieutenant chosen by a Liberal premier must open his mouth on the political questions of the day. ”

“ England had never done anything for Dublin or any other town in Ireland, and the progress of the capital had been made in the face of the bitterest opposition and the most relentless persecution. London, Bristol, and the other ports of England were jealous of Dublin, and they were able to get edicts passed interfering with the shipping and the trade of the country, in order that they might not lose in competition. Dublin, however, rose superior to edicts and statutes, and by the end of the seventeenth century it was not a mean city. ”

“ Northumberland was a great Smithson, but an indifferent Percy, and it was only his wife's name and family that carried him into London society and into the presence of George III. {168} A man of vast wealth, and wedded to a woman with a passion for power, the viceroyalty of Ireland was the position they both craved for, and when powerful friends helped the Earl and Countess of Northumberland towards their goal, they entered with zest and enthusiasm into the task of governing Ireland. ”

“ The viceroyalty of Lord Harcourt, which lasted from October, 1772, to the last days of 1776, was distinguished for its social magnificence. The Lord-Lieutenant was no politician, and he left that part of his work to Lord de Blaquerie, his chief secretary. He set the fashion for costly entertainments until to be economical was to confess oneself a social failure. Dozens of families of note, in their wild efforts to imitate the example of the viceroy, beggared themselves, spending in a few years the income of a whole generation. ”

“ But he was still in the royal favour when Elizabeth sent him to Ireland with fifteen thousand men, his mission being to crush the rebellion of O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. From her palace in London the queen wrote almost daily to the viceroy, seldom commending him, often hampering, and always petulant and capricious. Essex tried one or two encounters with the enemy, and found the battlefields of Ireland profitless and dangerous to the health of one whose chivalry was better suited to the drawing-room. ”