Londonderry

“ The death of the Marquess of Londonderry is a serious matter for England: he was not loved, but he was feared; the Radicals hated him, but they were afraid of him. Singularly courageous, he overawed the Opposition, which did not dare to insult him too much in Parliament or in the newspapers. His imperturbable coolness, his profound indifference for men and things, his instinct for despotism and his secret contempt for constitutional liberties made him a minister well-fitted to contend successfully with the tendencies of the century. ”

“ In private life Londonderry was not only a very charitable man, but also enlightened. He resided on his estates almost exclusively, and encouraged tenant-right; he remitted rents; he made work for the unemployed, and brought supplies into the district for the distressed. To his family, and especially to the training and fortunes of his son, Lord Castlereagh, he was deeply devoted. ”

“ She described the airs of Frances-Anne, Lady Londonderry. [401] One day she was extremely irritated with her page, and sent him to Lord Londonderry with a note, in which she had written in pencil, ‘Flog this fellow well for me: he has been quite unendurable.’ But the page read the note on the way, and meeting one of the great magnificent flunkeys, six feet high, said, ‘Just oblige me by taking this note in to my lord: I am forced to do something else.’ The flunkey brought out the answer, and met the page, who took it in to his lady. ”

“ Lord Londonderry was not the man to repent of having sinned against humanity, for which he cared very little, nor against the enlightenment of the age, for which he had a profound contempt: madness had come into the Castlereagh family through the women.
It was decided that the Duke of Wellington, accompanied by Lord Clanwilliam, should take Lord Londonderry's place at the Congress. ”

“ With her seven children, the youngest eight months old, she made her way to Mountstewart. Londonderry's daughters had attended Porter's scientific lectures; and one of them, Lady Elizabeth Mary (d. 1798) , an invalid, who was expecting her own death, undertook to intercede with her father. Londonderry could not forgive the satire of ‘Lord Mountmumble.’ Tradition has it that Mrs. Porter waylaid his lordship's carriage, in a vain hope of prevailing by personal entreaty, but Londonderry bade the coachman ‘drive on.’ The sentence, however, was mitigated by remission of the order for quartering. ”

“ LONDONDERRY, EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF. The 1st earl of Londonderry was Thomas Ridgeway (c. 1565–1631) , a Devon man, who was treasurer in Ireland from 1606 to 1616 and was engaged in the plantation of Ulster. Ridgeway was made a baronet in 1611, Baron Ridgeway in 1616 and earl of Londonderry in 1623. The Ridgeways held the earldom until March 1714, when Robert, the 4th earl, died without sons. ”

“ The salmon fishery on the Foyle is valuable. The river affords a commodious harbour, its greatest depth being 33 ft. at high tide, and 12 ft. at low tide. It is under the jurisdiction of the Irish Society. The port has a considerable shipping trade with Great Britain, exporting agricultural produce and provisions. Regular services of passenger steamers serve Londonderry from Glasgow, Liverpool, Morecambe, Belfast and local coast stations. In 1898 Londonderry was constituted one of the six county boroughs which have separate county councils. ”

“ The revenues of the city of Dublin were seized, and most of the churches converted into prisons. And had it not been for the resolution and uncommon bravery of the garrisons in the city of Londonderry, and the town of Inniskillin, there had not one place remained for refuge to the distressed protestants in the whole kingdom; but all must have been given up to king James, and to the furious popish party that governed him.
The remarkable siege of Londonderry was opened on the 18th of April, 1689, by twenty thousand papists, the flower of the Irish army. ”

“ The principal business of Londonderry is to make shirts, collars, and cuffs, which are shipped to Australia, South Africa, India, and other British colonies. There are several large factories which employ about two thousand men to do the heavy work and twenty thousand women who do the stitching and laundering by old-fashioned methods. An American buyer I met in Belfast spoke rather contemptuously of the Londonderry shirt factories, which, he declared, “are not in it for a minute” with those of the United States. ”

“ Londonderry (152) , maritime county in Ulster, washed by Lough Foyle and the Atlantic, surrounded by Donegal in the W., Tyrone in the S., and Antrim in the W., and watered by the Foyle, Roe, and Bann Rivers, somewhat hilly towards the S., is largely under pasture; the cultivated parts grow oats, potatoes, and flax; granted to the Corporation and Guilds of London in 1609, a large part of the land is still owned by them. The county town, Londonderry (33) , manufactures linen shirts, whisky, and iron goods, and does a considerable shipping trade. ”

“ I read the report, signed by Halford, Tierney, Brodie, and A. Cooper.
We had East Retford again. Lord Londonderry, whom Lord Durham puts forward as his tool, moved an adjournment. The question was postponed till Friday. Afterwards the Duke of Buckingham, when most peers had gone away, moved the same thing, and then Lord Londonderry twice. We had majorities but gave it up at last. The Chancellor is heartily tired of the whole thing. The Duke went away while Lord Londonderry was explaining in answer to his speech, to the noble Lord's great annoyance. ”

“ He retains all the elegance that is compatible with a large belly and sixty years. You can still admire his form in spite of his fatness, which threatens to burst at every point through his riding coat. The good taste which distinguishes his toilette, and contends even against the advances of old age, does not unfortunately characterize the legislative conduct of Lord Londonderry. He is the most indiscreet speaker in this House, in which all extravagance or violence is rare. ”

“ The late Lord Londonderry was famed for being able to occupy “the house” for any given time without ever communicating a fact, raising a question, solving a difficulty, or, what is harder than all, committing himself. But how humbly does this dexterity appear beside the young-lady-like tact that, opposed by all the importunity of a lover, can play the game in such wise that after fifty-odd minutes the “pieces” should stand upon the board precisely as they did at the beginning!
“How do you do, Sir Harvey? ”

“ In early life he saw some military service abroad. From June 1681 to September 1684 he was governor of Culmore Fort, and filled about the same time a like post at Londonderry. At the end of 1688, with James II as king and Tyrconnel as minister, it was easy for the protestants of Ulster to believe that a repetition of the massacre of 1641 was intended. Lord Antrim's regiment of highlanders and Irish appeared at Newtown Limavady on 6 Dec., and Philips at once wrote to Alderman Norman to put the people of Londonderry on their guard. ”

“ London Bridge Committee. Lord Londonderry a little better than before, but not much. He is running down his character altogether. He has now formed an alliance with the Duke of Cumberland, and through him made his peace with the King. The Duke of Cumberland wishes to be reconciled to the Duke of Wellington. In the House of Commons there is a small Ultra-Tory party, not fifty. In our House I doubt whether there are twenty. ”

“ What the natives beheld in Londonderry was, in fact, a royal organisation of selfishness, bigotry, and monopoly, of the most intensely exclusive and repulsive character. In one sense the Londoners in [pg 169] Derry showed that they peculiarly prized the blessings of civilisation, for they kept them all to themselves. The fountain was flowing in the most tempting manner before the thirsty Irish, but let them dare to drink of it at their peril! A fine which no Irishman was then able to pay must be the penalty for every attempt at civilisation! ”

“ When quite a youth he became a disciple at one of the large monastic schools for which Ireland was soon to become famous, and at the early age of twenty-five he is said to have himself founded a school and religious establishment at the Oak Grove of Calcaigh, which was the ancient name of Londonderry. Similar establishments were founded at Durrow in the King's County, Kells in Meath, Moone in Kildare, Swords near Dublin, and other places. His after life shows him to have been a man of great determination, strong will and considerable ability. ”

“ In 1616 he was raised to the Irish peerage by the title of Lord Ridgeway, and in 1623 he became Earl of Londonderry.
The scene of the trouble was Hardness, a village close to Dartmouth. Here lived Michael Trevisard, a fisherman, with his wife Alice and his son Peter. All were defamed for witchcraft, and suspicion against Michael and Alice was of long standing. The witnesses against them were persons of their own humble condition, belonging in Hardness or the vicinity. There is no trace of influence from the clergy or the gentry. ”

“ I have little more to say, excepting that Lord Londonderry is unwell, and no particular business will come on this evening. Lord and Lady Grey are certainly invited to Carlton House to-night, and Tierney to the evening to-morrow, to meet the King at the Duke of Devonshire's. The strongest rumours are afloat, and increase with regard to his leaning towards the Opposition; and certainly these invitations do not discourage them. What he can mean seems difficult to unravel. ”

“ The principal authority for Lord Londonderry's life is his Correspondence, collected by his brother Charles, and published in twelve volumes in 1848–53, with a memoir. Sir Archibald Alison also had access to the family papers in preparing his unduly laudatory Lives of Lord Castlereagh and Sir Charles Stewart, 1861. For other information see Cornwallis's Correspondence; Burghersh's Memoir of the War of 1814; Wilson's Diary; Stanhope's Life of Pitt; Twiss's Life of Eldon; Lord Colchester's Diaries; Yonge's Life of Lord Liverpool; Seeley's Life and Times of Stein; Life of William Wilberforce. ”

“ CITTIE FROM THE GROVNDE. Many pieces of ordnance bore the arms of the several city companies of Fishmongers, Vintners and Merchant Taylors. One gun, the gift of the first-mentioned company, acquired the name of Roaring Meg from the loudness of its report.
1677."A true account of the siege of Londonderry," by the Rev. Mr. George Walker, rector of "Donoghmoore in the county of Tirone," and late governor of Derry in Ireland (1689) . ”

“ In 1814 he was made a peer as Baron Stewart, and later in the year was appointed ambassador at Vienna, and was a member of the important congresses which followed. In 1822 his half-brother’s death made him 3rd marquess of Londonderry, and shortly afterwards, disagreeing with Canning, he resigned, being created Earl Vane (1823) , and for some years lived quietly in England, improving his Seaham estates. ”

“ With Lord Londonderry died old England, which had struggled on till then in the midst of growing innovations. Supervened Mr. Canning: self-love carried him so far as to talk the language of the propagandist from his place in Parliament After him appeared the Duke of Wellington, a Conservative who came to pull down: when the sentence of societies is pronounced, the hand which was to build knows only how to demolish. Lord Grey [221] , O'Connell [222] , all those labourers at ruins were working successively at the overthrow of the old institutions. ”

“ Tyrone, Donegal, Armagh, Cavan, Fermanagh and Derry were parcelled out among English and Scottish colonists, portions being reserved to the natives. The site of Derry was granted to the citizens of London, who fortified and armed it, and Londonderry became the chief bulwark of the colonists in two great wars. Whatever may have been its morality, in a political point of view the plantation of Ulster was successful. The northern province, which so severely taxed the energies of Elizabeth, has since been the most prosperous and loyal part of Ireland. ”

“ Business done.—Still harping on Army Estimates.
House of Lords, Thursday.—Death of Lord Londonderry, buried to-day near his English home, Wynyard Park, universally regretted. A strong Party man, he had no personal enemies in the Opposition ranks, whether in Lords or Commons. Unlike some distinguished Peers, notably Lord Rosebery, he enjoyed advantage, inestimable in public life, of serving an apprenticeship in the House of Commons, where he sat six years for the Irish constituency which his famous forebear represented in the Irish Parliament. He was born into politics. ”

“ What is certain is that from the moment Londonderry was menaced by the troops of King James, Lundy used all his endeavours to paralyse the defence of the city. In April 1689 he was in command of a force of Protestants who encountered some troops under Richard Hamilton at Strabane, when, instead of holding his ground, he told his men that all was lost and ordered them to shift for themselves; he himself was the first to take flight back to Derry. ”

“ Would have you to follow the self-same way.
69, Edward Coleman, hanged at Tyburn in 1678, for his participation in the Popish Plot.—Croker.
UNDAUNTED LONDONDERRY.
The story of the siege of Londonderry, "the most memorable in the annals of the British isles," is eloquently told in the twelfth chapter of Macaulay's History of England. It lasted one hundred and five days, from the middle of April to the first of August (1689) . During that time the garrison had been reduced from about seven thousand men to about three thousand. Famine and pestilence slew more than the fire of the enemy. ”