Viceroy of Ireland

“ Second only in popularity to their illustrious guests, they proved to the thousands of strangers who visit Ireland in the wake of royalty that it is by no means certain that a Liberal viceroy cannot earn the affection of the country. Common courtesy might account for the respect royalty and royalty's representatives meet with in Ireland, but only genuine affection could inspire the enthusiastic welcomes accorded to King Edward and his son and their viceroy, the Earl of Aberdeen. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Some of the official members of this Council are not natives of Ireland; and the Lord Lieutenant himself is almost invariably an English or Scotch aristocrat of high rank and liberal fortune. No Catholic can fill the office of Viceroy of Ireland. The authority of the latter is, to all intents and purposes, absolute. In seasons of political agitation, even when there is no violence, he can suspend the ordinary law without having recourse to Parliament. This power has been frequently exercised even in this generation. ”

“ It must have been during the viceroyalty of Lord Buckinghamshire that English statesmen first thought of a legislative union with Ireland, for the reforms initiated by the viceroy undoubtedly pointed that way, reading their history in view of subsequent events. The rise of the Irish volunteer movement must have convinced the English Government that if Ireland was permitted to have its own legislation much longer the country would seek to break away from the monarchical union. ”

“ The second deputation was from the City of Belfast, and expressed devotion and loyalty to the throne and to the king's representative. In other words, it was a grim reminder to Lord Aberdeen that the Unionists had their eye on him, and that it behoved him not to air his Home Rule opinions during his viceroyalty. There is an unwritten law that all Lord-Lieutenants of Ireland must be non-political in thought and word, if not in deed, and the rule is always applied with rigour in the case of a Liberal viceroy. ”

“ Never was a new nation more nobly heralded into existence! Never was an old nation more reverently and tenderly lifted up and restored! The Houses adjourned to give England time to consider Ireland's ultimatum. Within a month it was accepted by the new British administration, and on the 27th of May, the new Whig Viceroy, the Duke of Portland, was authorized to announce from the throne the establishment of the judicial and legislative independence of Ireland. ”

“ Dublin Castle seldom housed the viceroy, the administration being left to one or more Lords Justices who escaped criticism, provided their remittances to the absent Lord-Lieutenant were regular and satisfactory in amount. Dublin society was scarcely half formed, and consisted of beggarly exiles from England, compelled to emigrate by reason of their debts and misdeeds, the friends and relatives of the Lords Justices, obscure army officers and their kind, and a few of the wealthier citizens who could not be ignored. Those with English names affected to despise those with Irish ”

“ For the first time in the history of Ireland a resident viceroy was appointed.
Breaking the Irish Parliament
Townshend accepted the task with enthusiasm. He was forty-three years of age, and had succeeded in achieving an unpopularity that provided him with a vast amount of inspiration for lampoons and caricatures. He never cultivated friendship either in men or women, and he found his chief relaxation in vilifying his opponents. ”

“ John Morley; but the Lord-Lieutenant of the Government sat in gloomy solitude in Dublin, cognisant no doubt of the fact that for the first time since 1172 Dublin Castle and Viceregal Lodge invitations were being declined or ignored by a society which in the ordinary course of events would sacrifice {307} anything rather than the entrée to the miniature court of the viceroy. No help could come from Ireland, where the masses watched the efforts to plant a Parliament in College Green with a sullenness of demeanour that indicated their lack of enthusiasm. ”

“ For the third time, the aged Ormond, now arrived at the period usually allotted to the life of man, returned to Ireland, with the rank of Viceroy. During the ensuing seven years, he clung to power with all the tenacity of his youth, and all the policy of his prime; they were seven years of extraordinary sectarian panic and excitement—the years of the Cabal, the Popish plot, and the Exclusion Bill, in England—and of fanatical conspiracies and explosions almost as dangerous in Ireland. ”

“ The Times, referring to the debate on the Irish Church, remarked that the viceroyalty was more and more 'a mere ornament.' It is really nothing more. The viceroy has no actual power, and if he has statesmanship, it is felt to be out of place. He can scarcely give public expression to his sentiments on any political questions without offending one party or the other, whereas the estate of the realm which he represents is neutral and ought to keep strictly to neutral ground. ”

“ It was quite impossible for either viceroy or Chief Secretary to do more than be there if he was wanted, and, perhaps fortunately no great crisis called for their intervention. A Tory Lord-Lieutenant can always have a comfortable and easy life in Dublin provided he is not ambitious to be up and doing. ”

“ Ireland has always refused to accept the spirit of the English party system, and whether Liberal or Conservative ministry was in power, Dublin Castle remained the same. There were the usual evictions, riots, {265} murders, and other crimes scarcely less reprehensible, and the viceroy, although protected to some extent by the Chief Secretary, who was, of course, the mouthpiece of the Irish Government in the House of Commons, found himself compelled by force of circumstances to undertake political work against which his soul revolted. ”

“ The native Irish had by now the protection and assistance of the leading Anglo-Irish families, who were influenced by the Irish blood in their veins, and took common cause against the viceroy and his battalions. In almost every encounter the English were defeated, and, finally, Dublin itself was threatened. In alarm the English colony began to make hasty preparations for flight to England. ”

“ Tory ascendancy
The triumph of the Conservative and Liberal-Unionist coalition cleared the political atmosphere. Once more the rival parties in Ireland were on their old footing; the Castle and the Lodge would be exclusively Unionist, and the other side was saved the embarrassment of having a friend in power. Lord Salisbury, in looking round for a suitable viceroy, found in his intimate friend and colleague, Lord Cadogan, the ideal viceroy. ”

“ Well, ma'am, there never was such rejoicings as Dublin saw the night his Grace arrived to be our Viceroy. To know that we had got a man with one hundred and fifty thousand a year, and a spirit to spend double the money, was a downright blessing from Providence, and there was no saying what might not be the prosperity of Ireland under so auspicious a ruler. ”

“ This enables every Unionist to charge the viceroy with pandering to the prejudices of the disloyal majority, and thereby degrading the dignity of his office by condoning insults to the king whom he represents. From time to time Nationalist politicians have declined to drink the king's health, or have marched out of a hall or room at the sound of the first bars of 'God save the King.' Instances readily occur to all acquainted with Ireland. Unionists naturally make the most of this, and the Lord-Lieutenant finds himself criticized by all, the fiercest being those who ought to support him. ”

“ Even in this attempt he must needs lay himself open to the charges—eagerly laid against him—of showing favour to either political party, for even a Viceroy of Ireland cannot help being aware of the politics and religion of some of those upon whom he bestows office. In the case of a Liberal Lord-Lieutenant he dwells in a country where Liberalism has been buried for more than a generation, where {328} a religious motive colours every political action, and where bones of contention provide the only food for the hungry politicians. ”

“ It is a strange and striking anomaly that Ireland should be the only place on the face of the earth where Irishmen are not permitted to govern. History shows how Irish governors have been mainly instrumental in building up and consolidating the colonial empire of Britain, and yet, during the currency of the nineteenth century, Ireland has never had a viceroy chosen from her own distinguished sons. Englishmen and Scotchmen have been regularly sent to govern a nation that supplied rulers to every quarter of the civilised globe. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 Spencer, his first viceroy, experienced all the fury of rebellious Nationalism, and during his second viceroyalty had the unfortunate distinction of being the governor of a country where no man's life was safe, and where murder and outrage were as common as sand. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This was the crowned “fiend in human shape” who sought to effect his “Reformation in Ireland,” where both the Old Irish and the Old English had united against his tyranny. The weight of his wrath fell first upon the Leinster Geraldines, whom he dreaded. He contrived to pick a quarrel with Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, who had been for many years his favorite viceroy in Ireland, and summoned him to London in hot haste, on flimsy, notoriously “trumped-up” charges of treason. ”

“ The most significant event of the visit was the Levee held at Dublin Castle by the king. All the leading men of Ireland were invited, irrespective of politics and religion. It was a daring thing to do, but Lord Dudley could count upon his own popularity, and he confidently invited Roman Catholic Archbishops, Catholic gentlemen, Nationalists, and many others whose political opinions were against the Government. The occasion was historic—a King of England holding a Levee in 'the worst castle in the worst situation in Christendom,' as a former viceroy described it—and it was almost unprecedented. ”

“ Many of the Anglo-Irish lords and their followings took part in the English wars, 104mainly on the side of the House of York, and the Geraldines, in particular, got sadly mixed up in them, for which they suffered amply in after days. No reigning king of England had set foot in Ireland since Richard II sailed to his death from Dublin, and Henry VII proved to be no exception to the rule. He, however, interfered in the quarrel between the Fitzgeralds and the Butlers—as bitter and prolonged as that between the Camerons and Campbells in Scotland—and made the Earl of Kildare viceroy. ”

“ By now there was no 'English colony' to uphold the viceroy's rights or wrongs, and to every Englishman a resident in Ireland was 'savage and Irish.' Dean Swift, who spent a lifetime endeavouring to disprove the—to him—terrible accusation of being Irish, was moved to declare that the Anglo-Irish families spoke the best English, and were the most civilized persons under the dominion of the English Crown. ”