Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

LORD FITZGIBBON TO MR. BERESFORD.

Dublin, May 14th, 1793.

MY DEAR BERESFORD,-I presume you have seen the proceedings of the Catholic Convention at their breaking up. If you have not, be it known that they finished their session by insulting, so far as they could, the two Houses of Parliament. They voted 5007. to Mr. Simon Butler," to pay the fine imposed upon him by the House of Lords, and declared their resolution to concur in reforming the House of Commons. They also voted 1500l. to Mr. Tone, and 1000l. to Todd Jones for their services in working for a separation from Great Britain. The Defenders are again in force in the county of Meath; within three days they have robbed six or seven houses of arms, and the night before the last attacked Baron Dillon to the number of five hundred at the least, and carried off all the arms which were in his possession. I have good reason to believe that Messrs. Keogh, Dowling, and Co. are preparing for another campaign, and mean, whenever the Parliament is prorogued, to take the field; I have some hope that we shall be able to prove Mr. Keogh to have been the author of "Common Sense."

I have had a good deal of conversation with the Speaker upon the subjects of East and West Indies. He is very much pleased with the prospect of a proper explanation of the Navigation Act, but rides his hobby as

a The Hon. Simon Butler, third son of Edmond, tenth Viscount Mountgarrett, and Charlotte Bradstreet; born 1749; married, 1795, Miss Lynch; died 1797.

to the East Indies as hard as ever. He says that a warehouse in Ireland will be absolutely necessary to give content here; old Pery holds the same language; and I am told Mr. Grattan harks in with him. This, however, I have only from report, as you know that I have no intercourse or communication with him. Surely the East India Company ought not to stickle for an object which seems to be so very immaterial to them, if by yielding it they can secure the ratification of their monopoly by the Irish Parliament. An attempt has been made to resist a ballot under the Militia Act, in the Queen's County, and the County of Carlow. I am told it has originated with the United Irishmen.

Yours always truly, my dear Beresford,

FITZGIBBON.

LORD AUCKLAND TO MR. BERESFORD.

Beckenham, Sept. 2nd, 1793.

MY DEAR BERESFORD, I have to thank you for yours of the 22nd July; I should have answered it more immediately if I had had anything else to do; but I have passed the last two months in all the luxury of perfect idleness, and my whole mind has been absorbed in the complacency of so novel a state. I have arranged my library and manuscripts, and have placed the Hague furniture in the new rooms of Beckenham; and I have planned and executed new works to a considerable extent; and I ride every morning with the girls (who, by the by, and without partiality, are turning out well),

and I drive afterwards in a phaeton, and I have placed my boys at school preparatory to Eton, and about seven miles distant from this place. And we have had a constant succession and relays of company. I tell you all this in answer to your question "what I am doing." What I am hereafter to do is not so easy to be said: I know nothing about it, and I ask no questions; for the present I still have possession of my embassy, and I have no idea that when it ceases I shall long be entirely out of office; but at all events, I am contented and happy so far as my personal circumstances are concerned; I have at different times had as much official responsibility as I desire to have; and as to income, I think that I can in some degree proportion my system and expenses to it. In the meantime I have the pleasure to live in perfec cordiality and friendship with Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, and the Chancellor.

And now for you; I am pleased with the manner in which you write about yourself and your situation; bu you are not sufficiently explicit about the health of Mrs. Beresford, and of your family. Give us a list of your whole progeny, and of their ages and life, character and behaviour.

As to Ireland, it is too large a subject for me to enter upon it, after having been up all night, and after having written all day. I am not sufficiently informed to know the ground, necessity, consistency, or expediency of all the late concessions; but I am willing to believe that if the continental war ends well, Ireland will be kept in that order and correction which are essential to her own happiness; and if it should not end well, I fear

that all civil governments and all mankind will be involved in one general darkness and misery. Our prospects of ending well are at this moment fair and promising; at all events it must be confessed that the Irish Government is made a perilous and difficult task for Lord Westmoreland's successor.

Our love to Mrs. Beresford. Believe me, my dear Beresford, very affectionately yours,

AUCKLAND.

LORD BRISTOL TO MR. BERESFORD.

Shaffausen, 3rd Sept., 1793.

SIR,-I send you Mr. Mitchel's estimate, which is not as moderate as I could wish, but your compliance may possibly induce him to execute the work in the ablest manner; by not employing an architect to supervise, you will save near 607., which may be employed in beautifying the steeple and spire, which I hope you will be good enough to make as beautiful as possible.

As to the church, I entreat you not to make it large; the increase of our congregation is too problematical, and a small one in a large church is as uncomfortable as it is ridiculous: let it decorate the country if it cannot receive it, and at least be a monument and an example to posterity how well the squire and the bishop could draw together.

As to the execution, let me beg of you to have all the freestone for the spire and the coins of the steeple quarried this year, that they may be hardened for use in the course of the next; this will be of great use to us.

I have proposed to your nephew and my friend James Jones to build a steeple and a spire at Tamlat; keep my council, I beseech you, but give him a jog privately without naming me; if we can employ the idle, they will make no riots, and if we can fill their bellies, they will no more open their mouths.

With the greatest regard, yours,

BRISTOL.

LORD BRISTOL TO MR. BERESFORD.

From the St. Gothard en Suisse, 7th Sept., 1793. SIR,-Though I troubled you so lately, yet I cannot forbear transmitting the plan and elevation of our church at Ballykelly, lest Mr. Shanahan should not have provided you with one. If your pew is made to project from the church, I propose that, for uniformity sake, that of the rector should do the same, especially as most rectors are likely to have as numerous a family as the 'squire-few 'squires as prolific as yourself, and still fewer who so well deserve to be multiplied. I entreat you to have the freestone for the spire quarried this year, and to prefer that of Fahanvale, as it takes the paint admirably well, witness my gate at Down Hill; and also as the carriage by water will save us at least one-half of the expense; which saving may contribute to raise our steeple and spire, and make it the visible as well as the established church.

In this country, the poorest parish church has steeple and spire, but then the latter, in this country of wood, is

VOL. II.

C

« ForrigeFortsett »