people will attempt to gain by time".* These expedients, coupled with the energetic efforts daily made by a venal press and minister, at last triumphed; and the king was now, to quote the words of Lord Grenville in writing to the viceroy, "actually well!” The struggle was therefore at an end, but not the results of that struggle. The master of the rolls, the treasurer, the clerk of permits, the postmaster-general, the secretary at war, the comptroller of stamps, and many other public servants of importance, were summarily expelled from office. The Duke of Leinster, one of the most respected officers of the crown, received a supersedeas, together with Lord Shannon. The influential family of Ponsonby, long the unwavering supporters of government, but who on this occasion joined the legislature in asserting its constitutional independence, were also cashiered. But the promotions and appointments vastly exceeded the dismissals. Of the former, which included a long string of creations in the peerage, there were forty-of the latter fifteen only. Employments that had long remained dormant were revived, useless places invented, sinecures created, salaries increased; while such offices as the board of stamps and accounts, hitherto filled by one, became a joint concern. The weighmastership of Cork was divided into three parts, the duties of which were discharged by deputies, while the principals, who pocketed the gross amount, held seats in parliament. In 1790 one hundred and ten placemen sat in the House of Commons! On February 11th in that year, Mr. Forbes declared that the pensions had been recently increased upwards of £100,000. In 1789 an additional perpetuity of * Life of Sheridan by Thomas Moore, chap. xiii. £2,800 was saddled on the country. The viceroy, however glad of his victory, had not much reason, one would think, to be proud of the means whereby that victory was attained. But an examination of his correspondence shows the utter unscrupulosity of his heart. Writing to Lord Bulkley he observes: "In the space of six weeks, I have secured to the crown a decided and steady majority, created in the teeth of the Duke of Leinster, Lord Shannon, Lord Granard, Ponsonby, Conolly, O'Neill, united to all the republicanism, the faction, and the discontent of the House of Commons; and having thrown this aristocracy at the feet of the king, I have taught to the British and Irish Government a lesson which ought never to be forgotten; and I have the pride to recollect, that the whole of it is fairly to be ascribed to the steady decision with which the storm was met, and to the zeal, vigour, and industry of some of the steadiest friends that ever man was blessed with”. Amongst "the steadiest friends" by whom the viceroy was "blessed", the Sham Squire deserves mention. He worked the engine of the press with unflagging vigour, and by means of a forced circulation he succeeded to some extent in inoculating the public mind with the virus of his politics. It was Lord Buckingham's policy to feed the flame of Shamado's pride and ambition; and we are assured by John Magee, that so essential to the stability of the Irish government were the services of this once fettered malefactor, that on frequent occasions he was admitted to share the hospitalities and confidence of the viceroy's closet. The first allusion to Francis Higgins, which the leading organ of the popular party in the last century contains, is an article on March 8th, 1789, wherein the Sham Squire is spoken of as "Frank Paragraph, the Stephen's Green Attorney", who on the previous night, having been escorted up the backstairs of the Castle by Major Hobart,* received the Marquis of Buckingham's hospitality and confidence. The article concluded by expressing a hope that Frank, whether as an attorney, as proprietor of a prostitute print, or as the companion of a viceroy, should not in the day of his happy exultation forget his original insignificance. Mr. John Magee was the then proprietor of the Dublin Evening Post. Sir Jonah Barrington tells us that although eccentric he was a most acute observer, a smart writer, and a ready wit. Politically honest and outspoken, often to indiscretion, he enjoyed the confidence and love of the popular party in Ireland. By the government he was feared and hated; and on more occasions than one he was consigned to a dungeon. Magee exercised considerable influence on the public events of his time, and he may be not inapplicably styled the Irish Cobbett of the eighteenth century. Against the Sham Squire Magee had no personal enmity; and previous to 1789 there is no allusion to him direct or indirect in the Post; but Mr. Higgins's importance having in that year swelled to an unprecedented extent, as the accredited organ of the Castle, Magee felt urged by a sense of public duty to declare uncompromising war against the fortunate adventurer. Probably Magee's labours had good effect in checking the further promotion of Higgins. Magee first wielded the lash of irony; but finding Major Hobart, afterwards Lord Buckinghamshire, was the diplomatic chief secretary for Ireland at this period. that this failed to tell with sufficient effect, he thereupon applied the loaded bludgeon of denunciation. Several poetic diatribes appeared in the Post at this period; but they are too voluminous to quote in full. One, in which the Sham Squire is found soliloquising, goes on to say: "You know my power; at my dread command Higgins's antecedents are glanced at: "You know my art can many a form assume. And murder wretched fathers by despair". As soon as the struggle respecting the Regency question had ceased, the viceroy is said to have acknowledged Higgins's fidelity by recommending him to Lord Lifford as a fit and proper person to grace the magisterial bench! We resume the Sham Squire's soliloquy : "And if Old Nick continues true, no bar shall My golden wand becomes a golden chain. * Before Lord Lifford accepted the seals, then estimated as worth £12,000 per annum, they had been offered to Judges Smyth, Aston, and Sewell, of the English Bench, and declined. He was the son of William Hewit, a draper in Coventry, and began life as an attorney's clerk. See Irish Polit. CharactersLondon, 1799, p. 58; also Sleator's Dublin Chronicle, 1788-9, pp. 240, 550, 1256. Lord Lifford's personalty was £150,000. * See how I loll in my judicial chair, Those I commit, who have no bribe to give,- I seem to be a pillar of the law; See even nobles at my tables wait. * * * * But think not that (like idiots in your plays) By the 5 George the Second (c. 18, s. 2) no attorney can become a justice of the peace while in practice as an attorney; but in the case of the Sham Squire all difficulties were smoothed. Some of the most influential political personages of the time travelled out of the way in order to mark their approval of Mr. Higgins's elevation. The letter to which we have already referred, signed "An Old Grayheaded Attorney", and published on July 23rd, 1789, records that Francis Higgins had the honour of being first “introduced as a justice of his Majesty's peace for the county of Dublin, to the bench assembled at Kilmainham, by the good, the virtuous, the humane Earl Carhampton; that peer who so truly, nobly, and gallantly added to the blushing honour of a before-unsullied fame, by rescuing from a gibbet the chaste Mrs. Lewellyn. Mr. Higgins was also there, and there accompanied by that enlightened senator, independent * Dublin Evening Post, No. 1742. |