APPENDIX A FUNERAL OF LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD THE following letters from Lady Louisa Conolly are curious evidence of the indifference and negligence of the ministerial officials with regard to Lord Edward's funeral. The first was docketed by Lord Henry FitzGerald: "From Lady Louisa Conolly, in consequence of a complaint made to her of the indecent neglect in Mr. Cook's office, by Mr. Leeson. A guard was to have attended at Newgate, the night of my poor brother's burial, in order to provide against all interruption from the different guards and patroles in the streets :-it never arrived, which caused the funeral to be several times stopped in its way, so that the burial did not take place till near two in the morning, and the people attending [were] obliged to stay in the church until a pass could be procured to enlarge them." LADY LOUISA CONOLLY TO THE HON. JOHN DEAR SIR, CASTLETOWN, June 13th, 1798. I received both your letters, and acquainted the Lord Lieutenant with the neglect in Mr. Cook's office, as I thought it right that he should know it, to prevent mischief for the future on such occasions. The grief I have been in, and still do feel, is so much above any other sensation, that the want of respect to my feelings on that melancholy occasion was not worth any notice. Dear sir, your humble servant, L. O. CONOLLY. LADY LOUISA CONOLLY TO WILLIAM OGILVIE, ESQ. The dear remains were deposited by Mr. Bourne in St. Werburgh Church, until the times would permit of their being removed to the family vault at Kildare. I ordered everything upon that occasion that appeared to me to be right, considering all the heart-breaking circumstances belonging to the event; and I was guided by the feelings which I am persuaded our beloved angel would have had upon the same occasion, had he been to direct for me, as it fell to my lot to do for him. I well knew that to run the smallest risk of shedding one drop of blood, by any riot intervening upon that mournful occasion, would be the thing of all others that would vex him most; and knowing also how much he despised all outward show, I submitted to what I thought prudence required. The impertinence and neglect (in Mr. Cook's office) of orders (notwithstanding Lord Castlereagh had arranged everything as I wished it) had nearly caused what I had taken such pains to avoid. However, happily, nothing happened; but I informed Lord Camden of the neglect, for the sake of others, and to prevent mischief on other occasions, where a similar neglect might have such bad consequences. You may easily believe that my grief absorbed all other feelings, and Mr. is too insignificant even to be angry at. At any other time than this his impertinence might amuse one, but now it passes unnoticed. APPENDIX B THE BILL OF ATTAINDER THE Attorney-General, Toler, brought in a Bill of Attainder, for the purpose of confiscating Lord Edward FitzGerald's property, on July 27th, 1798. After much discussion it was read for the third time in the Irish House of Commons, and passed by a majority of 42 to 9. Having also been passed by the House of Lords, it was sent to England in September for the Royal Assent, which it received in October, in spite of a petition presented to the King by Lord Henry FitzGerald, as guardian to the children, and the Duke of Richmond, Charles James Fox, William Ogilvie, Henry Edward Fox, and Lord Holland, as their near relations. A separate petition was also presented by their grandmother, the Duchess of Leinster. The sequel as regards the estate may be told in Moore's words. "Lord Clare having, with the approbation of the Government, allowed the estate to be sold in Chancery-under the foreclosure of a mortgage to which the Attorney-General was made a party-Mr. Ogilvie became the purchaser of it for £10,500; and having, by his good management of the property, succeeded in paying off the mortgage and the judgment debts, he had the satisfaction, at the end of a few years, of seeing the estate restored to its natural course of succession by settling it upon Lord Edward's son and his heirs for ever" (Moore's Life). In 1799 Lady Louisa Conolly and Mr. Ogilvie applied in vain for a reversal of the attainder. In 1815, when the position occupied by the Prince of Wales as Regent offered a better chance of success, the matter was again to be brought forward; when, in consequence of the landing of Napoleon in France, Lord Castlereagh advised that the question should be postponed. Only in 1819, twenty-one years after Lord Edward's death-was the attainder finally repealed. LIST OF PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES The Life and Death of Lord Edward FitzGerald. Thomas Moore. London: 1831. The United Irishmen, their Lives and Times. R. R. Madden. 2nd Edition. Series I, 2. Dublin: 1858. Personal Recollections of the Life and Times, with Extracts from the Correspondence, of Valentine, Lord Cloncurry. Dublin : 1849. Personal Sketches of his own Times. Sir Jonah Barrington. London: 1827-32. A History of England in the Eighteenth Century. W. E. H. Lecky. Pieces of Irish History. W. J. McNevin. New York: 1807. Memoirs of the Political and Private Life of the Earl of Charlemont. F. Hardy. London: 1810. Memoirs of the Life and Times of Henry Grattan. By his Son: 1839-46. The Age of Pitt and Fox. D. O. Maddyn 1846. Revelations of Ireland in the Past Generation. D. O. Maddyn : 1848. Curious Family History; or, Ireland before the Union. W. J. Fitzpatrick. Dublin: 1869. "The Sham Squire" and the Informers of 1798. W. J. Fitzpatrick. London: 1866. Memoirs of the Life of R. B. Sheridan. Thomas Moore. London: 1825. |