the commissioners, and they entered upon busi- 1806. ness at the corporation house in Dawson-street on the Monday following. Weakly was it imagined, that this procrastinated act of duty and justice would reflect a ray of merit on the expiring adininistration of Lord Hardwicke, and call forth a more congratulatory spirit from the nation for the benefits of his mild, conciliatory and just government. The eyes of the public were now turned with confident expectancy towards the new appointments, and the deeds of the departing governor were balanced without the make weights of flattery, fear, or hope.

of the new

The Irish had so long been kept out of posses- First tra'ts sion of the great safe guards of constitutional li- ministry. berty, the bulk of their population had so repeatedly been baffled in their expectations of being emancipated, every successive minister of Mr. Pitt's designs upon Ireland had so determinately pronounced their perpetual proscription from equal laws and rights with their Protestant countrymen, and so effectually opposed their efforts to be ad-mitted to such participation, that they eagerly caught the first dawn of hope, that a change of

*The new appoint- The suspended Di

ments were,

Alderman Carleton,
Alderman Hutton,
Ald. Pemberton,
Alderman Darley,
Sheriff's Peer,
D'Olier,

rectors were,

Lord de Blaquiere,
Mr. T. Burgh,
Mr. R. Cané,
Mr. J. C. Beresford
Lord Frankford,

The suspended

Com. were,
Mr, H. Mitchell,
Mr. R. Alex. juu.
Mr. R. Cane,
Mr. W. J. Alex.
Mr. J. M.Ormsby,
Mr. S. Ormsby.

1806.

men was intended to bring about a total change of system. Before the new Viceroy was prepared to set out for his government, two circumstances occurred, which inspired the Irish with an enthusiastic confidence in the new ministers. The Irish are naturally prodigal of credit, where they anticipate confidence. On the 7th of March the act for suspending the habeas corpus had been permitted to expire without any attempt by government to continue or revive it. Thereupon the several goals in Ireland were cleared of all those State prisoners, who could bear the expences of habeas corpus, and who had been confined there for two or three years under the inquisitorial powers of that despotic suspension. The restoration to society of many respectable and popular characters, dignified by unmerited sufferings, spread a sympathetic glow of exultation through the people, which broke out into an eagerness to hail the new governor as their deliverer, and stifled all efforts to procure valedictory addresses to the departing Viceroy, who had so long kept them in bondage, The instantaneous removal of Lord Redesdale* from his situa

t

* On the 4th of March 1806, Lord Chancellor Redesdale sat in Court for the last time, and when the business of the day was over, he addressed the gentlemen of the Bar, which was numerously attended on the occasion. He told them, that when be came over to Ireland, he thought he should probably have spent the remainder of his days there, "I proudly hoped to have lived amongst you, and to have died amongst you but that "has not been permitted." His Lordship then expressed his sense of the obligations he owed to, and acknowledged his thanks for the conduct of the gentlemen of the Bar; and also of

tion, even before his successor had arrived in Iieland, infused incalculable satisfaction throughout

66

the officers and practicers of the Court. His Lordship was much
agitated, and shed tears profusely: after a short pause, he con-
tinued. "It would have been my wish to have continued to sit,
"until the gentleman, who has been named to succeed me,
"should have arrived. I believe it was his wish also. I have
every reason to think so: and from him I have received every
degree of politeness and attention. I am sorry, that other
persons should have thought me unworthy to be trusted with
the Seal during that interval. What can occasion this (which
"I cannot but consider as a personal insult) I am unable to
guess. But I have been informed, that a peremptory order
"has come to the Lord Lieutenant, not to suffer a moment to
elapse in preventing the Great Seal longer remaining in my
"hands. I know not whence this jealousy of me has arisen, or
how my continuing to sit in the Court of Chancery (for I
"could make no other use of the Great Seal but under the war-
"rant of his Excellency) could interfere with any views of his
Majesty's 'ministers. I am proudly conscious of having dise
charged the duties of my station with honesty and integrity
"to the utmost of my abilities. For the office I care not; ex-
cept so far, as it afforded me the opportunity of discharging
conscientiously an important public duty. It was unsought
"for by me
I came here much against my will. I came from
"a high situation in England, where I was living amongst my
old friends, and in the midst of my family. But I was told, I
"owed it to the public duty, and to private friendship to accept
"the office, and I yielded. I yielded to the solicitations of
some of those, who have concurred in my removal. This I
"own, is what I did not expect, and what I was not prepared

་་

་་

to bear." His Lordship was here again much affected, even to tears. He then made general offers of his services to Ireland and considering, how vehemently he had both in word and writing expressed himself with reference to the body of Irish Catholics, and their wishes and efforts to be admitted to an equal participation of all constitutional rights with their fellow

1506.

every rank of the Catholic population, which he had so coarsely and unfoundedly insulted and traduced. This early and marked removal of Lord Redesdale was a seasonable atonement to the insulted feelings of the Irish Catholics, and was received by them, as an earnest of the new minister's adopting a new system of measures, calculated to secure the internal peace, welfare, and prosperity of Ireland. The united efforts of official favourites and a purchased press could not at the close of Lord Hardwicke's five years administration keep up his popularity even to that pitch, as to procure him the ordinary obsequies to a departing governor. The attendance even of his favoured yeomanry of Dublin was solicited to perform the last honor to the Ex-Governor, and was refused in the first instance. Out of all Ireland, addresses on his departure, came only from Dublin, the county of Mayo, and the loyal Crossmolyna cavalry. His

countrymen, he made this singular declaration. "To this "country I have the highest sense of obligation. I do not "know, that in a single instance, I have experienced any thing

but kindness. I have experienced it from all ranks of people without exception." After his Lordship had finished his speech, the Attorney General in the name and by the direction of the bar addressed his Lordship in a short speech, expressive of the sense, which the bar entertained of his Lordship's endowments, which preeminently qualified him to preside in a Court of Equity, and of their thanks for the impartial attention, sagacity and patience, which he had uniformly manifested on all occasions, and for the instruction, which they had received from a course of decisions during four years, by which he had much advanced the science, which they professed.

Lordship sailed from the Pidgeon-house on the 1806. 31st of March. During his residence there for two days, he kept his Court with the same etiquette and form, that he had preserved at Dublin Castle during his whole administration.