time in February after, because his regiment also was out of the kingdom till that time; and that therefore he being the eldest general officer that had no pay as such, was entituled to the brigadier's pay, from the time Echlin was not qualified to receive it, till Gorges was qualified to receive it, he having done the duty. His Excellency upon hearing the reason, owned it to be a very good one, and told him if the money were not paid to Gorges he should have it; so bid him go see, which he did, and found it was; then his Excellency told him, he would refer his case to the court of general officers to give their opinion in it, which he said must needs be in his favour, and upon that ground he would find a way to do him right; yet when the general officers sat he sent for several of them, and made them give the case against Rooke. When the prosecution against the dissenting minister at Drogheda was depending, one Stevens a lawyer in this town (Dublin), sent his Excellency, then in London, a petition in the name of the said dissenting minister, in behalf of himself and others, who lay under any such prosecution; and in about a fortnight's time his Excellency sent over a letter to the then lords justices, to give the attorney and solicitorgeneral orders, to enter nolle prosequi's to all such suits; which was done accordingly, though he never so much as inquired into the merits of the cause, or referred the petition to any body, which is a justice done to all men, let the case be never so light. He said he had Her Majesty's orders for it, but they did not appear under her hand, and it is generally affirmed he never had any. That his Excellency can descend to small gains, take this instance. There was 850/. ordered by Her Majesty to buy liveries for the state trumpets, messengers, &c.; but with great industry he got them made cheaper by 200l. which he saved out of that sum; and 'tis reported that his steward got a handsome consideration out of the undertaker besides. The agent to his regiment being so also to others, bought a lieutenant's commission in a regiment of foot, for which he never was to do any duty, which service pleased his Excellency so well, that he gave him leave to buy a company, and would have had him kept both; but before his pleasure was known, the former was disposed of. The lord-lieutenant has no power to remove or put in a solicitor-general without a Queen's letter, it being one of those employments excepted out of his commission; yet because Sir Richard Levinge1 disobliged him by voting according to his opinion, he removed him, and put in Mr. Forster,2 though he had no Queen's letter for so doing; only a letter from Mr. Secretary Boyle that Her Majesty designed to remove him. The privy council in Ireland have a great share of the administration; all things being carried by the consent of a majority, and they sign all orders and proclamations made there, as well as the chief governor; but his Excellency disliked so much share of power in any beside himself; and when matters were debated in council otherwise than he approved, he would stop them and say, "Come, my lords, I see how your opinions are, and therefore I will not take your votes ;" and so would put an end to the dispute. One of his chief favourites was a scandalous clergyman, a constant companion of his pleasures, who appeared publicly with his Excellency, but never in his habit, and who was a hearer and sharer of all the lewd and blasphemous discourses of his Excellency and his cabal. His Excellency presented this worthy divine to one of the bishops with the following recommendation: "My lord, Mr. is a very honest fellow, and has no fault, but that he is a little too immoral." He made this man chaplain to his regiment, though he had been so infamous that a bishop in England refused to admit him to a living that he was presented to, till the patron forced him to it by law. His Excellency recommended the Earl of Inchiquin3 to 1 The Rt. Hon. Sir Richard Levinge, or Levintz (1656?-1724), was Solicitor-General for Ireland in 1690-1695 and 1704-1709, AttorneyGeneral in 1711-1714, and Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas in 1720-1724. Previous to holding office in Ireland he had been Recorder of Chester, which city he also represented in the English House of Commons in 1690-1692. He afterwards sat in the Irish House of Commons for several boroughs, and, for a time (1692), was also its Speaker. [T. S.] 2 Recorder of the city of Dublin (1710), and afterwards (in 1714) Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. His name is also spelt "Foster." [T. S.] William O'Brien succeeded his father as third Earl of Inchiquin in be one of the lords justices in his absence, and was much mortified, when he found Lieutenant-General Ingoldsby appointed, without any regard to his recommendations; particularly, because the usual salary to a lord justice in the lord-lieutenant's absence is 100l. per month, and he had bargained with the earl to be content with 40/. I will send you, in a packet or two, some particulars of his Excellency's usage of the convocation; of his infamous intrigues with Mrs. Coningsby; an account of his arbitrary proceedings about the election of a mayor in Trim; his selling the place of a privy-councillor and commissioner of the revenue to Mr. Conolly; his barbarous injustice to Dean Jephson, and poor Will. Crow; his deciding a case at hazard to get my lady 20 guineas, but in so scandalous and unfair a manner, that the arrantest sharper would be ashamed of; the common custom of playing on Sunday in my lady's closet; the partie carrée between her ladyship and Mrs. Fl—d, and two young fellows dining privately and frequently at Clontarf, where they used to go in a hackney coach; and his Excellency making no scruple of dining in a hedge tavern whenever he was invited; with some other passages, which I hope you will put into some method, and correct the style, and publish as speedily as you can. 1692. He was successively Governor of Kinsale and Clare. He was born about the year 1662, and died at Rostellon Castle, Cork, in 1719. [T. S.] To this intrigue may probably belong the charge in the "Examiner," No. XVII., that, "on a day set apart for public prayer for the safety of the commonwealth, he stole at evening in a chair to a married woman of infamous character, against all decency and prudence, as well as against all laws, both human and divine." [S.] 2 The disputes about the Trim elections are often mentioned in the Journal to Stella. [S.] Afterwards Speaker. "Conolly is out, and Mr. Roberts in his place. That employment cost Conolly three thousand pounds to Lord Wharton, so he has made one ill bargain in his life.”—Journal, 28th September, 1710. [S.] Michael Jephson was of Trinity College, where he graduated M.A. in 1679. He was Dean of St. Patrick's in 1691, and died in 1694. One of his daughters married the youngest son of the third Earl of Inchiquin. Dr. William Crowe represented Dublin University in the Irish Parliament. At the time Swift wrote he was M. P. for Blessington, a town of which he had, a few years before, been the recorder. [T. S.] Note, Mr. Savage, beside the persecution about his fees before-mentioned, was turned out of the council for giving his vote in parliament, in a case where his Excellency's own friends were of the same opinion, till they were wheedled or threatened out of it by his Excellency. The particulars before mentioned I have not yet received; whenever they come, I shall publish them in a Second Part. |