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The Creevey Papers

Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 7 October 1828

INTRODUCTION & INDEXES

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

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Introduction

Vol. I. Contents

Ch. I: 1793-1804

Ch. II: 1805

Ch. III: 1805

Ch. IV: 1806-08

Ch. V: 1809

Ch. VI: 1810

Ch. VII: 1811

Ch. VIII: 1812

Ch. IX: 1813-14

Ch X: 1814-15

Ch XI: 1815-16

Ch XII: 1817-18

Ch XIII: 1819-20

Vol. II. Contents

Ch I: 1821

Ch. II: 1822

Ch. III: 1823-24

Ch. IV: 1825-26

Ch. V: 1827

Ch. VI: 1827-28

Ch. VII: 1828

Ch. VIII: 1829

Ch. IX: 1830-31

Ch. X: 1832-33

Ch. XI: 1833

Ch. XII: 1834

Ch XIII: 1835-36

Ch XIV: 1837-38

Index

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“Don’t I put you in mind of Mungo—‘Mungo’s here, Mungo’s there, Mungo’s everywhere.’ Well, before I say a single word about Molly Payne or anyone else, . . . I must enlighten you upon the immediate causes of the present crisis of this country. Remember, it is no vague theory of my own. Lord

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[Ch. VII.

Donoughmore is my historian; he was a principal actor in what I am about to state, and, what is more, he is the only surviving one. . . . He was observing to me that the English government never took any measures respecting Ireland except when pushed into it; and then they always took the wrong one, as they did when the 40s. election franchise was granted.—‘Tell me,’ says I, ‘about that;’—and to the best of my belief he spoke as follows. . . . ‘In the year 1792 the Catholics of Ireland presented a petition to the Irish House of Commons, praying for a qualified franchise in the election of members of Parliament. Five or six days after it was presented, David Latouche moved that such petition should be taken off the table and out of the House, upon the avowed ground of the audacity of its prayer. The House divided—for Latouche’s motion 208—against it 25. Forbes and I were tellers. Forbes was as honest a fellow as ever lived, and Grattan was always a stout fellow to act with; so we three consulted together, and we summoned some of the leading Catholics of Dublin to meet us. Keogh, a silk mercer, and a very rich man, was our principal [illegible]. He was a damned clever fellow, and the only Catholic of courage I ever saw. We told them that, as Catholics, they had received an insult from the House of Commons; they ought never to submit to that; we, as their friends and advocates, felt ourselves in the same situation, and were determined not to put up with it. We said the thing to be done was for the Catholics of Ireland to send delegates to Dublin to agree with us and amongst themselves what step they meant to take next. But the Catholics we had summoned were all frightened, and said it would never do. Keogh alone stood firm with us, and we said it should do; and it was settled that letters should be sent into all the provinces summoning them to send their delegates to Dublin.

“‘During the autumn of this year I went to see La Fayette, and to look at the French armies. I desired my brother Donoughmore to act for me with the Catholics in my absence. When he took the business up, he was told by Keogh that the Catholics in Cork and other parts of Munster were very shy, and would not send any delegates; upon which my

1828.]

LORD DONOUGHMORE’S RECOLLECTIONS.

179

brother went down, and went round every chapel and saw every priest in Munster, and eventually 300 delegates made their appearance in Dublin. When they had assembled there, they were affraid of having any publick meetings, and told my brother they would be taken up; to which he said they should not—that he would stand between them and the government. They met, and agreed to present the same petition to the King that they had presented to the Irish Parliament.

“‘My brother waited upon Hobart, then Secretary for Ireland, and asked what he meant to do with the Catholic delegates now assembled in Dublin. Hobart said—“Put them down by force:”—to which my brother said—“You dare not! but if you have any conciliatory measure to propose to them, I offer myself as the channel:” and so they parted.

“‘A short time after, Hobart sent for my brother, and asked to see the petition. My brother said:—“You shall see the petition, but you shall not forward it to the King, because you are their enemy.” So they selected Lord French, Keogh, Burn, Bellew and Devereux as their delegates to go to London and present their petition to the King. Grattan and I met them there to keep them up to their mark, and to see that they did not betray their cause. We found that Pitt and Dundas, after two or three interviews with these delegates, said they should advise the prayer of their petition being granted, and that the qualification should be 40s.

“‘Upon this, Grattan and I asked to see Dundas, and we had different interviews with him, in which we stated that the Catholics, in asking for a qualified franchise, had never thought of less than £20 a year, and that they would be content even with £50. We urged again and again the impolicy of so low a franchise; and all we could get from Dundas was that it must be the same as it was in England. And so in 1793, the very same Parliament that the year before would not permit the Catholic petition, praying for a qualified franchise, to lie upon their table, now was made to give them the 40s. franchise.’

“‘When Pitt established the college at Maynooth,’

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[Ch. VII.

said Lord Donoughmore, ‘he gave to Ireland a republican priesthood. Formerly it required some money to educate candidates for orders in foreign countries, so that they were necessarily Catholic gentlemen’s sons; and they returned from France, Spain or Portugal with the manners of gentlemen and strict monarchical principles. But from the time that these priests are educated at Dublin for nothing, people of any property no longer send their sons there, and the College is filled with people from the very ranks of the population—farmers’ sons, &c. The effect of this is visible to every one. A priest of the old school lives at Clonmel, whom I can trust or act with as I would with my brother; but none of the young ones from Maynooth will have anything to do with me; and these rascals are always caballing against the old set, and trying to get the nomination to bishopricks into their own hands.

“‘. . . Now, at last, Ireland is enjoying the blessings thus bestowed upon her by Pitt and Dundas—an ultra-popular franchise and a republican priesthood, given to the most bigoted nation in Europe, with a population of six to one against the Protestants. This Pitt is, forsooth, “the pilot that weathered the storm.” . . .

“‘You don’t know Spring-Rice,* alias Jack the Painter; he is the least-looking shrimp, and the lowest-looking one too, possible. . . . He does not look above five or six and twenty. He is very clever in conversation, tells his stories capitally, like a man of the world in great practice, without any vulgarity, and never overcharging them; but as for the interest he takes about Ireland—I am quite sure my old shoe feels as much. He did everything but say it, that to be a King’s Counsel was as much the right of a Catholic as a Protestant, and that he would goad Catholic Ireland into resistance till his object was accomplished.’

“I caught my friend Norman Macdonald’s eye whilst this harangue was going on . . . and in walking

* At that time Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer 1835-39; created Baron Monteagle in 1839; died 1866.

1828.]

IRISH SOCIETY.

181

home together we both agreed that a more barefaced scoundrel had never been exhibited to us.”