Note 72 — PREFACE. (continued 2)

When Lord Chesterfield arrived in Ireland, all the Catholic places of worship were closed. A Mr. Fitzgerald saying mass in the obscure garret of a condemned house, an immense crowd had assembled, and the floor giving way, the officiating priest with many of his flock were buried in the ruins, and the greater number were maimed or wounded. Lord Chesterfield, horror-struck at the event, ordered that all the chapels in the capital should be opened on St. Patrick’s day, and they have never since been closed.

A zealous Protestant thinking to pay his court to the Lord Lieutenant, came to inform him that one of his coachmen was a Roman Catholic, and went privately to mass. “Does he, indeed?” said his Lordship, “then I shall take care that he never drives me there.”—Chesterfield’s Memoirs.

The Bishop of Waterford relates that the vice-treasurer, Mr. Gardiner, a man of good character and considerable fortune, waited upon Lord Chesterfield, one morning, and in a great fright told him that he was assured upon good authority that the people in the province of Connaught were actually rising; upon which the Viceroy looked at his watch, and with great composure answered him, “It is nine o’clock, and time for them to rise; I believe, therefore that your news is true.” This system of alarm, be it observed, continues in all its vigour to the present day; and the actual Viceroy has to withstand the falsehood of the designing and the credulity of the nervous, full as much as any of his predecessors.