Note 73 — PREFACE. (continued 2)

In a contest for constitutional rights (1755), the Earl of Kildare placed himself at the head of the liberal party, which was then technically designated “the patriots:” and the agents of the Castle and the Church faction having represented to the King that the Irish House of Commons was bent on destroying the royal prerogative, for the purpose of preparing his Majesty’s expulsion, the Earl, with “the oulde bloode of the Geraldines” boiling in his veins, denied the calumny, and composed and with his own hand presented a memorial to the king, proving historically that the Irish were to a fault the upholders of the royal prerogative, and lovers of kingly government. For this spirited conduct, which recalls the opposition of the Kildares of old to the ministers of Henry the Seventh and Eighth, he received the glorious appellation of Father of his country.