tablishment as brigadier, till the middle of October, 1708, when he was removed from it by his excellency, because his regiment went away at that time, and lieutenant general Gorges was put in his room. Some time after, major general Rooke, considering the reason why Echlin was removed, concluded that Gorges could not come on till some 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 entitled to the brigadier's pay, from the time Echlin was removed 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 a 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 solicitor general orders, to enter a noli prosequi 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 ever 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 were 8501. ordered by her majesty, to buy new liveries for the state trumpets, messengers, &c.; but with great industry he got them made cheaper by 2001. which he saved out of that sum; and it is reported, that his steward got a handsome consideration besides from the undertaker. 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 keep 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 the queen's letter, it being one of those employments excepted out of his commission; yet, because Sir Richard Levinge disobliged him by voting according to his opinion, he removed him, and put in Mr Forster, although 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 the majority, and they sign all or * Afterward recorder of the city of Dublin, and lord chief justice of the common pleas. ders and proclamations there, as well as the chief governor. But his excellency disliked so great a share of power in any but 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 he had been presented to, till the patron forced him to it by law. His excellency recommended the Earl of Inchiquin to 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 recommendation; particularly because the usual salary of a lord justice, in the lord lieutenant's absence, is L. 100 per month, and he had bargained with the earl for L. 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 proceed *To this intrigue may probably belong the charge in the Examiner, No. XVII. that," on a day set apart for public prayer ings about the election of a magistrate in Trim;† his selling the place of a privy counsellor 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 twenty 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 quarrée between her ladyship and Mrs Fl―d, and two young fellows dining privately and frequently at Clontarf, where they used to go in a hackneycoach; and his excellency's 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. Note, Mr Savage, beside the prosecution about his fees, 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. 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.' +The disputes about the Trim elections are often mentioned in the Journal. *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. |