ding near London, whose name I do not publish, because I have not solicited his permission to do so. Neither shall I, for the same reason, give the names of the gentlemen mentioned in his letter, though I am confident I might do so without incurring their displeasure or disapprobation. Knowing that the gentleman in question was a relative of Father O'Leary's, I wrote to him acquainting him of my intention to publish O'Leary's life and writings, and begging for any information it was in his power to bestow. With an urbanity for which I hereby tender my gratitude, he replied immediately as follows:—

"MY DEAR SIR,-I have received your letter; and as particulars of note touching the life of O'Leary must be based on good authority, I feel I can only give you from one good authority, but now dead, the one idea which haunted him, on account of the part he took, by the advice of Pitt, in the union of the Irish Parliament with the Imperial. Pitt promised the emancipation of Catholics and repeal of the penal laws, if he (O'Leary) would acquiesce, &c. He did; and so silence was deemed consent. Pitt obtained the Union; then resigned his office; and, tricky enough, said he could not keep his promise, &c. &c.

"The memory of this disaster weighed upon his mind, so that, dying, he exclaimed often: Alas! I have betrayed my poor country!' I had this of Mr. T, of Weybridge, Surrey, who was with him in his last illness, and at his death. Had he written one of his stirring popular appeals, he would have foiled Pitt's measure. His mind failed much in his last illness. Mr. T's son is alive still, and remembers him. The father, who is dead, often told me the above fact."

Here, then, was the secret condition: Arthur O'Leary accepted from the British government a pension of £200 a-year for life, stipulating that Mr. Pitt should keep his word as a man of honor, promising that he would bring about the emancipation of the Catholics and the repeal of the penal laws, in case O'Leary consented to write nothing against the union of the Irish with the Imperial Parliament! It is for the world to judge how far such a bargain damages his character as a patriot, and redeems him from the imputation of venality. For our part we must say, that there are even at the present day many pure-minded patriots who would regard a union with England on terms of perfect equality, as the greatest boon Ireland could enjoy; and it is, therefore, easy to conceive how such a blessing would be regarded by a man so essentially loyal as O'Leary was. At his time, any concession made by England was accepted by Ireland with the gratitude of a Lazarus for the crumbs of a Dives: how joyfully, then, would the patriot stake his all for the promise of a minister that Lazarus should be admitted to the rich man's table, and participate in the luxuries of his palace, not as a guest, but as a member of his household! But O'Leary was not acquainted with the proverbial perfidy of statesmen; and the man least likely in his eyes to reduce to practice the policy of a Machiavelli, was the minister whose genius and integrity seemed superior to every "tricky" device, and equal to the obligations of every honorable compact. We see that O'Leary's pension was withheld for a few years: what the reason for this withholding was it is not easy to ascertain; but, from an observation in the "Life of Henry Grattan," by his son, we surmise that it must have been because O'Leary refused to comply with a request made by the minister, that he would

write in support of the Union. "Colonel Kelly," (of whom more anon,) says Mr. Grattan, "related that, at the period of the Union, Mr. Pitt offered a considerable pension to O'Leary, provided he would exert himself among his Roman Catholic countrymen, and write in support of the Union, but every application was in vain : O'Leary steadfastly resisted Mr. Pitt's solicitations, and, though poor, he rejected the offers of the minister, and could not be seduced from allegiance to his country."

It may be said in defence of Pitt, that he honestly meant to keep his promise made to O'Leary; and there is little doubt that it was his intention, immediately after the Union had been effected, to propose to the United Parliament the emancipation of the Catholics, and the repeal of the penal laws. But from the performance of this duty he was deterred by a weakness as discreditable as a broken promise. When the subject was mentioned to George III., he positively went mad. Here was the time for Pitt to stand up and say that he would hold the premiership on no conditions incompatible with those of his honest conviction and his plighted word; but no; he resigned the office to Addington, and did not resume it for three years. He feared the loss of royal favor, though it was the favor of royalty gone mad with religious bigotry. And yet it is but just to say, that had he brought forward the measure just then, it is questionable whether it would have passed into law, as

* Mr. Elliott, writing to Lord Castlereagh, in November, 1798, says: "I cannot be easily persuaded that if more firmness had been displayed here at first, a union might have been accomplished, including the admission of the Catholic claims; but Mr. Pitt has, with a lamentable facility, yielded this point to prejudice, without, I sus-pect, acquiring a support in any degree equivalent to the sacrifice.". astlere a gh's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 29.

he had to encounter the opposition of some members of the cabinet, and to defy the No-Popery cry which still rang through the length and breadth of England, with all the acrimony and vigor of the past.

Such, then, is O'Leary's case. Let him stand or fall by the verdict of an impartial world.

CHAPTER XIII.

Father O'Leary the Guest of Colonel O'Kelly, owner of "Eclipse' Sketch of O'Kelly-Turf Morality-The Prince of Wales and Chifney, the Jockey-O'Leary uncontaminated by his associations— Contrasted with the celebrated Dr. Alexander Geddes-Sketch of Geddes-His "Modest Apology"-O'Leary is requested by Lord Petre to review it-Which he does-Lord Petre's severe Letter to O'Leary in Reply-His Lordship's subsequent Change of OpinionLord Moira the Friend of O'Leary.

FATHER O'LEARY lived for some years in London with. Colonel O'Kelly, already mentioned. The colonel was known to the world, and his name will be remembered for ever by the sporting fraternity, as the owner of the celebrated horse "Eclipse," that won the Derby in 1782. How our worthy friar contracted so close an intimacy with a man of tastes and habits apparently so little congenial to his own, we are left to conjecture. Mr. Fitzpatrick, in his work entitled "Ireland before the Union,"* suspects that O'Kelly's attention to O'Leary was rather an act of political design than an impulse of private generosity or friendship. "O'Kelly," he adds, was the prince's confidant; and Croly, in his 'Life of George IV.,' tells us that intimate relations were maintained with O'Leary because he was no unskilful medium of intercourse between his Church and the Whigs, and contributed in no slight degree to the popularity of the Prince in Ireland.””

Colonel O'Kelly, though enjoying the character of a highly-bred gentleman, of manners "courtly and imposing," unhappily presents to posterity a few blemishes,

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