CHAPTER XXI

The outbreak of the South African War initiated a display of disloyalty in Ireland which might have embarrassed a less adroit Administration. The policy of killing Home Rule by kindness had not succeeded, and it was very evident that the throwing open of practically every office to the people had not satisfied them. Every Boer victory was received with jubilation, but it was mostly superficial. An English tourist, tactfully extracting the opinions of a cabdriver, was informed that the English deserved to be beaten, as he hoped they would, adding with a grin of delight, 'But we did make them run, sor, didn't we?' referring to the account of an English victory over the enemy the day before in which an Irish regiment had gained fresh laurels. Nothing is more ludicrous than the fervent politician who attempts unearthly consistency in thought, word, and deed. Few persons take seriously the over-serious politician.

The General Election of 1900 was preceded by a visit from Queen Victoria—the last of a successful series. It was a tribute to the good sense of the Irish and their innate loyalty, and Lord Cadogan did much to bring the queen to Ireland by assuring the Cabinet that there was not the slightest danger. Four and a half years' residence in the country had taught the viceroy a great deal about the Irish people, and his trust and confidence in them were confirmed when, on April 3, 1900, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir Thomas D. Pile, Bart., presented Her Majesty with the keys of the city and the civic sword. She entered Dublin in triumph, and was received by Lord and Lady Cadogan at the Viceregal Lodge amid great rejoicing and splendour. The following day more than 50,000 children were reviewed in the Phoenix Park by the queen—a happy inspiration on the part of her advisers. There was, of course, a review of the troops, the queen's youngest son, the Duke of Connaught, in command, and several other incidents of an historic occasion passed off with as much success as though there was 'no such a thing' as Irish disloyalty. Thousands of persons who had cheered Boer victories without quite knowing why they did it cheered the queen until they were hoarse, because heart and head combined to welcome their illustrious visitor. Well might the aged monarch write a letter reflecting the emotion of a grateful and proud queen. No other monarch had the happy inspirations Queen Victoria constantly displayed in her messages to her people, and the secret of it all was that she wrote them as a woman, though compelled to publish them as a queen.

Shortly after the conclusion of her visit she wrote to Lord Cadogan: 'How very much gratified and how deeply touched she had been by her reception. After the lapse of thirty-nine years her reception had equalled that of previous visits, and she carried away with her a most pleasant and affectionate memory of the time she had spent in Ireland, having been received by all ranks and creeds with an enthusiasm and affection which cannot be surpassed.'

Death of Queen Victoria

The next important event was the reconstruction of the Salisbury Ministry following the Election of 1900. Mr. Gerald Balfour, not too successful at the Irish Office, was transferred to the Board of Trade, and Mr. George Wyndham took his place in Ireland. The new Chief Secretary was eager to effect reforms, but the influence of the Lord-Lieutenant and the Prime Minister compelled him to pursue the conventional course of Chief Secretaries who are neither poets nor dandies. The death of Queen Victoria in January placed the court in mourning for a year, and when that was over the resignation of Lord Salisbury became an imminent event. To Lord Cadogan it meant something more than the severance of old ties. Lord Salisbury and he were bound together by numerous social and political ties, and when the great statesman resigned in the summer of 1902 Lord Cadogan immediately tendered his resignation to the king of the high office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Speaking to his tenantry on the subject, the viceroy declared that all his political life had been bound up with Lord Salisbury's, and he had no desire to continue in it now that his old chief was retiring. He had spent seven years in Ireland—seven years of peace—and his success was notable and inspiring. Mere wealth could not have achieved it unaided; it was personality and the desire to be as non-political as one in his position could be. It is no exaggeration to say that his departure was universally regretted. For the time the acerbities of political life were forgotten, and Ireland turned out to say good-bye to a good friend and his charming comrade, Lady Cadogan. On all sides people expressed the opinion that Mr. Balfour would find it impossible to nominate a suitable successor, and bad times were predicted for the man brave enough to attempt to follow Lord Cadogan in the viceroyalty.

Had he chosen to do so, the retiring viceroy might have taken a high post in Mr. Balfour's ministry, but he stood aside to accompany Lord Salisbury into private life—that is, as private as the husband of a political hostess can be. His social services were still at the disposal of the party to which he belonged, and they were strong supporters of the Balfour régime.

In 1907 Lady Cadogan died, and this tragedy was succeeded by the death of his eldest son, Viscount Chelsea, in 1908. Two years later his grandson and heir passed away. These events isolated Lord Cadogan, and he led a somewhat lonely life until he married for a second time. The marriage took place on January 12, 1911, the bride being the Countess Adele Palagi, a cousin of the bridegroom.

About two years after Lord Cadogan's retirement from the viceroyalty a deputation of leading Irishmen called at his London residence to present him with a token of the esteem in which he was held by all those who had come in contact with him during his viceroyalty. The deputation was headed by Lord Iveagh, and included Sir David Harrel, Sir James Blyth, Sir Thomas Pile, Sir Lambert Ormsby, and Sir James Henderson. They represented all Ireland, and on their behalf the chairman presented the earl with an address, a silver bowl, and his portrait painted by Mr. Solomon J. Solomon, R.A. It was a unique ceremony, this tribute to one of the most successful viceroys Ireland had ever known.

Lord and Lady Dudley

Lord Dudley succeeded to the viceroyalty at the youthful age of thirty-five. For seven years he had been Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, and had proved himself to be a hard-working, ambitious peer. Immensely wealthy and generous, he was the most suitable man to follow Lord Cadogan, especially as Lady Dudley was a hostess of renown—one of the most popular of the younger hostesses—and a general favourite with royalty.

The Dudley reign in Ireland was full of incident, social and political. It opened unluckily enough, for in the early days of December, 1902, Lady Dudley was seized with a serious illness at the Viceregal Lodge, and at one time the gravest fears were entertained. The operation for appendicitis, however, was successful, and the countess recovered to adorn the office she shared with her husband. The mother of a young family, she won the hearts of all Ireland by sending one of her daughters to the Alexandra High School—an institution deservedly famous for its successful training and teaching of girls. This was one of many triumphs achieved by tact and good nature, and within a few months of her arrival in Ireland there was no more popular person in the country. Mr. Balfour had been fortunate, indeed, in finding a Lady Dudley to follow a Lady Cadogan, while the Lord-Lieutenant at once proved himself to be strong, fearless, open-minded, and just. It was said of a Chief Secretary—Sir Robert Peel—that his one-sided opinions of Irish affairs were due to the fact that he had driven through the country on an outside car. Lord Dudley went all over Ireland in a motor-car, and therefore could not help but see both sides. Ever an enthusiastic motorist, His Excellency pursued his hobby all the time he was in Ireland, and unexpected visits to remote hamlets were numerous. This passion for motoring had a practical result—it enabled the viceroy to gather a great deal of first-hand information about the country and the people; and when he consented to become chairman of the Royal Commission on Congestion in Ireland, the year he retired from the viceroyalty, he brought to bear upon the subject and the problem a knowledge unequalled by any other non-Irish member of the Board.

The supreme political event of Lord Dudley's term was undoubtedly Mr. George Wyndham's Land Act of 1903. Had Gladstone lived to witness a Tory Chief Secretary piloting such a measure through Parliament he must assuredly have gasped. It caused great searchings of heart amongst the colleagues of Mr. Wyndham, but it came into the statute-book—another proof of the political axiom that the Tory party have done more for Ireland than the Liberal, that Tory Cabinets have worked more for Home Rule than their political rivals.

The revolutionary Tory Chief Secretary aroused the suspicions of his friends. Loud-voiced Unionists in Ireland declared that he was at heart a Home Ruler, and when the Lord-Lieutenant declined to take this accusation seriously he was in his turn labelled Home Ruler, too. Reports were sent to London of the dreadful backsliding of Lord Dudley. As time crawled by he was described as an out-and-out Nationalist, a traitor to the party he was sent to represent in Ireland. The devolution scheme ascribed to Lord Dunraven, the late Captain Shaw, and others, was said to have received the viceroy's benediction. Superficially, that plan seemed the easiest method by which the eternal Irish question could be settled; it appeared so nice and equitable. But there was the dangerous rock of finance, on which all devolution schemes must be wrecked. During the uproar the Lord-Lieutenant was compelled to adopt measures of precaution. The party leaders in England demanded a sign from him, for it would not do to permit Liberal and Nationalist orators to assure receptive and eager audiences night after night that the Tory Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland had learned by experience in Ireland that the only cure for the evils of the country was Home Rule. The Wyndham Land Act was merely a palliative, they added. It was deemed necessary that Lord Dudley should write an elaborate explanation of his views on Ireland, and entrust the document to Lord Lansdowne, the leader of the Government in the House of Lords. This precious epistle was to recline in the noble marquis's pocket until, goaded by the taunts of the Opposition, he should be able to produce it dramatically and confound the scoffers and unbelievers. The letter was written, but never read in the Lords, the minds of men turning to other matters when Mr. Wyndham was recalled from Ireland and Mr. Walter Long appointed Chief Secretary. It was Mr. Balfour's way of announcing his dislike of the already dead and buried devolution plan.

The period of doubt left the viceroy unshorn of his friends. Those who knew him personally were well aware that he was a genuine friend of Ireland, and the whole country knew that this English nobleman stood rather to lose than gain by any active display of good-will towards the people he ruled in the name of the king. The personal popularity of Lord and Lady Dudley was such that no political crisis could affect materially. Lady Dudley, a clever woman of rare charm, an artist and a linguist, was not without experience of the vicissitudes of life, and her knowledge of things human had been increased thereby. The daughter of a once wealthy banker, she knew what poverty was, and at one time she was associated along with her sister in the millinery shop their mother started in London soon after the Gurney bank failure. The shop was not a success, and had to be abandoned. The girls were adopted by friends of the family, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford taking charge of Miss Rachel Gurney. Under their wing she made the acquaintance of the young Earl of Dudley, and they were married in 1891, society, headed by the Prince of Wales, attending the function. Never very strong, and often suffering great pain, Lady Dudley, nevertheless, preserved a sweetness of temper and a kindliness to all and sundry that both in Ireland and Australia helped immensely in establishing the influence of her husband. In Ireland, especially, a viceroy's wife has many opportunities, and they are not always easy to grasp. Lady Dudley succeeded every time, and it is not to be wondered at that by thousands of those whose experience entitle them to be considered experts on the subject she is named as the most successful and popular 'vicereine' the country has known for over a hundred years.

Royal visitors

The busiest social year of the Dudley régime was that of 1903, when King Edward and Queen Alexandra visited Ireland. It was the first occasion a King of England was seen in Ireland for eighty-two years, and the people marked the honour by a display of enthusiasm unequalled in the history of the country. The king and queen were greatly touched by the loyalty of the Irish, and under the capable direction of Lord and Lady Dudley the series of festivities went with a vim that gratified the distinguished visitors and added fresh laurels to those already earned by the chatelaine of the Viceregal Lodge and Dublin Castle. A royal visit produces more anxiety than pleasure, as a rule, for those whose duty it is to see that the arrangements for entertaining the guests are perfect and carried out to the letter; but a genius for organization displayed itself in the arrangements devised for the filling up of their Majesties' programme, and that was the genius of the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife. The most significant event of the visit was the Levee held at Dublin Castle by the king. All the leading men of Ireland were invited, irrespective of politics and religion. It was a daring thing to do, but Lord Dudley could count upon his own popularity, and he confidently invited Roman Catholic Archbishops, Catholic gentlemen, Nationalists, and many others whose political opinions were against the Government. The occasion was historic—a King of England holding a Levee in 'the worst castle in the worst situation in Christendom,' as a former viceroy described it—and it was almost unprecedented. With characteristic good feeling and understanding all classes and creeds attended to do homage to His Majesty, who had the gratification of receiving many notable Irishmen and seeing them mingling together, their differences forgotten in the presence of their Sovereign. The success of that Levee was a splendid tribute to Lord Dudley's tenure of the post of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Another visit by King Edward and Queen Alexandra the following April was equally successful.

The dying days of the Balfour ministry found Irish affairs inert. The respectable Mr. Long was ready to do anything to prove his stanch Unionist principles, but both countries and parties were in that frame of mind produced by a sense of impending death. There had been ten unbroken years of Unionist sway in Ireland; two viceroys of great wealth and popularity had carried on the Government, assisted by Chief Secretaries of varying qualities of statesmanship; the country had grown accustomed to Tory control, and rather liked it, judging by the experience of Liberal predecessors. Every charitable cause had met with a ready response from the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife, and for ten years the viceroy had appeared almost non-political. The numberless acts of kindness placed to the credit of Lady Cadogan and Lady Dudley created for them a genuine feeling of admiration and affection. The heads of the Government in Ireland were no longer mere party 'jobbers.' The anxiety to be impartial was at times almost painful, but it was not without effect.

Social splendour

Socially, the two viceroyalties had been brilliant successes. The Tory Government had everything in its favour. Two such hostesses as the wives of Lords Cadogan and Dudley are rarely met with, and for ten years in succession the Dublin season was ever one of splendour. There had been periods of mourning, but, apart from these, the years were notable.

And yet the cry for Home Rule was not less shrill nor less determined. Nationalists could say with some reason that all that Lord Cadogan and Lord Dudley had done could be done again with a Parliament in College Green. The growing feeling in English constituencies against the Conservative Government was hailed with delight by the Irish party. They saw Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, an avowed Home Ruler, gladly and eagerly putting their demand for Home Rule in the forefront of the great fight, and when the polls had placed him in power making Home Rule the first plank in the programme of the resuscitated Liberal party.

England could not be expected to be impressed by the successes of the Tory Government in Dublin. As a matter of fact, English electors were feeling rather bored with Irish affairs, and at the polls they scarcely stopped to think about Home Rule, but voted for the Liberal candidate for the negative reason that they did not like his opponent. The General Election was a triumph for the pure, undiluted political faith of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and, besides smashing all hopes that the Irish party would be the masters of the situation, compelled those minute particles of Liberalism labelled Imperialists, Radicals, and so on, to unite under the lead of the new Prime Minister.

The spirit of conciliation

In the ordinary course of events Lord Dudley resigned with the Conservative Ministry, and on the appointment of a successor departed from Ireland. A few months' previously—September 21, 1905, to be exact—he had escaped death in the waters of Lough Erne, where, with a small party, he was unlucky enough to see his yacht capsize during a race. It was one adventure of many he has experienced in his comparatively brief life. Following his resignation, he still evinced a keen interest in Ireland, and when the Liberal premier asked him to preside over the deliberations of a Royal Commission on Congestion, he accepted it as one who has never allowed his actions to be guided and controlled solely by party motives. The work of the Commission finishing, he went to the other end of the world as Governor-General of Australia, holding the post for three years, when Lady Dudley's ill-health compelled him to return home in 1911. This willingness to serve the Liberal party has been taken by some as additional evidence of his lukewarm Unionism, but Lord Dudley remains a member of the party that made him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and he is a Unionist at heart, though he permits himself the luxury of thinking on the subject. It is certain that while in Ireland he examined the claims and pretensions of the Home Rule party, and endeavoured to arrive at an understanding. The fact that he was not hounded out of the country by his fellow-Unionists is proof positive of the fact that a new spirit of conciliation has arisen, and that Irish political controversialists are aware that there can be two sides to every question, even an Irish one.

CHAPTER XXII

Lord Aberdeen's return

Lord Aberdeen's return to Ireland, twenty years after his first entry into Dublin as Lord-Lieutenant, was announced immediately after the resignation of Mr. Balfour's ministry. It was to a new Ireland that the viceroy came. Much history had been made since the days when the 'Union of Hearts' presaged a smooth passage to popularity for the Earl of Aberdeen. Successive Tory Governments had laboured upon Irish affairs, and if they had stopped short at Home Rule they had come very near it. The Nationalist party was inclined to be sullen, realizing their futility, and compelled to wait humbly upon Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's pleasure. He was independent of them. They were free to join the Opposition if they chose to do so, although the Prime Minister, always consistent, hinted that a Home Rule Bill was about to appear on the Parliamentary horizon. There was the South African business to be got through first; then the fiscal question seemed capable of wasting more public time, and questions of Empire and home finance all blocked the way to the ambitions of the group led by Mr. John Redmond. Astute Nationalists quickly understood that they must wait for another General Election, perhaps two, before their hopes could be realized, and therefore they stood aside while the country blinked its eyes at the unusual sight of Liberals sitting in the seats of the mighty, and new men with even newer names flocking to the Cabinet room in Downing Street.

Meanwhile, the Viceroy of Ireland took possession of his high office. For nearly eight years he had lived in retirement, his Governor-Generalship of Canada beginning in 1893 and ending in 1898. The Canadian period was another record of success for the viceregal pair, who were undoubtedly the most valuable at the disposal of the Government for viceregal positions requiring a long pedigree, a long purse, and the royal attribute of being all things to all men.

The position of a Lord-Lieutenant nominated by a Liberal Prime Minister is the most anomalous and difficult in the Government. He is selected because he is a member of the party in power, and asked to fill a post in which, as the representative of the king, he must not display any political leanings. His Majesty is above politics, and the man who is accorded royal honours in Ireland must represent the king non-politically. Even in this attempt he must needs lay himself open to the charges—eagerly laid against him—of showing favour to either political party, for even a Viceroy of Ireland cannot help being aware of the politics and religion of some of those upon whom he bestows office. In the case of a Liberal Lord-Lieutenant he dwells in a country where Liberalism has been buried for more than a generation, where a religious motive colours every political action, and where bones of contention provide the only food for the hungry politicians.

But the severest handicap to which a Liberal Lord-Lieutenant is subjected arises out of the prevalent notion that Nationalism and disloyalty are almost interchangeable terms. This enables every Unionist to charge the viceroy with pandering to the prejudices of the disloyal majority, and thereby degrading the dignity of his office by condoning insults to the king whom he represents. From time to time Nationalist politicians have declined to drink the king's health, or have marched out of a hall or room at the sound of the first bars of 'God save the King.' Instances readily occur to all acquainted with Ireland. Unionists naturally make the most of this, and the Lord-Lieutenant finds himself criticized by all, the fiercest being those who ought to support him. Had Daniel O'Connell and his fiery successors bred a spirit of personal devotion to the throne of England, Home Rule might have been an accomplished fact thirty years ago, but the attitude adopted by Home Rule's leading propagandists has alienated the sympathies of the voters of Great Britain. Comfortable politicians in Westminster can legislate and talk of Ireland far from the centre of the problem, and unhampered by the local difficulties that are to be met with in Ireland. They know nothing, or else conveniently forget that, while Liberalism in England can, and does, hold Home Rule compatible with loyalty to the king, such an amalgamation of ideas has not been recognized hitherto in Ireland. The viceroy, however, has to face the music, and as the embodiment of kingly rule in Ireland he has to remain a Liberal and a Home Ruler despite the knowledge that Nationalists feel bound to hold aloof from the king's representative until self-government is granted.

Very few Viceroys of Ireland have been Cabinet ministers, and it is, indeed, surprising how any statesman can be expected to act as king in Ireland and as an exponent of his party's policy in Downing Street; but the fact that viceroys do not often sit in the Cabinet does not remove the political aspect of the post. The unwritten law seems to be that while a Tory occupant of the Viceregal Lodge may be as partisan as he wishes, no Lord-Lieutenant chosen by a Liberal premier must open his mouth on the political questions of the day. It is easy to account for this. Unionism superficially means this, at any rate—that the party believes in loyalty to the Crown and the Constitution, while the other side can only retort by declaring that a readjustment of the Constitution would not affect the indissolubility of the Crown.

Nationalists and the Castle

Then, Nationalists are by training and instinct suspicious of the Castle. Irishmen are seldom cowards, but it is only necessary to bring a charge of sycophancy against an Irishman to make him forswear the Castle and all its works. It is, in his opinion, the greatest insult you can offer him. You may question the honour of his ancestors, doubt his honour, or even deride his alleged sense of humour—all these things will leave him cold; but hint that he wants a job, sneer at him because you imagine he is hankering after the fleshpots of Castle Yard or the messes of the Viceregal Lodge, and then take steps to insure your safety. This weapon has proved most effective in the hands of Nationalist writers and journalists, though it has not always succeeded in preventing men holding Nationalist opinions from serving their country on the bench or in the administration of the Government of the land.

English ministers possess more patronage than the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and jobbery is ever rampant in London; but the business of the metropolis is not stopped in order that the multitude may hold up their hands in horror at the action of the jobbers. Happily, England's strength is not in its Civil Service. In Ireland it is different, and whereas the ambition of every family was to have a priest amongst its sons, now a Civil Servant within its ranks is considered more desirable. And the Lord-Lieutenant, as Chief Patron, is the natural prey of the eager, and hopeful, and the disappointed.

Not since the mayoralty of T. D. Sullivan in 1886—during Lord Aberdeen's previous term of office—has the Mansion House in Dawson Street known the presence of a viceroy. Successive Lord Mayors of Dublin have held aloof from the Government—some from conviction, the majority frightened by the bogie of sycophancy. Amateur politicians continue to practise the art of debate on the floors and in the galleries of the City Hall, and their brethren in a more sophisticated manner demonstrated their statesmanlike qualities in Westminster; while the Lord-Lieutenant, the symbol of England's despotic rule, mingles with the aristocratic and official sets, which are mainly Tory. In fact, the Nationalists are afraid to indicate loyalty by accepting the hospitality of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and, curiously enough, the extreme Unionists adopt precisely the same course when a Liberal Government is in power.

Welcoming the Lord-Lieutenant

Lord Aberdeen made his state entry on February 3, 1906. Only veterans could recall the doings of the Lord-Lieutenant of 1886, but Lord and Lady Aberdeen's names were household words, as they had been no strangers to Ireland during these twenty years, but had identified themselves with much work for the benefit of her industries and welfare, and in many ways the new viceroy and his wife received a sympathetic welcome. They were anxious to mark their term of office by social reform, and to keep the office as far removed from party politics as possible.

Two notable deputations waited on the viceroy at Dublin Castle within a fortnight of his arrival. One consisted of the survivors of the extraordinary popular demonstration that had escorted Lord and Lady Aberdeen out of Dublin in 1886. On that occasion the Lord Mayor of Dublin and members of the Corporation had headed the procession, which was intended to show the affection of the Home Rule party for the Home Rule viceroy. The survivors now read an address of welcome to the Lord-Lieutenant, and as all addresses to the viceroy are carefully subedited, Lord Aberdeen was able to listen to the compliments this particular one contained, and reply in set terms indicating his desire to work in sympathy with all parties in Ireland. Twenty years earlier a different reply might have been possible, but during the interval between the first and second Aberdeen reigns the Tory party had stolen much of the Liberal thunder, and the deputation represented something as Victorian as an antimacassar.

The second deputation was from the City of Belfast, and expressed devotion and loyalty to the throne and to the king's representative. In other words, it was a grim reminder to Lord Aberdeen that the Unionists had their eye on him, and that it behoved him not to air his Home Rule opinions during his viceroyalty. There is an unwritten law that all Lord-Lieutenants of Ireland must be non-political in thought and word, if not in deed, and the rule is always applied with rigour in the case of a Liberal viceroy. To this and all other addresses of welcome it was easy to return a speech of thanks, and Lord Aberdeen promised to visit Belfast at the first available opportunity—a promise which was soon fulfilled, and resulted in many subsequent visits to the northern capital, where Lord and Lady Aberdeen have always been accorded a hearty welcome.

Lord Aberdeen in Rome

It was not very long before the viceroy provided his watchful opponents with food for criticism. In January, 1907, he actually visited Rome without taking the trouble to obtain the consent of the Orangemen, who were horrified to hear that the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland had been received in audience by the Pope. In this atrocious act they discovered all the evidence of the intention of the Government to consign the lives and property of Protestants to the inquisitorial mercies of the Catholics. The ministry was going to pass Home Rule at once, and in order to make it complete sent the Viceroy of Ireland to interview the Pope, and obtain his views on the matter. This was the opinion of the easily terrified Opposition. These excitable religionists were well aware of the fact that Lord Aberdeen is a Presbyterian, and an office-bearer in that Church. Ready themselves to sacrifice every shred of religion in the cause of politics, they doubted the sincerity of others, and the Lord-Lieutenant was accused of selling his soul to Rome to further the ends of the Government he represented. Religious extremists, whether they be Protestants or Catholics, always present an unedifying caricature of human nature and human sense. English Protestants made themselves just as ridiculous over the visit of the late King Edward paid to the Pope a few years ago. We know that, in the phrase of a great Irishman, the Catholics in England are a sect, while in Ireland they are a nation; but the brass-tongued minority in Ireland seem to dominate the country when they have any opportunity to bring charges against their Catholic fellow-countrymen. Lord Aberdeen passed from the Vatican to the presence of the king of Rome, but this act did not serve to mitigate the heinousness of his first offence.

The year of 1907 was a full and exciting one for all concerned in the viceregal administration of Ireland. On January 24 Mr. Augustine Birrell became Chief Secretary, as Mr. James Bryce was appointed to the embassy at Washington—or, at any rate, was induced to think so—and the new broom came with the intention of sweeping out many abuses. There was to be a superb Irish University; there were whispers of a new Land Act that would bring peace to all concerned; the reform of Trinity College would be accomplished on the advice of the Royal Commission appointed the previous June; and, finally, there was a promise of Home Rule. Apart from these more or less political topics, quieter folk discussed the forthcoming visit of the king and queen, who were venerated by their Irish subjects.

The royal visitors were expected to arrive during the second week of July, and a few days before—on the 6th—it was announced that the famous collection of jewellery, known as the Dublin Castle jewels, had disappeared. The pecuniary value of the jewels was about £40,000, but their intrinsic worth was considerably more than this. The public amazement was nothing compared with the official consternation. These jewels were to have been used during the installation of Lord Pirrie as a Knight of St. Patrick, and King Edward was to have presided at the ceremony. Strange rumours flooded Dublin and travelled on to London. No name was too high or too sacred to be associated with the theft, and every bar-loafer could pose as a persona grata in Court circles by slyly mentioning the mystery and declaring that 'everybody' knew So-and-so was the thief, and that his family were paying ransom for him. It seemed as though the police confined their investigations to Debrett, ignoring those whose lack of rank and title disqualified them for suspicion. The circumstances of this official tragedy were well in keeping with the romantic result. Dublin Castle is the headquarters of the police force and the detective staff, and on ordinary days presents the appearance of a German fort. Those acquainted with Dublin Castle declined to believe for a moment that professional thieves had entered this glorified police-station and stolen the most rigorously-guarded collection of jewels in the country.

King Edward and Queen Alexandra entered Ireland to the accompaniment of ringing cheers, the people being independent of Crown jewels or any other baubles to symbolize their loyalty. The Irish love a sportsman, and if he should happen to be a king as well they love him all the better for that. The magnetic personality of Edward VII. and the infectious charm of Queen Alexandra triumphed in Ireland, and everybody forgot for the time being that there was a Home Rule Government in power, and that a Liberal peer was their Majesties' host. Dublin was favoured greatly by the royal visitors, who daily performed some public act and received the salutations of the people. Those who expected that the absence of the Crown jewels would tend to depreciate the importance and effect of the visit were disappointed agreeably.

It is scarcely necessary to record that throughout the memorable visit of the king and queen Lord and Lady Aberdeen displayed to the best advantage those perfect social qualities for which they are renowned in two continents. Such a period is necessarily one of hard and often anxious work, and the thousand and one questions to be settled offhand, the numberless applications for invitations to be studied and settled, and the natural anxiety for the safety and comfort of their royal guests, are matters that would place the average person at a disadvantage. Lord and Lady Aberdeen, however, have the happy quality of rising to the great heights great occasions demand, and so, if their Majesties' reception was tumultuous and their welcome regal, that accorded day after day to the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife can be described as viceregal. Second only in popularity to their illustrious guests, they proved to the thousands of strangers who visit Ireland in the wake of royalty that it is by no means certain that a Liberal viceroy cannot earn the affection of the country. Common courtesy might account for the respect royalty and royalty's representatives meet with in Ireland, but only genuine affection could inspire the enthusiastic welcomes accorded to King Edward and his son and their viceroy, the Earl of Aberdeen.

The report of the Viceregal Commission appointed to inquire into the circumstances of the theft of the Crown jewels appeared on February 1, 1908. It stated that Sir Arthur Vicars, the Ulster King of Arms, who was the official custodian of the jewels, did not exercise due vigilance or proper care. His resignation followed as a matter of course, though it must be recorded that there was a general impression that Sir Arthur Vicars had been made the official scapegoat. The decision of the Commission by no means satisfied public opinion, and rumour raged furiously again, inspired by all sorts and conditions of statements said to have been omitted from the report, although stated in evidence before the Commissioners. One of these days the secret history of the disappearance of the Dublin Castle jewellery may be revealed. Until that time, it must be classed among the unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century.

A state visit to Belfast in the autumn of 1907, and the unveiling of a statue of Queen Victoria in Dublin on February 15, 1908, were the most notable events of these years. The tragic death of the Hon. Ian Archibald Gordon, their Excellencies' youngest son, took place in November, 1909, the result of a motor-car accident. Mr. Gordon had just become engaged to Miss Violet Asquith, the daughter of the Prime Minister, and the marriage had been looked forward to with pardonable eagerness on both sides, as it would have united at the altar two families bound together by many ties of friendship. The engagement was a secret until the fact was published that Lord Aberdeen's son was at the point of death. Great sympathy was expressed with his devoted parents.

Death of King Edward

The termination of King Edward's brief and splendid reign necessarily placed the court in mourning for twelve months, and the viceroyalty underwent a period of quiescence. King George's accession was proclaimed in Dublin and other cities on May 11, 1910.

The visit of King George and Queen Mary in July, 1911, was the great event of the year. Fresh from the Coronation, their Majesties arrived in Dublin on July 8, holding a Levee, a garden-party, and a drawing-room, reviewing troops in Phoenix Park, and visiting hospitals and institutions. And all in five days! The Prince of Wales and Princess Mary of Wales accompanied their parents, and won for themselves no little popularity. The magnificent reception accorded to the king and queen astonished even those who possessed a knowledge of previous royal visits. At times it exceeded in warmth that extended to King Edward—a feat which many declared to be impossible until it was an accomplished fact. Again Lord and Lady Aberdeen demonstrated their ability and popularity. Once more they were second only to the king and queen. The perfect organization that had displayed itself on the occasion of King Edward's visit was seen again, and if their Majesties had a most strenuous time, they were equally as pleased as their subjects and their viceregal representatives. Not a single discordant note was struck throughout the series of public and private ceremonies performed by the king and queen, and well might Nationalists fear that the spectacle of Irish men and women outdoing the welcome accorded to the king and queen at their Coronation would give to all the world the impression that Ireland's dislike of England was purely a paper one.

When the visit was over, King George telegraphed from the royal yacht expressing his thanks to Lord and Lady Aberdeen.

'Having just arrived, after a most beautiful passage,' he said, 'the queen and I, with the hearty cheers of the Irish people still ringing in our ears, wish once more to express to you and Lady Aberdeen our warm appreciation of all your kindness and trouble to insure our stay in Dublin being a happy and pleasant one. You have indeed succeeded, and we thank you sincerely.'

Lady Aberdeen founded the Women's National Health Association of Ireland in 1907, and the fact that this society has united representatives of every creed and party in the cause of public health and the stamping out of consumption has in itself wrought much indirect good in all parts of Ireland, in addition to the direct result of reducing the death-rate from consumption by one-seventh in three years. There are now over one hundred and fifty branches of this organization, composed of men and women representing all sections of the community, in all parts of Ireland, working devotedly together for the welfare and the happiness of the people as a whole; and these workers have shown a power of initiative in meeting local needs by providing meals for school-children; forming Babies' Clubs, where mothers and their elder daughters are taught how to care for the babies, and how to make small resources go a long way in selecting nourishing food and suitable garments; turning derelict spaces into garden playgrounds; organizing health lectures, health exhibitions, travelling health caravans, besides supporting sanatoria, hospitals, convalescent homes, and maintaining nurses for the care of tuberculosis patients in their own homes.

The success of other notable undertakings might be quoted as an evidence of the support which the present occupants of the Viceregal Lodge can count upon when they identify themselves with any special enterprise.

The Irish Lace Ball of 1907 at the Castle, the Pageant of Irish Industries of 1909, the great Ui Breasail Exhibition and Fête of Irish Industries and Health in 1911, visited by over 176,000 persons in fourteen days, of every shade of opinion and of every class of the community, are events which will be long remembered in the Irish capital in connection with Lord Aberdeen's lengthy reign.

There was a 'storm in a teacup' during the General Election of December, 1910, when Lord Aberdeen aroused the wrath of the Conservatives and Unionists by telegraphing to the Liberal candidate in West Aberdeenshire expressing his own belief that the apprehension that under Home Rule the Protestant minority would suffer was unfounded. A Committee of Privileges composed of members of both Houses of Parliament inquired into the matter, and reported that they found that the viceroy's action had not contravened any Standing Order or regulation. This was accepted, and nothing more was heard of the matter.

Further criticism fell his way when Ireland was in the grip of a railway strike, and he was spending a holiday in Scotland. There was a clamour for the viceroy's presence in Ireland. He was already on his way thither, but though he had been successful in settling the Carriers' Strike some years previously, the present occasion did not offer an opportunity for personal mediation.

The place-hunters

When his term of office ends, Lord Aberdeen can look back upon several years of success in Ireland. He may not be a racing man, and Punchestown may not be a favourite haunt of his, but sterner qualities than a fondness for horse-racing are necessary to succeed as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In the most favourable times it requires a vast amount of tact, a keen sense of humour, and a sense of proportion. Place-hunters abound and office-seekers are innumerable. Dublin Castle is regarded as the haven of hope for all younger sons without talent and briefless barristers hungering for a regular income. They are all suppliants of the Lord-Lieutenant, and several hundreds of years of ascendancy have given them a sense of right in receiving favours, and one of indignation and injustice in the case of refusal. But when all is said and done, the outcry over jobbery in Ireland is absurd, for it is a fact that there is more jobbery in London in a month than in the whole of Ireland in a year.

There have been some attempts to abolish the viceroyalty, but if ornamental it is also useful, because the Irish instinctively respect royalty, and a country populated by the descendants of kings could not be expected to have an instinctive respect for any form of government savouring of Republicanism, or one that left wholly to the imagination the majesty of the Sovereign ruler.

To satisfy all classes, to tolerate the intolerant, and to represent the non-political King of England, although appointed for his political opinions, are the duties of the Lord-Lieutenant. Surrounded by lynx-eyed critics, Tory and Nationalist, he has to be something more than the shadow of the monarch, and he is not allowed to escape criticism, although the king for whom he acts as deputy is supposed to be above it. It is not an enviable post, and never will be. That Lord Aberdeen and Lady Aberdeen have been successful nobody will deny, and Ireland will lose two good friends when their term of office comes to an end.

The introduction of Mr. Asquith's Home Rule Bill makes the Irish viceroy's position more delicate than ever. Its success means the end of the official ascendancy, and bureaucracies always fight desperately until the first shot is fired. When Liberalism has achieved its ambition, the Irish bureaucracy will cease to hold the power that makes or mars every viceroyalty.