Camden (the Viceroy) to retrace and publish,—“which has proved the most difficult and laborious task I have ever undertaken,”—which, as he was usually considered an extemporaneous speaker, or nearly so, is probably true.
The second letter, which continues the subject, was sent a week afterward. “Nothing should have induced me to undertake the task (of re-collection and publication) but the conviction that it is essential to open the eyes of the English people to the state of this country, which I am sorry to say gets worse every day. Within the last week two magistrates have been shot at noon-day. One of them, Sir Henry Maurice, you may have known. The assassination took place (1798) on the high road within half a mile of his house. . . . I think a crisis is at hand. The rebels have assumed an unusual air of confidence, and they have I am sorry to say succeeded completely in stirring up the savages in every part of the country, and reviving the spirit of 1641. . . . . Sir Lawrence Parsons chose to play second fiddle to Lord Moira, on Monday last, in the House of Commons, where he found eighteen fools to join him.”
The third letter is dated 20th June. As his opinions here are more full, and expressed with that characteristic bluntness and decision which never for a moment hesitated to call what he considered questionable actions by the strongest names, it may be given at length. Few of his remains are extant; and notices of the outrages in daily perpetration show that at such a moment such a man was in his proper place.
