Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/83

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LETTER FROM MR. DENIS DALY.
63

he has stuck close to Administration, sometimes at the expense of his consistency. I do not find that he has convinced many persons of his disinterestedness, and has only persuaded his present patrons that he is a very inconvenient minister. The Attorney-General seems to grow into confidence. You can have no idea what a speaker he is at present, and how infinitely he falls short even of his former miserable rhapsodies. Burgh himself has been pretty bad upon the whole; and Flood hardly ever opens his lips except to convey an oblique censure upon the present Administration by praising the last. You may guess how matters stand in our House when I do assure you Opposition fairly out-talks the Ministry. As for myself, I got drunk last night with the Primate, the Speaker, and Mr. Secretary Heron. I hope in a very few weeks to trouble you to take lodgings for me; and am, my dear Ned,

Ever yours sincerely and affectionately,

Denis Daly.

I am now nominee for Bushe in his Petition for Kilkenny. When it is over, I will let you know.


Neither personal nor epistolary persuasions displaced the critic from his stool. London he had decided should be his home, and by that resolution meant to abide. Daly therefore paid his visit, but the voice of the charmer sounded in vain. In the following year he gives Malone the Irish view of the state of affairs, and of the English Opposition.


Dublin, April 26th, 1779.

{{smaller block|I suppose you have heard that all my Editiones Principes are gone to edify the fishes off Beachy Head.[1] Pray let me know what I am in Mr.——’s debt, that I may remit to him, and direct to me at Dunsandle,[2] as I mean to retire thither
  1. Alluding to the foundering of the ship that contained them on her passage to Ireland.
  2. His seat in the west of Ireland.