“George R. Our Will and Pleasure is, that the six following Forms of Prayer made for 23d October, 5th November, 30th January, 29th May, and the Day of our Accession to the Crown, together with the prayers for the Chief Governour or Governours of Ireland, be forthwith printed and published, and for the future annexed to the Book of Common Prayer and Liturgy of the Church of Ireland.
* * * For which this shall be your Warrant. Given at the Court at St. James’s, the third day of November 1715 in the second year of our reign.
“To our Right Trusty and Right Intirely Beloved Cousin and Councellor, Charles Duke of Grafton, and our Right Trusty and Right Well Beloved Cousin and Councellor, Henry Earl of Gallway, our Justices and General Governours of our Kingdom of Ireland, and to our Lieutenant, Deputy, or other Chief Governour or Governours there for the time being.
“By His Majesty’s command,
“James Stanhope.”
In January [1716], the House of Commons resolved that whatever forces His Majesty should think fit to raise, and whatever expenses His Majesty should think necessary for the defence of this kingdom, they would enable him to make good the same. By order of the Lords Justices, a camp was marked out at or near Athlone, where, besides some regular troops, a good body of the newly-regulated militia was ordered to encamp, being all armed out of the king’s stores. The “Annals” mention one item, 10,000 firelocks, with proportion of powder and ball.
The House of Commons having given the Lords Justices unlimited power to borrow money for His Majesty’s service, their Lordships, on the 10th of May, reported that they had borrowed £50,000; and gave an account of their payments as a return for the confidence of the House. As to this the Parliament said, in an address to the king, dated June 4th, “Your faithful Commons, notwithstanding the poverty of this kingdom, entrusted your wise and excellent government with an unprecedented and unlimited vote of credit.” After a session of “unusual length,” the Lords Justices, on the 25th of June, prorogued the Parliament. Besides the Duke of Ormond and the Earl of Antrim, the disaffected Peers against whom they took effectual proceedings were the Earl of Westmeath, Viscounts Netterville and Dillon, and Lord Cahir. During this brief but eventful Viceroyalty, Ireland seemed to outdo England in royalty, to the surprise of historians. Like Ruvigny’s brigade at Aughrim, the Hanoverians bore down all before them, the same Ruvigny being at their head. Most confidential and most cordial communications had constantly gone on between the Lords Justices and the Houses of Parliament, the addresses having this heading: “To their Excellencies the Lords Justices General, and General Governors of Ireland.”
All Lord Galway’s doings seem to have been sanctioned in London except one. At the request of several aged refugees, who expected soon to leave widows, he erased their own names from the pension-list, and substituted the names of their wives and unmarried daughters. The government struck out all those ladies’ names, and thus the pensions were lost to the veteran heads of their families. Lord Galway had rejoiced to oblige among others the Rev. James Fontaine, who, for volunteer land and sea service, had been pensioned with 5s. a-day in 1705 by the Duke of Ormond. His wife at 1s., and his two daughters each at 2s. a-day, were among the new and rejected names; but as a singular favour Fontaine himself was reinstated for the whole sum of 5s.
A political crisis unexpectedly occurred in the English court. “Whatever was the cause, the fact was” (say the “Annals”), “that on the 12th December, in the morning, we were surprised in London with the news that the Lord Viscount Townshend was no more Secretary of State.” Notwithstanding, “he seemed for some time to keep his interest in his Prince’s favour, seeing it was immediately resolved to make him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in the room of the Duke of Grafton and Lord Galway, who were about that time dismissed.”
Though we are unable either to affirm or to deny that there was any grievance in the manner, there can have been nothing unpleasant to Lord Galway in the fact of his being relieved from public service. His spirited rule had been carried on amidst frequent bodily suffering, as may be inferred from a letter from Lady Russell which he received in Dublin, and from which I quote what follows:—
“The merciful providence of God it is our duty to pray for and trust in; then it shall be well in the end, in this world or a better. I beseech God to give the consolation of His Holy Spirit to enable you to struggle with bodily pains. Your resignation I have no doubt of; but nature will shrink when the weight is heavy, and presses hard. . . .
“I also pray to God to fortify your spirit under every trial, till eternity swallows all our