KILLCONNELL BARONY.

In Larnaghan, 2 quarters
In Lisdannellan

In Craganally
In Clowronan

15 0 3

An Episode in the History of Mitchelstown,
Co. Cork.

(From Recollections of Aubrey De Vere. London, 1897).

HE cry was "Repeal of the Union." The great democratic battle had begun. The low rumbling on the horizon became louder by degrees, and the interval between the flash and the sound became shorter. When, at the Clare election, a late surviving Irish chief, one of the largest of the Irish proprietors, and passionately loved by his tenants, saw them for the first time voting against him, and the other tenants follow their example, he declared in amazement that the country was "not fit for a gentleman to live in."

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new," was a warning more loudly proclaimed as the Repeal agitation went on. An election took place in the county of Limerick, and both sides prepared for the conflict. Nearly all the proprietors were banded together against Repeal and O'Connell, including the few who had advocated Catholic Emancipation. The candidate on the opposite side was a man of ancient family, excellent character, and not, I think, a Repealer, but it suited the Repeal game to support him, in order to separate the tenants from their landlords. Of these the most powerful by far was a certain nobleman, the Earl of Kingston, whose territories, 60,000 acres, with a rental of £46,000 per annum, extended through a large part of three counties, and included much of those Desmond lands, some 600,000 acres of which had been confiscated by Queen Elizabeth in a single day. He was also, I believe, descended in the female line from the "White Knight," to whom that title had been given, after a battle fought many centuries previously, by the then "White Knight's" father, the Earl of Desmond.

The despotic temper of the Earl of Kingston was no doubt increased by scenes which he had witnessed as a boy. When he was but fourteen, during a great social gathering at his father's residence, a profligate neighbour, one of the county gentry, though a married man, induced a daughter of the house to elope with him. The moment the crime was discovered, the Earl, accompanied by the boy, went in pursuit of the criminal. After several days' pursuit, the outraged father arrived, late in the night, at an inn which the fugitives had reached a few hours previously. He got out of his carriage, accompanied by his young son, and, with a pistol in each hand, mounted the stairs. A door was pointed out to him. It was locked; but the Earl kicked it open. A man rushed forward; the Earl fired two pistols, and the betrayer fell dead at his feet. The Earl was arraigned for this act before the Irish House of Lords, and made no defence. The peers walked processionally in their robes, and as each passed the throne, laid his hand on his breast and pronounced the verdict, "Not guilty, upon my honour." A few years later the boy witnessed another important event. He had become a young officer; the Irish rebellion of 1798 burst out, and with several other persons of importance he was suddenly captured, and detained as a hostage. Then

fortune turned against the insurgents, in the first rage of disappointment a massacre ensued, and he had a narrow escape from death.

When the family estates had become his own, the Earl is said to have ruled with a sway almost as absolute as that of one of his forefathers, who, as was reported, transported several persons to America on his sole authority. The later Earl also was impatient of "the law's delays," and it was rumoured that if a tenant had, in his opinion, seriously misbehaved, he simply gave directions that his house should be pulled down about his ears. Notwithstanding, he was regarded as a "beneficent despot," and the handsome houses of his tenants, whose rents were never called exorbitant, excited the envy of all the neighbouring farmers. He built two churches in the neighbouring town-a Catholic one and a Protestant oneand near them stood a "hospital for decayed gentlemen and gentlewomen,' supported by a charge on the estate of £1,200 per annum. He gave an immense amount of employment, and was honoured proportionately by the labouring class. He had been for a long time kept out of the family residence by the protracted life of his mother. On her death he sent at once for an architect. "Build me," he said, "a castle. I am no judge of architecture; but it must be larger than any other house in Ireland, and have an entrance tower to be named the 'White Knight's Tower!' No delay! It is time for me to enjoy." When the castle was half finished, a wealthy manufacturer built a huge chimney in the square of the town, which crouched beneath the hill on which the castle stood. The Earl sent him orders to pull it down, or depart-two invitations which the man of business declined. The Earl drove down into the town, and, as usual, a crowd collected about his carriage. He said: "I am come to wish you good-bye, boys. This place is but a small place, and there is not room in it for me and that man (pointing to the factory). He says the law is on his side, and I daresay it is. Consequently, I go to England to-morrow morning." During the night the lord of industry received a visit from uninvited guests; the next morning no smoke went over the towers and the woods, and on the third day he had taken his departure. The great castle was finished, and there was one great house-warming.

No gathering of the sort ever succeeded in those stately halls. What succeeded was the Limerick election. As that election drew near, a rumour grew up that the fidelity of the tenants was not to be relied on; but few believed it. A neighbour of ours, himself a nobleman of large landed possessions, went to the new castle to consult with the Lord, who greeted him with the enquiry, "Is in the field?" "No," was the answer; and the questioner resumed, "Then I set up my old friend M-," naming a popular country gentleman worth £10,000 per annum, who had lately built a house suitable to that income, on visiting which his friend at the castle commented on it thus: "The house is pretty; but what is the use of it? It is too large to hang at your watch-chain, and too small to live in." When the two peers had discussed the political symptoms of the day, the Earl of Kingston, dashing his hand loudly on the table, exclaimed: "Sir, I will tell you the simple truth of the case. The Irish people are gone mad! My father returned fourteen members of Parliament (he meant the Irish Parliament), and it is with difficulty that I return eight!" The loyalty of the tenant-vote was next touched upon. "That matter is settled," the Earl replied. "I have sent orders that the whole