Tea at Trianon: The Forgotten Irish ‘Emancipator of Slaves’

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, January 31, 2022

The Forgotten Irish ‘Emancipator of Slaves’

From Ancient Origins:

On his marriage in 1816 to Catherine de Burgh, daughter of the Earl of Clanricarde by whom he had fourteen children, Sligo eventually settled down to the responsibilities of his estate in the west of Ireland. A passionate advocate of Catholic Emancipation, multi-denominational education (and resisted by both Catholic and Protestant authorities) as well as reform of the nefarious legal system then pertaining, he tried his best to alleviate the desperate circumstances of his numerous tenants, aggravated by a rapidly rising population, the ‘curse’ of subdivision and the absence of any outlets of alternative employment.
With his grandfather’s traditional linen industry by then devastated by British imposed tariffs, he established a cotton and corduroy factory in Westport in order, as he wrote, “to benefit this country by introducing such manufactures into it as will give employment to the people…unless I do it to show the way nobody will follow.” His cotton sample book is on view today in Westport House. He encouraged the development of kelp harvesting and fishing and revitalized mining development in the area. He promoted trade and manufacturing in the town and port of Westport and in 1825 influenced the establishment of the first bank there.

As famine engulfed the west of Ireland in 1831, at his own expense, he imported cargos of grain and potatoes, built a hospital and dispensary to care for the sick and raised money in London for relief and additional public works. His efforts elicited the praise of Daniel O’Connell in the House of Commons: “I do not think, Sir, the landlords of Ireland ever did their duty towards their tenants. If they did what Lord Sligo is doing now, the country would not be reduced into a vast lazar house.” (Read more.)