Earl Fitzwilliam
In the circumstances the strongest of men might have hesitated before undertaking the ominous task of carrying on the Government. Unfortunately, there was a total ignorance of Ireland and its affairs amongst the English nobility, and when Lord Camden was offered the post he accepted it without demur, and confidently travelled to the Irish metropolis. Ireland knew nothing of the viceroy, and certainly the latter knew even less of the country he was called upon to rule. He was thirty-six years of age, but possessed all the pompous prejudices of a man twice his age. On his coming of age he had been appointed Teller of the Exchequer, and held it for sixty years—1780 to 1840—though after drawing about three-quarters of a million sterling from the Treasury, he 'patriotically' consented in 1812 to forego the income of the office.
CHAPTER XIII
The new viceroy was received in sullen silence on the day of his arrival in Dublin, but when Lord Clare, the Chancellor, was returning after swearing in the Lord-Lieutenant, he was attacked by a frenzied mob which sought to lynch him on the lamp-post outside his own house. Beresford had taken the precaution to fill the approaches to the Custom-house with soldiers, and so escaped, but the residences of all the principal loyalists in Dublin were stoned, and for several days mob law was supreme.
Camden, however, determined to show that he was uninfluenced by intimidation. He was not a courageous person, but he knew that the English garrison was strong and that there could be no treachery within Dublin Castle, where everybody had been bought body and soul by the Government. Pitt had advised him to adopt a strong anti-Catholic policy, and he carried out his instructions only too well. It is significant of the attitude and position of the Catholic priesthood that the viceroy could be anti-Catholic and yet in a position to lay the foundation-stone of Maynooth College. This was an open bribe to the clergy, and an intimation of favours to come if the priesthood supported the policy of Pitt and the viceroy.
Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Portland—the latter as Home Secretary having charge of Irish affairs—had almost carried into execution their plan of endowing the Roman Catholic Church with English money, and thereby securing its allegiance and support for ever; but even the audacious Castlereagh hesitated for fear of the English Established Church, and it was decided to substitute Maynooth and an endowment for the original plan.