[70]. His lordship’s only son (married to a daughter of the Earl of Warwick) is now a total absentee, and exhibits another lamentable proof, that the children even of men who rose to wealth and title by the favours of the Irish people feel disgusted, and renounce for ever that country to which they are indebted for their bread and their elevation!
He had in the Court of King’s Bench, about 1789, used rough language toward Mr. Hackett, a gentleman of the bar, the members of which profession at that time considered themselves as all assailed in the person of a brother barrister. A general meeting was therefore called by the father of the bar; a severe condemnation of his lordship’s conduct voted, with only one dissentient voice; and an unprecedented resolution entered into, that “until his lordship publicly apologised, no barrister would either take a brief, appear in the King’s Bench, or sign any pleadings for that court.”
This experiment was actually tried:—the judges sat, but no counsel appeared; no cause was prepared; the attorneys all vanished, and their lordships had the court to themselves. There was no alternative; and next day Lord Clonmel published a very ample apology, by advertisement in the newspapers, and, with excellent address, made it appear as if written on the evening of the offence, and therefore voluntary.[[71]]
[71]. An occurrence somewhat of the same nature took place at no very great distance of time, at Maryborough assizes, between Mr. Daley, a judge of the Irish Court of King’s Bench, and Mr. W. Johnson, now judge of the Common Pleas.
Mr. Daley spoke of committing Mr. Johnson for being rude to him; but, unfortunately, he committed himself! A meeting was called, at which I was requested to attend; but I declined, and was afterward informed that my refusal had (very unjustly) given offence to both parties. The fact is, that, entertaining no very high opinion of the placability of either, I did not choose to interfere, and so unluckily replied that “they might fight dog, fight bear,—I would give no opinion about the matter.”
One of the few things I ever forgot is, the way in which that affair terminated:—it made little impression on me at the time, and so my memory rejected it.