[63]. Line 3.—[Referring to Lord Moira’s complaints against the Government agents, for unnecessary cruelty to the Irish rebels.—Ed.]
[65]. Line 13.—[The following attack upon Lord Moira, “for his patriotic zeal, and the correctness and propriety with which he gave, in the upper House of Parliament, an account of the insurrection upon his estates, and in other parts of Ireland,” is extracted from the “Batchelor”. These observations were there pointed at the father of Lord Moira, but have been adapted by the Author of the Ode and the Artist to the son.
Lord Moira.—“My Lords, I rise to return my thanks to the Noble Lord who spoke last. I can testify the truth of all he has asserted. At the time of the Insurrection in the North, I had frequent and intimate conversations with that celebrated enchanter, Moll Coggin. I have often seen her riding on a black ram with a blue tail. Once I endeavoured to fire at her, but my gun melted in my hand into a clear jelly. This jelly I tasted, and if it had been a little more acid, it would have been most excellent. The Noble Lords may laugh; but I declare the fact upon my veracity, which has never been doubted. Once I pursued this fiend into my ale cellar: she rode instantly out of my sight into the bung-hole of a beer barrel. She was at that time mounted on her black ram with the blue tail. Some time after, my servants were much surprised to find their ale full of blue hairs. I was not surprised, as I knew the blue hairs were the hairs of the ram’s blue tail. Noble Lords may stare, but the fact is as I relate it. This Moll Coggin was the fiend who raised the Oak-boys to rebellion. I was also well acquainted with the two Cow-boys mentioned by the Noble Lord; they were my tenants, and were certainly endowed with supernatural powers. I have known one of them tear up by the roots an Oak two hundred feet high, and bear it upright on his head four miles! his party were on that account called Oak-boys. Noble Lords may laugh, but I speak from certain knowledge. The Oak-tree grew in my garden, and I have often seen five hundred Swans perching on its boughs; these swans were remarkable for destroying all the snipes in the country—they flew faster than any snipe I ever saw, and you may imagine a small bird could make but a feeble resistance in the talons of a swan. I hope, my Lords, you will pardon my wandering a little from the present subject,” &c.—Ed.]
[68]. Line 17.—[“One night after nine o’clock, a party of Soldiers saw a light in a house by the road-side—they went and ordered it to be extinguished immediately: the people of the house begged that the light might be suffered to remain because there was a child belonging to the family in convulsion fits, who must expire for want of help if the people were to be without fire and candle; but this request HAD NO EFFECT.” Lord Moira’s Speech in the House of Lords, November 22, 1797. This statement was, however, satisfactorily disproved. The incident forms a feature in the accompanying engraving. Notwithstanding official denials, it has long been admitted that the conduct of the Soldiery in Ireland was simply infamous. Billeting on Catholics and reputed malcontents of the better class appears to have been invariably as an unlimited licence for robbery, devastation, ravishment, and, in case of resistance, murder. Sir Ralph Abercromby, on assuming the command of the army in Ireland, declared, in general orders, that their habits and discipline were such as to render them “formidable to everybody but the enemy”. The just severity of this phrase was confirmed by the subsequent experience of Lord Cornwallis.—Ed.]
[70]. Line 19.—[Sir George Augustus William Shuckburgh, distinguished by his scientific researches, married the daughter and sole heiress of Jas. Evelyn, Esq. of Felbridge, Surrey, by whom he had an only daughter, Julia, who became, in 1810, the wife of the Earl of Liverpool. Sir George, on the decease of his father-in-law in 1793, assumed the additional surname of Evelyn. He died in 1804, having been five times returned to Parliament for the county of Warwick.—Ed.]
[71]. Line 20.—[Sir John Macpherson, Bart. was M.P. for Horsham, and for a short period Governor-General of India.—Ed.]
[72]. Line 21.—[Col. Bastard was M.P. for Devon. He was returned with Mr. Rolle, the hero of “The Rolliad,” on the Pitt interest.—Ed.]
[78]. Line 31.—[Sir William Pulteney was M.P. for Shrewsbury, and no Member in the House was more looked up to. He was the second son of Sir James Johnstone, Bart., of Westerhall, and brother of Governor Johnstone. He married the cousin of Lt.-Gen. Henry Pulteney, surviving brother of William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, assuming the name of Pulteney. The General left immense wealth, “the fruits of his brother’s virtues!” as Horace Walpole sarcastically phrases it. The greater part of it he bequeathed to the said cousin. Sir William Johnstone Pulteney died in 1805. His daughter was created Countess of Bath.—Ed.]
[79]. The trepidation of Mr. Tooke, though natural, was not necessary; as it appeared from the ever-memorable “Letter to Mr. M‘Mahon” (which was published about this time in the Morning Chronicle, and threw the whole town into paroxysms of laughter), that in the Administration which his Lordship was so gravely employed in forming, Mr. Fox was to have no place!
[81]. Line 36.—[Of M‘Mahon it is said in T. Raikes’s Journal (November, 1836):—“George IV. never had any private friends: he selected his confidants from his minions. M‘Mahon was an Irishman of low birth and obsequious manners: he was a little man, his face red, covered with pimples; always dressed in the blue and buff uniform, with his hat on one side, copying the air of his master, to whom he was a prodigious foil, and ready to execute any commissions, which in those days were somewhat complicated.” He was private secretary and keeper of the privy purse to King George IV. when Prince Regent, was sworn of the Privy Council, and created a Baronet, 7th August, 1817, with remainder, in default of male issue, to his brother. Sir John died 12th September, 1817, the title devolving on his brother Thomas, a distinguished military officer, who was Adjutant-General of Her Majesty’s forces in India, Lieut.-Gov. of Portsmouth, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, &c.