And finally ...

Supplemental Note

We have received from an ex-member for Limerick an interesting letter suggesting a few additional details at p. 167, which he is so good as to furnish. He writes:-

“1 have been interested and instructed by the perusal of ‘The Sham Squire,’ and I hope it shall be extensively circulated in England, where it could not fail to disabuse the public opinion of that country of many erroneous impressions in regard to the qualities and the habits of the natives of Ireland, whose distrust in the law of the land is not unnatural where the administration of it has been connected with so much immorality.

“As you have been evidently anxious to obtain the most accurate information relative to parties introduced into your narrative, I take the liberty of suggesting an addendum in your next edition or a note, p.167, ‘Baratariana.’ One of ‘the trusty friends’ of Lord Townshend was Robert Waller, elder brother of George, clerk of the Minutes of Excise. He was member of Parliament for the borough of Dundalk, then a nomination borough under the control of Lord Roden, who was first cousin of Mr Waller, who subsequently became a commissioner of the Revenue, when those offices had been multiplied for the purpose of parliamentary corruption. Mr Waller was created a baronet in 1780, and the title is still held by his great grandson. I remember, in my juvenile days, to have seen a full-length portrait, at Rathfarnham Castle, of the beautiful Dolly Monroe, and a relative of hers told me that Lord Townshend pretended to her aunt Lady Ely, that his object was to captivate Miss Monroe, and prevail upon her to become Lady Townshend, a delusion he kept up until Lady Ely had induced her lord to give his parliamentary support (about the strongest in the House of Commons) to Lord Townshend’s administration; but, to Lady Ely’s great mortification, the viceroy married Miss Montgomery, whose portrait by Sir Joshua Reyndds, was certainly not as handsome an that of Miss Monroe.”

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