RESIGNATION OF LORD CARLISLE. The Irish people, progressing in prosperity, peace, and happiness during the Viceroyalty of Lord Carlisle, saw with pain and anxious concern that his wise and beneficent administration was soon to dissolve. During the early part of the year (1864), a partial lingual paralysis rendered speech difficult to his Lordship His physical powers were as yet otherwise unaffected. At this critical period of the incipient disease, the celebration of the Shaksperian Tercentenary was about to be held at Stratford-onAvon; Lord Carlisle was to preside. His physicians, as the festival drew near, remonstrated upon the danger to his powers of speech, scarcely recovered. But the danger was not regarded by Lord Carlisle, who felt a deep interest in the success of that great festival. Several pledged visitors had drawn back; Lord Carlisle resolved, at all events, not to fail. He kept his engagement; and at the Banquet,* first proposed the Health of "The Queen." He said, "Shakspeare himself supplied, in part, a most fitting description of the character of the Monarch now happily reigning over this country: "She shall be A pattern to all Princes living with her, And all that shall succeed. All Princely graces, With all the virtues that attend the good, Shall still be doubled on her; truth shall nurse her, Holy and heavenly thoughts still counsel her.'" He next gave- "The Prince and Princess of Wales, and the rest of the Royal Family. See the Appendices for the characteristic bill-of-fare at the Shakspeare Commememoration Banquet. He said that "with respect to the illustrious couple who headed the toast, it would not be inappropriate to resort to the Court of Denmark for a description of them. He would characterise them (again quoting Shakespeare) as "The expectancy and rose of the fair State, The glass of fashion, and the mould of form, * And in the opinions of the Lord Archbishop of Dublin, and many other men of eminence and sound judgment who were present, delivered as fine and powerful an Address as they had ever heard from his Lordship, on the toast of the evening- "The Memory of Shakspeare." This great effort did not for a time appear to have had an injurious effect; on his return, however, to Dublin, the fearful disease extended; the entire right side became paralyzed, and the noble Lord's whole system fatally affected. It became painfully evident that the termination of his Government was at hand. Sorrow, anxiety, and gloom pervaded the minds of the Irish people, who had fondly hoped for a long and happy continuance of his Lordship's genial and impartial rule. Lord Carlisle, however, needed retirement from the cares of state. The progress of the disease imperatively constrained him to tender his resignation of the Viceroyalty, and seek repose in his native country. LORD CARLISLE'S FINAL DEPARTURE AND DEATH. "It was here I began my official life-here I shall be well content to close it-happy, indeed, when that period arrives, again to leave your land without the consciousness of any enmity wilfully incurred, or of any duty wantonly neglected."-Reply to the Address from the Corporation of Dublin. * See the Appendices for Dr. Trench's celebrated Sermon on Shakspeare, preached in Holy Trinity Church, Statford-on-Avon, during the Tercentenary Festival. Lord Carlisle had resigned; his official life had closed; in Kingstown Harbour, alongside the "Carlisle Pier," the vessel lay moored that was soon to bear from the shores of Ireland the "good and amiable Viceroy." Alas! how changed was the appearance of the gay and sprightly Nobleman who, a few short years before, had landed here with firm step, and stately and graceful bearing, in buoyant spirits and healthful vigour, whom the people welcomed with hope and joy! He was now about to leave, in utter prostration, his physical powers wholly exhausted. This reflection affected and deeply moved an affectionate and warm-hearted people. They were sensible of their own great loss, yet deeply lamented the sad and afflicting cause; their sorrowing hearts sympathized with the sufferings of their friend and noble benefactor. An immense concourse were assembled to bid their esteemed Viceroy farewell-a fond, and, as it proved, a last farewell. The vast assemblage poured forth humble blessings upon him, and fervent hopes for his recovery, and that he would soon return, to assume again the office of Viceroy, with renewed health and vigour. How overpowering must have been the emotions-what mingled feelings of sorrow, pride, and pleasure must have pervaded the mind of Lord Carlisle at this the closing scene of his bright official career! His natural display of feeling on this affecting and memorable occasion was felt to be no indication of mere physical weakness, but rather the farewell of tender regard. He appeared on the deck, leaning on the arm of Lady Elizabeth Grey, the sister whom he loved so well. His last words at the moment of parting were "I leave, after my term of office, undimmed by one particle of personal bitterness either on the present or the crowded memories of the past ;" and the vessel proceeding on her way-he continually waved his adieus towards the receding shore. Sir Robert Peel, speaking of the loss of Lord Carlisle, and his departure, well and vividly describes the interesting scene: "I do venture to say, that never did a man leave the shores of Ireland towards whom a deeper regret at the affliction which had befallen him was felt than towards Lord Carlisle. I do not know if I may observe on one particular fact connected with his departure; but I would venture to say that there was no person who witnessed the departure of Lord Carlisle from the shores of Ireland who was not affected at the spectacle that was presented. Crowds of people were assembled in Kingstown, in silent regret, to wish him good-bye; and I have been told-when my gallant friend, the Commander-in-Chief, advanced to bid him a last good-bye, and when he took his hand and grasped it for a few minutes, and said, 'God bless you, Sir!' and I do believe that there was not a dry eye in the crowded assembly that was there to wish Lord Carlisle farewell. He stood till the last moment on the deck of the vessel; and, as it was leaving the shore, he cast a long, lingering look behind him at that country where he had spent almost the whole of his public life, and where his public services had been given. Many a person in that assembly must have recollected those touching lines of Moore, where he says:— "As slow our ship her foamy track From all the links that bind us; So parted the noble Lord, amidst the regrets of the citizens of Dublin, of the people of Ireland, and their yearning for his return. He was certainly the most popular Viceroy that ever administered the affairs of Ireland, and his successor will find it difficult to rival him in those social and administrative qualities which marked the public conduct and private demeanour of Lord Carlisle. The "Globe," on the retirement of Lord Carlisle from office, observes: "We must place him in the category of those whose eminent careers have been prematurely cut off. In the case of Dalhousie, of Canning, and of Elgin, 'the climate and the work' but too surely showed that they had laid down their lives as devotedly as those who face the enemy in battle; and of each of them it may be said he died amid the sound of victories won-victories not the less glorious because they were accompanied, not with shrieks and wounds, but with tokens of humanizing progress, of increasing prosperity and happiness wrought by their hands. We have now to add to the list the name of Lord Carlisle, whom a painful and destroying illness compels to abandon the sphere which he so well adorns." "The retirement of Lord Carlisle from the high office he so long and so worthily filled, can hardly be looked upon as other than a retirement from political life. The gradual increase of the malady from which he suffers—an increase which has been slow, but steady and sure-leaves little room to hope that he will be able again to offer his Sovereign and his country a renewal of those services the benefit of which Ireland felt more than any other portion of this empire. No living statesman has been so long, so intimately, and so usefully connected with Ireland, and with Irish political affairs, as has been Lord Carlisle."-Freeman's Journal. Mr. Lever, in an able article on "The Irish Viceroyalty," deprecating the abolition of that time-honoured office, says:— "If, however, it be the intention of our rulers to abolish that office, what could have induced them to mark its extinction by naming Lord Carlisle to the post? Why accompany its decline and fall by regrets all the more poignant? Why join in the loss of certain material benefits the still greater loss that attaches to the rupture of ties of affection and deep regard? I have never been in Ireland since his Viceroyalty; but I am told on all sides, and by * Opinion of Lord Carlisle upon the Abolition of the Irish Viceroyalty. "I retain the conviction with which I left your shores, that it would be most unadvisable to discontinue or tamper with the office which it is now my high honour, for the second time, to fill. Any efforts that I can make will be used in accordance with this opinion; but I do not apprehend that any designs are entertained on the part of those in whose behalf I can speak in a contrary direction. "Besides the signal antiquity of the office, which would clearly give to its abolition all the risks of an untried experiment, the character of weight and authority with which it is invested have a tendency to secure consideration for matters affecting the interest and welfare of Ireland; and although under a Parliamentary Government all persons bearing office below the Crown itself will probably, always, in a greater or less degree, belong to one or other of the parties into which the realm is divided, still the very notion of representing the Crown will be found to go some way in raising a Lord Lieutenant above the rigid limits of mere party divisions."-Extract from the Reply to the Address of the Corporation of Dublin, June 18th, 1859. |