CAULFIELD 399 that Ireland, in those days, had but few inducements for the votaries of refined taste, elegant amusement, or social tranquillity. The history of the men and measures of those days, are so intimately blended with the life of Lord Charlemont, that it will be impossible to detach them from the thread of this memoir; but the brevity to which our sketch is necessarily restrained, will oblige us to exclude all collateral details, not indispensable to our purpose. The first occasion we find to notice Lord Charlemont as a prominent figure in the political canvass in Ireland, was during the viceroyalty of the Marquis of Hartington, son of the then Duke of Devonshire; a nobleman selected for the suavity of his manners, and the excellence of his character, as a minister well ealculated to calm the turbu- lence which then prevailed between the leading partisans of the Irish and British interests. The Lord Primate Stone, on the one hand, and Mr. Boyle (afterwards Lord Shannon) on the other, were the conflicting candidates for superiority. Both were sustained by vigorous parti- sans, and Lord Hartington saw, that unless conciliation could be effected, the purposes of his mission would be fruitless. Lord Charlemont, then, almost a stranger in his own country, and wholly unexperienced in the maneuvres of old intriguing statesmen, was induced, at the request of the viceroy, to undertake the mediation; and notwith- standing his youth, he carried the point by the influence of his candour and conciliating manners. His own prin- cipal objeet was, to restore tranquillity to his country, and to effect a junction of both chiefs, in aid of the viceroy, whose sole purpose was public utility, and the establish- ment of barmony at the castle, But the noble young me- diator never suspected ap underplot which was proceeding at the same time, to establish as a secret article in the treaty, that Mr. Boyle should have an earldom with a pension of s0001. a-year, for thirty-one years ; and that the Primate Stone, after a little time, should enjoy his
