“The order for issuing the new Commission has arrived, but my Lord Chancellor (Methuen] having taken his departure before the order for naming the Keeper of the Seals had come, the Commission cannot be sealed.
“We have received commands to leave the papers here that have passed through our hands while we have been in the government; as to this, we reply to Mr. Vernon to-day. I have always thought that it would be exceedingly useful for the service of the king and the welfare of Ireland, to establish an office where all such papers might remain for the use of those who should be, or might have been, in the government, and for private individuals for their interests. If the king should not be advised to establish this office, I believe, my lord, that you will approve our causing copies to be made to be placed at your disposal, and that we may keep the originals for our own justification. I hope that we shall have no need of them; but it appears to me that there is some prudence in retaining possession of them. In this view we shall bring them to England, to do there whatever you think most proper. — I am, with respect, &c,
Often in those old times, opposition to the statesmen in power was so furious, that on their removal from power impeachments for treason were threatened. The retiring ministers, therefore, carried off all the official papers, and thus the State Papers of the kingdom were scattered among the private mansions of noblemen and gentlemen. The first suggestion of a State Paper Office for Ireland was made by Lord Galway in the above letter. He left Ireland with a good conscience, and with an excellent reputation as a man, a statesman, and a Christian nobleman. The Societies for the Reformation of Manners acknowledged his countenance of their well-intentioned labours. Their “Account,” published at that period, stated that they had several societies in Dublin, which were spreading into several parts of the kingdom, and were encouraged by his Excellency the Earl of Galway. He was also a patron of rising talent. The ennobled descendants of Richard Malone, who was called to the Irish bar in 1700, sent the following information to “Playfair’s Family Antiquities” concerning their ancestor, “This very distinguished person, while he was yet a student at the Temple, was employed, by the interest of his early friend Ruvigny, Earl of Galway, as a negotiator in Holland.” I conclude this section with an extract from Evelyn’s Diary (Evelyn’s son had been a commissioner of revenue in Ireland from 1692 to 1698): “1701, June 22, I went to congratulate the arrival of that worthy and excellent person, my Lord Galway, newly come out of Ireland, where he had behaved himself so honestly and to the exceeding satisfaction of the people; but he was removed thence for being a Frenchman, though they had not a more worthy, valiant, discreet, and trusty person on whom they could have relied for conduct and fitness. He was one who had deeply suffered, as well as the Marquis his father, for being Protestants.”
Sec 9. — The Earl of Galway’s Semi-Official Life, from the Death of King Charles II. of Spain to the Death of our King William III.
It was on the 1st November 1700 that King Charles II. of Spain died. By his will he left the sovereignty of the entire Spanish dominions to Philip, Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV. The celebrated Partition Treaties, which had been previously entered into, were devices for the partition of the Spanish dominions upon the death of Charles II. Louis XIV., being bound by solemn compacts to renounce the throne of Spain for his family, had concurred in the first partition, getting a substantial slice of the foreign possessions, and acknowledging the Electoral Prince of Bavaria as heir-presumptive of Spain proper. But the death of the Bavarian Prince had made new negotiations necessary; and at the death of Charles II. a second Partition Treaty had the signatures of some of the interested potentates, but not the signature of Emperor Leopold of Germany, to whose younger son, the Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, Spain was assigned.
Before the document could be ready for signature, a disturbing element had arisen in the irritation of the dying king at foreign monarchs disposing of his territories. He had, therefore, resolved to leave the undivided dominions to one heir. He hesitated between Archduke Charles and Duke Philip, and rather inclined to the former. But when he considered the power of Louis XIV., he thought that anarchy and bloodshed would be avoided by deciding for that tyrant’s grandson. And Louis accepting the last Will and Testament, the young French candidate was proclaimed as Philip V., King of Spain. Williamitc politics would have at once protested against this; but King William was in the hands of the opposition party. He had dismissed Lord Chancellor Somers, who felt deeply aggrieved at being thus prevented from presenting an unyielding front to his adversaries. The Earl of Rochester was supreme in England as well as in Ireland. This circumstance, coupled with the
