Wales coming of age, he received the latest reward of a long life spent in the service of his country in the shape of a Field-marshal's baton. He died on the 2d of March, 1869, at his residence, St Helen's, Booterstown, and was succeeded in the peerage by his son. Lord Gough, as a commander, showed the characteristics of his nation; he was hot and impetuous, and perhaps somewhat rash. With foes one half as brave and determined as the troops he commanded, his Indian battles might have been less glorious in their issue. His conception of a battle was good; but in working out its details he did not always avoid or guard against those unfortunate mistakes by which English battles are so often marred. Yet, taking all in all, he stands amongst our greatest generals; simple and affectionate, brave to excess in the field, humble and deeply religious, Lord Gough was looked up to by his profession and beloved in Irish society, of which, when his military career was over, he was long an ornament and a pride.* THE EARL OF BESSBOROUGH. BORN AUGUST 1781-DIED MAY 1847. THE Right Hon. John William Ponsonby, fourth Earl of Bessborough, born August 31, 1781, was the eldest son of Frederick, third Earl of Bessborough. His Lordship, who was better known as Lord Duncannon, was returned in 1805 as member of Parliament for Knaresborough, and sat successively for Higham-Ferrers and Malton. In 1826 he was returned for his native county, Kilkenny, and again in 1831; but in 1832, he was displaced by the repeal movement, when, rather than divide the Liberal party, he withdrew from the contest. He next appeared in Parliament as member for Nottingham. Though not possessed of brilliant talents, he was for many years one of the most active members and chief councillors of the Whig party. In 1831, Lord Duncannon was appointed First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, and was at the same time sworn a Privy Councillor. He continued in that office till the month of August 1834, when he was entrusted by Lord Melbourne with the seals of the Home Office. In April 1835, on the restoration of Lord Melbourne's ministry, Lord Duncannon was appointed to his former office of First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, and was also at the same time entrusted with the custody of the Privy Seal. These two offices remained thus united until, on the 16th of October 1839, Lord Claren *We regret that original materials for Lord Gough's memoir have not enabled us to do justice to the recent memory of this gallant veteran. It is scarcely worth weaving into one of greater length, the well-worn threads of his life which we have used in this short sketch. When sufficient time shall have passed away, Lord Gough's son intends to undertake the publication of a memoir himself. It sometimes happens, however, that when all contemporaries, whose feelings might be hurt, are gone from the scene, the time for publication has also gone by, and the details, which if published immediately would have been read by all the world with interest, are looked upon as mere rubbish of the past, and perused by few or none. don was appointed Privy Seal, Lord Duncannon retaining the office of Woods and Works. While filling this office, he deservedly earned the gratitude of the public for the manner in which he effected most of the tasteful improvements of the parks of London and of the Phoenix Park in Dublin. In February 1844, by the death of his father, Lord Duncannon became, in the sixty-third year of his age, fourth Earl of Bessborough. When Lord Russell became Premier, in July 1846, the Earl of Bessborough was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. His tenure of the viceroyalty, though of brief duration, was rendered painfully remarkable by a crisis of unexampled magnitude in the history of Ireland, when famine and pestilence spread death and desolation throughout the length and breadth of the land. The condition of the country at the time the Earl of Bessborough became viceroy, and the character of his administration, have been fairly described by a Dublin journal, when announcing his death in the office of Lord-Lieutenant :— "It is for the last stage of his quiet, though valuable life," says the Freeman's Journal, "that Lord Bessborough's name will be held in undying remembrance. He assumed the reins of power when men of less resolute and practical minds refused the perilous duty of governing a country whose social bonds were on the verge of dissolution, where famine had made a fearful and desperate lodgment, where all classes were filled with horror for the present and alarm for the future, where the poor man was dying, the rich man desponding; and poverty and property struggled in death grips for the triumph and ascendancy. There never was in the history of this country a more repelling period, with less to invite and more to intimidate. It was in this terrible exigency that the Earl of Bessborough came among us. All welcomed him as the representative of a house long dear to Ireland, and as containing in his own character many of those elements which could not fail to inspire popular confidence, and win the respect and forbearance of all parties. From the moment of his arrival, not a harsh word was spoken of his administration. He stilled the bitterness of party, and by his measures, as well as by the kindness of his manner and amenity of his temper, he brought all to love, to admire, and now to regret him." He died on the 16th of May 1847, at Dublin Castle. He was the second viceroy who died during his tenure of office-the first was George, fourth Duke of Rutland, who died some sixty years previously, in the year 1787. The Earl of Bessborough married, November 1805, Lady Maria Fane, third daughter of John, tenth Earl of Westmoreland, by whom he had issue seven sons and six daughters. He was succeeded in his title and estates by Lord Viscount Duncannon, M.P., LordLieutenant and Custos Rotulorum for Carlow. CHIEF-JUSTICE DOHERTY BORN 1786-DIED 1850. THE life of John Doherty, Lord Chief-Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Ireland, affords a striking illustration of social success, for it is certain that he owed his elevation to the high rank he attained far more to his personal talents, his polished manner, and his political connection, than to his legal abilities, or the estimation in which he was regarded as a lawyer. He had no advantages from birth or fortune. The son of an attorney, living in no very great style, he yet took a good place among the distinguished lawyers who then raised the Irish bar to an honourable position, both in respect of attainments and eloquence. These men, when Ireland ceased to have her native Parliament, atoned, in some degree, for the loss of the "Lords and Commons of Ireland, in Parliament assembled "--and they upheld the fame of their country for intellectual, as distinguished from mere professional distinction. In the now very unfashionable street in Dublin called Stephen Street, there lived, towards the close of the eighteenth century, an attorney named Hugh Doherty. This street, extending from Longford Street to Mercer Street, though now occupied by provision shops, leather sellers, furniture brokers, and other traders, bears the impress of former respectability in large houses, some of them quaintly gabelled, and curiously adorned. Many of the finest of these mansions are let to lodgers in tenements, and to this fate has fallen the dwelling in which Hugh Doherty, Attorney-at-Law, breathed his last. He left a widow, and several children, sons and daughters. One of his sons, John Doherty, whose career forms the present memoir, afterwards the Lord ChiefJustice of the Irish Court of Common Pleas, was born about the year 1786. After her husband's death the widowed Mrs Doherty removed with her family to a small house in Stephen's Green. John Doherty received a good education, and by his application rewarded his teacher's care. Having his mind well stored by his school training, John Doherty entered Trinity College, Dublin, and completed his university career by taking his Bachelor's degree in 1806.* He was at all times fond of literature, and resolving to follow the legal profession, read law as a student of the King's Iuns. His intellectual qualities were of a superior order. His understanding, though perhaps not capable of grasping very subtle or abstract principles, was clear and tenacious. He possessed deep natural feeling and refined taste, both productive of poetical talent, which soon displayed itself. It is to be regretted that the productions of this Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas have not been published. "The My informant states that he read a manuscript poem on return of the British Army from the Peninsula," which well merited being printed, but nothing could induce Mr Doherty to appear as an author. He was called to the Irish bar in Hilary Term 1808; an able man was called about the same time, Francis Blackburne. The legal profession in Ireland at this period boasted, as we have observed, many whose names form a list of excellent lawyers: Plunket, Bushe, Burton, Joy, Edward and Richard Pennefather, Robert Holmes, O'Connell, and others. By the Union, being deprived of the arena of politics, which, for many years, before the close of the last century, had divided their attention with the studies and practice of their profession, they concentrated all their energies upon law, and became in consequence the foremost advocates of the day. Some had been trained debaters in the Irish House of Commons, and their renown in oratory fired many an aspiring youth to distinguish himself by the same means. Hence, perhaps the technicalities of the profession were too little attended to, while a flowery mode of speaking was practised. Bushe, who was renowned for the grace and beauty of his style, was much imitated. Doherty was connected with the Bushes of Kilkenny, and naturally felt proud of the fame of his kinsman. Mr Doherty soon became very popular with his brethren of the bar. He did not aspire to any very lofty eloquence, and was satisfied to be regarded as a clever man, instead of a great lawyer. Indeed, there was little of the lawyer about him, and if any one met him sauntering down Grafton Street, or in one of the Dublin Squares, his tall gentlemanly figure, always well dressed, his erect bearing, and pleasant countenance, had more the air of a dragoon officer in mufti, than a leading member of the Irish bar. His manners partook of the same character; they were frank and confiding; and his love of agreeable society was a marked feature throughout his whole career. In 1823 he was honoured by Lord Manners, then Lord Chancellor, with a silk gown. The patronage of naming king's counsel rests with the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Mr Doherty's connection with the celebrated statesman, George Canning, naturally caused him to desire a seat in Parliament. He was supported by the Marquis of Ormond in contesting the city of Kilkenny in 1826, and, although opposed by a scion of the house of Ormond, Pierse Somerset Butler, Mr Doherty was elected after a very severe contest. About this time he married Miss Wall of Coolnamuck, who belonged to a family of the highest respectability, but impaired fortunes, and the late eminent Dr Wall, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, was one of the trustees of the marriage settlement. There were several children of this union. Mr Doherty's practice continued to increase on his circuit, where his ability as a speaker, and his reputation as a good cross-examiner of witnesses, caused him to be in much request. But he was not a mere lawyer, a "book in breeches," as some one more pithily than elegantly said; he always displayed a taste for literature, and accepted the office of Commissioner of Education. He also mixed in the troubled sea of politics. When Mr Canning became prime minister in 1827, Mr Doherty was named for the office of Solicitor-General for Ireland; but a difficulty arose from a quarter where certainly none was expected, the Irish Lord Chancellor refused to swear him into office. The reason alleged was that he, Mr Doherty, was too junior a member of the bar to be lifted over the heads of the seniors. Now, it was notorious that he was of much longer standing in the profession than many who filled the office. Not to refer to any date prior to the present century, I may mention Mr M'Clelland, who was appointed Solicitor General in 1802, called in 1789, thus only thirteen years at the bar; Mr Plunket, Solicitor-General in 1803, who was only sixteen years called; and Mr Bushe, appointed in 1805, only thirteen years called. Thus practice and precedent were against the point raised by the Chancellor, for Mr Doherty had been called twenty years. His appointment was regarded with satisfaction by the Roman Catholics, as he was considered much more favourable to their claims than Mr Joy, named as AttorneyGeneral. He had good temper, discretion, and that happy tact which tends to keep the discordant elements of Irish society from disturbing the Ministerial peace. The will of the people prevailed over the reluctant Chancellor, and John Doherty was duly gazetted the King's Solicitor-General for Ireland. He was again in the House of Commons, where his talents as a debater and knowledge of Irish affairs gained him a high reputation. He was, as might have been expected, a staunch supporter of the principles of Mr Canning, and equally opposed the section of the Whig party which adhered to Lord Grey, as to the Tories, then led by Mr Peel. Unfortunately the qualities which the Solicitor-General possessed as a Crown prosecutor were soon put in requisition. He appears to have been always preferred to the Attorney-General, Mr Joy, whose high legal attainments were not so much regarded in criminal affairs as those of his subordinate law officer. Mr Doherty's manner and appearance were very winning. His mode of speaking has been said to have much resembled Canning's: "An eager and precipitated power, His social success in London was greater than that of any Irish barrister since Curran's time. We have been told that when his presence was secured for a dinner party, the other invitations held forth as the attraction, "To meet the Irish Solicitor-General," and there was the greatest avidity at the clubs where he was accustomed to dine to secure the next table, and thereby come in for some of the good things which emanated from this fascinating companion. One of the important criminal cases in which Mr Doherty prosecuted as Solicitor-General deserves mention here.* It is the case called "The Doneraile Conspiracy," which was tried before Baron Pennefather and Judge Torrens at Cork. A conspiracy, it was alleged, was formed to murder Admiral Evans, Mr Creagh, and Mr Low, magistrates, resident near Doneraile, in that county. The Solicitor-General and several members of the Munster Circuit appeared for the Crown; the prisoners were defended at first by Messrs Pigot and M'Carthy-subsequently by Daniel O'Connell. The Solicitor-General stated the case for the prosecution in an eloquent and impressive speech, which was rendered more effective by the excitement within and without the court. first batch of conspirators comprised four; one, named Leary, was an old and respectable tenant of Mr Creagh's father, and paid a rent of £220 a-year for his holding. The principal evidence was that of a professional spy and informer, who was backed by two scoundrels, and their allegation was that the conspiracy was hatched in a hut in Rath An excellent etching of him is engraved. The |