A ROYAL VISIT TO IRELAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2416, 28 June 1900, Page 63

A ROYAL VISIT TO IRELAND.

Mr Michael Macdonagh, in the Fortnightly Review for April, disinters some interesting memories of the visit which George IV paid to Ireland in 1821. George IV landed at.Howth, in Ireland, on August 12, and immediately began to show the joviality and condecension which in the popular .eye condoned his many peccadilloes. Mr Macdonagh' s article contains a great many interesting anecdotes 'of his intercourse with the common people, of which ihe following is a characteristic specimen: —

The King noticed a tall, well-built, goodlooking man in the mob trotting along by the carriage, and addressing him said : — "Well, my good' fellow, I suppose you are a farmer?" "Troth I am, yer Majesty's honour," replied the peasant, " but shure I'm only a little wan — a forty-shillin' freehoulder, yer Majesty's honour." "1 hope you have a cow," said the monarch. " Troth, I havn't; then, yer Majesty's honour." replied the peasant. " Then you should have one," said the King. "I think every poor Irishman should have at least a cow, a pig, and some fowl. 1 ' This royal proposal for the solution of the Irish question was received with roars of cheers. The name and address of the fortusiate peasant was taken by order of the 'King, and a few days afterwards he had a milch cow and two pigs on his little holding.

IN DUBLIN.

On his arrival in- Dublin he indulged in similar witticisms : —

At the North Circular road gates of the Phoenix Park the crowd stopped. But the King was not yet tired of their company. " Come on, my friends !" he cried, and the long cavalcade followed the carriage to the very Vice-regal Lodge. On the steps of the residence his Majesty delivered an impromptu speech. "This is one of the happiest days of my life," said he. "I have long wished to visit you. My heart has always been Irish. From the day it first beat I have always loved Ireland, and this day has shown one that I am beloved by my Irish subjects. Rank, station, honours, ars nothing; but to feel that I live in the hearts -of my Irish subjects is to me the most exalted happiness. I must now once more thank you for your kindness, and bid you farewell. Go, and do by me as I shall do by you— drink my health in a bumper of Irish whisky punch!" He then heartily shook hands with those immediately about him, and noticing a few old peasants struggling to get inside the ring, he cried, "Let those honest farmers approach their King."

POPULAR ENTHUSIASM.

The enthusiasm with which the King was received was unprecedented. The streets ■were packed with surging masses of people, and innumerable addre&ses were pz'esented. It was at that time thought that the King had brought with -him the gift of Catholic emancipation.

The King seemed to be infected with flattery : —

He called every man introduced to him by his Christian name. " How he manages to get over in a few minutes the space between introduction and familiarity, which it takes some so much time to leave behind, I cannot tell," wrote Charles Kendal Bushe, the Solicitor-General, who met the King at Slane Castle, the residence of the Marquis of Conyngham ; " but I certainly, in less than half-an-hour, was a little surprised by his calling me ' Bushe ' without any other addition than if I had known him 20 years." In return, no flattery was thought too fulsome for the King. Out of the company at Slane Castle, numbering 200, it was decided by competent judges "that his Majesty was the best dancer of an Irish jig."

THE KING'S DEPASTURE.

On September 3 the King left Dunleary for England. The farewell scenes were marked by the same wild, unrestrained enthusiasm. The little seaside village was on that day named Kingstown by popular acclamation. In a huge tent erected on the seashore the King received a farewell address from the citizens of Dublin. " When you Majesty came amongst us discord ceased, and even prejudice fled," it declared. "Your Majesty has banished every bad passion, and united six millions of a grateful people in a bond of brotherly love to one another, and of affectionate attachment to your Majesty's person and Throne." A laurel crown, "intended with all humility," said the address, "to be replaced hy one of emeralds," was presented to the' King by O'Connell, on bended knee.