AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULTS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 34, 21 December 1894, Page 37

AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULTS.

MB AWBEEY dk Vebb, in the Century, tells the following —The nobleman spoken of is the Karl of X , « whose territories, 60 000 acres, with a rental of £46,000 per annum, extended through a large part of three counties, and included much of those Desmond lands, some 600,000 acres of which had been confiscated by Queen Eluabeth in a single day." The occasion was the Limerick election Another nobleman of large estates called on Lord X to discuss the matter :-« When the two peers bad discussed the political symptoms of the day the Earl of X , dating his band loudly on tbe table, exclaimed : « Sir, I will tell you the simple truth of the case. The Irish people are gone mad 1 My father returned fourteen Members of Parliament (he meant the Irish Parliament} it is with difficulty that I return eight 1' The loyalty of the tenant vote was next touched upon. ' That matter is settled,' the Earl replied. 'I have *nt orders that the whole of my county of Limerick tenants shall ride into Limerick on the first day of election, and be the first to vote. Once they have set tbe example the other fellow., of course, will follow it. I shall go into Limerick myself. He did so two days before the election, and each d*y he g«ve a grand banquet to the county gentlemen. " The Earl oecnpied the house of his friend Lord which wit. the palace of the Protestant bishop, occupied on, side of a courl opening into a wide strait. At tbe open window the Jlarl sat with

the candidat3 he favoured. They were big and borly men both, and in hi s 'h good humour, now quaffing a battle of champagne, now leaning out and chaffing with the city mob, which cheered them to the echo, for it united the old Irish taste for chieftainship with the covtl aspiration after democratic power. The rest of the room was filled with a flnetuHting thrung of country gentlemen, who brought in tht latest news, and then amused themselves with the humours of the crowd. The appointed hour was sounded from the balls of 8t Mary's Cathedral, as merrily as on that morning when Sarefield crossed the Shannon end burst the Dutch cannon. In mile-long cavalcade the X tenantry rnde down Limerick's chief street ; another and larger crowd cheered them and their fine horses, an 1 doubtless that acclaim sent an exhilaration into their heads as potent as the fnmesof champagne could have created there. After an hour or two a dullness began to spread over that gay apartment, and many talked in whiipers. The Earl soon perceived that all was not light, and its usual sternness returned to hia strong face. 'You are hiding something from me,'he exclaimed ; ' something has gone wrong ; what has happened f After a pause a gentleman moved forward and replied •My Lord, what has gone wrong is this: the X tenantry have voted.' What of that ? ' <My Lord, they have voted with the enemy to a man 1 The other tenants are following their example. The election is lost '

I record these things as they were described to ma by those who witnessed them. The Karl travelled back to his castle all night ; at early dawn he reached it • • •

During the whole of that day he eat alone, speaking to none and Been by none. Late tbe second night the bell of his bedroom rraffo ff without intermission, and a short time afterward mounted courier! were scouring all parts of his estates, commanding the attendance at a certain specified hour of all the tenantry in occupation of its 60,000 acres. When the appointed hour arrived he sat enthroned on the dais at one end of the gallery a hundred feet long ; his official persons were ranged near him in a line at each aide of that gallery. What he intended to say to his tenants has often been guessed at, but will never be known. The tenanta throaged in at the lower end of the gallery, advancing nearer each moment as their numbers increased, to where the Earl sat. His eye was fixed upon them with that look for which it was famed but he spoke no word. Suddenly its expression changed : he leaped from his seat, raised hiu arms on high, and exclaimed : ' They are come to tear me in pieces ; they are come to tear me in pieces t ' The next night but one he was in a mad-house. There he continued to live for many years, faithfully attended by a devoted wife; bat he is said never to have had a lucid interval."