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Although possessed of great talents he practically failed at the bar. He was eaten up with the green-eyed monster, and if surpassed by any one, he cherished for him the most undying hatred, being totally incapable of understanding, that sooner or later we all meet our masters. Even his relative, Standish O'Grady, was not exempt from this jealousy, and many were the satires directed against him by his kinsman. Sick at heart and soured in disposition, Grady ultimately left the bar, and devoted much time to his pen.'

The character of this extraordinary man may be thus epitomised. He was a gentleman of independent property, a good lawyer, but without judgment, an amatory poet, a severe and scarcely decent satirist, and an indefatigable tuft-hunter. He wrote the "Flesh-brush" for Lady Clare; the "West Briton" for the Union, "The Barrister" for the Bar, and the "Nosegay" for Mr. Bruce the banker at Limerick, who it is said, refused to appreciate the value of some accommodation bills tendered to him in exchange for cash. The following extract from the "Nosegay" will show the characteristics of the poem. It represents Bruce tortured by his own conscience and reflections in the solitude of night:

Yet in the dark and dreadful midnight hour,
Oh God! this caitiff owns thy sovereign pow'r ;
It happen'd once, by some unlucky doom,
I lay (not slept) in his adjoining room;
"Twas then I witness'd of his soul the pangs,
The stripes of conscience, and of guilt the fangs;
Scar'd by fierce visions from his fev'rish rest,
He saw ten thousand daggers at his breast;
"Murder! ye villains! murder!" he exclaim'd,
And of his many victims some he named;

Now seem'd the pistol's muzzle to evade,
And parried now the visionary blade.

Now roar'd and bellow'd like one mad or drunk,
And now to abject supplication sunk;
Now the most hellish imprecations utter'd ;
Now, half suppressed, the Litany he mutter'd;
And now, confounding blessed spirits with evil,
Invok'd, at once, our Saviour and the Devil.
Thus passed a night, which fear and fury share,
A sad melange of blasphemy and pray'r;
And while his groans and suspirations rattle,
I thought of RICHARD on the eve of battle!

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It is to be regretted that many passages in his works render them unfit for general perusal. In the year 1816 he published a second edition of the "Nosegay," upon which an action for libel was brought against him at Spring assizes, 1817, and £500 damages given to Bruce, though £20,000 were sought. The following are the names of the jury before whom the case was tried :-Hon. George Eyre Massy, Foreman; Edward Croker; Stephen Edward Rice; The Knight of Glin; De Courcy O'Grady; Thomas Rice; Michael Scanlan ; Edward Villiers; George Tuthill; John Greene; Robert Cripps; Alexander Rose, Esqrs. The local papers suppressed the trial, but portions of it were printed by A. J. Watson, Limerick, for the Editor, which caused much litigation afterwards. The damages Grady would never pay, and voluntarily expatriated himself for life. He died some few years ago at Boulogne. His works abound in curious anecdotes about Limerick people. The following anecdote about Bernard, Bishop of Limerick, in 1799, will afford a fair specimen of his dry humour:

CHAPTER XLVIII.

LOCOMOTION.-MR.

BIANCONI.-EDUCATIONAL REFORM.-INTRODUCTION OF

THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS TO LIMERICK.-THOMAS SPRING RICE, ESQ.CHAIRING OF MR. TUTHILL.-DISTURBANCES AFTER VISIT OF GEORGE IV.TERMS OFFERED BY THE INSURGENTS, &c. &c.

Ir was in the same year (1815), that Mr. Charles Bianconi, an Italian by birth, but an Irishman in heart, and of wonderful energy and ability, applied his active mind to the promotion of means for the public accommodation of passengers in the South of Ireland, which had been hitherto confined to a few mail and day coaches, which travelled with comparative leisure on the great lines of road between Munster and Dublin.

From his peculiar position in the country, he had ample opportunities of reflecting on many things, and nothing struck him more forcibly than the great vacuum that existed in travelling accommodation between the different orders of society.

"I never will forget the impression this accomplished man (the Bishop) made upon me, the first day I sat in his company. It was at Lord Gort's-after dinner the conversation took a stupid turn upon our taxes, and particularly upon the window tax, then lately laid on this country, and I threw in some stupid observations, reprobating the tax and lamenting the miserable five or six pounds a-year I had to pay for my house in Dublin-' Sir,' says he, 'you have no taxes, it is idle to talk of taxes in this country. Sir, I had a house once in London that lay at the angle of two great streets. By consequence it had two fronts-each very extensive, and with more than the ordinary proportion of windows to each front-and sir, I had to pay for the window tax of that house (I think he said) £80.' This struck me with horror-proximus ardet. I had a prophetic anticipation of what had since happened, and in the state of despair arising from the coup d'ail, I burst forth into the vulgar and indecent ejaculation of 'oh blood and 'ounds!' I saw in an instant the lawn sleeves present themselves to my confounded imagination. I was sensible of the vulgarity and grossness I had committed, and I most humbly asked his pardon. He saw I was degraded and humbled in my own feelings, and fixing his eyes upon me, which sparkled when he was going to be playful, and gave notice of the coming flash— Well— you may say 'blood and 'ounds,' sir! It was enough to make any honest man say 'blood and 'ounds,' sir! I can tell you, sir, it has made a bishop say 'blood and 'ounds,' sir.' The whole table was convulsed, and I was redeemed by the wit, the pleasantry, and good nature of this admirable man."

O'Grady also wrote "Sir Phelim O'Shaughnessy," the "Two-penny Post-Bag," &c.

September 29th.-Pursuant to Act 4th Geo. IV. the Freemen of the City assembled in the Tolsel Court, to elect a Common Speaker for the Court of D'Oyer Hundred; John Barclay Westropp, Esq. was elected. There is no mention in the existing books of the Corporation of a Common Speaker being chosen since the 3rd of April, 1680, when Robert Smyth, Burgess, was chosen to that office. Mr. Westropp and Mr. Hughes Russell were the only Candidates for the office of Common Speaker, the former on the Corporation interest, the latter on the independent interest. The Rev. Henry Ivers Ingram, the oldest resident freeman, presided in the Chair. Numbers for Westropp, 122; for Russell, 20.

In this summer Rutland-street, George's-street, and Patrick-street, were newly paved.

In this year the 29th Regiment quartered here; they paraded to church every Sunday twenty boys and twenty girls. Captain Bridges was remarkable in the Regiment as a very wealthy man; he drove a bang-up coach and four-in-hand, the first seen in Limerick-he always drove, and was accompanied by several of his brother officers seated on the roof, with one or more servants in the hinder seat, blowing horns.

October 3rd.-Ten men tried in Rathkeale, under the Insurrection Act, and sentenced to seven years' transportation; and on the 4th, three more met a similar fate.

The inconvenience felt for the want of more extended means of intercourse, particularly from the interior of the country to the different market towns, gave great advantage to the few at the expense of the many; and, above all, a great loss of time.

In July, 1815, he started a car for the conveyance of passengers from Clonmel to Caher, which he subsequently extended to Tipperary and Limerick; at the end of the same year, he started similar cars from Clonmel to Cashel and Thurles, and from Clonmel to Carrick and Waterford, and he subsequently extended this establishment, including the most insulated localities, and numbering in 1843, 100 vehicles, including mail coaches and different sized cars, capable of carrying from four to twenty passengers each, and travelling eight or nine miles an hour, at an average of one penny farthing per mile for each passenger, and performing daily 3,800 miles, passing through over 140 stations for the change of horses, consuming 3 to 4,000 tons of hay, and from 30 to 40,000 barrels of oats, annually, all of which were purchased in their respective localities.

His establishment originated immediately after the peace of 1815, having then had the advantage of a supply of first class horses intended for the army, and rating in price from ten to twenty pounds each, one of which drew a car and six persons with ease seven miles an hour. The demand for such horses having ceased, the breeding of them naturally diminished, and, after some time, he found it necessary to put two inferior horses to do the work of one. Finding he thus had extra horse power, he increased the size of the car, which held six passengers-three on each side-to one capable of carrying eight, and in proportion as the breed of horses improved, he continued to increase the size of the cars for summer work, and to add to the number of horses in winter, for the conveyance of the same number of passengers, until he converted the two-wheeled two-horse cars into four-wheeled cars, drawn by two, three, or four horses, according to the traffic on the respective roads, and the wants of the public.

Oct. 6th.-New mayor and sheriffs sworn to office; the sergeants-at-mace, bailiffs, and constables, appeared in new and hitherto uncommonly fine uniforms. Before this time it was not the custom to clothe them till the ensuing spring assizes.

The toll on corn and grain this year is one penny per bushel.

The

The decadence of theatricals throughout Ireland is instanced this year, not only by the change of the Theatre of Limerick into an admirable Catholic Church, but that at Kilkenny, so famous some years ago for its theatricals, has been changed into a hay market and corn store. Patrick-street theatre, Cork, is appropriated to the fine arts, and the Wexford theatre converted into a dissenting meeting house.

October 29th.-At a special sessions in the City Court House, under the Insurrection Act, a man sentenced to seven years' transportation, and sent out of the dock.

October 30th and 31st.-Dreadful storms and shipwrecks on the English coast. This city, and Ireland generally, have escaped.

December 3rd.-A great depression in the mercury, but no storm.

Viscount Gort elected a sitting peer of the Realm in the room of the late Viscount Powerscourt. Dec. 6th. This day the Cork coach from this city leaves the Post Office at half-past eleven o'clock, A.M., and arrives in Cork at eight, P.M.; leaves Cork at six, A.M., and arrives here at half-past two, P.M., performing the journey of fifty miles, Irish, in eight hours and a-half.

Dec. 10th and 11th.-Special sessions at Rathkeale, under the Insurrection Act; one man, a country schoolmaster, an alleged writer of Captain Rock's orders, transported.

In the summer of this year a vestibule or portico, supported by four wooden columns of the fonic order, erected over the entrance into the new Augustinian Chapel, George's-street.

Dec. 12th. In the Court of King's Bench the will of the late Mrs. Hannah Villiers, of this city, fully established; among many charitable bequests, she has left the sum of £288 per year for the support of twelve poor widows at £24 each. By this will an Alms House was built at her expense for their reception on a piece of ground adjoining St. Munchin's churchyard, and known by the name of the Bishop's Garden, which she had purchased several years before for this purpose. This Alms House is admirably built, and is beautifully situated in view of the Shannon, the Clare mountains, &c.

Mr. Bianconi

The progress of the establishment was wonderful.1 became one of the men of mark of his time. He has been also always prominent in the political movements of his time as a staunch and earnest friend of O'Connell, and his policy. He threw heart and soul and money into the movement for Catholic Emancipation; he realised a noble fortune, portion of which he has invested in the purchase of estates in his adopted County of Tipperary, of which he is a Magistrate, a Grand Juror, and Deputy Lieutenant. The late Sir Robert Peel recognised his public services by a complimentary reference to them in the House of Commons, when the naturalization of Mr. Bianconi was granted. He relates himself that in 1807-'8 he was located at Carrick-on-Suir, distant from Waterford, by road sixteen, and by the River Suir about thirty miles; and the only public mode of conveyance for passengers between these two places, containing a population of between thirty and forty thousand inhabitants, was "Tom Morrissey's boat," which carried from eight to ten passengers, and which, besides being obliged to await the tide, took from four to five hours to perform the journey, at a fare of sixpence-halfpenny of the then currency. At the time the railway opened between Cork and Waterford, in 1853, there was between the two towns horse-power capable of conveying by cars and coaches one hundred passengers daily, performing the journey in less than two hours, at a fare of two shillings, thus showing that the people not only began to understand the value of time, but also appreciated it. He subsequently became a contractor for the conveyance of several cross mails, at a price not exceeding half the amount which the Government had paid the postmasters for doing this duty; and it was not until Lord O'Neill and Lord Ross had ceased to be Postmasters-General of Ireland, and that the Duke of Richmond became Postmaster General of the United Kingdom, under the Government of Lord Grey, and that the local postmasters were no longer appointed exclusively from one section of the community, that the conveyance of all the cross mails was set up to public competition, to be carried on the principle of his establishment.

Notwithstanding the inroads made on his establishment by railways, and which displaced over 1,000 horses, and obliged him to direct his attention to such portions of the country as had not before the benefit of his conveyances, he still in 1865 employs about 900 horses, travelling over 4,000 miles daily,

1 The following interesting particulars as to the extension of the great locomotive establishment of Mr. Bianconi, show that this establishment has at least been fifty years connected with Limerick ! Clonmel to Limerick

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passing through twenty-three counties, having 137 stations, and working twelve mail and day coaches 672 miles; fifty four-wheel cars, with two and more horses, travelling 1,930 miles; and sixty-six two-wheel one-horse cars, travelling 1,604 miles.1

Almost contemporaneously with the introduction of this great locomotive improvement, the extension of the Schools of the Christian Brothers to Limerick in 1816, took place. The institute which has conferred wonderful good on Society, was projected by Mr. Edmond Rice of Waterford, who in the year 1802, had submitted the plan of the proposed association to Pope Pius VII. by whom he was encouraged to proceed with it, and by whom it was eventually approved of and confirmed in 1820. Since that time the schools have rapidly extended, and continued to extend-and when the Commissioners who were appointed to enquire into the endowed schools in Ireland in 1858, made their examination, they visited the Christian Schools, though not endowed by the State, on the contrary, entirely separated from any state endowment whatever, and at that time there were 15,000 pupils in these schools in Ireland, and 3,000 in England. In Limerick the schools have gone on in the most successful manner: there are no less than six of those schools in the City of Limerick, while there are schools also in Bruff, Adare, Rathkeale, &c. In 1858, there were 1,458 pupils in those schools. The Commissioners, of whom the Earl of Kildare was Chairman, reported that "the state of education is noticed as excellent. Several of the pupils could draw well; their writing was generally unexceptionable; and the answering in Euclid, mechanics, arithmetic, and all the ordinary departments of English education, including dictation, was of a very superior order." No greater blessing could be conferred on a community than that which has been extended through the influence and operations of these admirable schools, which in 1865 contain nearly 1800 pupils, in seventeen schoolrooms, some of which contain over one hundred pupils each, and which are every day proving their superiority over all that has been done to check their growth, or win their pupils to other and more showy establishments on which the state has been lavishing enormous funds.

The battle of independence was nobly fought in Limerick, nor could it ever have been fought so well, were it not for the wanton plunder of the Corporation, which, stimulated by the apprehension that its days were numbered, left no stone unturned to make the most of the time of respite, from a doom which all honest men heartily desired to see it receive. Daniel O'Connell had already denounced the misdeeds of the Corporation, the annals of which, at this time, were nothing more than malversation of the public funds, outrageous infringements on public liberty, corruption of the worst character, manufacture of freemen, &c. For some time Thomas Spring Rice, Esq., who had attained a prominent place in the public eye, by energy and attention to public business, had identified himself with the popular struggles. This gentleman, connected with the city by family ties of ancient duration, and born in Mungret-street, threw himself heart and soul into the ranks of the independents; and well did he advance his own interests by the part he took, in promoting those of the citizens against the conspiracies of an un

1 Papers Read before the British Association Meeting at Cork 1843. Before the same at Dublin 1857, and before the Social Science Congress in Dublin 1861.

2 Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the endowments, &c. &c. of all the schools endowed for the purposes of education in Ireland in 1858.

In the house occupied by Mr. Parker, No. 1, Mungret-street.

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