It is scarcely necessary to give details of these events, or of the misdeeds of the Corporation of Limerick, during the years that elapsed between the position of Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, with the consequent rank of full Colonel. A singular circumstance occurred at Genappe. The French soldiery charged the 7th Hussars with an irresistible and powerful body of lancers. Opposition on the part of O'Grady and his war-worn followers was evidently useless, and the only chance of safety lay in getting into a field at the side of the road, from which it was separated by a ditch full of mud and water, nearly three feet wide, and a bank at the other side, four feet high. O'Grady rode a beautiful white charger, steady in battle as a rock, and implicitly obedient to his master's voice. But never since the horse was foaled had threat or bribe been sufficient to make him cross the most footy fence. Meanwhile, the French lancers approached rapidly; a rush was made at the fence. Most of the horses took the leap in good English style; and O'Grady's horse took it the most gallantly of all! Those who failed to cross the fence were butchered by the French. Colonel O'Grady, after the occupation of Paris, brought over the charger to whom he owed his life to CahirGuillamore, where a rich paddock was allotted to him for life. Efforts were often made by the young men of the family to compel the charger to jump some trifling thing, such as a stump of a tree, &c. But all to no purpose-the faithful charger made but the one leap in his life, and thereby saved his gallant master from a French lance-a second leap he never tried, either before or after. Lieut.-Colonel O'Grady shortly afterwards retired on half-pay, as the forty years' peace opened but few prospects for military promotion. He married in the year 1828 Gertrude, daughter of the Hon. Berkeley Paget, and niece of the Marquis of Anglesea, the Uxbridge of Waterloo, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by whom he had a numerous family. On the death, in 1840, of his father, the Chief Baron, who had been created a Viscount in 1831, Lient.-Col. O'Grady succeeded to the title and estates as second Viscount Guillamore. Lieut.-Colonel O'Grady was engaged in a great number of contested elections, and his family had the reputation (for good or for evil) of being the best electioneerers in Ireland. Standish, second Viscount Guillamore, died in the year 1843, and was succeeded by his eldest son as third Viscount. CAPTAIN THE HONORABLE ADOLPHUS VEREKER.-In the above brief biographical sketch, we have referred to the brilliant services with which Lieut.-Colonel O'Grady commenced his military career. Captain Vereker commenced his military life with services yet more brilliant; but alas! while the highest honors were opening before him, the cold hand of death was laid upon one who would have added another glorious name to "Limerick-the nurse of heroes; honor's crest; Captain Vereker was nephew of Colonel O'Grady, grandson of Colonel Vereker, of Colooney, and fifth son of the present Viscount Gort. He was born at Roxborough, near Limerick, in the year 1833. In March, 1855, he was appointed to an ensigney in the 20th Regiment, and resigned, as a necessary consequence, an office he held in the Ordnance Department, and a lieutenant's commission in the 6th West York Militia. He shortly afterwards sailed for the Crimea, and was ordered to assist in the combined attack by the sea and land forces of the British and French against the Russian fortress of Kinburn. He took his turn with the other officers in the fatigues and dangers of the trenches at Sebastopol, while he held at the same time the position of Captain in the land transport service. Of his services at this time, Harte states, in the Official Army List, "Captain Vereker, at the siege and fall of Sebastopol, from 3rd Sept. 1855, and also at the capture of Kinburn, Medal and Clasp-a Turkish medal." At the close of the Crimean War he returned to England, where he was not destined to remain long, in consequence of the Indian revolt and mutiny. On landing in India, he was embodied with the "Selected Marksmen" of his regiment, who were generally employed on all occasions where a small European force was intended to operate with crushing effect against the hosts of the mutineers. The first serious engagement in which he took part was at Chauda where Brigadier Frankes* defeated a body of mutineers, 25,000 strong, with twenty-five guns. He took an active part in the battles of Umeerpore and Sultanpore, and the storming of the fort of Dhowraha, and a vast number of minor operations. bore a distinguished part in many other important and perilous operations. In the despatches giving accounts of this long series of brilliant operations, Vereker's name will often be found mentioned in terms of the highest praise-a very rare thing in the case of a lieutenant. The following is the official statement in Harte's Army List of Vereker's services in the Indian insurrection:-"Served in the Indian Campaign of 1857-1859, with the selected marksmen of the regiment, in the actions of Chauda, Umeerpore, Sultanpore, fort Dhowraha, seige and capture of Lucknow, subsequent operations in Oude, and affairs at Churda; fort of Musjeedia and Baukee, as adjutant to a detachment. Served as orderly officer to Colonel Cormick, commanding Gonda Column, in the operations in the trans-Gogra, in March and April, 1855, and was present at the Query, a Limerick man? He period at which we have arrived and the dissolution of that body by the measure of Municipal Reform in 1841. The same names, with very few exceptions, constituted the common council; the same spoliation of the public revenues marked their proceedings; the same reckless admission of freemen was practised. The Mayor was largely reimbursed for "expenses," of which there does not appear to have been ever a clear account given. At Adare, in October, 1830,' the Duke of Northumberland, then on a visit to Lord Dunraven, was addressed by the Corporation, who proceeded to Adare Manor, headed by the Mayor, when the freedom of the city was unanimously awarded to his Excellency, as also to Sir Edward Blakeney, General Sir Charles Doyle, &c. Early in 1831, the Corporation addressed the Marquis of Anglesea on his accession to the Viceroyalty. In the latter part of the year 1832, an interesting event occurred which ought not to be omitted: an address, numerously and respectably signed, was at this time forwarded to Thomas Moore, Esq., the National Bard, This year (1830) saw the last of the sedan chairs. Bringing the judges fully robed to court in sedan chairs was an old custom in Limerick, only given up about the year 1809. Sedan chairs were much used by ladies going to balls, and were found a great convenience by day in bad weather. A sedan chair was an upholstered seat, completely covered in, with a door in front about five feet high, with glass in it; outwardly it was covered with leather,* and was carried by two men between poles, who moved at a tolerable pace, in a kind of trot, equal to perhaps four miles an hour. They continued in use until 1830, their stand being in George's street, near William-street, where there were generally eight or ten of them ranged. Forty years before their stand was at the Exchange, in Mary-street. affair of Muchleegawn, attack on Cawnpore mutineers in Kookee jungle, and pursued to Nagowar -mentioned in despatches-medal and clasp." At the conclusion of the Indian revolt, Vereker returned to England, and in Nov. 1860, obtained his company. In 1863, he was again ordered to India; from whence he proceeded to China, and shortly afterwards, in consequence of the threatening aspect of affairs in Japan, he proceeded with his regiment to that Island. Captain Vereker was quartered at Yokohama, where his health, which had suffered very much in China, rapidly improved. Late in September, be dined with the Governor, Sir R. Alcock, and before he retired to rest he finished a letter to his relatives in England, written in the highest spirits, and under the influence of the brightest prospects. He doubtless felt, as he glanced at the brilliant staff by whom the Governor was surrounded, that few of his standing in the army had shared the glories of more well-won fields, and that the time was not far off when his seniority and services would entitle him to a separate command, and thus enable him to display that coolness, judgment, and military capacity, which he so eminently possessed. Meantime, Destiny, with her iron pen had traced a stern and cruel decree. Captain Vereker was attacked with small-pox; but already worn out physically and mentally by the severe military labors he had gone through, the disease rapidly gained ground, and in a few days he surrendered to illness that life which had been so often and so freely exposed in the cause of duty. Near Yokohama, but far from his native land and all he loved, Captain Vereker sleeps a soldier's sleep, and the affectionate regards of his companions in arms have erected a monument to mark the place. But few will read this sketch without regretting that one whose morning of life was glorious beyond his fellows, should have been cut off by inexorable fate, just as the brightest prospects were beginning to open to his view. But "When future bards shall sing of life, Its loves, its cares, and all its strife, The brightest tint and deepest dye : These, soldiers yet unborn, in pride shall raise ; Relate their triumphs and renew their praise."† At present this description of a sedan chair can be of little interest, but in fifty years' time, few will be living in all probability that ever saw one, and they may then be numbered with the curious things of by-gone days. From an unpublished poem, of singular beauty and merit, by the Rt. Hon. Chief Baron O'Grady. inviting him to stand for the representation of the city. The address embodied the wishes of the most influential of the electors, and had the additional recommendation of being presented by a distinguished citizen of Limerick, of European celebrity, Gerald Griffin, the novelist, who, however, failed in his mission, of which he has left a very pleasant account,' Mr. Moore's engagements not permitting him to take advantage of the offer. Nothing continued to prosper under the corrupt corporation system of the day. The city revenues became worthless for the public good. The great Lax weir had fallen away. Mr. Poole Gabbett having been declared the highest bidder for it, at a meeting of the Corporation on the 6th of January, 1834, it was resolved that his proposal of £300 a-year be accepted, and a lease granted to him for 99 years, on the same terms as heretofore held by Mr. Little. The works of Corporate corruption, however, had become fully laid bare, in consequence of the Commission of Inquiry which was held in Limerick from the 26th of September to the 11th of October, 1833. O'Connell was now stirring the popular mind to its very depths, and no where was he more ardently responded to than in Limerick. Early in the year 1834, he published a manifesto to the people of Ireland in favor of a Repeal of the Union-and thus "nailed his colours to the mast"; the anti-tithe movement, which embraced the greater portion of the country in its immense proportions, went hand in hand with a demand for a Parliament in College Green; the minister trembled, and Irishmen showed that they were in earnest by a quick response to the call of the great Leader. Mr. William Roche and Mr. David Roche, members for the city, declared in favor of the great national question. The popularity of Mr. Spring Rice, to whom a colossal pillar and life-like statue had been a few years previously erected in Pery Square by his appreciative fellow-citizens, had been for some time on the wane, and was now completely forfeited by the decided opposition which he offered to the cause of Repeal, and he fell rapidly in the esteem of even those ardent admirers of his who for several years had followed his chariot wheels as they rolled in triumph over the prostrate faction of the corruptionists in Limerick. The debate on O'Connell's motion in the House of Commons in April this year (1834) for a Committee of Enquiry on the See the Life of Gerald Griffin, p. 311, by his brother, of which the author of this history possesses the MSS. This gifted son of genius was born in the city of Limerick, December 12th, 1803, and died in April, 1840, at the Monastery of the Christian Brothers, Cork, of which religious order he was a member, and in whose little cemetery he lies interred, with the simple inscription, "Brother Gerald Griffin." 1834-January 18.-Mr. Steele writes" To the Limerick Chapter of Liberators," resigning the office of Patron and President of that Society. A transient misunderstanding between him and the Liberator is avowed. Prospectus of the Limerick Star and Evening Post published-to appear on Tuesday, 4th February, 1834. The March 6th.-At the Assizes this month a libel case was tried, of Samuel Dickson, Esq. v. W. R. Yeilding, Esq. proprietor of the Limerick Herald-damages were laid at £5,000. Mr. Dickson was held up to ridicule, not only by writings but by woodcuts, in the Herald. jury gave a verdict for the plaintiff with comparatively small damages. Mr. Dickson was a gentleman of high position, and an active politician with rather liberal tendencies. April 19th.-A new Catholic chapel projected by the Rev. Denis Buckeley, P.P. for the mountainous Parish of Glenroe, Co. Limerick. April 23rd.-John Dempsey and Denis Cahill fined £10 at Petty Sessions for selling one copy of the Dublin Satirist, unstamped paper, in the public streets. May 4th.-Mr. Sheridan Knowles and Miss Jarman visited Limerick. Mr. Lawless publishes a letter in the True Sun, in which he disapproves of Mr. O'Connell's proposition to grant glebe-houses to the Catholic Clergy of Ireland. Repeal, in which Mr. Spring Rice championed the cause and originated the phrase of "West Britain," topped the climax of his unpopularity. O'Connell's motion was rejected by a majority of 523, which pronounced in favor of an amendment of Mr. Rice, whilst 38 members voted for enquiry. In the minority the names of the two Roches of Limerick were prominent. Just as the great debate was going on, one of those fatal tithe affrays which were not uncommon at this time, occurred at Mahoonagh, in the vicinity of Newcastle West, county of Limerick, where three men, named Browne, Griffin, and Sullivan, were shot dead by the soldiery, then collecting for the Rev. Mr. Locke, of Newcastle. O'Connell made the most of the catastrophe in the House of Commons; nevertheless, even after this event, Major Miller, with a detachment of military and police, scoured the country to enforce payment of the impost. Mr. David Roche, M.P., proposed a plan for the settlement of the tithe difficulty, which plan met the approval of O'Connell. Ministers, however, took up the tithe question on their own account; and in August the Church Temporalities Bill, and the Irish Tithe Bill went through their stages in both Houses of Parliament, and received the royal assent in due course next summer. It was now that O'Connell gave the aid of his powerful influence to the establishment of a National Bank for Ireland, pronouncing the Agricultural and Commercial Bank, which had a strong party of supporters in Limerick, "a wild scheme." In Limerick the project of the National Bank was taken up with spirit. In the month of October the Mayor (William Piercey, Esq.) presided at a meeting in the Commercial Buildings, when resolutions were adopted in its favor-the capital of the Limerick Branch was proposed to be £250,000. A committee was formed,' and everything went on favorably. The Bank was established in the house in Brunswick-street, which had been the residence of Mr. David Roche, M.P., and from it removed to the more spacious premises in George's street in 1856. This house in Brunswick-street is now (1865) the Union Bank. June 11th.-The Astrea, filled with emigrants, bound from Limerick to Quebec, reported to be lost, with 240 lives. Supposed that she got upon the ice off Halifax in a fog. September 13th.-A branch of the Agricultural and Commercial Bank established at a public meeting in Limerick-John Dobbs, Esq., in the chair. September 27th.-The Rev. Thomas Enraght, C.C., St. Mary's, writes a public letter, in which he states that not less than 25 families are living in one house in that parish, where misery and destitution prevail to a woful extent. Mr. Rhodes, Government engineer, who recently surveyed the port and harbour, in order to extend improvements, was this week in Limerick, with a view to acting upon the specifications detailed in his report, under the Wellesley Bridge Amendment Act. The Provincial Bank propose to transfer the business of their establishment to a more commodious and suitable concern in George's-street, having purchased the site of the "Round Church," as St. George's Church, in George's-street, was called. This Church was built by the Pery family in the last century as a chapel of ease. Near it a terrible murder was perpetrated, long before houses had been built in George's-street, and when the church was in the fields. Though called the "Round Church," it was a plain square building, with the gable to the front of George's-street, and a stone ball topped with a weather-cock on it. The Provincial Bank of Ireland was established in Limerick before any other Joint Stock Bank, and eighteen months before the branch office of the Bank of Ireland. October 3rd. John Vereker, Esq., Mayor, obtains the unanimous thanks of the city magistrates, at Petty Sessions assembled, on the motion of William Roche, Esq., M.P., on his retiring from the mayoralty. Mr. Vereker left a few days after to join his regiment, the 7th Fusileers, at Malta. October 18th.-Mr. Cobbett, the celebrated public writer, visited Limerick. He lectured in Limerick; and diued and slept at the residence of the very Rev. T. O. B. Costello, P.P., Murroe. Signor de Beguis, the celebrated vocalist, visits Limerick. A new era was brightly dawning on Ireland. Earl Mulgrave, the most popular Viceroy that Ireland had ever seen, was, to use O'Connell's own words, "mulgravising" Ireland. His Excellency visited Limerick in August, 1835, and was feted, caressed, cheered, and lauded, as no Viceroy had ever been before. It was on this occasion that he opened Wellesley Bridge, as we have stated in the preceding chapter. The depression, however, among the working classes of Limerick at this period was unexampled. English competition had completely annihilated the weaving trade, which had flourished in Garryowen, in Thomond Gate, at Park, &c., where weavers had been numerous. Hundreds of these poor operatives were now thrown out of employment, and in this year (1835) a memorial from them was presented to the Corporation, signed by no less than 259 weavers, when a vote of £50 was passed by that body to enable the Mayor to send as many as he could of the number to England, whither several of them went. Though this depression was great, the amount of exports had been nearly doubled since 1822; yet a distinguished traveller,' who had visited the city this year, admits that no where did he meet with more destitution; he states that he entered forty abodes of poverty, and that to the latest hour of his existence, he never could forget the scenes of utter and hopeless wretchedness that presented themselves. Commissioners of Poor Enquiry had been sent down the year before, and had sat for several days, obtaining facts as to the distressed state of the people, and public works had been going on, were it not for which the misery would be intensified beyond bearing; and a system of poor laws was now advocated by many as the grand remedy, though private charity had been constantly put in requisition to mitigate the sufferings of the poor. That system of Poor Laws, which had been supported by Dr. Doyle and opposed by O'Connell, came soon afterwards; but with what permanent advantage to the poor is a question on which there are conflicting opinions. The blight of the Union had long been felt in the annihilation of manufactures, in the decay of trade, in the exhaustion of the artizan and the labourer; and though in the march of events, men beloved by the people had become recognised for their worth and merit, and had obtained the guerdon of their deserts at the hands of a now liberal Government, which for the first time sympathised with the masses, the permanent prosperity of the country was not materially affected by legislative improvements. On the 3rd of January, 1837, a catastrophe of a most lamentable charac A Journey throughout Ireland in 1834, by Henry D. Inglis, 2 vols. London, 1835. Dec. 17.-Monday, the Parish Priests of the diocese of Killaloe assembled at Newmarket-onFergus to elect a Coadjutor Bishop to the Rt. Rev. Dr. M'Mahon. The three candidates returned by the Clergy for the choice of the Pope, were the Rev. Mr. Kennedy, P.P., of Birr, dignissimus; Rev. Mr. Fahy, P.P. of Tulla, dignior; and Rev. Mr. Vaughan, P.P., of Killaloe, dignus. The Prelates present were-the Most Rev. Dr. Slattery of Cashel, Right Revs. Dr. Murphy of Cork, Dr. Egan of Kerry, Dr. Ryan of Limerick, and Dr. M'Mahon of Killaloe. February 8th, 1837.-Influenza most prevalent in Limerick. 1837-March 25th.-The Postmaster-General acceded to the request of the Chamber of Commerce of this city, to run the mail hence to Dublin at the rate of nine and a-half British miles per hour, after the 5th July next. Custom duties received at the port of Limerick last year, £126,291, being an increase of £3,856 over the preceding year's amount. April 4th.-Mr. Craven, son of Puller Craven, Esq., of Gloucester, drowned in a cot at the fall of the Leap, Doonass, while fishing. Near the same place, six years before, the Honorable |